Filed under: Arcana Comics, Comic Reviews | Tags: Arcana Comics, Deadly Harvest, Doug Spencer, Erik Hendrix, Harvest Moon, Jeff Graham, Michael David Nelson, Yannis Roumboulias
Now I like sci-fi and I like comics and when I got the chance to read/review an advance copy of Deadly Harvest from Arcana….I jumped at the chance.
The story centres on mining ship Harvest Moon as its crew, lead by Captain Cyrus Layne, scours the galaxy for their next jackpot find. Thing is, in these futuristic days the ore which they mine to help interstellar travel and commerce is hidden deep in the core of asteroids hurtling through space….usually towards stars given their gravity….oh yeah, and they’re pretty unstable. Reading that, you could be fooled into thinking we’d get a ramshackle crew of grunts and misfits vying for top spot in among the meatheads but we get much more depth from this title than that…..a welcome change for a sci-fi comic.
Writers Erik Hendrix (Intrinsic #1 – reviewed here) & Michael David Nelson manage to bring us a multi-layered sci-fi tale with as much time spent developing the characters as them actually being caught up in the whole corporate mining & mission talk. What we get as the story progresses is a number of different histories dropped in for each character as they deal with the loss of crew members, the gambling time in the brig and the highly dangerous adventure that their job brings them. A good mix for sure.
There’s solid art on show from Yannis Roumboulias, inking from Jeff Graham and Doug Spencer adds some moody colouring to the set-pieces and the mundane surroundings of the ship and the look itself helps support the thought that’s gone into the structure of the story and the character development. You’ll be disappointed when someone dies and you’ll be concerned when the SH^% hits the fan and the crew have to fight their way through an ambush and improvise to escape certain death.
This all sounds familiar in the world of sci-fi but there’s a new edge to this here as we find out just how in-depth the creators have gone with some pretty cool sections in the back of the book filling us in on the ship, some of the science bits and even a rundown on the crew members – a nifty touch and having read the full story – I’m keen to know if there’s more on the way. If anything, that’s my only quibble with it – there’s 4 issues due for release before the final collected version goes to print but I’m inclined to think there is more story here than just the 4 issues. A couple more issues would have given the title a chance at a more satisfying ending but that’s maybe a personal thing.
This will be released through ComiXology from now until October with the final collected edition going to print in November.
Keep tabs on this and more Arcana titles at:
5/10
G-Man
Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment
Comics Anonymous 