ONI Press 2017
Written by Neal Holman
Illustrated by Clayton McCormack
Coloured by Kelly Fitzpatrick
Lettered by Crank!
MARS. The near future-ish. A bomb takes out a city block on Harrison Station. The media rush to blame the local terrestrials (re:aliens,) however Superintendent Denton Coyle has a feeling that it may not be so simple... or maybe that feeling is Coyle's hangover gut bomb. It's unclear... like a 50/50 shot, it's a mistake or explosive diarrhea. Maybe it's both? In other words, it’s yet another Tuesday on Mars.
Well i’ll say this much there’s a lot to think about after reading this issue, or even better yet while reading the issue. I mean how did the atmosphere get to a point to sustain human life? Did we discover a race already living on the planet or did they too decide to jump on it when humans did? If they are locals well then humans are the aliens here right and to think they own the planet they kind of invaded well yeah that’s typical human thinking. Also that we get this whole point of view from a corporation and not some governmental bureaucracy is even better. Neal really does this excellent job making the reader think as he’s reading and trying to find a deeper meaning when the reality could be there is none.
I think the characterisation here is pretty amazing. I am enjoying the personalities we are encountering here from the new guy, brown noser, who read all the books to the grizzled veteran who doesn’t have time for that nonsense and all with that bureaucrat running around. Then of course there’s Coyle and he’s gross, rude and damn near perfect I mean c’mon he says what he thinks and makes references we can all understand plus he’s a boozer who has a lot of gas or the runs depending. Oh yeah and we see his peen which was something unexpected and that whole moment was kind of genius.
The interiors here are spectacularly well done. The use of page layouts with their angles, perspective and use of backgrounds are extremely nice to see. The attention to detail is superb and I love that we get so much emotion, feeling and characterisation out of the faces and facial expressions. Also the way that Mars looks familiar and yet alien at the same time is something that is nice to see. I wasn’t thinking it could look like this and be believable and yet there it is on the page for us.
So we’ve got a nice kind of mystery to solve here and it’s going to take a lot more than these characters may be prepared for. I like the concept and the execution with this premiere issue. Humans colonising a new world and conflict arises seems to be theme of us going out in the universe without being ready to yet. Still I like what I see here and the way it’s presented and it’s should prove to be as entertaining as it is stimulating for the mind.