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Space Mountain: A Graphic Novel
"Beautifully illustrated, wonderfully crafted, the story leaps from the pages faster than you can turn them. Pull down the safety bar and sit tight: you're in for a ride." --Ridley Pearson, author of the Kingdom Keepers seriesThe year is 2125 and the Magellan Science Academy has given two lucky cadets special Thulium tickets to join a team of space explorers on a time-travel mission twenty-four hours into the future. But when their mission goes wrong, the two kids must band together with a tiny flying saucer sidekick to save themselves, their crew, and all of Space Mountain--before time runs out and the galaxy is destroyed!
176 pages, Library Binding
First published May 7, 2013
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69 people want to read
About the author
Bryan Q. Miller
314 books63 followersBryan Q. Miller is an American television and comic writer most notable for his work on the CW’s “Smallville” and DC’s “Batgirl.” (with Stephanie Brown as Batgirl)
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
December 19, 2019
I liked the art, I liked the very subtle Disney references but I wished it had more to it. The fact that it's a standalone is a shame, it had potential.
February 22, 2014
It sounds at first like a bit of a joke. You take a typical Disney indoor roller coaster with a late '70s look and name and you write a graphic novel for it. It appears to be silly, but then again look at the success of movies like The Pirates of the Caribbean. Maybe a graphic novel’s a good way to start. Sure as heck beats reading a GN about Splash Mountain, after all. Add in the fact that graphic novels are huge with kids but make up only a very small percentage of what gets published by trade publishers in a given year and you’ve a recipe for something pretty good. Disney Book Group decided the best tactic to take in this case was to hire a well-established comic book penciller and inker and pair him alongside a television writer. The results, alas, are mixed with some bright spots woven in between the hopelessly confusing narratives and odd art choices. Good enough for action adventure fans, but not one of the best of the year, there is at least a lot of potential. Think Buck Rogers meets Ray Bradbury and you’ve got the gist of the thing.
For Stella and Tommy it’s the field trip of a lifetime. Their class of space cadets is going to get to visit Space Mountain! No, not the Disney ride. As residents of the Cygnus X1 Colony they are lucky enough to be close to Space Mountain, the space station that uses the nearby black hole’s event horizon to experiment with time travel. And once on the station the two soon learn that they are the lucky winners of a contest to take a real trip through time with the fearless Captain Benjamin Cole and his hardworking crew. Granted it’ll just be 24 hours into the future, but that’s fine with the kids. Time travel is time travel, after all. And everything probably would have gone just fine had that mysterious probe not disconnected from their ship into the event horizon. Next thing they know it’s 24 hours into the future, but EVERYTHING has changed. The past, the people, everything. Seems that little probe managed to muck with history itself and now our heroes are standing trial for treason. When the adults are sent to different points in Earth history, it’s up to Stella and Tommy to not only rescue the crew, but also solve the mystery of how to get history back on track again.
Now as a writer Bryan Q. Miller is probably best known for his work on such superhero laden shows as Arrow and Smallville. In print he’s written for Teen Titans and Batgirl. Here, he has to sort of switch focus and hone in on his more sci-fi tendencies (which shouldn’t be too hard since he apparently wrote for the SyFy channel’s show Defiance). Trouble is, rather than be content with space travel and its usual perks (aliens, wormholes, etc.) Miller decided to kick it up a notch. He decided to introduce the notion of time travel. Now as a general rule, if you’re going to engage in a time travel narrative you have to keep it as simple as possible. Otherwise you’re going to run into the Back to the Future, Part 2 problem. Ray Bradbury? He knew how to keep it simple. Rebecca Stead? Ditto. And here’s where I give Bryan Miller some props. The man has chutzpah. He is not afraid to think big. Real big. If I were to put a stamp of a single word all over this book, that word would be “Ambitious”. Too ambitious. See, things start out just fine. Then they get absolutely friggin’ bizarre, and not in a good way either. Confusion reigns when it comes to the ways in which the kids rescue the crew, to say nothing of why one paradox happens and another does not. Add in the twist at the end involving Captain Cole that just throws the whole enterprise off balance and you’ve got yourself a narrative that will stump a good chunk o’ readers.
There’s also the odd use of exposition. Characters that consider space travel normal (that are actually known as “space cadets”) would probably know better than to open a water bottle in a spaceship. The fact that Tommy doesn’t understand the principal of zero gravity was a bit too much to fall for, let alone Stella’s teacher not knowing why their home was built as close to a black hole as it was. Some authors have a way of integrating information seamlessly into the text. This book has yet to master that particular art. Also, a show of hands. Who else thought Stella’s mosquito bite was going to turn into a much bigger deal than it was?
And I might throw my hands up and give the whole kerschmozzle up for lost if the writing didn’t contain so many specks of awesomeness. For one thing, many chapters begins with a pertinent, really interesting quote. Here are some samples:
“The only reason fro time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” – Albert Einstein
“The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.” – Abraham Lincoln
“The future ain’t what it used to be.” – Yogi Berra
Granted all the quotes come from white guys. That was sort of a bummer. The book does a bit better with two of our heroes being black and Latino, insofar as I could tell. Then there are the written selections. The first words of the story once things have begun are “Somewhere between a forgotten yesterday and a twisted tomorrow . . .” Show me the inventive 11-year-old reader who can resist THAT little sentence.
I was showing the book to my husband when he plucked it from my hands to see who did the penciling (as well as the inking, I might note). Just as he suspected, it was Kelley Jones. Jones has a particularly distinctive style, for those who are familiar with his art. Between Sandman, Deadman, and various forms of Batman, he’s kept busy over the years. I didn’t know who he was when I read this book, but I did have a palpable sense that this was someone important. It was the inking that gave it away. For example, there’s an early conversation between the Captain and Tommy where the adult is thinking dark thoughts about the past. Jones takes care to bring the shadows up on his face, purposefully obscuring in his features in at least three different ways in three different panels. Even reading a black and white galley of this book, I could see the time and attention taken on these images.
Trouble is, much like the writer Bryan Q. Miller, Jones had to reel himself in to write an appropriate comic for kids. And for the most part he is just fine. A-okay. Granted, the faces of Tommy and Stella prove oddly difficult for him. Adults he does just fine, but his pre-adolescents have a tendency to look just a little too much like adorable woodland chipmunks. By contrast, his villainess in one particular image exhibits all the problems with female characters in superhero comics today. Mainly, skin tight outfits with ridiculously gigantic boobs and a waist a Disney princess would envy. One particularly egregious image is found in the last panel before the start of chapter three and I couldn’t help but wonder why it was there at all. No one would blink twice if this was a Batman comic and she was Catwoman, but come on! In a GN for 10-year-olds? Reel it in, Jones, reel it in.
What I didn’t expect to enjoy quite so much was the overwhelming 1980s feel of it all. It’s not just the Space Mountain itself (though that doesn’t hurt). Both Stella and Tommy with their longish hair and thick glasses look like nothing so much as my fellow classmates in school circa 1988. It almost feels as if Jones has taken as his inspiration the look and feel of the original Star Wars films, sans aliens, and used that as his fashion inspiration. I like that. It sort of makes you think about the original opening days of the actual Space Mountain ride. Like a kind of kooky homage.
So it’s not perfect, no. Between the convoluted plotting and the boob-o-rific baddies, the whole enterprise feels like an adult graphic novel uneasily readjusting itself for a younger readership. Now none of this is to say that a certain type of kid fan won’t hanker for the sequels anyway. Miller leaves the reader wanting more and there’s definitely more to be had. It’s just hard not to think about how much better the book might have been with some judicious editing here and there. An impressive, big-scale romp through space that will leave some scratching their heads and others hankering for more. Not perfect but not the worst I’ve seen either. Salvageable.
For ages 9-12.
For Stella and Tommy it’s the field trip of a lifetime. Their class of space cadets is going to get to visit Space Mountain! No, not the Disney ride. As residents of the Cygnus X1 Colony they are lucky enough to be close to Space Mountain, the space station that uses the nearby black hole’s event horizon to experiment with time travel. And once on the station the two soon learn that they are the lucky winners of a contest to take a real trip through time with the fearless Captain Benjamin Cole and his hardworking crew. Granted it’ll just be 24 hours into the future, but that’s fine with the kids. Time travel is time travel, after all. And everything probably would have gone just fine had that mysterious probe not disconnected from their ship into the event horizon. Next thing they know it’s 24 hours into the future, but EVERYTHING has changed. The past, the people, everything. Seems that little probe managed to muck with history itself and now our heroes are standing trial for treason. When the adults are sent to different points in Earth history, it’s up to Stella and Tommy to not only rescue the crew, but also solve the mystery of how to get history back on track again.
Now as a writer Bryan Q. Miller is probably best known for his work on such superhero laden shows as Arrow and Smallville. In print he’s written for Teen Titans and Batgirl. Here, he has to sort of switch focus and hone in on his more sci-fi tendencies (which shouldn’t be too hard since he apparently wrote for the SyFy channel’s show Defiance). Trouble is, rather than be content with space travel and its usual perks (aliens, wormholes, etc.) Miller decided to kick it up a notch. He decided to introduce the notion of time travel. Now as a general rule, if you’re going to engage in a time travel narrative you have to keep it as simple as possible. Otherwise you’re going to run into the Back to the Future, Part 2 problem. Ray Bradbury? He knew how to keep it simple. Rebecca Stead? Ditto. And here’s where I give Bryan Miller some props. The man has chutzpah. He is not afraid to think big. Real big. If I were to put a stamp of a single word all over this book, that word would be “Ambitious”. Too ambitious. See, things start out just fine. Then they get absolutely friggin’ bizarre, and not in a good way either. Confusion reigns when it comes to the ways in which the kids rescue the crew, to say nothing of why one paradox happens and another does not. Add in the twist at the end involving Captain Cole that just throws the whole enterprise off balance and you’ve got yourself a narrative that will stump a good chunk o’ readers.
There’s also the odd use of exposition. Characters that consider space travel normal (that are actually known as “space cadets”) would probably know better than to open a water bottle in a spaceship. The fact that Tommy doesn’t understand the principal of zero gravity was a bit too much to fall for, let alone Stella’s teacher not knowing why their home was built as close to a black hole as it was. Some authors have a way of integrating information seamlessly into the text. This book has yet to master that particular art. Also, a show of hands. Who else thought Stella’s mosquito bite was going to turn into a much bigger deal than it was?
And I might throw my hands up and give the whole kerschmozzle up for lost if the writing didn’t contain so many specks of awesomeness. For one thing, many chapters begins with a pertinent, really interesting quote. Here are some samples:
“The only reason fro time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” – Albert Einstein
“The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.” – Abraham Lincoln
“The future ain’t what it used to be.” – Yogi Berra
Granted all the quotes come from white guys. That was sort of a bummer. The book does a bit better with two of our heroes being black and Latino, insofar as I could tell. Then there are the written selections. The first words of the story once things have begun are “Somewhere between a forgotten yesterday and a twisted tomorrow . . .” Show me the inventive 11-year-old reader who can resist THAT little sentence.
I was showing the book to my husband when he plucked it from my hands to see who did the penciling (as well as the inking, I might note). Just as he suspected, it was Kelley Jones. Jones has a particularly distinctive style, for those who are familiar with his art. Between Sandman, Deadman, and various forms of Batman, he’s kept busy over the years. I didn’t know who he was when I read this book, but I did have a palpable sense that this was someone important. It was the inking that gave it away. For example, there’s an early conversation between the Captain and Tommy where the adult is thinking dark thoughts about the past. Jones takes care to bring the shadows up on his face, purposefully obscuring in his features in at least three different ways in three different panels. Even reading a black and white galley of this book, I could see the time and attention taken on these images.
Trouble is, much like the writer Bryan Q. Miller, Jones had to reel himself in to write an appropriate comic for kids. And for the most part he is just fine. A-okay. Granted, the faces of Tommy and Stella prove oddly difficult for him. Adults he does just fine, but his pre-adolescents have a tendency to look just a little too much like adorable woodland chipmunks. By contrast, his villainess in one particular image exhibits all the problems with female characters in superhero comics today. Mainly, skin tight outfits with ridiculously gigantic boobs and a waist a Disney princess would envy. One particularly egregious image is found in the last panel before the start of chapter three and I couldn’t help but wonder why it was there at all. No one would blink twice if this was a Batman comic and she was Catwoman, but come on! In a GN for 10-year-olds? Reel it in, Jones, reel it in.
What I didn’t expect to enjoy quite so much was the overwhelming 1980s feel of it all. It’s not just the Space Mountain itself (though that doesn’t hurt). Both Stella and Tommy with their longish hair and thick glasses look like nothing so much as my fellow classmates in school circa 1988. It almost feels as if Jones has taken as his inspiration the look and feel of the original Star Wars films, sans aliens, and used that as his fashion inspiration. I like that. It sort of makes you think about the original opening days of the actual Space Mountain ride. Like a kind of kooky homage.
So it’s not perfect, no. Between the convoluted plotting and the boob-o-rific baddies, the whole enterprise feels like an adult graphic novel uneasily readjusting itself for a younger readership. Now none of this is to say that a certain type of kid fan won’t hanker for the sequels anyway. Miller leaves the reader wanting more and there’s definitely more to be had. It’s just hard not to think about how much better the book might have been with some judicious editing here and there. An impressive, big-scale romp through space that will leave some scratching their heads and others hankering for more. Not perfect but not the worst I’ve seen either. Salvageable.
For ages 9-12.
July 12, 2019
So there was supposed to be a sequel and now it’s been five years, so if that tells you how well-liked this book is.
It was just kind of boring? Average maybe?
The art is just okay. Nothing special or original. The storyline is a mix of kind of confusing, overly simplified, and not very exciting. But what made this a truly not so great book was THE DIALOGUE. Awful. It was just so simple. And every thing that happened had to be explained by one of the characters.
Overall, it just wasn’t my favorite.
It was just kind of boring? Average maybe?
The art is just okay. Nothing special or original. The storyline is a mix of kind of confusing, overly simplified, and not very exciting. But what made this a truly not so great book was THE DIALOGUE. Awful. It was just so simple. And every thing that happened had to be explained by one of the characters.
Overall, it just wasn’t my favorite.
November 13, 2019
I wasn't sure what to make of this when I started it - the art is decent when it's environmental, but the people in it look terrible throughout. It turned me off at first, but eventually the quality of the story led me to overlook the art.
The story has almost nothing to do with the ride; instead it's a YA Sci-Fi Adventure through time with the silhouette of Space Mountain thrown in a couple of times throughout the book. It's not bad; I came to enjoy the characters and there are some good twists and turns (along with some painfully obvious twists) that lead to a pretty satisfying ending. The humor is sometimes strained, and the villain's motivation isn't very thoroughly sketched out, but it feels very much like a Heinlein youth novel, but illustrated.
Ultimately, I'd rate this as one of the weaker Disney attraction-themed comics. It's still enjoyable enough, but you have to look past a lot more (especially the artwork) to get to the good parts.
The story has almost nothing to do with the ride; instead it's a YA Sci-Fi Adventure through time with the silhouette of Space Mountain thrown in a couple of times throughout the book. It's not bad; I came to enjoy the characters and there are some good twists and turns (along with some painfully obvious twists) that lead to a pretty satisfying ending. The humor is sometimes strained, and the villain's motivation isn't very thoroughly sketched out, but it feels very much like a Heinlein youth novel, but illustrated.
Ultimately, I'd rate this as one of the weaker Disney attraction-themed comics. It's still enjoyable enough, but you have to look past a lot more (especially the artwork) to get to the good parts.
December 22, 2019
I’m always interested in reading the comics Disney puts out about their attractions, and Space Mountain does not disappoint.
Taking place in the future (in a city not unlike the one of the future from the people mover/space mountain end queue (in Florida), two unlikely students are sent on a field trip in the spaceliner (homage to an old ride) to go into the future, but when traveling their, they get arrested. They need to get to space mountain in order to find the people that cane save
them in the past. Will they survive thousands of years traveling, or will they just be another forgotten hero?
Taking place in the future (in a city not unlike the one of the future from the people mover/space mountain end queue (in Florida), two unlikely students are sent on a field trip in the spaceliner (homage to an old ride) to go into the future, but when traveling their, they get arrested. They need to get to space mountain in order to find the people that cane save
them in the past. Will they survive thousands of years traveling, or will they just be another forgotten hero?
March 11, 2024
For some corporate nonsense based (very vaguely) around a ride, this is actually moderately entertaining. It's got a fun vibe that feels like something out of the 1970s, or even early 80s Kid Adventure movies. The art is fine. The concepts are mostly good. The dialog is OK. I don't especially like the two child leads. But it's fine. Better than I expected, for sure.
This should be a fun read for kids with an interest in space and Science Fiction.
This should be a fun read for kids with an interest in space and Science Fiction.
April 24, 2023
So it wasn’t good nor bad, it just was. Everything was fairly forgettable and just a very generic time-travel adventure. No matter how much they tried to shoehorn in imagery from Tomorrowland, the connection to any Disney stuff was hanging by a thread. For gods sake there was a more clear Batman reference with the “atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed”
November 30, 2019
I hope that there is a sequel. This book was mind blowing! Two words: Time Travel
August 28, 2020
An awesome futuristic book
February 11, 2015
In the year 2125, Stella and Tommy are cadets at a science academy on the Cygnus X-I colony, established near a black hole that allows for time travel. On a field trip to the nearby Space Mountain, from which the time traveling ship leaves, Stella and Tommy find themselves accepted to accompany Captain Cole on a trip 24 hours into the future—into Tomorrowland. What they don’t expect is that someone has planted a probe on the ship that launches into the black hole, and when they arrive in the future, the whole past has been changed and they are charged with treason for launching the probe. The adult members of the crew are launched into different eras of the past, but Stella and Tommy escape and are determined to rescue not only their crew members, but their entire world.
Having watched a lot of Star Trek and Babylon 5, I was mostly able to follow this overly complicated plot, though it’s definitely more adventure than hard SF—their method for traveling through time after they lost their ship, for instance, doesn’t even work in their own canon; they are having the droid Artie put them in suspended animation for millions of years, but when the droid had to hold one woman in suspended animation for one trip, he was so exhausted he had to shut down to recharge. So how will he hold three people for millions of years, from the Jurassic until 2125? Ignoring the ridiculousness of some of the tech, the story has lots of action, the drawings are elaborate and well colored (though Stella more resembles a 35 year old school teacher than a middle school student), and clearly there’s a lot of imagination here. Pretty much zero character development, except a little in the villain. Some of the dialogue is pretty awkward, too. It would probably make a good computer game?
Having watched a lot of Star Trek and Babylon 5, I was mostly able to follow this overly complicated plot, though it’s definitely more adventure than hard SF—their method for traveling through time after they lost their ship, for instance, doesn’t even work in their own canon; they are having the droid Artie put them in suspended animation for millions of years, but when the droid had to hold one woman in suspended animation for one trip, he was so exhausted he had to shut down to recharge. So how will he hold three people for millions of years, from the Jurassic until 2125? Ignoring the ridiculousness of some of the tech, the story has lots of action, the drawings are elaborate and well colored (though Stella more resembles a 35 year old school teacher than a middle school student), and clearly there’s a lot of imagination here. Pretty much zero character development, except a little in the villain. Some of the dialogue is pretty awkward, too. It would probably make a good computer game?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 30, 2015
My son and I spotted this at the library, looking freshly unread and decided to give it a try. I really didn't know what to expect, but it ended up being a fun timey wimey adventure, despite being based on the Disney World ride/region.
The artwork was solid, and my son appreciated the pages at the back showing one page from script to pencil to ink to final.
The kid characters were a little too stereotypical at the start, not endearing either (the know it all bookworm girl and the bumbling class clown non-reading boy who thinks everything about the base is cool). But my son didn't object.
The artwork was solid, and my son appreciated the pages at the back showing one page from script to pencil to ink to final.
The kid characters were a little too stereotypical at the start, not endearing either (the know it all bookworm girl and the bumbling class clown non-reading boy who thinks everything about the base is cool). But my son didn't object.
January 14, 2015
Alright, if slightly forgettable, concept about space travel and a Disneyland ride. I went into this with expectations of another "Pirates Of The Caribbean" style ride-to-entertainment type thing, it wasn't bad by any means, just not great. Art wasn't the best if a bit questionable at times, same with the plot and the choices of the characters. But I can't be too harsh, this is a graphic novel for kids and it's alright for what it is.
February 10, 2015
A comic about time travel—it was okay overall, but the tie-in to Space Mountain (the Disney ride) was pretty weak. In the book, Space Mountain is some sort of holo-museum that's just floating around in space near the colony for some reason. Why does it need to be free-floating? Why is it shaped like a mountain? These things are never really explained, and it actually plays a very small role in the book. The story itself is okay, but the book just seems like an odd marketing tie-in.
July 24, 2016
Honestly disappointed in this comic. Yes, I understand the source material (a rollercoaster) gave little with which to work. However, looking at the current Marvel Disney Kingdom's line - currently running Big Thunder Mountain Railroad - I see a way in which that limitation feeds a potentially more satisfying payoff. I admire those involved for their effort and wish them the best for their follow-up projects.
September 25, 2014
A fun and fast-paced space romp in the year 2125 that is the first of (3?) planned graphic novels by Disney Comics. I really enjoyed the story line and the graphics very much. Two kids - a "book nerd" and a "skateboarder" band together with their "flying-saucer" sidekick to save Space Mountain.
I'm looking forward to the next adventure titled: Tomorrowland.
I'm looking forward to the next adventure titled: Tomorrowland.
December 7, 2016
Fun Disney sci-fi graphic novel. I am a sucker for time travel stories, so I enjoyed that aspect of it. Great connection for Disneyphiles. Would be a fun book to use as a run up to a trip to a Disney Park.
February 17, 2014
Fun start to a new graphic novel series! More detailed review to come.
June 2, 2014
Boring and incoherent.
June 1, 2014
A most ingenious paradox
July 9, 2014
Wish there was some color and the font was larger at times. Lots of action with some character development.
July 15, 2014
This book is better than I thought it would be. I am a big fan of the ride and so I had to get the book! In the end I was presently surprised!
July 15, 2014
A fun story with lots of homages to classic Disneyland and Walt Disney World attractions. Looking forward to parts 2 and 3.
July 18, 2014
This was a great graphic novel! The only part that tripped me was that they didn't really explain Space Mountain that well and it was hard to understand the point of the book.
September 5, 2014
"You know the first thing that comes to mind when I think about Space Mountain? Time travel!" Said no one ever.
October 18, 2014
I pretty much liked the book :D the art on hand i kinda didnt like to much.
February 27, 2015
It was cute, and a fun romp. Though a rather tenuous connection with the Space Mountain ride.
July 28, 2015
Lacks the narrative tension of other classic sci-fi tales in space, but has a certain 70s charm fans of the genre would appreciate.
January 23, 2016
Loosely tied to the ride, but it was fun to see them sneak in bits from Tomorrowland. Very timey wimey.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews