Category: Science Fiction

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Elric volume 1: Elric of Melnibon̩ РThe Michael Moorcock Library


By Roy Thomas, Michael T. Gilbert, P. Craig Russell & Tom Orzechowski (Titan Comics)
ISBN: 978 -1-78276-288-1

Here’s a bit of a dilemma. Later this week I’m going to review the second volume in Titan’s Comics’ new translated Euro-masterpiece Elric from Blondel, Cano, Telo, Recht & Poli. That ongoing drama adapts the very same short story Elric of Melniboné which was the basis of the lost comicbook classic on view today.

However as The Tempest and Forbidden Planet or Romeo and Juliet and West Side Story prove, style, interpretation and creator input are everything and both takes are equally unmissable…

As the first volume in a proposed Michael Moorcock Library of comics adaptations, this is, according to internal narrative chronology, the first tale of the doomed king, despite being one of the last adventures penned by Moorcock in the initial cycle of stories (he returned to the character years later).

As a sequential narrative the soaring saga was originally released in 1983-1984 from Pacific Comics (and later collected into a graphic novel by First Comics) and is now re-presented here in a superb hardcover tome complete with Introduction from Mr. Moorcock, plus a full cover gallery and additional art.

Adaptors Roy Thomas & P. Craig Russell had previously worked on other tales of the last Emperor of Melniboné: specifically debut tale The Dreaming City (first published in 1961) as a Marvel Graphic Novel in 1982 and 1984’s ‘While the Gods Laugh’ which featured in Marvel’s fantasy anthology magazine Epic Illustrated #14. Here they were joined by fellow enthusiast and brilliant arch-stylist Michael T. Gilbert to complete a masterpiece of decadently baroque, sinisterly effete storytelling based in large part on the dark visions of Aubrey Beardsley and Arthur Rackham.

Elric is an absolute classic of the Sword and Sorcery genre: Ruler of the pre-human civilisation of the Melnibonéans, a race of cruel, arrogant and congenitally sadistic sorcerers; dissolute creatures in a slow, decadent decline after millennia of dominance over the Earth.

Born an albino, he is physically weak and of a brooding, philosophical temperament, caring for nothing save his beautiful cousin Cymoril, even though her brother Prince Yyrkoon openly lusts for his throne. As seen in opening chapter ‘Out of the Dreaming City’ he doesn’t even really want to rule, but it is his duty, and he is the only one of his race to see the newly evolved race of Man as a threat to the Empire.

When intruders from Young Kingdoms are captured within the island’s maze defences they are interrogated in ‘Welcome to the Domain of Dr. Jest’ and reveal an imminent attack on the Dreaming City of Imrryr, capital of Empire for ten thousand years.

Provoked by Yyrkoon, physically frail Elric personally leads the response and the Fleet, bolstered by dragons and magic, easily dispatches the upstart humans, but the wily pretender seizes his chance and throws the enfeebled Emperor overboard to drown at the moment of victory.

The deeply conflicted hero believes himself happy to die but some part of his mind calls to the sea-elementals and their mighty king Straasha – bound allies and ancient friends of the Empire – to save him. When he returns to confront the usurper, Yrrkoon unleashes a demonic doomsday weapon and flees with Cymoril as his hostage.

Hidden at the ends of the Earth using the demonic ‘Mirror of Memory’ to conceal himself from all searches the usurper plans a counterattack and all Elric’s magic cannot find him. In obsessive desperation the pale Emperor swallows his pride and suspicion, pledging allegiance to Arioch, a Lord of Chaos in opposition to the Lords of Order.

The eternal see-saw war of these supernal forces is the fundamental principle of the universe or “Multiverse”. For providing the etiolated Elric with the means to find and defeat his cousin, Arioch will demand his devil’s due, but the Albino does not care…

Other allies such as Straasha are more forthcoming and less duplicitous: providing Elric with ‘The Ship Which Sails over Land and Sea’ enabling the frantic pursuer to travel to a ferocious and doom-drenched confrontation with his conniving cousin.

The voyage is fast but perilous but the final clash is delayed as Elric finds Cymoril ensorcelled to eternal sleep and Yyrkoon gone to another realm in quest of ultimate power…

Once again calling upon Arioch’s mercurial favours, Elric follows ‘Through the Shade Gate’ to dreary, dying otherwhere and meets affable exile Rackhir the Red Archer who joins him in the final stages of his pursuit, resulting in a terrifying duel with Yyrkoon holding the mighty Mournblade whilst Elric is compelled to accept his dark and foredoomed future by taking up the black blade he was born to carry in ‘At Last… Stormbringer‘.

Everything undergone, every trial undertaken and torment endured, has been orchestrated to get Elric to bring the Rune-sword, the malevolent Stealer of Souls, back to Earth and so very soon, he does… but not in the manner double-dealing Arioch intended…

The novel is an iconic and groundbreaking landmark of fantasy fiction and a must-read-item for any fan. This spectacular, resplendently flamboyant adaptation is a deliciously elegant, savagely beautiful masterpiece of the genre effortlessly blending blistering action and gleaming adventure with the deep, darkly melancholic tone of the cynical, nihilistic, Cold-War mentality and era that spawned the original stories.

You must read the book and you should own this graphic novel …and all the successive tomes to come…

Adapted from the works of Michael Moorcock related to the character of Elric of Melniboné © 2014, Michael & Linda Moorcock. All characters, the distinctive likenesses thereof, and all related indicia are ™ & © Michael Moorcock and Multiverse Inc.
The Michael Moorcock Library volume 1: Elric of Melniboné will be released on March 31st 2015 and is available for pre-order now.

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Department of the Peculiar #1 & 2


By Rol Hirst & Rob Wells
No ISBNs:

In strikingly similar vein from alternative press veterans Rol Hirst and Rob Wells is a splendid mash-up of X-Men and X-Files, given a splendidly seductive British taste and tone.

DotP #1 sees scripter Hirst and illustrator Wells take a laconic look at what ails the world in ‘Sick Day’ where we meet Malcolm Drake: an American metahuman embarrassed by his powers and hiding out in the UK.

His sad life didn’t get any better this side of the pond but suddenly changes forever when he is blackmailed by the ever-vigilant government quango known as the Department of the Peculiar into joining their covert, severely under-funded and cash-poor rapid response team.

Malcolm makes people sick (that’s his power, not his attitude – well, maybe a bit of his attitude too) and when abrasive chief administrator Lisa Cole confronts him in a Manchester shopping centre that is exactly what she needs.

Another “Peculiar” has seized control of an office building owned by food conglomerate Matheson-Beaumont. He did it by making people ill and wilfully distributing heart attacks and transfats amongst the security staff.

Threatened with deportation unless he replaces D.O.T.P.’s already-downed field agent, Malcolm reluctantly approaches the hostage building, but discovers that his strange gift can’t protect him from a heart attack either…

The story concludes in #2 with ‘Cure for Cancer’ as Drake provides a life-passing-his-eyes flashback and origin tale whilst aggrieved eco-warrior and nutritionally-abused walking cholesterol bomb Paul Aday carries out his ghastly revenge on the execs who poisoned a nation.

However Malcolm is made of stern stuff and rallies just enough to do the necessary…

Gross, scary, funny and wildly beguiling, this is outrageous non-stop spoofery, surreal whimsy, deceptively gritty action and bureaucrat-bashing as only world-wearily laconic Brits can do it, marking this as one of the best indie titles I’ve seen in decades…

Comicbook sized in stunningly powerful black & white, Department of the Peculiar #1 & 2 are available from rolhirst.co.uk and you can follow him on Twitter (@rolhirst) whilst these and Rob’s other wonderful canon of cartoon fun can be found via crispbiscuit.co.uk. He can be Twitterstalked on (@robertdwells).

© 2012, 2013 Rol Hirst and Rob Wells.
www.facebook.com/departmentofthepeculiar

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Vreckless Vrestlers #2-5


By Lukasz Kowalczuk, translated by Aneta Kaczmarek (Vreckless Comics!)
No ISBNs

Vreckless Vrestlers is a 5-chapter miniseries by Polish cartoonist Lukasz Kowalczuk, with a breathtakingly simple yet irresistibly engaging premise. The star is a temporally-transcendent fight-promoter abducting the greatest warriors from all time and space to fight in his Professional Interdimensional Wrestling League – brutal gladiatorial contests with only “One Rule – No Rules!”…

Produced as 210x150mm flip-book fight-fests, the progressively more excessive bouts feature astounding cartoon hyper-violence in the manner of Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit. Unmarred by subplot or subtext these tales delivering tons of spectacular, primal, monster-hitting action with oodles of juicy, oozy, gory sound effects and no tedious dialogue or badinage to slow down the horrific bone-crushing action…

Issue #2 sees Original Hippie Killer battle beaded barbarian lass Barbarica in one half whilst Sergeant Reptilion takes on Spike Lee (no, not the film guy), on the flipside, augmented and segregated with a 4-page puzzle section, whilst the next power-packed instalment sees Barbarica face Reptilion for a place in the ‘Mean Event’ that concludes hostilities.

Also tussling for a championship slot in #3 are Vegan Cat and The Eye, and the bouts are separated by hilarious faux merchandising ads, battle stats and a cut-out mask of current champion Bullgod for you to excise and wear with pride…

Issues 4 and 5 comprise one big, all action big bonanza finale-extravaganza which takes the reader to the edge of the seat and into bizarre metaphysical territory so hold on to your hats and your free stickers…

These little booklets are manic, eccentric and eminently addictive celebrations of the unfettered artist given carte blanche. Each black-&-white issue (limited to print runs of 200 in English and Polish) comes with all sorts of extras like promo cards, collectible stickers – and mini-album – and can be obtained by contacting www.vrecklessvrestlers.tumblr.com, www.fb.com/vrestlers or Lk@tzzad.pl.

Daft, thrilling, madcap and wonderful, if you need a little break, or contusion, or abrasion, this might be the very remedy…

…And if you’re irresistibly wedded to the future, Vreckless Vrestlers is also available on ComiXology and at Streets of Beige so there’s no reason not to grab a ringside seat in the comfort of your own cosy crash-pad, dude……

© 2014 Lukasz Kowalczuk. All rights reserved.

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The Strange Investigators 01: The Snake Job


By Luke Melia & Bobby Peñafiel
ISBN: 978-1-50581-207-7

At the luxury end of the self-publishing spectrum is this superbly high-end production number: a proper full-colour graphic novel in everything but page count.

Luke Melia and his collaborative artistic cohorts have been making superbly engaging contemporary genre stories for a while now (see Occulus and The White Room of the Asylum) and this light-hearted paranormal lark is the first chapter of their next graphic novel foray.

Complete in one issue, The Snake Job introduces young entrepreneurs Alex, Katelyn and Tony who have found a unique niche market for their services: so unique, in fact, that there’s no money in it and precious few customers.

The newly launched Strange Investigators – that’s a job description not a character assessment – aren’t having the best time getting the business on an even footing. Investigating “anything unusual or unexplained” hasn’t been the cash-cow they expected and they really need to make some money to pay for all the really expensive paranormal detection kit they’re using.

That’s why, after a long period of prevarication, Alex finally agrees to accept “the Snake Job” Katelyn’s had on her desk for weeks.

Alex claims there’s no mystery to how a big serpent got on to a tropical island beach, but Tony and Katelyn think his strident reluctance to take the case is simply because their CEO is afraid of wasps…

With the lights cut off and no other choice, three days later Alex and Tony are on an all-expenses-included jaunt paid for by a company eager to build an hotel on some nice unspoiled beaches.

The afflicted isle is pretty much as imagined, and the lads aren’t expecting much more than sand, sunburn and poking an adder with a high-tech stick. They couldn’t be more wrong…

This sucker is big, it’s proper supernatural and the natives aren’t especially keen to see some outsiders trying to kill it with flamethrowers and explosives…

Ranging from wryly trenchant to outright hilarious, this funny foray into fantastic worlds and humdrum zero-hours Contretemps of the Unknown promises to be another superb and unmissable treat.

© 2015 Luke Melia.
Self published and available to buy on Amazon in print and also as a PDF version to buy on Luke’s gumroad page ( https://gumroad.com/lukemelia) at “pay whatever you want – even free”.

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Oink: Heaven’s Butcher


By John Mueller (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-590-0

From 1995 to 2000 budding artistic talent John Mueller produced a couple of miniseries for Kitchen Sink Press which became lost classics. Two decades later and now a far more seasoned creator, Mueller has returned to his first work, tinkering, tweaking and visually remastering it into an eye-popping painted saga of depravity, oppression, rebellion and survival for a new generation of fans.

The tale is brutally simple and begins in ‘Awakenings’ as a seasoned and unrepentant killer on Death Row unburdens himself to a concerned and devout cleric…

Once upon a time in a devastated, dystopian world, a slave in Public Slaughterhouse 628 began to think and to question. He wondered especially why the hogs he carved up for his and his masters’ nourishment looked so much like him and his fellow workers.

The crushing religious dogma and vicious punishments meted out by the Warden Superior and his cruelly bullying Angels offered no answers. Neither masters nor slaves had ever heard words like “gene-splicing” or “DNA”, which had worked arcane magic creating a separate species halfway between pigs and humans…

One day however, weary old worker Spigot screamed the questions Oink had painfully learned not to… and paid a terrible price…

In his dreams Oink had a vision of a god far different from the one he had been programmed to believe in. Realising he had been made as a cog in a horrible machine he took up his slaughter axe and decided to change his world one human at a time.

Of course he soon found ways to speed up the process – such as burning down the monstrous meat factory he was reared in…

‘Lies’ found him as the only subject of conversation in the houses of the unholy where the Warden ushers Judas and his savage posse the Angels of Mercy into the sanctum of the puissant Cardinal Bacaar. That formidable ecclesiastic is in every respect the creator and guiding light of this brutal existence…

As the rebel pig-man explores the world beyond the slaughterhouse he is soon cornered by the sadistic hunters, but the Angels have never faced a fugitive like Oink before and he quickly defeats and escapes them.

His flight takes him deep into the industrialised wasteland beyond church confines where he is taken in by an old woman named Mary and her hulking maimed and mute grandson Herbert.

She had been brutally blinded by the new regime but all their tactics haven’t robbed her of the memories of how the world used to be. She begins teaching Oink of the scientific travesties Cardinal Bacaar created, but neither the vengeful rebel nor Herbert are there when Judas and the Angels burst in and end her…

Pushed beyond all reason and tantalised by truths just out of reach, Oink – with the heartbroken Herbert at his side – determines to take the battle to the technological devil priest and liberate his own people from further horror in ‘Pigs’.

The suicide raid on the Cardinal’s Birthing Factory is ruthless and appallingly effective but it is only the penultimate step. There is still Bacaar to deal with and that can only end one way…

Harsh, barbarous, oppressive and Orwellian (as much Animal Farm as 1984), the slight narrative and familiar premise here is successfully bolstered by stunning artwork from Mueller, and this anniversary edition also includes his phenomenal ‘Oink Sketchbook’ featuring dozens of images over twelve pages of pencil drawings, painted roughs, panel details and more, plus ten further pig picture portraits in the ‘Oink Pin-up Gallery’ by Mueller, Tomoslav Torjanac, Justin “Coro” Kaufman, Mica Hendricks, Jason Minauro, Brett Parson and Nate Van Dyke.
© 1995, 2015 John Mueller. All rights reserved.

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Valerian and Laureline book 8: Heroes of the Equinox


By Méziéres & Christin, with colours by E. Tranlé; translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-213-3

Valérian and Laureline is the most influential science fiction comics series ever created; an innovation-packed, Big-Ideas bonanza stuffed with wry observation, knowing humour, intoxicating action and underpinned throughout by sardonic sideswipes at contemporary mores and prejudices.

Val̩rian: Spatio-Temporal Agent debuted in weekly Pilote #420 (November 9th 1967) and was an instant hit. It swiftly evolved into its current designation as his feisty, fire-headed female sidekick developed into the equal partner Рand eventually scene-stealing star Рof light-hearted, fantastically imaginative, visually stunning, time-travelling, space-warping fantasies.

Nevertheless the so-sophisticated series always found room to propound a satirical, humanist ideology and agenda, launching telling fusillades of political commentary and social satire to underpin the astounding imagination of the space opera.

At first the tough, bluff, taciturn affably, capable – if unimaginative – by-the-book space cop just did his job: tasked with protecting official universal chronology (at least as per Terran Empire standards) by intercepting or counteracting paradoxes caused by incautious time-travellers.

When Valérian landed in 11th century France during debut tale ‘Les Mauvais Rêves (‘Bad Dreams’ and infuriatingly still not translated into English), he was rescued from doom by a capable young woman named Laureline. He brought her back to the 28th century super-citadel and administrative capital, Galaxity, where the indomitable firebrand took a crash course in spatiotemporal operations and began accompanying him on his missions.

Heroes of the Equinox was originally serialised in the monthly Pilote (issues #M47 to M50 from 21st March to June 27th 1978) before being collected later that year as eighth album Les héros de l’équinoxe: a sparkling, over-the-top spoof of superheroes and political ideologies which also found time and space to take a good-natured, gentle poke at the eternal battle of the sexes.

Spectacularly visual and imaginatively designed, the story starts as a quartet of vastly disparate planetary champions depart for the distant and distressed world of Simlane, where an ancient and cultivated civilisation is experiencing a uniquely tragic crisis…

The heroes comprise three dedicated – almost fanatical – supermen whilst Galaxity – far more concerned with courting public opinion than actually helping – have packed off a handy and presently unoccupied Spatio-Temporal agent named Valerian, just to show willing…

With Laureline mocking him for the entire trip, Earth’s Prime Champion touches down on Simlane to be greeted by a crowd of effusive oldsters from a glorious city of once magnificent but now crumbling edifices with an incredible story to tell.

The inhabitants of the derelict tourist trap are uniformly old and sterile and desperately need a new generation of children to repopulate the world, but their manner of achieving their goal is unique. For the lifetime of their civilisation, every hundred equinoxes the best and bravest males of Simlane venture to isolated Filine, Island of Children in a fierce and often deadly competition. The winner then somehow spawns a whole new generation who sail back on little boats to re-people the world.

That didn’t go entirely according to plan last time so the planetary leaders have invited four prime specimens from other worlds to do the necessary this time – much to the anger and dismay of a creaky host of crotchety, doddering indigenous old would-be sire-heroes…

At the packed but painfully weathered Great Theatre the assembled geriatrics are treated to a destructive floor show as the brazen alien warriors display their prowess. Bombastic Irmgaal of Krahan is a godlike superman wielding a flaming sword whilst proletarian technological wonder Ortzog of worker’s paradise Boorny reveals the power of a united people through his blazing, flailing chains. Mystic nature boy Blimflim of elysian, arcadian Malamum calmly displays the gentle irresistibility of the spirit harnessed to willpower. Each couldn’t be more different yet the result of each display is catastrophic destruction.

When eager eyes turn to Galaxity’s representative, Valerian simply shoots a chip off a distant stone cornice with his blaster… to tumultuous disinterest…

Dwarfed by the Herculean alien supermen, he shambles off to prepare for the great contest and dawn finds him with his fellow contestants ready to brave the stormy skies for the grand prize and glory…

This is one of the most visually extravagant and exuberant of all the albums, with a huge proportion of the book dedicated to the fantastic foursome overcoming their particular challenges and monstrous foes in astounding demonstrations of bravura puissance and awesome might… well, three of them anyway. The earthman’s travails are generally nasty, dirty smelly and ingloriously dangerous…

Eventually however all the warriors prove themselves a credit to their particular lineage and system before facing one final test. It’s in the form of a simple question: “If you sired the next generation how do you envision their future?”

Each strange visitor propounds a glorious agenda of expansion according to the customs and principles of his own culture but it’s the rather diffident and lacklustre vision of the Terran slacker that wins the approval of the incredible being who is the eternal mother of Simlane’s repopulation…

When the trio of failed supermen wash up on the shores of the city, the people realise who has fathered their soon-to-arrive new sons and daughters and patiently wait for the equinox tide to bring them over.

Laureline, horrified to discover that each successful father is never seen again, quickly sails to the Island of Children and navigates the trials which so tested the wonder men with comparative ease. She arrives at the misty citadel atop Filine in time to see an army of disturbingly familiar-looking toddlers tumble into little sailboats…

Broaching the idyllic paradise further she finally meets the Great Mother and sees what the breeding process has made of her reprehensible, sleazy, typically male partner…

Reaching an accommodation with the gargantuan progenitor, Laureline negotiates the release of her partner and they are soon winging home to Terra, with him having to listen to just what she thinks of him whilst praying Galaxity’s medical experts can make him again the man he so recently was…

Sharp, witty and deliciously over-the-top, this tale is a wry delight, spoofing with equanimity human drives, notions of heroism and political and philosophical trendiness with devastating effect. Whether super-heroic fascism, totalitarian socialism or even the woolly mis-educated, miscomprehendings of new age eco-fundamentalists who think aromatherapy cures broken legs or that their kids are too precious to be vaccinated and too special to share herd immunity, no sacred cow is left soundly unkicked…

However, no matter how trenchant, barbed, culturally aware and ethically crusading, Valerian and Laureline stories never allow message to overshadow fun and wonder and Heroes of the Equinox is one of the most entertaining sagas Méziéres & Christin ever concocted, complete with a superb sting in the tale…

Between 1981 and 1985, Dargaud-Canada and Dargaud-USA published a number of selected albums in English (with a limited UK imprint from Hodder-Dargaud) under the umbrella title Valerian: Spatiotemporal Agent and this was the fourth, translated then by L. Mitchell.

Although this modern Cinebook release boasts far better print and colour values plus a more fluid translation, total completists might also be interested in tracking down the 1983 edition too…
© Dargaud Paris, 1978 Christin, Méziéres & Tran-Lệ. All rights reserved. English translation © 2014 Cinebook Ltd.

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Twin Spica volume 6


By Kou Yaginuma (Vertical)
ISBN: 978-1-935654-03-2

This beguilingly intimate paean to the unyielding allure of the stars came out of Kou Yaginuma’s poignant vignette ‘2015 Nen no Uchiage Hanabi’ (‘2015: Fireworks’), published in Gekkan Comic Flapper magazine in June 2000.

Subsequently expanded and enhanced, the themes and characters grew into a spellbinding coming-of-age epic which wedded hard science and humanist fiction with lyrical mysticism wrapped up in traditional tales of school-days friendships and growing up.

Small, unassuming Asumi Kamogawa has always dreamed of going into space. From her earliest moments the lonely child gazed with intense longing up at the stars, her constant companion and confidante an imaginary friend dubbed Mr. Lion.

When Asumi was a year old, the first Japanese space launch had ended in catastrophe after rocket-ship Shishigō (“The Lion”) exploded: crashing back to earth on the city of Yuigahama where the Kamogawas lived. Hundreds were killed and many more injured.

Among the cruellest casualties was Asumi’s own mother. Maimed and comatose, the matron took years to die and the long, drawn-out tragedy deeply traumatised her tiny, uncomprehending daughter. The shock also crushed her grieving husband who had worked as a designer on the rockets for Japan’s fledgling Space Program.

In the wake of the disaster, Tomoro Kamogawa was assigned by the corporation who had built the ship to head the reparations committee. Guilt-wracked and personally bereaved, the devastated technologist visited and formally apologised to each and every survivor or victim’s grieving family. The experience harrowed and crushed him.

He is certainly no fan of the space program now; having lost his wife, his beloved engineering career and his pride to the race for the heavens. He raised his daughter alone, working two – and often three – menial jobs at a time for over a decade and cannot countenance losing the very last of his loved ones to the cold black heavens…

In response to the Lion disaster, Japan set up an Astronautics and Space Sciences Academy. After years of passionate struggle and in defiance of her father’s wishes, in 2024 Asumi – an isolated, solitary, serious but determined teenager – was accepted to the Tokyo National Space School. Without her father’s blessing, she reluctantly left Yuigahama and joined the new class.

Amongst the year’s fresh intake were surly, abrasive Shinnosuke Fuchuya (an elementary school classmate who used to bully her as a child back in Yuigahama), jolly Kei Oumi, chilly Marika Ukita and spooky, ultra-cool style-icon and fashion victim Shu Suzuki who all gradually became the shy introvert’s closest acquaintances.

Every day Asumi closed inexorably upon her stellar goal. Ever since the crashing rocket had shattered her family, she had drawn comfort from the firmament, with Mr. Lion staring up at the heavens by her side; both especially drawn to the twinkling glow of Virgo and the alluring binary star Spica.

And now she was so tantalisingly close…

Small, poor, physically weak but resolutely capable, Asumi endures and triumphs over every obstacle and she still talks with Mr. Lion – who is very probably the ghost of a Shishigō crewman…

All any student at the Academy can think of is going to space, but they are harshly and constantly reminded that most of them won’t even finish their schooling. At just four feet, eight inches tall Asumi constantly struggles to meet the arduous physical requirements but has already survived far greater problems. She is still adjusting to the busy life of Tokyo, sleeps in tawdry communal women’s dorm “The Seagull”, struggles with many of her classes and subsists on meagre funds, supplemented by part-time jobs…

Individual stories are divided into “Missions” with volume six covering numbers 25-29, and also including a mesmerising sidebar tale of Asumi’s childhood as well as another entrancing autobiographical vignette from the author’s own teenage years.

‘Mission: 25’ begins with standoffish Ukita in big trouble in the deep woods. Asumi’s entire class are enduring a brutal survival exercise in the wilds but the former rich girl – who has recently escaped her overbearing father’s domination – also suffers from some secret mystery malady. Moreover she has recently decided to go off her meds.

Now she is weak and bleeding, lost where no one can help her…

As the carefully monitoring teachers move in to save Ukita, Asumi reaches her classmates at the designated target zone. They are astounded to find that she has made her way to them without the compass they all had in their survival kits…

With only Ukita a no-show, Asumi abandons her own position of safety to go back into the woods and search for her, unaware that the object of her concern is slowly recovering at the teachers’ monitoring post.

As previously seen in a sequence of flashbacks, the enigmatic girl has an ancient and unexplained connection to the boy who became Mr. Lion…

Long ago in Yuigahama, a lad obsessed with rockets met a frail and sickly rich girl, stuck in isolation in a big house. Her name was Marika Ukita and they became friends despite her condition and the constant angry intervention of her father.

She was beguiled by his tales of space flight and the history of exploration, and shared the only joyous moment in her tragic life, when her over-protective dad took her to see a play called Beauty and the Beast…

During the big annual Fireworks Festival the boy made a lion-mask of the Beast to wear, but she never came. He had to break into the mansion to show her. She was very sick but wanted to dance with him…

Later the dying daughter had quietly rebelled when told she was being packed off to a Swiss sanatorium. She slipped out of the house when no-one was watching and vanished. The boy knew where she had gone and rushed off to save her…

In the Now as slowly recovering Cadet Ukita see her classmates all head back into danger for her, she experiences awful memories: visions of a man wealthy enough to replace a lost daughter through money and science but not show her any love. Furious yet inexplicably delighted, Ukita begins to realise that she has friends who will risk everything for her…

‘Mission: 26’ finds the exhausted little astronaut-to-be back home safely at the Seagull hostel, blithely unaware that romantically interested party Kiriu and his fellow orphan Akane have been missing their Asumi.

Instead she is busy teaching Ukita – still plagued with memories of her father’s draconian efforts to keep her healthy but never caring if she was happy – how to be sociable. Soon they realise how much they share in respect to love of the stars…

Asumi’s joy soon dissipates when she learns of Kiriu’s latest crisis and that little sister Akane has been hospitalised with sunstroke. The determined tyke was sitting outside waiting for her astronaut friend to visit…

Returning to the orphanage that night Kiriu is astounded to find Asumi there, and even more astonished when she invites him to come see the stars with her…

‘Mission: 27’ offers more insight into Mr. Lion’s past as a special guest lecturer visits the Space School. Astronaut Ryohei Haijima is a god to the star-struck kids but he seems almost apologetic and embarrassed to be there, with no pride in his achievements.

Mr. Lion knows his story. As boys they were at school together and worked on rocketry projects that gave them both ineffable pleasure. They both became astronauts, and if Haijima hadn’t artfully relinquished his position to the desperately eager Lion, he would have died in the Shishigō disaster.

On hearing this, Asumi decides to reintroduce the despondent victim of Survivor’s Guilt to his boyhood friend…

Focus shifts to ultra-cool Shu Suzuki with ‘Mission: 28’ as the laconic rich kid goes missing for a week whilst his classmates suffer the next devilish practical course devised by their tutors to separate potential space explorers from ordinary mortals. Concerned, they all begin searching for him and learn an extraordinary story.

Suzuki too has problems with parents. As the first son of a wealthy business and political dynasty he was groomed from birth to inherit the mantles of duty and government, but when he refused and chose the stars he was disowned. As his friends converge on the lost boy he invites them all to sit with him and fold origami stars, wryly revealing he’s been working for the past week to pay for his tuition…

The ongoing saga pauses here after ‘Mission: 28’ finds the class practising in a space shuttle trainer. As usual the tests are rigged, unfair and a complete surprise but as she bitterly complains – as always – Oumi realises that a strange calmness and complacency has become Ukita’s new emotional state.

Stressed to their limits the students look forward to the imminent summer vacation and when Oumi stridently suggests they all head for the beach together, Fuchuya states he has to go home. Undaunted, Oumi points out that Yuigahama is a seaside town – and must have a beach – whilst Asumi reminds them that the town’s annual Fireworks Festival is forthcoming…

With the holiday plans a fait accompli, the kids separate and Ukita finds the irrepressible Suzuki moving his meagre belongings into the library. Soon all of them are helping him kit out the attic he intends to squat in, astounded at the beautiful book-crammed annexe, filled floor to ceiling with tomes about space…

And then it’s time for the holidays and Asumi heads back to Yuigahama, looking forward to the Festival and seeing Fuchuya’s wonderful grandfather again. She’s going to be very disappointed…

To Be Continued…

Although the main event goes into a holding pattern here, further insights into Asumi’s childhood are forthcoming as ‘Tiny, Tiny Aqua Star’ reveals how the little outcast was ostracised and bullied by her fellows for claiming she had an astronaut lion ghost for a friend. The unflaggingly honest waif never knew her shy classmate Shinnosuke Fuchuya was quietly keeping the worst of the class’s abuse away from her…

Life was still pretty unpleasant, however, but took a sweet upturn when old Mr. Fuchuya (the lad’s granddad) gave her one of his handmade sparklers to light at the Fireworks Festival.

More disturbing was the urgent and savage demand of one of her tormentors. Following the death of her mother, Yuzo wanted Asumi to show her the place where you see ghosts, even if it cost both their lives…

The manga miracles then conclude with ‘Another Spica’ which sees author Yaginuma in autobiographical mode once more, harking back to his ambition-free teens, chopping pineapples in his crappy job and enduring the self-castigating hell of a first date…

These unforgettable tales originally appeared in 2004 as Futatsu no Supika 6 in Seinen manga magazine Gekkan Comic Flapper, aimed at male readers aged 18-30, but this ongoing, unfolding saga is perfect for any older kid with stars in their eyes…

Twin Spica filled sixteen collected volumes from September 2001 to August 2009, tracing the trajectories of Asumi and friends from callow students to accomplished astronauts and has spawned both anime and live action TV series.

This sublime serial has everything: plenty of hard science to back up the informed extrapolation, an engaging cast, mystery, frustrated passion, alienation, angst, enduring friendships and just the right blend of spiritual engagement with wild-eyed wonder; all welded seamlessly into an evocative, addictive drama.

Rekindling the magical spark of the Wild Black Yonder for a new generation, this is a treat no imagineer with head firmly in the clouds can afford to miss…

© 2011 by Kou Yaginuma. Translation © 2011 Vertical, Inc. All rights reserved.
This book is printed in the Japanese right to left, back to front format.

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Orbital book 4: Ravages


By Serge Pellé & Sylvain Runberg, translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-84918-088-7

Serge Pellé & Sylvain Runberg’s mismatched pair of Diplomatic Peacekeeper agents return in the conclusion of the sinister saga begun in Orbital: Nomads, subtly tweaking and deftly twisting that cunning epic of far-flung, futuristic political intrigue into a full-on horror story of relentless alien terror…

What you need to know: After decades of pariah-status and exclusion, 23rd century Earth finally joined a vast Confederation of interstellar civilisations, despite grave and abiding concerns about humanity’s aggressive nature and xenophobic tendencies shared by many of the member species. On Earth the feeling was largely mutual…

Prior to the humanity’s induction a militant “Isolationist” faction had graduated from politics to horrific terrorism: committing atrocities both on Earth and distant worlds where mankind had already developed colonies and bases. Ultimately they failed to prevent humanity’s inclusion in the pan-galactic union and were sidelined in global politics.

Neither they nor the ill-will they fostered really went away…

One particular Confederation worry was the way humans had treated the alien civilisation of the Sandjarrs, whose world was invaded in Earth’s all-consuming drive for territory and exploitable resources. The subsequent atrocities almost exterminated the stoic desert dwellers…

The vast bureaucracy of the Interworld Diplomatic Office works through operatives assigned in pairs to troubleshoot throughout the galaxy, defusing crises before they can become flashpoints of violence, and recently IDO’s first human recruit Caleb Swany had been surprisingly teamed with Sandjarr Mezoke Izzua: a situation clearly designed as a high-profile political stunt.

So was their initial mission: convincing an Earth mining colony on the moon Senestem to peacefully surrender a profitable planetary industry to the aliens who actually own the satellite it was situated on. Overcoming outrageous odds and problems, the unlikely team of rookies resolved the issue in true diplomatic manner with a minimum of casualties and nobody really happy or satisfied…

Released in France in 2010, Orbital: Ravages is the fourth album released by Cinebook and picks up as Caleb and Mezoke find a simple state function is rapidly devolving into an interspecies crisis…

The Galactic Great-and-Good are on Earth to confirm the end of Human/Sandjarr hostilities in a series of spectacular Reconciliation Ceremonies, but the political glad-handing is in danger of imploding after Kuala Lumpur’s human fisherman clash with a hitherto unsuspected enclave of star-spanning cannibalistic alien gypsies known as the Rapakhun…

One of the greatest benefits of induction into The Confederation has been the infusion of alien technologies which have cleansed and reinvigorated the gravely wounded ecosystem of long-abused and much-polluted Earth. Now, however, the newly restocked, abundant seas and mangrove swamps around Malaysia are blighted by the mass extinction of millions of valuable fish. The humans blame the uninvited aliens, requiring Swany and Mezoke – accompanied by Caleb’s old mentor Hector Ulrich (instrumental in brokering Earth into the Confederation) – to forcefully intervene; promising all aggrieved parties that the truth will be found and shared.

This might be tricky: much of mankind is still anti-alien, and local economies are fragile, whilst the Rapakhun are apparently no innocent angels. Many space civilisations despise them. The stellar nomads are flighty wanderers who go where they please and refuse to be represented in or on Confederation Councils.

Moreover, all the cosmic bigwigs on Earth are only concerned with their precious Reconciliation Ceremonies, looking good and validating their controversial decision to admit Earth to the Civilised Worlds of the galaxy…

Whilst Caleb and Mezoke are fully occupied with the freshly-arrived delegation of Sandjarr dignitaries, fish are still dying and when human fisherman get too close to the agreed-upon neutral zone they are suddenly exterminated, outraging many watching members of the Malaysian Navy.

Although Caleb attempts to downplay and even suppress the concatenation of bad news in hope of keeping the Ceremonies alive the slaughter of fishermen provokes a “patriotic” clique in the Navy peacekeeping force to look the other way when the locals decide to deal with the nomads once and for all…

The riots and bloodshed are appalling and the IDO agents realise they need to know more about the Rapakhun: someone needs to visit their last port of call and see what the nomads are really capable of…

The story resumes in the grimily cosmopolitan Shah Alam district of Kuala Lumpur where impoverished human and alien scrap-merchants work, salvaging materials and tech from defunct starships. As tensions rise everywhere, one of the greedy toilers makes a grisly discovery and dies horribly in exactly the same manner as the fishermen in the swamps…

Caleb meanwhile, over Mezoke’s protests, is in full-spin-control mode; weaving a pack of placatory lies to the journalists of uncounted watching worlds. Unable to leave Earth mid-crisis, the IDO agents have recruited enigmatic human star-pilot Nina and her secretly-sentient Neuronome ship Angus to canvas the distant world of Dehadato, last port of call of the nomadic Rapakhun, but before they can report anything a vast riot breaks out in the Shah Alam.

The Fishermen’s Quarter is ablaze, a war-zone rife with scared and angry humans and aliens, but when Caleb, Mezoke and Hector fly over the scene of destruction and looting they are brought down by rioters and have to fight their way out…

Thanks to IDO intervention, canny bargaining, judicious bribery by city officials and an unlikely detente between the extraterrestrial scrap merchants and ambitious new spokesman of the Fisherman’s Federation, the situation is soon damped down and all sides again tensely wait for answers…

On Dehadato Nina and Angus are exploring the Rapakhun’s last campsite and uncover scenes of horrific devastation, even as in Kuala Lumpur Confederation leaders are thinking about cutting their losses and cancelling the Reconciliation Ceremonies, terrified that the situation is fast becoming politically untenable.

It takes all of Caleb’s strident persuasiveness to convince them – and Mezoke – to continue the itinerary of events. However he only gets his first inkling that they might be right when he’s informed that a body as been found in the city, butchered in the same extreme and inexplicable manner as the fishermen in the swamp…

Back on Dehadato, Nina and Angus have rescued a poacher from the folly of his actions in pursuing monstrous, colossal and protected Nargovals. As the Sülfir recovers he imparts snippets of information about the stellar nomads and an incredible beast which was here before the Rapakhun left.

The doughty hunter only tried for the unstoppable leviathans which killed his entire poaching team after first ensuring there were no more Varosash on the planet. They had apparently departed with the gypsy cannibals…

Caleb has already concluded that the Rapakhun are behind all his problems, but as he stalks them in the Mangrove swamps, word comes from Nina that stops him in his tracks. It may already be too late though. At the biggest sports arena in the city, thousands of avid Speedball fans – human and not – are packed together and reaching a fever pitch of excitement, unaware that a hideous invisible killer, the very essence of all mankind’s fear of alien monsters, is about to consume them all…

Can the disunited Caleb and Mezoke with the pitifully few allies they can call upon end the invisible and rapacious threat before it ends humanity?

Nina and the Sülfir think they have a plan. Risky and probably fatal, but a plan nonetheless…

Fast-paced, action-packed, gritty and spectacular, Ravages is pure space-opera, with delightfully complex sub-plots fuelled by political intrigue and a vast unexplored canvas tantalising readers at very moment.

One of the most beguiling sci fi strips of all time, Orbital is a delight every fan of the future should indulge in…
Original edition © Dupuis 2010 by Runberg & Pellé. All rights reserved. English translation © 2011 by Cinebook Ltd.

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Neomad Book 1: Space Junk


By Sutu & The Love Punks (Gerstalt Comics/Big hART)
ISBN: 978-1-922023-14-8

I have no first hand experience of the Australian Experience. Most of what I do know comes from movies, TV or Midnight Oil and Men at Work records.

…And comics of course, ranging from the country’s 1950s DC reprints – both flimsy pamphlets and Christmas Annuals – to their lengthy and venerable take on Lee Falk & Ray Moore’s strip icon The Phantom plus some few precious strips such as Southern Squadron and The Jackaroo (from homegrown superhero anthology Cyclone!) during the 1980s and 1990s when American Indie publishers went for hunting quality material from around the world to fill their empty pages.

Things are way better these days with outfits like Gestalt Comics producing superbly original graphic novels like Torn, Eldritch Kid and Vowels for international audiences, many with the unique flavour of the Land Down Under.

Now, in conjunction with Arts and Social Change organisation Big hART, cartoonist, illustrator and computer-designer Stuart “Sutu” Campbell has joined forces with a talented bunch of kids to produce a multimedia entertainment epic, the barest fraction of which comprises this deliriously engaging and anarchically excellent graphic novel.

The lads are all from Ieramagudu (Roebourne) on the edge of the Pilbara Desert, within the Murujuga National Park and Cultural Heritage Site.

The area is home to approximately one million petroglyphs dating back more than 30,000 years: a place of artistic expression and creativity for almost as long as mankind has existed…

Far more recently, Sutu and Big hART – as part of the Yijala Yala Project – have been teaching some of the kids growing up there computer-colouring techniques whilst the youngsters have been sharing their imaginations, enthusiasm and ideas. The collective result is Neomad, blending ancient indigenous customs and spirituality with dystopian futurism, eternal verities and the never-ending struggle for survival…

Space Junk is the first part of a sci fi trilogy which opens as young Mav relates a fireside interview with his Maali – a paternal grandfather of great sagacity and insight. The oldster was telling the story of the boy’s birth whilst imparting the customs of their people until the night sky was suddenly lit by a falling star.

That’s good luck. Everybody knows that when a star falls at night it brings new life…

Elsewhere but nearby in 2076AD, a tech-smart tribe of youthful extroverts are out illegally tapping the water pipeline when they see a plummeting, blazing rocket booster burn across the heavens.

Jahmal, Edwin, Dan, Jarried, Stanley, Deshawn and the rambunctious rest of the self-appointed Love Punks are more interested in fun than profit and their piratical, good natured squabbling soon sets off an alarm. Panic quickly changes back to cocky determination and bravado so the creepy spybot which races in to determine what’s wrong is soon reduced to spare parts in their accumulated arsenal of recycled, repurposed junk…

The posse are all far less sanguine when the authoritarian cops dubbed the Segz steam in on hover platforms and give frantic chase…

The helter-skelter pursuit careens across the wasteland, past a boy and his Maali sitting at a fire. The rush of wind portentously extinguishes the flames and Mav decides he’d better join his fellow Love Punks…

The high-speed chase roars deeper into the plains – annoying the heck out of assorted wildlife – and Mav catches up to them just as they reach the foot of a monstrous red rock plateau. Things look grim until someone has the bright idea to shove the power crystal from the sabotaged spybot into their faltering and overloaded hoverquad’s engine…

Suddenly hurtling up the vertical rock face and leaving the disgusted Segz far below, the Punks hit the plateau top in time to see the booster crash down and, ever curious, head over to explore.

Cooling the surprisingly intact debris with their purloined water the boys quickly realise that what they’ve got is not simple space debris. Etched onto the vehicle’s slowly cooling side is a strangely disturbing petroglyph similar to the thousands of age-old designs which can be found all over Murujuga…

To Be Continued…

Raucous and riotous, this hell-for-leather rollercoaster of joyous fun is but the beginning of a colossal tale that will take the Love Punks to the ends of the universe to discover the secrets of everything…

Crafted by Sutu with Senior Colourist Haw Kong and featuring contributions from Junior Colourists – and actors – Alison Lockyer, Ashton Munda, Brodie Tahi Tahi, Corbyn Munda, Dannette Wilson, Eric Wedge, Jahmal Munda, Jarried Ashburton, Jordan Coppin, Layla Walker, Maverick Eaton, Max Coppin, Nathaniel Edwins, Sidney Eaton, Tonina Smith, Troydan Long, Vynka Parker, William Eaton and Woedin Wilson, the book comes with a section of photo-features including a boisterous introduction to the real Love Punks, some facts about Murujuga National Park, a glossary of words from the Aboriginal Yindjibarndi and Ngarluma languages (which pepper the text) plus plugs for Book 2: The Last Crystal, the award-winning Love Punks interactive video game, the live-action films and documentaries…

Worthy, impressive and above all else tremendously entertaining, this is a book kids will love and want to be part of for years to come.
© 2013 Big hART.

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Oculus


By Luke Melia, Vincent Smith, David Anderson & various (Tabella Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-50276-589-5                  eBook ASIN: B00IC4EQJ2

As I’m sure you know by now, I’m a huge advocate of comics creators with the drive and dedication to take control of their own destinies. Late last year I reviewed a superbly written graphic horror tale called The White Room of the Asylum by Luke Melia and a coterie of artists which utterly amazed and impressed me.

Now with a chameleonic, Iain Banks-like shift of genres the indie artistic entrepreneurs are back – specifically writer/letterer Melia, illustrator Vinny Smith and colour-artist David Anderson – with a distinctly disturbing sci fi cop drama that is every bit as gripping and smart…

By 2027 the world has been completely altered by a social media innovation of astounding power and devastating simplicity.

Oculus sells an implanted chip which allows users to record and/or share in real-time whatever they’re seeing and hearing. The service connects with any or all other possessors of the implant and the company claims that to comprise most of the planet.

Live streaming intimate moments of an individual’s everyday life can be with one person, a selection of friends and acquaintances or the entire world. The facility has completely changed every aspect of society.

It has especially transformed the law and policing. It’s really hard to claim innocence if the victim has shared you committing the crime with thousands of viewers and the Oculus mainframe has a record of you doing it…

Police forces are more tech resource teams, video researchers and IT bods than boots-on- the-ground coppers – except for the bellicose, tooled-up, OTT tactical teams designated SABU (Special Armed response and Bomb disposal Unit) – so feckless young graduate Shane Edwards‘ first day in the Major Crimes Department of the New Oxford Constabulary is something of a letdown.

He’s already having a tragic life. Despite his being the son of the Mayor – who had to very blatantly pull strings to get him into the police – his best friend (he so wants her to be more) and Oculus intimate Emma Hudson is going through hell because her sister is going to jail.

It’s not official yet but Lauren was observed killing her cheating boyfriend in full view of an enrapt and aghast global audience…

After meeting department boss Alan Campbell and the shockingly small team of detectives, Shane is swiftly dubbed ‘Another Girl in the Office’ by astonishingly abrasive colleague Jane. Dogsbody Chris seems okay but the new kid doesn’t even meet old lag Jeff who is supposed to be his mentor and partner…

That introduction only comes in the middle of the night when the grizzled and rather unconventional old plod turns up on the doorstep to drag him to a crime scene emergency. He won’t even let Shane change out of his pyjamas and slippers…

Incident reporting has also been revolutionised by Oculus. Why wait for a scream or a phone call when most crimes are seen by somebody somewhere as they happen; be they perp, witness, victim or even police officer…?

This particular “Shout” is for a grotesquely bloody murder picked up all over the Oculus network, but by the time they arrive on scene, the story is already staring to unravel.

For starters, the girl seen being repeatedly stabbed, screaming her lungs out and expiring is Isobel Bendis, who slashed her wrists and died weeks earlier – and Jane should know: she was the officiating officer and attended the funeral a fortnight previously…

Ascertaining that the broadcast was faked, Jeff employs a particularly cool piece of kit called a Repeat Torch which illuminates the outlines of living bodies on solid objects such as walls… just like electromagnetic Luminol…

The hazy blue rays show two living persons – presumably the grisly, prankish fraudsters – manufacturing the body dump. Following the ghostly trail leads Shane and Jeff through the sewers and into the underground transit system, where the gobsmacked coppers realise at last that they been played from start to finish by some very clever individuals…

The startling events of Oculus are rendered in full colour and cunningly augmented with a wealth of satirical ads for such items as the voyeuristic ‘Extreme Jobs’ site, ‘Wild-Sight’, ‘The Oculus Cloud‘, ‘Life in Third Person’ and decision-making app ‘Indie-Sysiv’ – all concocted by Luke & Vivienne Melia, Vinny Smith, David Anderson, Michael Kennedy, Christian David Navarro, Jenna Kyle, James Smith, Bobby Peñafiel and Roel S. Palmaira.

Key background information is provided by a series of faux magazine interviews with the social revolution’s inventor Alan Jensen (designed and illustrated by Ephraim Zev Zimmerman) and following the first of these – ‘The Origins of Oculus’ – the saga resumes with the entire Major Crimes unit – all five of them – reviewing events.

Cliff has established that the “murder” broadcast was recorded, not live, and sent from the username “Dolos”, tagged with a large variety of terms such as “Free”, “Sex”, “Star Trek” and “Anime” all cunningly designed to catch the eye of the widest possible audience…

Unfortunately due to budget constraints Campbell can’t sanction a costly activity report from the Oculus Corporation for what looks like a nasty student prank. Still smarting from looking like a fool and being seen trudging through sewers in pyjamas and tiger slippers, Shane vigorously disagrees. He argues that whoever did this is organised, meticulous, capable of fooling everybody who saw into believing it was real… and live. Dolos also had no problems digging up and stealing a corpse to carry it off…

Campbell relents and agrees to let Shane and Jeff continue to work on it as long as costs stay down: after all, these days there simply isn’t that much work for detectives to do…

Jeff has been in the force for a very long time and knows lots of strange people. Thinking one of them might have a handle on the matter, he drags his excitable understudy to a basement flat to meet inventor and hacker Bentley, a most peculiar individual clearly long off his meds and living in a wonderland of paranoia and bizarre hand-made devices…

‘0.4% Chance It Could Destroy The World’ sees the first lead found as the batty boffin suggests back-street Oculus implants and breaks into the high security Oculus Corporation database records.

Armed with Dolos’s account inception date and the enigma’s Friends List, the dynamic duo hit the quiet streets of New Oxford where Jeff suggests trying a far more traditional method of finding things out…

Fat Maisey is a low-level street rat and if anyone knows about illegal Oculus implants he will. Sadly the chase after the little weasel only leads our heroes into an armed ambush and ultra-violent counter-operation involving the gun-toting gung-ho grunts of SABU…

Barely escaping with their lives Shane and Jeff head back to the station whilst elsewhere two conspirators bicker and agree to speed up the pace of their plan…

Still felling out of his depth, Shane talks things over with “just friends” Emma before going out on a date with old college acquaintance Anna Rice. They end up in bed but since Anna’s idea of having a great time is being seen getting off by hundreds of strangers, close friends and especially herself, Shane’s night does not have a happy ending…

Following another Jensen interview (‘The Origins of PADs and Broadcasting’) the next chapter ‘How Could I Ever Truly Respect Her?’ opens with the boy wonder getting some well deserved ragging from his mentor.

Even Shane’s mum tuned in to the open broadcast and he is – for the third day running – the laughing stock of the New Oxford Constabulary. At least Jeff is amused enough to share some of his own tragic personal history, but inexplicably Emma seems furious with the bewildered newbie…

Events suddenly overtake the mental self-flagellation when Campbell calls them all in to a meeting which also includes members of Operations and Counter-terrorism divisions. All assembled are advised to tune in to a certain Oculus Drive path where Dolos is again broadcasting.

Definitely live this time, the mystery prankster is loading a gun in a public toilet somewhere in New Oxford…

As the frantic law officials follow the progress of the gloved perpetrator through his – or her – own eyes, Shane recognises The Francis Castle Shopping Centre. Dolos, now sitting at the central fountain pretending to read a newspaper, adds more Tag-terms to the live feed: words like “Francis Castle”, “massacre” and “hundreds dead”…

The bigwigs freak out and SABU are dispatched, but Shane uses his own Oculus system to link with a stranger shopping at the mall. Convincing Gabrielle to walk over to the fountain, the police use her eyes but see that no one is there, even though Dolos’s open channel shows the chilling conundrum staring right back at the baffled teenager over his paper…

When the enigma’s eyes show him unwrapping a bomb and scrawling the word “Kaboom” on a wall, full-panic mode kicks in and masked-and-armoured SABU officers storm the centre, frantically evacuating the citizens and using the Dolos view to trail him to the bomb.

Once again there is nothing there, and the baffled cops are just turning to go when a colossal detonation rocks the building…

After Jensen’s ‘How Oculus Changed the Entertainment Industry’ a telling flashback of Shane and Emma at college leads to gloom and despondency in the present as the NOC reel in the aftermath of a disaster that has left 35 dead and hundreds injured.

Brain-fried from constantly reviewing the impossibly divergent Oculus recordings, Jeff and Shane go book-shopping to clear out the nonsensical but inescapable theory of an invisible maniac being behind all their woes…

The second-hand tome is for Jeff’s friend Bryce: a very smart lady who owned a research company which dabbled in camouflage and stealth technologies – although her real area of expertise was human cloning. ‘Oh, And By The Way, There Are Six Of Them’ sees Shane astonished to meet a sextet of his partner’s pal as they pursue the assorted blind alleys regarding becoming unseen…

However, as they all congregate to review the combined synched footage of numerous victims, one of Bryce does identify an anomaly who might just be an accomplice of Dolos…

As Shane tries to re-establish a personal life free of shame and snickering rozzers, the wheels of modern police procedure roll on and soon the mystery man in the recordings is identified and arrested… but only after a little illicit assistance from Bentley…

The next Jensen feature deals with ‘Education and the Workplace’ after which Jeff and Shane conduct their first interview with terrified Rhys Ennis who, after literally spilling his guts, does so metaphorically and explains how the anonymous Dolos hired him…

The kid is clearly just a pawn and the NOC eventually let him go. It’s only later as Jeff tells his protégé about Bryce that Shane realises in a burst of exasperated inspiration the simple trick the terrorists devised to cheat a system the entire world believes cannot be fooled…

As the police swing into action Shane heads home for much needed sleep, but is soon awakened by a live cast from Emma. From under her bed she – and Shane – can see a man with a gun stalking murderously through her house…

Jeff arrives ahead of his partner and chases the assailant off and by the time Shane arrives there’s nothing to do but comfort the distraught Emma. His mentor however has cornered the intruder and with Shane scrupulously tuned in goes down in a hail of bullets in ‘You Can’t Unsee Shit Like That, No Pun Intended’…

Bracketed by Jensen interviews ‘Oculus Health Implications & the Law’ and ‘The Future of Oculus’, the incredible truth behind a devilish and misconceived scheme finally comes out in ‘So What Went Wrong?’

However even as Jeff’s colleagues arrest Dolos and sweat the incomprehensible truth out of the last person Shane ever expected to see, events conspire to prove that nothing is as it seems and nobody can really be trusted…

Originally released as an eBook in February 2014, this full-colour printed trade-paperback edition is now available (complete with cover gallery by Anderson) delivering a superbly imaginative, compelling and suspenseful future crime yarn no lover of whodunits will want to miss.
© 2014 Luke Melia, Vinnie Smith and David Anderson. All rights reserved.