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Smoke #1-2
Smoke / Ashes
Alex de Campi and Igor Kordey's Eisner-nominated sci-fi thriller Smoke is back, packaged for the first time with its acclaimed sequel, Ashes, featuring the art of Carla Speed McNeil, Dan McDaid, Richard Pace, Bill Sienkiewicz, and more. Reporter Katie Shah's exposes of the corruption of the English ruling class put her in the crosshairs of powerful men on a good day. Smoke and Ashes are the stories of the bad days, as she and assassin Rupert Cain become targets of a sinister cabal bent on controlling the nation's oil and of a psychotic intelligence that has uploaded itself onto the Internet!
424 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2013
14 people are currently reading
155 people want to read
About the author
Alex de Campi
260 books238 followersAlex de Campi is a New York-based writer with an extensive backlist of critically-acclaimed graphic novels including Eisner-nominated heist noir Bad Girls (Simon & Schuster) and Twisted Romance (Image Comics). Her most recent book was her debut prose novel The Scottish Boy (Unbound). She lives with her daughter, their cat, and a Deafblind pit bull named Tango.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
March 15, 2014
I'd say Smoke is 4 stars and Ashes is 3, just because I wasn't a fan of the character evolution through the different artists. The characters are so themselves in Smoke, people with their own bodies and facial structures and styles that are part of the world that is built and drawn in that story, and they devolve into generic humans with distinctive hair by the end of Ashes. So that was a big disappointment. But it speaks to how strongly I reacted to the the characters in the relatively short Smoke, so that points to how effective it was. The story is a conspiracy/near future/spy-ish one. It didn't feel totally tired, and the writing made me pay attention - it's not all spelled out in narration or anything, which is great. I am going to actively seek out more Alex De Campi.
November 30, 2013
I had heard a lot of great things about de Campi's writing in this book, so perhaps all the praise was overinflated, because it didn't meet my expectations...at least not all of it. The first part, "Smoke," was very good, an engaging thriller with several moving plot parts. The ending quickly fishtailed, but overall the original story was solid. "Ashes," on the other hand, never seemed fully formed. Or at least it didn't seem as mature as it's counterpart. Maybe part of the problem was the many different artists who worked on "Ashes," story disjointedness underscored by inconsistency of art. But the bigger issue rested with the storytelling. At times "Ashes" just didn't seem as sophisticated or as well thought out as "Smoke," more haphazard and more reliant on comic-book whimsical premises.
November 4, 2013
Alex de Campi provides an adventure story that features all the trappings of an 80's movie: an all powerful evil empire existing in the shadows, a reformed assassin looking for answers, and a hot chick ready to tag along for the adventure so she can get a great scoop for her newspaper. And as a bonus - a robot assassin and an internet apocalypse!
Somehow, the book fails to become more than a sum of its individual parts and the workmanlike prose and art provide a comfortable tale where everyone behaves exactly as if they were following the playbook of Alan Moore's V for Vendetta.
For once, theGoodreads stars give a perfect summary of the book: "it was ok."
(except for the cover, which is absolutely awesome)
Somehow, the book fails to become more than a sum of its individual parts and the workmanlike prose and art provide a comfortable tale where everyone behaves exactly as if they were following the playbook of Alan Moore's V for Vendetta.
For once, theGoodreads stars give a perfect summary of the book: "it was ok."
(except for the cover, which is absolutely awesome)
April 22, 2020
Smoke is a tight three-chapter secret agent thriller set in a near-future London. It's almost too compact – wrapping up very quickly and with the illuminati-like organisation behind events only glanced at. It's a little rough around the edges (Americanisms keep slipping in to the dialogue of one assumes are supposed to be Londoners), but De Campi does have a great knack for scripting a riveting action scene.
Ashes is the sequel, but it was written seven years later and its sensibilities are very different. In the introduction, Kieron Gillen highlights the influence of manga – and it's true that these wrenching (and not always coherent) shifts in perspective are more typical in something like Crying Freeman (to pick an action comic example almost at random), so it can be jarring to see them in a western comic.
The effect is underlined by the rotating cast of artists within as well as between chapters, whose different interpretations of the characters highlight these shifts in perspective, where the villain of the first book is revealed to be a victim in the second. It's still compulsively readable, with more great action set-pieces. And if the ending comes a little out of nowhere its nonetheless an interesting meta swerve into these characters' status as ideas, as well as the legacy any person can hope for in the world – which to leave lasting ideas behind them when they die.
Ashes is the sequel, but it was written seven years later and its sensibilities are very different. In the introduction, Kieron Gillen highlights the influence of manga – and it's true that these wrenching (and not always coherent) shifts in perspective are more typical in something like Crying Freeman (to pick an action comic example almost at random), so it can be jarring to see them in a western comic.
The effect is underlined by the rotating cast of artists within as well as between chapters, whose different interpretations of the characters highlight these shifts in perspective, where the villain of the first book is revealed to be a victim in the second. It's still compulsively readable, with more great action set-pieces. And if the ending comes a little out of nowhere its nonetheless an interesting meta swerve into these characters' status as ideas, as well as the legacy any person can hope for in the world – which to leave lasting ideas behind them when they die.
October 14, 2023
A pretty great action series. De Campi keeps things exciting even through the expository dialogue, no doubt helped by Kordey’s stylish and stunning artwork. Kordey’s pages are effective and brutal, why still allowing moments for panels to sweep the reader into a wave of excitement. The second half, “Ashes”, could definitely use his touch in certain places (although that’s not to downplay McDaid, Guéra, Hamm, and Sienkiewicz’s contributions, which are stellar). I do feel that the overweight terrorists are too mean spirited, like a 2000AD gag that’s not even funny, but I can live with that being the main problem here. Everything else amounts to an awesome action comic, so it’s something you can ignore easily. Please do, because this is something you should read.
April 27, 2018
I really liked Smoke. It was an engaging mystery and I tore through it. Ashes was a lot harder to like. The art took away from the story. Each chapter I found myself puzzling over the characters. Were these new people or just complete reimaginings of the current cast. The story was alright. Less engaging and more puzzling but the art made it difficult to enjoy.
August 3, 2025
I like Smoke more than Ashes, but there's some cool weird stuff in Ashes that I love, that I wish there were more of. I like the art style and story in Smoke more, though the Beauty Brigade seems mean-spirited. There wasn't enough Katie and Cain in Ashes, and the inconsistent art styles threw me off. But overall I enjoyed it!
August 27, 2020
Two novels in one.
Good color artwork. Dark horse freebie. The first story, smoke, is a dystopian spy novel. Well drawn , the spy story is fairly straight forward. The second story, ash, sort of grinds to a close. After hitting rock bottom, humanity will carry on.
Good color artwork. Dark horse freebie. The first story, smoke, is a dystopian spy novel. Well drawn , the spy story is fairly straight forward. The second story, ash, sort of grinds to a close. After hitting rock bottom, humanity will carry on.
August 24, 2020
The first part is really good, the second one is a little weak. But I loved that different artists draw in their own style to to tell a part of the story.
March 7, 2017
Not great. Read because Bill Sienkiewicz was involved and it wasn't enough. "Smoke" is much better than "Ashes" but it still isn't worth your time.
September 23, 2015
This was a difficult book to rate because there's a lot of brilliant stuff here.
The book itself is fucking stunning, a beautiful layout and design for the two pieces.
Smoke as a story and art are excellent homages to the thriller genre although some of the action was a little overblown and American for a comic all about London and Britain, in narrative, metaphors and themes. But. None of these things particularly grab my interest and the characters don't grab me either.
Ashes isn't as strong. Some of the art is brilliant, some is messy. The story sort of follows this although there are some moments where the story and art meat together perfectly and are beautiful. Those loads of homages and cute references but the story chases these images rather than building a narrative of its own. Ending, like for Smoke is also relatively weak.
Deffo an interesting but unpolished one, that isn't quite enough in my interests for me to really love.
The book itself is fucking stunning, a beautiful layout and design for the two pieces.
Smoke as a story and art are excellent homages to the thriller genre although some of the action was a little overblown and American for a comic all about London and Britain, in narrative, metaphors and themes. But. None of these things particularly grab my interest and the characters don't grab me either.
Ashes isn't as strong. Some of the art is brilliant, some is messy. The story sort of follows this although there are some moments where the story and art meat together perfectly and are beautiful. Those loads of homages and cute references but the story chases these images rather than building a narrative of its own. Ending, like for Smoke is also relatively weak.
Deffo an interesting but unpolished one, that isn't quite enough in my interests for me to really love.
Read
October 6, 2013After a Kickstarter odyssey which at times seemed to straddle the line between Herculean and Sisyphean, we finally get the end of the story which began almost a decade back with Smoke, whose vision of 2012 does, from the other side, look very early-noughties (Prince William has hair! Lehman Brothers are still a significant force!). Ashes is bigger, bolder, braver, and illustrated by a remarkable array of talent - Billy the Sink's pages are especially good, some of his best work in a long time.
March 26, 2014
Two books in one gets two reviews.
Smoke is fantastic with gorgeous artwork by Kordey and a great story of secret plots and assassins from de Campi. At times it felt like I was reading a modern day Dark Knight Returns.
Ashes continues the story some years later. The plot isn't as tight, but the story takes you to good places. The art whoever is all over the place in terms of style. All the different artists are able to tell the story properly, though not to the level that Kordey's did, and the art changes are jarring, pulling you out of the story as you adapt to the new art.
Smoke is fantastic with gorgeous artwork by Kordey and a great story of secret plots and assassins from de Campi. At times it felt like I was reading a modern day Dark Knight Returns.
Ashes continues the story some years later. The plot isn't as tight, but the story takes you to good places. The art whoever is all over the place in terms of style. All the different artists are able to tell the story properly, though not to the level that Kordey's did, and the art changes are jarring, pulling you out of the story as you adapt to the new art.
October 22, 2014
I am sorry but I must agree with the majority of other reviews - Smoke solid and Ashes inconsistent and all over the place. Sometimes the different artists helped and other times it felt forced as if they couldn't afford or schedule to have a consistent artist. Ending of both series were disappointing. On a positive note Smoke is gorgeous and engaging, with believable characters and a story that was unusual yet believable. Was truly rooting for Alex and hoping that Smoke would deliver the goods but... nope.
March 27, 2014
"Smoke" is so much better than "Ashes". Unfortunately, this means that basically you're left with a pretty meh overall title because the great first half ends on a sort-of cliffhanger that's not well resolved in the mediocre second half. The art is decent in the first book, but in the second book ranges all over the place from reasonably good to pedestrian to downright terrible. Given the praise for this one I was expecting a lot better.
August 20, 2016
SMOKE > ASHES IMHO
August 25, 2016
great art but difficult to follow the plot...smoke>ashes by a mile
September 26, 2014
I'd give it 3.5 stars. Some of the art is fantastic. And I really loved the last few pages but on the whole it didnt really engage me.
July 27, 2015
Smoke is great. Ashes is very much not
January 23, 2016
I liked smoke a lot, would have given it a four, but ashes, not so much. Downgraded it to a three.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews