Savant

 

By Jim Alexander, Will Pickering, Fin Cramb & Jim Campbell (Planet Jimbot)
ISBN: 978-1-9164535-6-2 (TPB)  

As well as periodical comic books, anthologies and prose novels, independent publisher Planet Jimbot (primarily Jim Alexander & Jim Campbell, and a seemingly bottomless well of fresh and aspiring talent) also produce proper graphic novels …damned good ones.  

After a quiet period for us all, and brief dalliance with Dark Horse Comics, the lads make their return to independent ways with this slim, full-colour done-in-one interplanetary extravaganza.   

Writer Jim Alexander’s pictorial back-catalogue includes Star Trek the Manga, X-Men (Ororo: Before the Storm), Calhab Justice among many strips for 2000AD; kids licensed properties like Ben 10 and Generator Rex and a broad variety of comics and strips for The Dandy, DC, DC Thomson, Marvel, Dark Horse Comics, Metal Hurlant Chronicles, and loads of other places. He also co-rules – with Jim Campbell – his own publishing empire. Planet Jimbot offers genre releases like Wolf Country; The Ripper Legacy; App-1; The Samurai; App-1; Gabriel and more Alexander has also written potent prose novels like GoodCopBadCop and The Light… 

Here, in conjunction with illustrator Will Pickering (Wolf Country; Burke & Hare), colourist Fin Cramb (White Ash; JM Barrie’s Peter Pan) and letterer Campbell (Firefly; 2000 AD) he debuts cosmic wanderer Lode, who originally hails from fabled memory planet Savant. 

Grieving her lost father, Lode wanders the lesser universe far from elysian Savant, irresistibly drawn to points of crisis, bloodshed and chaos. On Hubris, she finds plenty after being pressganged into using her unique ability to carry other people’s memories in a doomed attempt to interpret the rationale of a crazed demagogue. 

The force of recollection drives this entire saga of good against evil and life over death. The self-exiled preserver of others’ pasts is drawn into a military mission after a supernal force of destruction possesses charismatic leader Trigo. Now as civilisation descends into brutal barbarity, the facsimile mind battles her own drawing Lode and a crack team of paramilitary Civil Servants towards the secret source driving citizens to madness and riot: a civil war between the weary sane and hyper-energised deranged… 

Closing in on the cause of all woes, Lode has no conception of how much her own life and destiny will be changed by the final confrontation… 

Smart, sharp and compelling, this is a keenly insightful exploration of inner universes and outer realities that will delight any fan of thoughtful action and well-reasoned drama and will especially resonate with fans of more conceptually-driven screen dreams like FarScape, Altered Carbon or The Expanse.
Story © 2022 Jim Alexander (story) & Will Pickering & Fin Cramb (art).