By David Gallaher & Steve Ellis (Papercutz)
ISBN: 978-1-54580-126-0 (HB) 978-1545801277 (TPB/Digital edition)
Here’s a rather short but exceedingly heartfelt and enthusiastic re-review for a mighty big book. Scripter Dave Gallaher (Green Lantern, Box 13) and illustrator Steve Ellis (High Moon) first began their stupendous science fiction saga in 2012 as a webcomic before being picked up by Papercutz. The hugely popular yarn (multiple reprintings and numerous award nominations) was collected as a quintet of graphic albums – Prisoner of the Patchwork Planet; Beyond Sea and Sky; Once Upon a Time; Through the Murky Deep and To Save a Shattered World – and when the tale is done was gathered in a bulky paperback (or eBook edition) recounting the complete saga plus fresh material from a Free Comic Book Day tie-in and other sources.
So, what’s it about?
Erik Farrell is 12 years old and scared. That’s why he runs into Central Park at the dead of night in a thunderstorm. In the morning he wakes up in the roots of a tree clutching a little kid’s teddy bear backpack that, for some inexplicable reason, he Must Not Lose. He’s also absent most of his memory. Even so, Erik’s pretty sure home never had wild jungles, marauding monsters, talking beasts and bugs or a shattered moon hanging low in the sky…
Chased by howling horrors and dimly aware that the decimated city ruins are somehow familiar, Erik is saved by a green warrior calling herself Morgan Dwar of the Mermidonians, but the respite is short lived.
All too soon they are captured by slaves of diabolical experimenter Doctor Once and taken to his revolting laboratory. It doubles as gladiatorial arena where the scientist’s involuntary body modifications can prove their worth in combat. Erik’s fellow captives soon apprise him of the state of his new existence. The world is a bizarre of patchwork regions and races, all of them at war with each other and all threatened by monstrous shapeshifting dragon Baalikar. The Doctor seeks the secrets of trans-species evolution and is ruthless and cruel in the pursuit of his goal. In the arena, however, Erik shows them all the value of cooperation and promptly escapes with Morgan and insectoid Sectaurian Princess Thelandria AKA Thea…
Constantly running to survive, the boy slowly uncovers an incredible conspiracy affecting this entire world and even far-gone Earth. The big surprise is an unsuspected secret connection between his own excised past, Doctor Once and hidden manipulators known as the Consortium. On the way, just like Flash Gordon, Erik somehow inspires and unites strangely disparate and downtrodden races and species into a unified force to save the planet they must all share…
After a heroic journey and insurmountable perils faced, Erik’s story culminates in the answers he’s been looking for and a spectacular battle where the many races ultimately extinguish the evil of Baalikar. Sadly, though, that just makes room for another menace to emerge…
Adding bonus thrills to the alien odyssey are a complete cover gallery plus two lengthy sidebar tales. ‘Under the Light of the Broken Moon’ and ‘In the Clutches of the Consortium’ focus on the developing relationship between Morgan and Sectaurian Warlord Phaedrus and on the repercussions of failure for failed-tool Doctor Once at the hands of his backers…
Rocket-paced, bold and constantly inventive, The Only Living Boy is a marvellous and unforgettable romp to enthral every kid with a sense of wonder and thirst for adventure.
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