{"id":35178,"date":"2026-04-02T17:31:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=35178"},"modified":"2026-04-02T17:31:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:31:14","slug":"acid-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2026\/04\/02\/acid-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Acid Box"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBy Sarah Kenney<\/strong>, James Devlin<\/strong>, Emma Vieceli<\/strong>, Ria Grix<\/strong>, Sophie Dodgson<\/strong>, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou<\/strong> & various (Avery Hill Publishing)
\nISBN: 978-1-917355-05-6 (HB\/Digital edition)<\/p>\n

The entirety of all worlds and each and every time is readily available to any open-minded comics connoisseur. Here\u2019s a fun extrapolation on an old plot, with plenty of twisty raucous fun fully baked in for anyone with an open mind. A working knowledge of recent history (yes, I know that\u2019s a relative term!) and breadth of musical tastes won\u2019t be wasted if you can lay your hands on that too…<\/p>\n

Most importantly, if you can remember the Nineties, you might well have been there, but probably a bit too far from the speaker-stacks…<\/p>\n

In that context, the term Acid (noun<\/em>: PRO: \u201cAss-SEeeeed\u201d) denotes a popular youth culture movement concerned with music, recreational drugs, dancing and wandering about trying to find where the action was happening. It also had lots to do with a specific bit of clever kit called a Roland TB-303 Bass Line<\/strong> (AKA the \u201c303\u201d) that became instrumental in electronic music movements such as \u201ctechno\u201d, \u201cChicago-house\u201d and \u201cacid house\u201d…<\/p>\n

At this moment of now in opening chapter \u2018Fully Munted\u2019<\/em>, it\u2019s 2026 in Glasgow and cleaner\/presumed orphan Jade Nyo<\/em> is hoping to forget the shitty world, crap prospects of survival and especially younger brother Rory<\/em>\u2019s persistent tortured nightmares of tsunamis and global collapse, as personified in recurring images of a big angry sod he calls \u201cAngryMan\u201d leading the inundations.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not a lot she can use to get out and away – and so much to get away from<\/em> – but her abiding fascination with dance music history tops the list, so soon she\u2019s necked an \u201cE\u201d at local club Tempus and is living in the beats and sweat and non-stop motion. Rory\u2019s there too but his crutches and callipers aren\u2019t really rave-conducive…
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\nLife gets worse and better all at once when three really weird skanky women drag her and Rory into a rather tacky corner that didn\u2019t used to be there, and make an outrageous request\/demand. Apparently, Yemaya<\/em>, Angie<\/em> and Tracey<\/em> are \u201cLiminals\u201d commanding the forces of time, space, matter and energy and they have an urgent job that needs doing: restoring order to the geological continuum… or else…<\/p>\n

Soon – while disbelieving every minute of it – Jade is jaunting all over infinity, drawn to key and crucial rave moments and beat history milestones chasing vibrations and saving the universe with the aid of a handy little widget dubbed (sorry! Sorry!!) an Acid Box. This one is missing three dials that Jade just must restore to it… or Earth will shake itself to dust within three days. Moreover, AngryMan is very real and resolved to make that big finish happen…<\/p>\n

First stop, once all the \u201cyeah, but\u201d-ing is done with, is Berlin in 1994 (devotees of musical culture will soon comprehend what these key moments in time travel mean, and the rest of us can just revel in the pacy action and extremely effective character-play from here on…) as Jade musters some allies – such as tough local-time operators Fizzy & Rhonda<\/em> – and faces increasing grief and terror in successive, potentially self-explanatory escalating episodes \u2018Make Techno Not Friends\u2019<\/em>, \u2018The Fear\u2019<\/em> and \u2018Go Hard or Go Home\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The chase exposes family skeletons, loads of closets and repeatedly lands her in 1994 – somehow simultaneously in Detroit, Bradford, Berlin again, Johannesburg, Mysore and Hyde Park, London – gathering allies for an environmental showdown in at La Palma volcano in 2026, supplanted by ten-yearly confrontations in 2034, 2044 and 2054 all round the imperilled world until the big is done… one way or another…<\/p>\n

Packed with and augmented by utterly absorbing sidebar bonus material, this is a sublimely absorbing romp embroidered with true love of the period and source music material that will no doubt make a fabulous and funny film one day. The primary creators are led by Sarah Kenney (Surgeon X<\/strong>, She Could Fly<\/strong>, Planet Divoc-91<\/strong>) who writes socially informed speculative fiction (the other, accurate, term for Science Fiction) and works as a scripter, producer and director for the Games industry and television. Her visual collaborator on \u00a0Surgeon X<\/strong> and Planet Divoc-91 <\/strong>is Glasgow-based James Devlin (Tomorrow<\/strong>, LaGuardia<\/strong>) who here joins multidisciplinary performance artist Emma Vieceli (Life is Strange<\/strong>, BREAKS<\/strong>) and illustrator Ria Grix (The Anomalous Adventures of Viola Holm and Kotiin<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

This macroscopic, musically-inclined peregrination includes further input and compelling comics fare culled from an international workshop group about comics, music, science culture and planet Earth run by Kenney & Kirsten Murray. That resulted in compelling essays and graphic sorties all packed in here too, all stage-set by an accommodatingly informative \u2018Afterword\u2019<\/em> by Kenney.
\n\"\"
\nThe textual thoughts comprise \u2018Happy Place by Sarah Zad\u2019<\/em>; \u2018Fund, Marry, Chill: The Ultimate Guide to Guaranteed Creative Success by Adrian Saredia-Brayley\u2019<\/em>; \u2018Research and Discussion of the potential benefits of MDMA on PTSD sufferers by Bobby Gunasekara\u2019<\/em>; \u2018Reviving Rave Roots Resurgence of Clean Rave Culture by Sevitha \u2019Vadlamudi\u2019<\/em>; \u2018Fact and Fiction by Sarah Zad\u2019 <\/em>and \u2018The Lens of Life… Storytelling and facilitating change through art by Whitney Love\u2019<\/em>. These are followed by a selection of \u2018Youth Workshop Comics\u2019<\/em> beginning with eco-chiller \u2018We Can\u2019t Stay Here Any Longer\u2019<\/em> by Adrian Saredia-Brayley and followed by Ben Avey-Edwards cyber-thriller \u2018Vibe\u2019<\/em> (lettered by Rob Jones).<\/p>\n

ShyWhy shares the joys of \u2018Mind Travel\u2019<\/em> and Lara Sloane depicts \u2018A Housewives Revolution\u2019<\/em> before \u2018Dancing On My Own\u2019<\/em> – scripted by Nyla Ahmad with art by Adrian Saredia-Brayley – carries us to Lucy Porte\u2019s \u2018Bad Trip\u2019<\/em> after which Paula Karanja brings \u2018A Gift to Share\u2019<\/em>. Rounding out the jam session, Saredia-Brayley limns Phelisa Sikwata\u2019s \u2018Sinking HomeS\u2019<\/em> and Hannah Maclennan closes the show with \u2018Hurry Up! Our Song is Playing!\u2019<\/em>
\n\u00a9 Wowbagger Productions 2025. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1929 US Golden Age artist Joe Gallagher<\/strong> was born, as was James Vance<\/strong> (Kings in Disguise<\/strong>, Omaha the Cat Dancer<\/strong>, Aliens<\/strong>, Predator<\/strong>) in 1953, and Todd Nauck<\/strong> (Young Justice<\/strong>, Spider-Man<\/strong>) in 1971.<\/p>\n

In1867 Britain and the world lost pioneering cartoonist\/caricaturist\/political commentator Charles H. Bennett,<\/strong> and in 2002 Stan Pitt<\/strong> (officially the first Australian artist with original material published US \u00a0comic books – The Witching Hour<\/a> <\/strong>#14 & Boris Karloff<\/a> – Tales of Mystery <\/strong># 33!) who ghosted Al Williamson<\/strong>\u2019s Secret Agent Corrigan<\/strong> in 1969 and 1972. Also, in 2009 we lost the great unsung Frank Springer<\/strong> (Secret Six<\/strong>, Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD<\/strong>, Phoebe Zeit-Geist<\/strong>, The Dazzler<\/strong>, Friday Foster, Rex Morgan M.D.<\/strong>, Mary Perkins on Stage<\/strong>, The Incredible Hulk<\/strong> newspaper strip).<\/p>\n

In 1958 Goscinny<\/strong> & Uderzo<\/strong>\u2019s Oumpah-pah<\/em> debuted in Le Journal de Tintin<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sarah Kenney, James Devlin, Emma Vieceli, Ria Grix, Sophie Dodgson, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou & various (Avery Hill Publishing) ISBN: 978-1-917355-05-6 (HB\/Digital edition) The entirety of all worlds and each and every time is readily available to any open-minded comics connoisseur. Here\u2019s a fun extrapolation on an old plot, with plenty of twisty raucous fun fully … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Acid Box”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[191,119,102,299,122,328,111,107,254],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-comicsacademic","category-fantasy","category-feminism-sexual-politics","category-historical","category-music","category-satirepolitics","category-science-fiction","category-young-adult"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-99o","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35178"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35182,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35178\/revisions\/35182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}