Dark Horse Comics 2019.
Written by Jai Nitz
Illustrated by Tom Reilly
Coloured by Ursula Decay
Lettered by Crank!
Chen Andalou, the black sheep of a prominent activist family, returns after being accidentally put in cryo-stasis for sixty years. Chen, a cosmic criminal, wakes up to find his younger brother is now the President of the Galaxy. Chen does what he knows best: he steals stuff and causes a problem. Astro Hustle is a slick and sexy romp through the stars evoking the sci-fi disco era of the late 70s.
I am not sure I'd say I was on the fence with this one, but being from Dark Horse my store is hit-or-miss when it comes to ordering them. However, I really enjoy Jai’s work and try my damnedest to read what he puts out. The concept here is pretty solid and that idea grabbed me so I wanted to see what this was going to be about. We open up with some questionable sights but then again once the men joined and were in those briefs or whatnot I was all on board lol. Seriously though if these are the types of folks that inhabit this universe then consider me all-in!
Also by the time the opening is done I have so many more questions than answers are available and that is a huge bonus in my eyes. It means I have to keep going and the more you read the more you want to see the more guaranteed that you are going to keep coming back time and again, or in this case another three issues. So yeah what Jai does with the writing here is solid, interesting and the way the book is structured and the overall ebb & flow we get through the reveals makes this so much more than you might think it will be. Really impressed with just how all this really hit me as I read this.
Love the characterisation that we are seeing here and it comes in both the typical and some surprising ways. The actions alone kind of say a lot but the dialogue and the interactions of the characters do as much for that as well. The past is the past and while Chen finds himself sixty years in the future everyone he knows has changed and this is all a part of the characterisation as well and how he sees others and some see him. I was enthralled with the way we meet those who will become the stars of this story.
Tom and Ursula do some amazing work on the interiors here. At first I thought this was a bit more amateurish than I was hoping for but as each page goes by I find myself falling more in love with it. While I kind of want to see more variations in the weight of the linework what Tom does is pretty amazing on it’s own. Then colour work is so interesting, so dynamic that it really makes the whole book pop like no one’s business. They make a really good pairing and I can’t wait to see more of what they have in store. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show us a very strong eye for storytelling. The creativity and imagination on display mixes the past and the future extremely well. The way backgrounds are utilised are nice to see and really help expand the story.
This is so much more enchanting than I thought it would be. By that it feels almost like this tragic love story that’s been interrupted by Chen being hunted down like a dog. His hunter is still around and his notoriety has waned but not enough that the records haven’t forgotten him. The way it all comes together is just that well done, it makes you feel like this is something unique, different and fun in all the adult kind of ways you want it to.