IDW Publishing 2018
Written Steve Niles
Illustrated by Nat Jones
Lettered by Tom B. Long
Who knows what mysteries lie deep in the asteroid belt? When a mysterious, huge, and previously undiscovered asteroid looms over their ship, a small crew of blue-collar workers discovers a terrifying threat unlike anything they’ve ever seen. Now, the crew must escape the asteroid, but even if they do, will they be able to escape each other and anything they bring back with them?
Is there really anything better than a brand new Steve Niles story as he brings the creepy back into your life? Turns out there is, add Nat Jones and Hello Nurse! It is funny because when I read stories like this, genre, is that we all are guilty of talking to the book (or television or cinema screen) with all the don’t go in there, don’t do this etc. so instead the characters behave the way they do. That is what we love too to see them behaving in their normal fashion which is something Steve can portray extremely well.
I have no idea why space is one of the best environments to tell a horror story but it fits like chocolate and peanut butter. The way this book is structured is fantastic and after their crawler disappears from view it’s natural that they’d want to retrieve it. Sanders is one who has that common sense that you don’t go chasing something into the unknown when it’s lost. Still she isn’t a captain and will follow his orders voicing her opinion along the way. All of this is the kind of characterisation that makes Steve one of those writers whose stories are able to resonate with readers.
This is really fast read, I wish comics were longer in the page count so we could get more story per issue, which would allow for the writer to explore a bit more. However even with a fast pace to the story it’s easy to read this through a number of times to see if there’s anything you missed previously. That mostly comes from the interiors here but also from the actions and reactions of the characters. It does also allow you to stop at points in the story and really consider the ramifications of what we are seeing. What the crew sees and then finds as they search for the crawler it makes you wonder. It allows the reader to become a part of the story, be so involved in what’s happening so you have that need to come back.
God I love the way Nat is able to envision a story and then bring it to the page. It isn’t always the same and that he can kind of gear it to the story and create something suitable for it is why I appreciate what he’s able to do. This book also has a distinction to it where space is dark and the light source only goes so far so you see that transition into darkness so nicely here. The utilisation of page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows off a spectacular eye for storytelling.
This is why comics exist. They take to places outside our realm of imagination then bring us into theirs so that our minds expand and are capable of envisioning something new, splendiferous and horrific. Without having these worlds to explore we’d be left that much poorer for it. With some stellar characterisation and a darn plausible plot wrapped up in these gorgeous interiors is why we repeatedly come back to the medium time and time again.