Obscure Comic of the Month
takes a detailed look at a little known entry from my personal comic
book collection. Some will be from major publishers, others self
published projects, Original Graphic Novels, issues and Manga. What
they'll all have in common though, is that I've rarely, if ever, seen
anybody talk about them.
Amongst the Stars by Jim
Alexander, Mike Perkins and Will Pickering – Planet Jimbot 2015
Contains spoilers
A trippy tale of science
fiction brought to you by the talents of Eagle/True Believers award
winner Jim Alexander (GoodCopBadCop, Metal Hurlant, Wolf Country) and
Eisner award winner Mike Perkins (Captain America, Ruse, Stephen
King's The Stand).
Amongst the Stars is a comic
that's big on ideas and low on page count. It's a comic that seeks to
explore the deeper questions on the meaning of life and the nature of
our place in the universe and it looks to do all that in under fifty
pages.
Jim Alexander's cosmic fable
is split across four different narrative strands, a murder in Turin,
a party in New York, the last days of a dying race on the other side
of the galaxy and the love life of a disabled astro-physicist who is
almost definitely not Stephen Hawking. Through each of these strands
Alexander draws parallels between the interconnectedness of each set
of characters. Isn't the disabled astro-physicist's attempt to
connect to with his daughter just like the disabled alien's attempt
to convince their partner to accept their fates?
You've seen these beats
before, but it would perhaps be unfair of me to write Aleander's
story off as merely Cloud Atlas on speed. Alexander's little, and
maybe too short, tales do resonate with an emotional effectiveness
that could easily have devolved into whimsy. It's blatantly obvious
that William Holland is a knock off Stephen Hawking, but that doesn't
really stop you from being drawn into the story and believing in his
character.
This slight of hand is
mostly pulled off thanks to Mike Perkins' excellent artwork on the
book, which really reminds me of the black and white era of 90's
Doctor Who strips (which I've covered in the past,) particularly in
regards to the alien sequences that make a bold use of clear white
space to communicate the strangeness of their culture and the way
they perceive reality.
And perception really is the
main focus of the book. For what little plot there is it mostly
concerns the alien race's last ditch attempt to save themselves
backfiring when they accidentally interface with an old movie camera.
Beyond that the beats are much more primal, raising questions of
where our animal brains begin and where our human souls end (or
should that be the other way around?)
Once again, most of the
heavy lifting is done by Perkins' art. Beyond the Stars really wants
to be more of an experience than a story. It'll end far sooner than
you'll expect it to, and while it will leave you with thoughts to
ponder, I do wonder if the story could have done with more time.
Alexander's big ideas are still only touched upon rather than
examined and, as mentioned earlier, the story will remind you of far
deeper, richer works that cover similar ground.
So all in all Amongst the
Stars is effective at what it sets out to do, though what it does has
been done more effectively, and at length, many times before.
The book also comes with a
back up strip in the form of Growing Pains. If you've ever read a
2000ad Terror Tale then you'll know exactly what you're in for here.
It's a short, humorously told horror story with a grim twist at the
end. It's a fun and unexpected addition to the end of the book, even
if it does have practically nothing to do with the main plot.
Jack Harvey 2017. Amongst
the Stars (c) 2015 Planet Jimbot. Images used under Fair Use.
