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Moonray #1
Moonray: Mother's Skin
"MOONRAY is gloriously epic, exploding scifi fantasy world daydreams in every wonderful way! I can't think of anything I've enjoyed more in recent memory!" -Michael Allred: Madman, Silver Surfer, Bowie: Stardust, Rayguns and Moonage Daydreams, Red Rocket 7, Superman: Space Age
"Moonray is a deeply personal work built on top of a licensed property, that provides a stunning meta-mythical framework for how to live happily in 21st century." - Carson Grubaugh, The Strange Death of Alex Raymond, The Abolition of Man
"Moonray is a heady rich stew of psychedelic science fiction, my favorite kind. And in the skillful hands of Brandon Graham and Xurxo Penalta, it's served with an unsettling ease in every bite. The perplexing becomes the flavors. It's joyful to get lost in it."
- J H Williams III, Echolands, Batwoman, The Sandman Overture, Promethea
In a post-human world, the man of miium is born. Created to avenge a slain goddess, our nameless warrior travels an unrecognizable landscape, constantly evolving with new wonders and terrors: Zanikam pirates, deadly reflections, a living bridge, and a red tear in the sky. Written and drawn by Eisner-award-winning author and artist Brandon Graham (PROPHET, KING CITY, RAIN LIKE HAMMERS), and featuring artist Xurxo G. Penalta, Moonray presents a mind-altering new dawn for a distant sci-fi future unlike any other. This bold graphic odyssey births the Moonray universe, from comic book to video game and beyond.
Moonray is a daring experiment in world-building, a true graphic epic that began in a truly unusual way. Moonray the graphic novel series shares its name and characters with a surreal 3rd-person multiplayer battle arena game set in a fantastical sci-fi world. Featuring intense combat, stunning visuals, and a world-class soundtrack, Moonray the game has been in development by the independent game developers Moonray PBC since 2019, and will be available publicly in an arena-combat form this fall of 2023.
But Moonray was written and drawn almost entirely in reverse of the normal process of a video game "tie-in" book. Rather than developing a book based on a game, the game team is developing a game based on Graham's work.
In Moonray Book One, Graham leverages his narrative freedom to create a story of untethered exploration, of naivete and determination, a graphic novel as gentle as it is thrilling.
Brandon Graham was born in 1976, the grandson of pin-up artist Bill Randall. He grew up in Seattle around a lot of graffiti and comics from all over the word. His books include KING CITY, MULTIPLE WARHEADS, PROPHET, ROYALBOILER, and RAIN LIKE HAMMERS.
Xurxo G Penalta is a Galician artist who's collaborated with Brandon on KIEM and PROPHET. He's been published by Image, Dark Horse, IDW, Marvel, and illustrated for multiple music labels and live events. He focuses on science fiction and fantasy artwork in the European clear line style, with late 70s and 80s influences from comics, animation and film. Graham was born in 1976, the grandson of pin-up artist Bill Randall. He grew up in Seattle around a lot of graffiti and comics from all over the word. His books include KING CITY, MULTIPLE WARHEADS, PROPHET, ROYALBOILER, and RAIN LIKE HAMMERS.
"Moonray is a deeply personal work built on top of a licensed property, that provides a stunning meta-mythical framework for how to live happily in 21st century." - Carson Grubaugh, The Strange Death of Alex Raymond, The Abolition of Man
"Moonray is a heady rich stew of psychedelic science fiction, my favorite kind. And in the skillful hands of Brandon Graham and Xurxo Penalta, it's served with an unsettling ease in every bite. The perplexing becomes the flavors. It's joyful to get lost in it."
- J H Williams III, Echolands, Batwoman, The Sandman Overture, Promethea
In a post-human world, the man of miium is born. Created to avenge a slain goddess, our nameless warrior travels an unrecognizable landscape, constantly evolving with new wonders and terrors: Zanikam pirates, deadly reflections, a living bridge, and a red tear in the sky. Written and drawn by Eisner-award-winning author and artist Brandon Graham (PROPHET, KING CITY, RAIN LIKE HAMMERS), and featuring artist Xurxo G. Penalta, Moonray presents a mind-altering new dawn for a distant sci-fi future unlike any other. This bold graphic odyssey births the Moonray universe, from comic book to video game and beyond.
Moonray is a daring experiment in world-building, a true graphic epic that began in a truly unusual way. Moonray the graphic novel series shares its name and characters with a surreal 3rd-person multiplayer battle arena game set in a fantastical sci-fi world. Featuring intense combat, stunning visuals, and a world-class soundtrack, Moonray the game has been in development by the independent game developers Moonray PBC since 2019, and will be available publicly in an arena-combat form this fall of 2023.
But Moonray was written and drawn almost entirely in reverse of the normal process of a video game "tie-in" book. Rather than developing a book based on a game, the game team is developing a game based on Graham's work.
In Moonray Book One, Graham leverages his narrative freedom to create a story of untethered exploration, of naivete and determination, a graphic novel as gentle as it is thrilling.
Brandon Graham was born in 1976, the grandson of pin-up artist Bill Randall. He grew up in Seattle around a lot of graffiti and comics from all over the word. His books include KING CITY, MULTIPLE WARHEADS, PROPHET, ROYALBOILER, and RAIN LIKE HAMMERS.
Xurxo G Penalta is a Galician artist who's collaborated with Brandon on KIEM and PROPHET. He's been published by Image, Dark Horse, IDW, Marvel, and illustrated for multiple music labels and live events. He focuses on science fiction and fantasy artwork in the European clear line style, with late 70s and 80s influences from comics, animation and film. Graham was born in 1976, the grandson of pin-up artist Bill Randall. He grew up in Seattle around a lot of graffiti and comics from all over the word. His books include KING CITY, MULTIPLE WARHEADS, PROPHET, ROYALBOILER, and RAIN LIKE HAMMERS.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published October 17, 2023
3 people are currently reading
104 people want to read
About the author
Brandon Graham
196 books199 followersBrandon Graham (born 1976) is an American comic book creator.
Born in Oregon, Graham grew up in Seattle, Washington, where he was a graffiti artist. He wrote and illustrated comic books for Antarctic Press and Radio Comix, but got his start drawing pornographic comics like Pillow Fight and Multiple Warheads (Warheads would go on to become its own comic published by Oni Press in 2007). In 1997, he moved to New York City where he found work with NBM Publishing and became a founding member of comics collective Meathaus. His book Escalator was published by Alternative Comics in January 2005, when he returned to Seattle. His book King City was published by Tokyopop in 2007 and was nominated for an Eisner Award. In May 2009 Graham announced that King City would continue publication at Image Comics and his Oni Press title Multiple Warheads would resume publication after a delay, this time in color. Also at Image he is the writer on Prophet, the return of a 1990s series, with the rotating roster of artists Giannis Milonogiannis, Farel Dalrymple, Simon Roy, and himself.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Born in Oregon, Graham grew up in Seattle, Washington, where he was a graffiti artist. He wrote and illustrated comic books for Antarctic Press and Radio Comix, but got his start drawing pornographic comics like Pillow Fight and Multiple Warheads (Warheads would go on to become its own comic published by Oni Press in 2007). In 1997, he moved to New York City where he found work with NBM Publishing and became a founding member of comics collective Meathaus. His book Escalator was published by Alternative Comics in January 2005, when he returned to Seattle. His book King City was published by Tokyopop in 2007 and was nominated for an Eisner Award. In May 2009 Graham announced that King City would continue publication at Image Comics and his Oni Press title Multiple Warheads would resume publication after a delay, this time in color. Also at Image he is the writer on Prophet, the return of a 1990s series, with the rotating roster of artists Giannis Milonogiannis, Farel Dalrymple, Simon Roy, and himself.
(Source: Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 17, 2024
I generally love Brandon Graham's work, both his art and his writing. I like his deep dives into world building, I like how obtuse his writing can become (and mostly does). His work, for me, tends to feel vibrant and alive. Less so with Moonray, I'm afraid. I like a lot about the book, the idea of the god material (which Graham didn't come up with..), walking cities/hives, living ships.. but here all the world building notes and the frequent narration making clear what characters think and feel, or explaining what was happening, it all started to weigh the book down for me. It's as if it sucked all the air out of the narrative room, the story wasn't allowed to breathe.
The short standalone story, written by Graham and beautifully illustrated by Xurxo Penalta, works better than the main attraction, probably because it's a simpler story.
Look, I'll always, ALWAYS read a Brandon Graham book, but this is "only" a very okay one.
(Picked up a review copy through Edelweiss)
The short standalone story, written by Graham and beautifully illustrated by Xurxo Penalta, works better than the main attraction, probably because it's a simpler story.
Look, I'll always, ALWAYS read a Brandon Graham book, but this is "only" a very okay one.
(Picked up a review copy through Edelweiss)
Read
June 18, 2023It's working from someone else's concepts - which are apparently also going to be a computer game, though fuck knows how that will play. Some of it has another artist, Xurxo Penalta. But as with his magnificent Prophet run, it takes more than little things like that to stop a comic feeling like a Brandon Graham project. Vast structures, impossible landscapes, strange creatures, an uncertain hero, but always a sense of fun too, to stop those epic struggles from tipping into po-faced and portentous. The central concept here is miium, the blood of the gods, which retains enough of their power and memory to become armour or even new life itself - an idea that's certainly not without intriguing resonances, but is mainly a jumping off point for all the beautiful weird shit.
(Edelweiss ARC)
(Edelweiss ARC)
October 27, 2023
Moonray (part 1, "Mother's Skin") was interesting and I liked it. 3.5 rounded up to 4, which is not a terrible place to start for a big interesting series, which apparently this is shaping up to be? I'll admit I presumed this Kickstarter book was standalone, but that's on me for not being a very critical reader when I'm backing graphic novels by cartoonists I know I already like.
There's obviously an enormous amount of Mœbius influence, and that's great. The story's interesting, the world is interesting, the art is strong, and that's all genre fiction needs to be good enough.
Where Moonray shines for me is actually in its production and commercial launch. I have a lot of graphic novels, because I buy a lot of graphic novels--the majority of which, I'm aware of prior to their release. Graphic novels are actually what is called "trade paperbacks", which are collections of two to... eight? floppy staple-bound comics (more than eight floppies in one volume and the appropriate terminology starts drifting towards omnibus instead of trade). Even more than trade paperbacks, my ideal format of book of sequential art is often called a "deluxe hardcover collection". They top out around 500 pages (again before "omnibus" starts to be more appropriate), often in the 2-300page range, and are a pleasure to read.
Moonray: Mother's Skin is a gorgeous book, as a physical object, and it was released very impressively through both Kickstarter and available through regular comic-purchasing channels soon after (the exact right time), and is coming available through regular book-purchasing channels soon after that (again, exact right time). That takes INCREDIBLE coordination, as well as a willingness to bake in delay time for any of those different channels in order to successfully deliver quickly in the right scaling order. And, in addition to that, the book is gorgeous. It reminds me a lot of the quality of the Casanova deluxe hardcover trilogy from Image, or the Blacksad books from Dark Horse, and that is my attempt to pay Moonray very heavy compliments. "As good as it gets!" is how I rate that type of book-object.
There's obviously an enormous amount of Mœbius influence, and that's great. The story's interesting, the world is interesting, the art is strong, and that's all genre fiction needs to be good enough.
Where Moonray shines for me is actually in its production and commercial launch. I have a lot of graphic novels, because I buy a lot of graphic novels--the majority of which, I'm aware of prior to their release. Graphic novels are actually what is called "trade paperbacks", which are collections of two to... eight? floppy staple-bound comics (more than eight floppies in one volume and the appropriate terminology starts drifting towards omnibus instead of trade). Even more than trade paperbacks, my ideal format of book of sequential art is often called a "deluxe hardcover collection". They top out around 500 pages (again before "omnibus" starts to be more appropriate), often in the 2-300page range, and are a pleasure to read.
Moonray: Mother's Skin is a gorgeous book, as a physical object, and it was released very impressively through both Kickstarter and available through regular comic-purchasing channels soon after (the exact right time), and is coming available through regular book-purchasing channels soon after that (again, exact right time). That takes INCREDIBLE coordination, as well as a willingness to bake in delay time for any of those different channels in order to successfully deliver quickly in the right scaling order. And, in addition to that, the book is gorgeous. It reminds me a lot of the quality of the Casanova deluxe hardcover trilogy from Image, or the Blacksad books from Dark Horse, and that is my attempt to pay Moonray very heavy compliments. "As good as it gets!" is how I rate that type of book-object.
March 11, 2024
I started reading Brandon Graham’s latest sci-fi series, based on concepts by Rodrigo Etcheto and Diego Etcheto, while I was just starting to come out from under a nasty bout of the norovirus, so it’s a little hard for me to say how much of what I read was from Graham’s typical trippy fever dream style and how much was from actual fever dreams. Nevertheless, having read a lot of his comics, I’m used to being pleasantly bewildered by Graham’s work so “Moonray: Mother’s Skin” wasn’t really that different of an experience. Always an apple that didn’t fall far from the Moebius tree, Graham’s work here delves even deeper into the European-style experimental hard sci-fi side of his creativity, dropping his usual pun-tastic wordplay and tonal silliness for a richer and more epic - dare I say “Heavy Metal”-esque? - type of comic. Xurxo G. Penalta’s contributions were also pretty magnificent. I definitely understood maybe 60% of what was going on but I 100% enjoyed it. I’ve already pledged to the Kickstarter for the next volume.
October 6, 2023
The story is pretty basic. A hero's journey type story, but it works for the faceless being the main character is. It's also kind of that in-between mix where surreal things just happen. The staggering scale of the world building is what makes the story stand out though. If you're a fan of his prophet you'll see how he crafts out the world before his story here. This is only part 1 though, so probably at least 1 or more to come, very much looking forward to it now. The coloring, cartooning, and lettering was all very impressive and definitely a high bar. Graham definitely follows the Moebius philosophy of just drawing and making the not straight lines just work, and it works well for stories like these. The combination of Graham's linework and flat colors, with Xurxo's penchant for adding detail into the scenery really works well.
Overall, one of Graham's best works, and just genuinely fun stuff to read. 4/5 because of the story. Everything else is masterful. We'll see how part 2 changes things.
Overall, one of Graham's best works, and just genuinely fun stuff to read. 4/5 because of the story. Everything else is masterful. We'll see how part 2 changes things.
November 29, 2023
Kinda wild that we’re getting very Graham-inspired shows like Scavengers Reign lately. Of course MOONRAY is meditative, durational, does that hard sci-fi ask of imagining a world utterly alien to human purview (whereas SR is, episode to episode, pretty much just ‘how can the bounds of human body be threatened’ anxiety iterated again and again, which has its place, sure, but is, I dunno, less immersive, lacks staying power). I bring all this up just to point at Graham, particularly his work on Prophet, and to wonder if we could ever get something as poetic, pun-packed and picaresque as he does in an anime down the line, preferably with his direct involvement.
Between Rain Like Hammers and MOONRAY, I wonder about Graham’s turn to “heroes” who refuse sci-fi climax, pivot from a hero role, desire a simpler, pastoral life. The sex coding of these characters of action and resignation runs the same between both of these titles, too (though MOONRAY is obviously incomplete at present). I think in RLH it felt like a way to avoid an ending. But reading all the way back to King City, there are already refusals to get involved in certain ways, and they don’t feel like failures of the imagination or cop-outs then. None of this is meant to morally grade Graham’s choices, but I think this is worth thinking about in full, at that macro scale of his work which always has surplus rewarding repetitions and resonances.
Not as much a fan of Penalta’s bestiary asides, but did like the story he did at the end quite a bit.
Looking forward to seeing where this goes from here.
Between Rain Like Hammers and MOONRAY, I wonder about Graham’s turn to “heroes” who refuse sci-fi climax, pivot from a hero role, desire a simpler, pastoral life. The sex coding of these characters of action and resignation runs the same between both of these titles, too (though MOONRAY is obviously incomplete at present). I think in RLH it felt like a way to avoid an ending. But reading all the way back to King City, there are already refusals to get involved in certain ways, and they don’t feel like failures of the imagination or cop-outs then. None of this is meant to morally grade Graham’s choices, but I think this is worth thinking about in full, at that macro scale of his work which always has surplus rewarding repetitions and resonances.
Not as much a fan of Penalta’s bestiary asides, but did like the story he did at the end quite a bit.
Looking forward to seeing where this goes from here.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 5, 2023
Brandon Graham's newest comic doubles down on his signature brand of psychedelic sci-fi. Moonray: Mother's Skin follows an unnamed warrior who traverses alien landscapes in the search for a missing space goddess. Aiding the warrior on his journey is a sentient sword and a mysterious birdlike guide, and the three encounter all manner of vast terrains and structures populated by bizarre creatures. At the core of this is the concept of a goopy and ethereal substance known as "miium", attributed as the essence of space gods. Miium can be converted into almost anything and imbue sentience into all that it touches. As a result, the world of Moonray is filled with all manner of oddities that reflect Graham's sheer creativity.
Though the trappings of the story is pretty conventional hero's journey kind of stuff, it's the staggering scale of the world building that makes Graham's latest entry stand out. Fans of his Prophet series will see similarities in the way the Graham crafts his stories - the world is fleshed out before the story. Similarly, Moonray serves to build up the world in which future stories will continue to build on. That does mean the plot isn't as developed as it could be, nor are the characters all that well fleshed out. This is more about ideas and setting a foundation for a larger franchise as far as I gathered on my first reading. There's a sense of fun that went into this, but chunks of the story left me wanting something a bit more layered.
The art duties are shared between Graham and Xurxo G. Penalta. Graham continues to utilize his bold, sweeping lines with flat colors as seen in previous works like Rain Like Hammers and Multiple Warheads. Penalta's contributions are distinctly different in terms of style as he opts into a much more detailed and textured aesthetic. Though their styles can be quite the contrast, both work to really deliver on the awe-inspiring scale of the world being crafted here. Penalta's coloring particularly stood out, since it can be a bit more of a challenge to work in a vibrant color palette on artwork that utilizes such granular detail. The story may not have clicked for me but overall I found the zany sensibilities of Moonray to be very appealing.
Though the trappings of the story is pretty conventional hero's journey kind of stuff, it's the staggering scale of the world building that makes Graham's latest entry stand out. Fans of his Prophet series will see similarities in the way the Graham crafts his stories - the world is fleshed out before the story. Similarly, Moonray serves to build up the world in which future stories will continue to build on. That does mean the plot isn't as developed as it could be, nor are the characters all that well fleshed out. This is more about ideas and setting a foundation for a larger franchise as far as I gathered on my first reading. There's a sense of fun that went into this, but chunks of the story left me wanting something a bit more layered.
The art duties are shared between Graham and Xurxo G. Penalta. Graham continues to utilize his bold, sweeping lines with flat colors as seen in previous works like Rain Like Hammers and Multiple Warheads. Penalta's contributions are distinctly different in terms of style as he opts into a much more detailed and textured aesthetic. Though their styles can be quite the contrast, both work to really deliver on the awe-inspiring scale of the world being crafted here. Penalta's coloring particularly stood out, since it can be a bit more of a challenge to work in a vibrant color palette on artwork that utilizes such granular detail. The story may not have clicked for me but overall I found the zany sensibilities of Moonray to be very appealing.
October 21, 2023
I'm not sure exactly what it is about Brandon Graham stuff.. It has absolutely every I should love, and yet I always struggle to really connect with it. So here's another books of his that I'm going to shower with compliments but I still only found mid.
Moonray is Graham's first foray into video games. That is to say, he's helping the creators develop the story and look of the game by writing a comic book set in their world. Said world is not dissimilar to what he's done before. Quirky psychedelic scifi, with vast desert expanses and weird little creatures. It's more streamlined, both visually and narratively. When Multiple Warheads had that Garage Hermétique energy, this is more Edena. And I don't bring up Moebius' name up for nothing. Everything is still very inspired by his work. From the world to the creatures and even the themes, everything screams Moebius to me, but with a more modern flair.
One thing that did surprise me, is how soulslike the story and world feel. We follow an unknown hero, who's guided by a crystal to find and help the goddess that created him. It's a very thin quest like story, but with an incredibly expansive world an lore. Dying gods, flying whales and sentient battleships... Every page is so chock full of world building, it entirely makes up for the lack of a proper story.
At some point the hero finds a sword, and it transforms into a sexy lady sidekick for absolutely no reasonable. Maybe that's what always bothers me with his stuff. There's constant reminders in his work that he's kind of a creep and probably abusive...
Anyway, I'm kind of looking forward to the game now !
Moonray is Graham's first foray into video games. That is to say, he's helping the creators develop the story and look of the game by writing a comic book set in their world. Said world is not dissimilar to what he's done before. Quirky psychedelic scifi, with vast desert expanses and weird little creatures. It's more streamlined, both visually and narratively. When Multiple Warheads had that Garage Hermétique energy, this is more Edena. And I don't bring up Moebius' name up for nothing. Everything is still very inspired by his work. From the world to the creatures and even the themes, everything screams Moebius to me, but with a more modern flair.
One thing that did surprise me, is how soulslike the story and world feel. We follow an unknown hero, who's guided by a crystal to find and help the goddess that created him. It's a very thin quest like story, but with an incredibly expansive world an lore. Dying gods, flying whales and sentient battleships... Every page is so chock full of world building, it entirely makes up for the lack of a proper story.
At some point the hero finds a sword, and it transforms into a sexy lady sidekick for absolutely no reasonable. Maybe that's what always bothers me with his stuff. There's constant reminders in his work that he's kind of a creep and probably abusive...
Anyway, I'm kind of looking forward to the game now !
July 21, 2025
I impulsively picked up this book at a wonder con booth, drawn in by the wonderful illustration on display. However immediately after checkout I was struck with a stench. The back of the book reads "This bold graphic odyssey births the Moonray universe, from comic book to video game and beyond."
Surely we cannot be so far up our own a** that we are planning a multimedia spanning universe of entertainment from this book already? What's more, this game exists, great on the surface, until you realize this is a web3 game. Blockchain. NFTs. The stench grows.
For as much as I may have found compelling about this series, which amounted to a whole lot of not much, I can't read it without shaking the sense that this book does not exist as a form of artistic expression, but as a means of capital gains in the form of a ponzi sch- I mean blockchain experience.
This web3 aspect alone sapped all interest I had in the Moonray series before I even opened the book and it still lingers after reading Volume 1. By the creator's own intention I am unable to engage with the book on an artist level and judge it as such, and instead judge it as an attempt to pull money from my pocket in full view.
Surely we cannot be so far up our own a** that we are planning a multimedia spanning universe of entertainment from this book already? What's more, this game exists, great on the surface, until you realize this is a web3 game. Blockchain. NFTs. The stench grows.
For as much as I may have found compelling about this series, which amounted to a whole lot of not much, I can't read it without shaking the sense that this book does not exist as a form of artistic expression, but as a means of capital gains in the form of a ponzi sch- I mean blockchain experience.
This web3 aspect alone sapped all interest I had in the Moonray series before I even opened the book and it still lingers after reading Volume 1. By the creator's own intention I am unable to engage with the book on an artist level and judge it as such, and instead judge it as an attempt to pull money from my pocket in full view.
November 6, 2023
This was a big, long fever dream and I loved it! It was just the right kind of weird for me, and was quite tasty in my brain. I can tell it's not a story for everyone, but it worked well for me. Could I tell you what happened? Just barely; it made sense to me, however, because the MC has just been born/created at the beginning, and we the readers are learning things about this world as the MC does. And what a fabulous, beautiful world it is! The art is so very European, very Moebius, very Hergé, very much its own thing too. All together, this trippy weird psychedelic vague scifi confection was a real treat for me, it hit just right to satisfy my jones for books that make me say "What?" and I'm greatly looking forward to the next volume!
May 26, 2025
2.5 I'm a big fan and this is very close to what I like about Graham but it just didn't land for me. The art is excellent, super trippy, and beautiful, but there was something about the world/creatures and mythos that I struggled with. The leads all felt almost devoid of character, as if their unusual physicalities and traits was enough, so, as a result I didn't much care about anything they went through. And the worlds they traveled encountered suffered from something similar: cool ideas and visuals but lacking in a grounding or stakes.
July 22, 2023
Heavy on the in-world terminology, peppered with context-giving illustrations as opposed to actual graphic novel scenes, and so, so sub-Moebius French kind of head book material, this unfortunately was never going to be my kind of thing. I gave it a good go, but I really don't get any joy from the weird-for-weird-sake being ramped up to start at 11 with nowhere else to go, which applies to both the visuals and the "plot" (for want of a better word). One and a half stars.
November 14, 2023
Awesome fun new sci-fi story / surreal adventure / work of art from Brandon Graham and Xurxo Penalta.
Really love the world they have created here, completely new and interesting and wonderful and out there, but under the alien skins are relatable characters dealing with interesting internal struggles (which is the soul of any good story) and high stakes external crusades that pull you in. I highly recommend and look forward to the next installment.
Really love the world they have created here, completely new and interesting and wonderful and out there, but under the alien skins are relatable characters dealing with interesting internal struggles (which is the soul of any good story) and high stakes external crusades that pull you in. I highly recommend and look forward to the next installment.
December 9, 2024
As always, Graham’s art is absolutely gorgeous (as is that of Xurxo Penalta in the backup and side stories) and the creativity is off the charts, but while the story is akin to his groundbreaking Prophet in its epic wildness, it so far lacks the compelling narrative and characters. This may just be a function of having a naive cipher as the lead, I’m hoping to get more stuck in with part 2.
November 20, 2023
Amazing! I am always a fan of Brandon Graham, but this book is a wonderful culmination of both his voice and his co-creator Penalta. Excellent SCi-fi, unique themes, wonderful world building, and of course great art!
August 4, 2024
I don't know how Graham does it but under the need to make every design slightly horny, he has a real knack for worldbuilding. The sheer detail is (arguably and many will disagree) comparable to Kentaro Miura but with softer edges. That whale man I swear
December 20, 2023
i love surrealist scifi. i love beautiful art. this was a lovely journey.
April 13, 2024
Fun and inventive worldbuilding.
December 22, 2024
Weird but highly creative and visually stunning.
April 10, 2024
the artwork is gorgeous, and the the sci-fi concepts are fun (if somewhat derivative). where this falls on its face is the story and worldbuilding, which I'm sure are rich and fascinating in the creators' minds, but fail to materialize on the page. everything feels like a beautiful drawing exercise from one page to the next rather than a coherent or compelling science fiction epic
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews