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Nexus Newspaper Strips Volume 1: The Coming of Gourmando
Something long dormant beneath the surface of Ylum comes alive, triggering a visit from the planet-devouring Gourmando and his mysterious ally.
With powers far beyond those of even Nexus himself, this unstoppable being banishes Nexus to an unknown realm--and the only way out is to face one's worst fears! Mike Baron and Steve Rude deliver a new Nexus adventure in this special collection.
With powers far beyond those of even Nexus himself, this unstoppable being banishes Nexus to an unknown realm--and the only way out is to face one's worst fears! Mike Baron and Steve Rude deliver a new Nexus adventure in this special collection.
144 pages, Paperback
First published April 21, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 28, 2021
If you've never read Nexus, this is both a good and bad place to start. It does have Nexus's origin story. These newspaper style one page installments though are quite dense. You're better off taking many breaks reading them instead of straight through. They also take blowing them up really large on your computer to really do them justice. Still, Nexus is where Steve Rude just kicks ass as a cartoonist. These pages are amazing. Inventive page designs and layouts, great character designs, eye-popping colors. Steve Rude is "The Dude". (Seriously, that's his nickname.)
September 10, 2021
This is quite a wiiiiild collection! I had never heard of this series, and thought "well, they're newspaper strips, that'll be an easy read" and oh god, dear reader, it is not an easy read at all! It's quite a complicated read, so much happens in each and every installment, lots of dialogue, lots of action, lots of characters. But do not misunderstand me - I am not saying that this is a bad thing, just that the effect on the whole is like having a comic freight train run over your face.. in a good way!
The writing is over the top, and frequently full of dry wit. And then there is the art. The art is simply stellar. The art goes places, colours are put through their paces (I'm a poet and I don't even know it), the design of a page is frequently something new and fascinating.
If you're in the mood for something a little batshit insane, you're in the right place!
(Thanks to Dark Horse Books for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)
The writing is over the top, and frequently full of dry wit. And then there is the art. The art is simply stellar. The art goes places, colours are put through their paces (I'm a poet and I don't even know it), the design of a page is frequently something new and fascinating.
If you're in the mood for something a little batshit insane, you're in the right place!
(Thanks to Dark Horse Books for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)
May 17, 2021
When a spaceborne colossus named Gourmando threatens nearby planets, Nexus must stop him!
Nexus is one of those characters I've always been interested in but never read about. When the kickstarter for this one came up, I took the plunge.
Despite it taking me over a week to get through this due to outside factors, I enjoyed this quite a bit. The story is a Galactus trilogy homage at some level. Various planets have a giant insect called a Goliathon incubating in their cores. When it reaches maturity, it becomes Gourmando's favorite food, destroying the planet in the process.
While I knew Nexus was a space hero that killed his enemies, I had no idea how deep the character or his origins actually were. Horatio Hellpop is the son of a planet killing dictator who is driven by dreams and gets his powers from a godlike alien called The Merk.
Anyway, the story is told in one page installments and A LOT of information is packed into each page. This book has some serious meat to it. It was pretty dense for an adventure comic. There were some digressions that didn't seem completely necessary but Nexus going up against Gourmando and his herald, Gnosis, delivered the goods.
The art is the star of the show, though. Steve Rude is amazing. His slick artwork reminds me of Alex Toth quite a bit, minimalist but extremely powerful. This is one beautiful book.
About half of this edition is bonus materials, like a painted story featuring Nexus' wife in her early days, to process pages and letter pages.
Nexus Newspaper Strips Volume 1: The Coming of Gourmando is one great looking book and a cool take on planet destroying titans. 4.5 out of 5 Goliathons.
Nexus is one of those characters I've always been interested in but never read about. When the kickstarter for this one came up, I took the plunge.
Despite it taking me over a week to get through this due to outside factors, I enjoyed this quite a bit. The story is a Galactus trilogy homage at some level. Various planets have a giant insect called a Goliathon incubating in their cores. When it reaches maturity, it becomes Gourmando's favorite food, destroying the planet in the process.
While I knew Nexus was a space hero that killed his enemies, I had no idea how deep the character or his origins actually were. Horatio Hellpop is the son of a planet killing dictator who is driven by dreams and gets his powers from a godlike alien called The Merk.
Anyway, the story is told in one page installments and A LOT of information is packed into each page. This book has some serious meat to it. It was pretty dense for an adventure comic. There were some digressions that didn't seem completely necessary but Nexus going up against Gourmando and his herald, Gnosis, delivered the goods.
The art is the star of the show, though. Steve Rude is amazing. His slick artwork reminds me of Alex Toth quite a bit, minimalist but extremely powerful. This is one beautiful book.
About half of this edition is bonus materials, like a painted story featuring Nexus' wife in her early days, to process pages and letter pages.
Nexus Newspaper Strips Volume 1: The Coming of Gourmando is one great looking book and a cool take on planet destroying titans. 4.5 out of 5 Goliathons.
February 5, 2021
I'm up for being criticized about being on a 90s comics nostalgia kick in recent Kickstarters That I've backed (and mentioning this in the interest of full disclosure), and well like Starlin's Dreadstar Returns this was a bit of a letdown.
I've often been a bit torn about my feelings regarding Hoartio Hellpop (aka Nexus). There is a bit too much angst at times for my taste, but the supporting characters (Dave, Judah, Sunda etc) almost always make up for that. Baron even said, in back of a floppy eons ago, what he envisioned the series' end would be.
What does this book get right? A good reintroduction to Horatio, Sundra, the Merk et al. The added material would give newcomers all they need to know about Dave, Sundra and Nexus if they were unfamiliar with the characters and series concept before this.
Where does this miss? Apparently these were intended to full page installments in for the comic section of a Sunday newspaper. That does give Rude a lot of space to show off his art, but the pacing gets a bit slow. Baron goes off on a couple of exposition dumps that for my tastes were just meh. The pastiche of Lee/Kirby's Galactus Trilogy, not as funny as they probably thought.
And, the ending? Come on give people a complete story without a last page pretty much saying we're going to be back with another Kickstarter (and hopefully that one will deliver on time). Maybe Tim Truman's continuation of Scout will deliver
I've often been a bit torn about my feelings regarding Hoartio Hellpop (aka Nexus). There is a bit too much angst at times for my taste, but the supporting characters (Dave, Judah, Sunda etc) almost always make up for that. Baron even said, in back of a floppy eons ago, what he envisioned the series' end would be.
What does this book get right? A good reintroduction to Horatio, Sundra, the Merk et al. The added material would give newcomers all they need to know about Dave, Sundra and Nexus if they were unfamiliar with the characters and series concept before this.
Where does this miss? Apparently these were intended to full page installments in for the comic section of a Sunday newspaper. That does give Rude a lot of space to show off his art, but the pacing gets a bit slow. Baron goes off on a couple of exposition dumps that for my tastes were just meh. The pastiche of Lee/Kirby's Galactus Trilogy, not as funny as they probably thought.
And, the ending? Come on give people a complete story without a last page pretty much saying we're going to be back with another Kickstarter (and hopefully that one will deliver on time). Maybe Tim Truman's continuation of Scout will deliver
January 6, 2022
Purchased/read the Kickstarter edition with bonus feature.
Nexus is my favorite comic character and have been reading/collecting them since they were on the comic book shelves in the 1980s. The Kickstarter version includes a remastered origin.
You'll never go wrong with Baron and Rude.
Nexus is my favorite comic character and have been reading/collecting them since they were on the comic book shelves in the 1980s. The Kickstarter version includes a remastered origin.
You'll never go wrong with Baron and Rude.
August 31, 2022
Great Literary Quotes to frame the strips. But mostly Baron and Rude bringing a little of the early 1980s magic to life and then collected for our betterment.
August 10, 2024
What it is! I was really excited about this. New Nexus stories from Mike Baron and Steve Rude! What’s not to get excited about? Unfortunately, the format is what I discovered that I should not have gotten excited about. These 90 single page strips are beautiful, but really only amount to a veneer of a narrative. And then there’s the narrative! Oh come on, guys (I’m blaming this on you Paul Pope, you got me hooked on Nexus to begin with)! This has already been done by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. Literally, you guys just ripped off The Fantastic Four: Behold… Galactus!, well at least the first appearance of the character from Fantastic Four #48-50, you remember, the famous “Galactus Trilogy.” Even down to our herald Gnosis and his board turning on his massive master just as Norrin Radd turned on Galactus. So, yeah, pretty pictures and all but the story left a lot to be desired. This was just rather disappointing. Sure, there’s some good stuff. There’s even a thrown back to the Bowl-Shaped World (that takes me back! Again, I’m looking at you Paul!) and an appearance by the Badger and lots of the supporting characters from the regular Nexus comic. But I’m gonna chalk the whole thing up to parody and homage and leave it at that.
January 19, 2024
I *think* this is the last collaboration between Mike Baron and Steve Rude on Nexus, with each of them doing their own take from now on. And I get the impression that this volume is more Steve's baby than Mike.
It's Nexus, but the newspaper strip format (basically one oversized page is a short "episode") gives it a slightly disconnected feel. The plot is also somewhat wonky; much of it is a redo of the Silver Surfer/Galactus story from classic Fantastic Four (the Gourmando in the title is a planet-eater) and instead of just paying homage to those elements, we get intensive back stories for *everyone*. That means we move away from Nexus and company on a regular basis and try to build empathy for characters I wasn't that interested in. We also have a random Badger appearance because Badger, and the Nexus origin story is told again.
Still, it's Rude artwork, and that goes a long way to make it feel Nexus. There's also the humor I expect and the requisite weirdness. If Rude puts out more volumes like this, I will probably seek them out.
It's Nexus, but the newspaper strip format (basically one oversized page is a short "episode") gives it a slightly disconnected feel. The plot is also somewhat wonky; much of it is a redo of the Silver Surfer/Galactus story from classic Fantastic Four (the Gourmando in the title is a planet-eater) and instead of just paying homage to those elements, we get intensive back stories for *everyone*. That means we move away from Nexus and company on a regular basis and try to build empathy for characters I wasn't that interested in. We also have a random Badger appearance because Badger, and the Nexus origin story is told again.
Still, it's Rude artwork, and that goes a long way to make it feel Nexus. There's also the humor I expect and the requisite weirdness. If Rude puts out more volumes like this, I will probably seek them out.
April 18, 2022
I like the density of the story; I like the polish and detail in Rude's artwork (which I felt lacked at times in they preceding Into The Past book; I liked Horatio's trip to another universe and the soulsearching entailed.
I didn't like a tedious Galactus/Silver Surfer riff that added little originality, and I didn't care for the minimal supporting cast.
Ultimately, I don't feel the big Gourmando conflict added up to anything, in terms of character or excitement, but there were some pretty pages and some interesting (but small) character bits along the way.
I didn't like a tedious Galactus/Silver Surfer riff that added little originality, and I didn't care for the minimal supporting cast.
Ultimately, I don't feel the big Gourmando conflict added up to anything, in terms of character or excitement, but there were some pretty pages and some interesting (but small) character bits along the way.
October 1, 2025
Great art, but a very dense --- too dense --- story. (Actually some of the art is much too dense as well, although still, as I said, great.) Available in three editions, I'm guessing the one to own is the Kickstarter fully-oversized hardcover.
This review is for the slightly oversize softcover.
I looked at the traditional trade and it was almost unreadable in terms of format.
Your results may vary.
This review is for the slightly oversize softcover.
I looked at the traditional trade and it was almost unreadable in terms of format.
Your results may vary.
November 14, 2021
The final nexus?
As a long time Nexus fan, I'll be honest-this didn't get four stars for the story of Gourmando (a very thin take on Galactus), which I found a bit long and a little slow, but for the beautiful remastering of Nexus origin. I'll still love the original run, but this was a lesser entry.
As a long time Nexus fan, I'll be honest-this didn't get four stars for the story of Gourmando (a very thin take on Galactus), which I found a bit long and a little slow, but for the beautiful remastering of Nexus origin. I'll still love the original run, but this was a lesser entry.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews