Black Mask Comics 2015
Created & Written by Steve Niles
Created & Illustrated by Christopher Mitten
Coloured by Jay Fotos
I do love this it’s all kinds of odd, weird and messed up and it’s completely enthralling the way Steve draws us in and keeps our attention. Two of the three crew members onboard the ship wake up and find the third with what looks like vomit around his mouth. Rick quickly wakes up and vomits out what looks like a huge tapeworm that inexplicably vanishes as if unable to survive outside a host.
So now that all three are up and at it again it’s time to search the ship for their mysterious passenger. Once they think it’s clear and the story continues to unfold they continue onward to their destination of Ganymede, the largest moon in our solar system. I really do like how Steve is able to tell this story with plausible explanations for a mass hallucination while fleshing out these characters personalities.
I’m not sure if I’d be enjoying this story as much without the talented work of Christopher and Jay. Seeing these characters with their own unique looks that you don’t always associate with space travelers it’s still wonderful to see how their own personalities shine through. So before landing on Ganymede Rick has come to a conclusion about the only place they haven’t checked and that’s inside him. The dramatic scene that unfolds before us it powerfully done by the boys here.
So while we’ve been getting plenty of interesting story development on the way to the base on the moon Ganymede it’s really what’s going to happen there where the meat of this story is going to occur. I can only imagine what they have in store for us but if the these two issues are any indication than we’re in for a hell of ride.
It’s interesting to think that this base houses a huge church and the disciples of said church cannot be found anywhere by our intrepid travelers. The last page gives us our only clue as what to expect from the next issue. Still how inherently creepy is it to find a church built by a man who spent his entire fortune on a moon so far away abandoned and lifeless and yet still habitable? It’s like asking for some sort of alien life form to have taken hold of the base and is luring unsuspecting travelers into it’s web of death or something else as sinister?
Space may be the final frontier but it’s also a perfect breeding ground for fear and horror stories of finding and facing the unknown. Steve brings us into that perfectly here and the boys interiors only heightened that sense of fear and dread that finding the unknown in space can bring.
Black Mask is a company that you should be ordering from or ensuring that your shoppe carries because this is the stuff we can only dream of discovering.