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Ark
After 14 years of space travel, now far past the orbit of Pluto, the crew of the spaceship Explorer has been mysteriously cut off from communication with Earth. In light of Earth’s sudden silence, something about Explorer’s mission—to find and colonize an Earth-like planet—doesn’t ring true anymore. The crew is restless, and amid the turmoil, one of the meta-humans on board discovers a secret, final message from Earth that reveals shocking news. A crew member disappears, and shipwide paranoia ensues—will the Explorer crew band together or turn on themselves? And what is the true nature of their mission?
140 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 11, 2013
ARK by Peter Dabbene and Ryan Bayliss represents what I'd like to see more of in comics: a self contained sci-fi story. Btw, I downloaded and read the digital version of the book onto my Comic Zeal app on my iPad.
The story is science fiction, but it's also a mystery/ thriller. The tale takes place on a space ship, sent to find and colonize earth-like planets. The crew is made up of humans and "metas", genetically bred hybrids with special abilities. Now in deep space, communications with Earth have been lost. Tensions among the crew escalate, especially between the regular humans and the metas. When a hidden message from Earth reveals the true nature of the mission, the body count starts to rise.
This is a very well done story. The tension in the tale is handled especially well. A small crew confined in a ship for years on end, now doubting the mission they've signed on for makes for some excellent character moments. The relationships between the normal humans and the metas is a nice tool to touch on issues of bigotry and racism. I'm hesitant to call this story a mystery; it's more of a thriller. The search for the secret message and the killer lends a paranoid edge to the proceedings.
The relative brevity of the story prevents the characters from being fully developed, especially with a cast of 50, but Peter does a good job of making you care about the lead characters from the conversations they have with each other. Some of the dialogue exchanges contain quite a bit of exposition, which can make it feel a little old school. But I never felt it was forced or too heavy handed.
The art is a little more cartoony than I would expect for this type of tale. But the character designs are appealing and you never lose track of who's who. Plus the storytelling is strong, and the art does get more dramatic during the serious moments. And the colors are extremely well done.
Overall I would highly recommend this story to anyone who likes sci-fi, or anyone looking for something without superheroes. When the tale ended, I wished there was more. And that's always a good thing.
The story is science fiction, but it's also a mystery/ thriller. The tale takes place on a space ship, sent to find and colonize earth-like planets. The crew is made up of humans and "metas", genetically bred hybrids with special abilities. Now in deep space, communications with Earth have been lost. Tensions among the crew escalate, especially between the regular humans and the metas. When a hidden message from Earth reveals the true nature of the mission, the body count starts to rise.
This is a very well done story. The tension in the tale is handled especially well. A small crew confined in a ship for years on end, now doubting the mission they've signed on for makes for some excellent character moments. The relationships between the normal humans and the metas is a nice tool to touch on issues of bigotry and racism. I'm hesitant to call this story a mystery; it's more of a thriller. The search for the secret message and the killer lends a paranoid edge to the proceedings.
The relative brevity of the story prevents the characters from being fully developed, especially with a cast of 50, but Peter does a good job of making you care about the lead characters from the conversations they have with each other. Some of the dialogue exchanges contain quite a bit of exposition, which can make it feel a little old school. But I never felt it was forced or too heavy handed.
The art is a little more cartoony than I would expect for this type of tale. But the character designs are appealing and you never lose track of who's who. Plus the storytelling is strong, and the art does get more dramatic during the serious moments. And the colors are extremely well done.
Overall I would highly recommend this story to anyone who likes sci-fi, or anyone looking for something without superheroes. When the tale ended, I wished there was more. And that's always a good thing.
May 24, 2013
I enjoyed this comic. A sci-fi, but also a good mystery, with some social commentary on race relations thrown in for good measure. I found myself wondering what the hook was. What was the motive? Was this a "hate crime"? The answer is much bigger than that and sets up a tense, angry and ripe environment for future storytelling. The artwork is good, nothing groundbreaking, but better than average works well with the story. I hope the story continues, as I am interested in what happens to the the crew of the Explorer next.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews