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Prophet #1
Rémission
L'humanité s'est éteinte il y a des siècles, éradiquée par des formes de vie plus anciennes et plus sages. Lorsque John Prophet s'extrait de sa capsule après un long temps passé en cryostase, il a un objectif : ressusciter l'empire humain et activer la balise qui propagera à travers le cosmos le signal de réveil de ses clones, disséminés aux quatre coins de la galaxie.
138 pages, Hardcover
First published August 15, 2012
89 people are currently reading
1829 people want to read
About the author
Brandon Graham
197 books198 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)
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 364 reviews
November 8, 2012
Here is the chronology of thoughts as I read this. NOTE: this is FULL so SPOILERS. Also, I knew nothing about the original when I read this:
Whoa, AMAZING gorgeous art!
OMG, I love the worlds!
The creatures, the creatures, the CREATURES!
Oh wow, a city of jelly? Awesome! But...ew.
Damn, where are the women? Even the creatures are male-ish.
Who is this John Prophet dude?
Why's he a cannibal?
Ew.
Stop eating, please. I hate looking at you do it.
Ok, I want more narrative. What's...who...tell me, story. Tell me something I understand.
Oh, look at that. The colors.
Nice splash page! I'm loving the detail.
Ok, this is a new story now.
I don't like it. It's cold and in space.
What the hell is going on?
Ew.
John?
Is that a woman?
Man, I can't tell and I don't care. She seems like a dude.
Ok, she's dead now anyway.
Ew.
What the hell is going on??
Ok, this is the last story...
WTF just happened? I can't even FOLLOW that.
*Nnedi closes book and stares off into space*
Whoa, AMAZING gorgeous art!
OMG, I love the worlds!
The creatures, the creatures, the CREATURES!
Oh wow, a city of jelly? Awesome! But...ew.
Damn, where are the women? Even the creatures are male-ish.
Who is this John Prophet dude?
Why's he a cannibal?
Ew.
Stop eating, please. I hate looking at you do it.
Ok, I want more narrative. What's...who...tell me, story. Tell me something I understand.
Oh, look at that. The colors.
Nice splash page! I'm loving the detail.
Ok, this is a new story now.
I don't like it. It's cold and in space.
What the hell is going on?
Ew.
John?
Is that a woman?
Man, I can't tell and I don't care. She seems like a dude.
Ok, she's dead now anyway.
Ew.
What the hell is going on??
Ok, this is the last story...
WTF just happened? I can't even FOLLOW that.
*Nnedi closes book and stares off into space*
December 31, 2018
If you like reading bad 70's era Sci-fi, this is your book. I'm not really sure how this book made it past its 1st issue. The whole thing is incomprehensible. I hated it so much I wanted to buy extra copies just to burn. (Maybe that's how it made it past its 1st issue!)
September 4, 2015
Would you be interested in the drug-induced hallucinations experienced by Conan the Barbarian? If so, this trippy sci-fi adventure might be for you.
In the distant future, John Prophet awakes from cryosleep to a vastly changed Earth populated by bizarre, menacing, alien creatures. A mysterious voice in his head guides him to a city that is actually the slowly rotting copse of an organismic space ship. Here he learns about his mission: to climb the towers of Thauilu Vah and awaken the Earth Empire.
Word and image are perfectly matched to create a disorienting, dreamlike tone that is at the same time archaic and strangely advanced - an ambivalent state of suspension anchored only by the story's very contemporary and relevant underlying themes of alienation, ecological devastation, and struggle for survival.
Highly recommended to the fearless explorer in you!
In the distant future, John Prophet awakes from cryosleep to a vastly changed Earth populated by bizarre, menacing, alien creatures. A mysterious voice in his head guides him to a city that is actually the slowly rotting copse of an organismic space ship. Here he learns about his mission: to climb the towers of Thauilu Vah and awaken the Earth Empire.
Word and image are perfectly matched to create a disorienting, dreamlike tone that is at the same time archaic and strangely advanced - an ambivalent state of suspension anchored only by the story's very contemporary and relevant underlying themes of alienation, ecological devastation, and struggle for survival.
Highly recommended to the fearless explorer in you!
January 8, 2013
Prophet is the multi-layered, possibly even multi-dimensional, story of the awakening of John Prophet in a variety of guises. Each John Prophet may or may not be a unique entity, which begs the question of who, or what, exactly is John Prophet?
The strange tone of the story echos the sort of disassociated congnizance of Donnie Darko, but it is never clear whether or not John Prophet is insane, dreaming, or a real, cloned entity sent on the quest (or quests) to ascend the towers of Thauilu Vah and awaken the Earth Empire.
The many settings in which the John Prophets find themselves (or is it only one man finding himself?) are unified by organic, almost mystical artwork reminiscent of the old Heavy Metal magazine . . . minus the naked women. In fact, the five artists who contribute to various sections of the book, Simon Roy, Farel Dalrymple, Brandon Graham, Giannis Milonogiannis, and Marian Churchland, have created worlds and creatures that are more Moebius than Moebius. And though each artist has stamped his or her mark on the story(ies), all seem to be giving each other a knowing head nod and grin indicated "we did this together". This is, in a strange way, comforting. Sometimes artist try too hard to differentiate "their" hero from another artist's hero, even when it's the same character. While that might work well in different series, I like the team-play exhibited here. The Emma Rios short story at the end might be the most stylistically out-of-place, but it is a separate entity and doesn't distract from the overall unity of the graphic novel proper.
Some have complained about Prophet's elusive plot, but I think that the muddling of the narrative actually adds to the ambiance and gives readers a taste of what it must be like to be John Prophet waking from who-knows-how-long of a hyber-pod sleep into a strange world. Pre-programming or intuition or even a ghostly guide compel him to undertake his quest through landscapes and among creatures that he may or may not understand, depending on which John Prophet we follow. Each of them is equipped with an impressive array of survival equipment, some of it manufactured, some organic, some combining aspects of both. This aspect I thoroughly enjoyed - the technology, the weapons, modes of transportation - have a thoroughly biotic feel to them and many are explicitly biological in nature. Given recent advances in organic computers, I suspect that these sorts of bio-mechanical tools are the way of the future. And yet, the ultra-high-tech organic machinery seemed, somehow, ancient, which adds further folds to the mystique of the story itself.
In essence, I loved everything about Prophet. I bought this book sight unseen, based on the several reviews I had read and seeing a snippet or two of the art. I'm glad I took a chance and found this treasure. This is one of the best graphic novels I have read in recent memory, up there with Ojingogo (but for different reasons). Consider me an addict. Cannot wait for my next fix!
The strange tone of the story echos the sort of disassociated congnizance of Donnie Darko, but it is never clear whether or not John Prophet is insane, dreaming, or a real, cloned entity sent on the quest (or quests) to ascend the towers of Thauilu Vah and awaken the Earth Empire.
The many settings in which the John Prophets find themselves (or is it only one man finding himself?) are unified by organic, almost mystical artwork reminiscent of the old Heavy Metal magazine . . . minus the naked women. In fact, the five artists who contribute to various sections of the book, Simon Roy, Farel Dalrymple, Brandon Graham, Giannis Milonogiannis, and Marian Churchland, have created worlds and creatures that are more Moebius than Moebius. And though each artist has stamped his or her mark on the story(ies), all seem to be giving each other a knowing head nod and grin indicated "we did this together". This is, in a strange way, comforting. Sometimes artist try too hard to differentiate "their" hero from another artist's hero, even when it's the same character. While that might work well in different series, I like the team-play exhibited here. The Emma Rios short story at the end might be the most stylistically out-of-place, but it is a separate entity and doesn't distract from the overall unity of the graphic novel proper.
Some have complained about Prophet's elusive plot, but I think that the muddling of the narrative actually adds to the ambiance and gives readers a taste of what it must be like to be John Prophet waking from who-knows-how-long of a hyber-pod sleep into a strange world. Pre-programming or intuition or even a ghostly guide compel him to undertake his quest through landscapes and among creatures that he may or may not understand, depending on which John Prophet we follow. Each of them is equipped with an impressive array of survival equipment, some of it manufactured, some organic, some combining aspects of both. This aspect I thoroughly enjoyed - the technology, the weapons, modes of transportation - have a thoroughly biotic feel to them and many are explicitly biological in nature. Given recent advances in organic computers, I suspect that these sorts of bio-mechanical tools are the way of the future. And yet, the ultra-high-tech organic machinery seemed, somehow, ancient, which adds further folds to the mystique of the story itself.
In essence, I loved everything about Prophet. I bought this book sight unseen, based on the several reviews I had read and seeing a snippet or two of the art. I'm glad I took a chance and found this treasure. This is one of the best graphic novels I have read in recent memory, up there with Ojingogo (but for different reasons). Consider me an addict. Cannot wait for my next fix!
March 26, 2013
[That alien is happily waving to his friend's dead carcass, tied to John like a scarf.]
Somewhere along the line I lost touch with my fascination for science fiction. I'm not sure where that was exactly but I'd guess it was pretty quickly after I stepped out of junior high. I had grown up with science fiction and it had held a comfortable storehouse of wild imaginations when I was young. Some of my first comics were some weird-ish Gold Key books and reprints of the early Marvel sci-fi bits (such as "The Terror of Tim Boo Ba"). They were helpful in expanding my conception of what could be, but eventually all that sort of began to stale as the tropes became recognizable and the shocks mundane.
Near the end of junior high, I discovered marginally less fantasy-based sci-fi in a short-story anthology edited by Isaac Asimov, among others. It encouraged me to see that there was something beyond Star Wars and Tales to Astonish and Ender's Game, but in a way, it was too late. Space and the future and time travel had stopped calling out to me. I still held onto superheroes for a while but that was more born of an already-extant investment in the characters.1 By the time I discovered science fiction that could really excite me (say, Gattaca or Moon or last year's Moon Moth ), it was less that I was interested in the sci-fi and more just that I appreciated good, thoughtful stories and accomplished storytelling. I don't seek out science fiction stories, but if I hear grand things I can be persuaded to spend some time in their worlds.
Which is why I picked up Brandon Graham's reimagining of Prophet.
[Which is good because I don't honestly think he knows where he's going.]
I'm not even sure how important it is to mention that Prophet is a reboot, is a reimagination, or is in any way related to the earlier book. Nobody2 cares about Rob Liefeld's short-lived series, Prophet. I was there on the ground floor and after one (or maybe two) issues, I didn't care either. I suppose the only reason why anyone talks about the two in conjunction is to make Graham's version look real good. But I'll tell you this for free. Graham doesn't need the crutch.
For someone who doesn't look for or even particularly care for science fiction stories, Prophet excites me in ways that surprise me. When I sat down to blow through volume 1, I did so reluctantly. It was a due diligence kind of thing. So many people were talking it up I felt it would be responsible of me to take a look. A few pages in, I sighed and set my jaw to trudge through yet one more sci-fi cliche that people seem to devour for the reason that they simply are not me and have their own tastes and desires. Having read and enjoyed Graham's King City , I was disappointed. Yet, gradually, the world in which I believed that Prophet was typical and maybe a little boring—that world was shattered by the sheer imaginative force of Graham's brash creative will. This thing was not just worth my time. It was good and it was exciting. I was undone and remade. Politely.
[This is the Brandon Graham I know.]
While Prophet's art is fun and kind of wonderful and the book's narration is a terse punctuation on its interesting plot development, Graham's greatest asset is imagination. In terms of sheer creative dynamism, Prophet is revelatory to me. In a sense, it sends me back to the freshness of my childhood. When Tim Boo Ba's fate was mind-bendingly fresh. When I opened UFO Flying Saucers #8 to have my paradigm shift. Graham's Prophet unveils a world that I couldn't imagine on my own. Maybe I could have conjured one or two or three of the wild things that make up his John Prophet's universe, but this is hundreds of things. Hundreds of things that make me feel young again.
[Chubs.]
And maybe it won't act as a fountain of youth to anyone who isn't me and doesn't have the exact same kind of childhood political geography exerting such governance over his or her reactions to really great science fiction craziness. Maybe it will merely stop at making that person happy for having read something worth their time. And maybe that's good enough, right? But for me, I crave more and will be (to my own surprise) following Graham's Prophet to its end.
Note
I've noticed that I haven't actually described either the book's plot or characters. I'm not going to. I don't think anything should come between a reader and encountering Graham's world for the first time. Giving readers a heads-up would only diminish the experience—and I won't have that on my conscience.
[John is a hard, hard man.]
_____________________
Foot Notes
1) And as those characters evolved into unrecognizability and new characters continued to flood the books I followed, I simply couldn't find the connection anymore in their never-ending-yet-never-moving stories. I'm tempted to say I failed the books by my maturing interests, but in reality it was probably the books that failed me by not being able to grow along with me. I don't hold it against those superhero books—they followed a path that seemed best to them. But I can't pretend interest anymore. The nostalgia in me says I should feel a kind of sadness for that loss. Or perhaps a cousin to sadness. But more I just don't feel anything. The same way I don't feel sadness for the loss of my first, second, or third girlfriends. There was emotion involved at one point probably, but now it just doesn't really come to mind save for an occasional "Huh!" when I realize how long it's been since I cared.
2) Probably.
_____________________
[Review courtesy of Good Ok Bad.]
December 31, 2018
Just re-read this one. I like it even more than I did when I originally read it almost two years ago. I think it creates a very interesting and unique universe. Its awesome to see Brandon Graham work with Simon Roy for the first 3 issues and Farel Dalrymple for one of them. Looking at Graham's sketch pages in the back of the book, its clear that Roy and Dalrymple both brought their own unique visions to their pages.
I like the narration, its very alienating and mysteriously obscure. It took me awhile to kind of figure out what was going on in the overall picture (it does have a pretty solid narrative hook behind all the weirdness, no drugs required). The first time through, its hard not too be too busy just looking at the fun artwork and interesting character designs.
I like the narration, its very alienating and mysteriously obscure. It took me awhile to kind of figure out what was going on in the overall picture (it does have a pretty solid narrative hook behind all the weirdness, no drugs required). The first time through, its hard not too be too busy just looking at the fun artwork and interesting character designs.
July 23, 2015
Okay so this is a weird one because I picked this up knowing literally nothing about the Prophet origin story or that this was a reboot of the original series. After reading it I read a few people's reviews and realised why I was confused - this picks up from issue 21-26 and it's a reboot of a much older comic series.
Despite being confused initially I think reading the first 6 issues (well actually issue 21-26, little did I know) in a bind-up edition made me really intrigued by the story. It's the story of John Prophet who is a man who's been in Cryosleep for many, many years. He's an explorer and survivor equipped with various man-made and organic items which should help him to restore the Earth Empire. We follow his journey, both as he initially wakes, faces hardships of all alien kinds, and then is reborn (or maybe we follow a clone of his? It's kind of up to your imagination) on various other planets in various other situations.
This book is also interesting because it's been created by a whole team of people with each one bringing their own slight style differences and quirky/crazy ideas to the story. I have to say that I really enjoyed some, whilst other storylines were a little more confusing and crazy to me. The jelly baby man and the cute robot creature were probably my favourite characters, but some of the imaginative ideas within this book were very entertaining.
The artwork is very changeable from issue to issue with each one being started with a beautiful watercolour/digital coloured image of Prophet. These initial pages/covers were always beautifully coloured and the design work I found very lovely.
Some of the stories I liked more than others and some had certain styles or colour tones which really worked for my such as the pastels for the cute robot issue and the intense blues and reds for the creepy Jell City issue. I think that they were probably the most eye-catching and startling changes of pace, but the image of the giant caravan scene was also really beautifully coloured and designed.
One element I really hated was that the main character John was always eating something kind of gross, and not only this but the way he was drawn made him look constantly like a gorilla or monkey to me - not really so appealing as a human saviour. I don't know if this was intentional to show the struggles humankind have gone through or if it relates to earlier information from the previous Prophet series, but for me it was rather disconcerting each time we saw him close up.
On the whole I'd say that this one is a very different one to much that I have read before and I am still unsure how exactly I feel about it. I liked a lot of it, but I never felt that I fully understood it or connected with the character himself. I also felt that some of it was visually stunning, and some just not drawn as I would have liked and I suppose that this all comes from the fact that it's a combination of many people working together.
I did like the added material at the back such as the sketchbooks and the sprawling cityscapes and designs for the various planets and terrains Prophet encounters. I would certainly say there's a strong Mœbius influence there and that's something I enjoyed a lot.
So what do I rate a book I enjoyed reading but don't get at all? I'm going to settle on a 3.5*s as it was a read that I liked a lot overall. The artwork is probably the extra half a star factor for me, and I loved that it was all very similar, but with some slight differences... I'd say that if the idea intrigues you then it's worth giving a go to, and I feel like I would like to continue with the story to see where it is headed. I think it could become a very cool book, if I start to understand more of it, so I may go ahead and buy Volume 2 sometime soon, who knows?!
Despite being confused initially I think reading the first 6 issues (well actually issue 21-26, little did I know) in a bind-up edition made me really intrigued by the story. It's the story of John Prophet who is a man who's been in Cryosleep for many, many years. He's an explorer and survivor equipped with various man-made and organic items which should help him to restore the Earth Empire. We follow his journey, both as he initially wakes, faces hardships of all alien kinds, and then is reborn (or maybe we follow a clone of his? It's kind of up to your imagination) on various other planets in various other situations.
This book is also interesting because it's been created by a whole team of people with each one bringing their own slight style differences and quirky/crazy ideas to the story. I have to say that I really enjoyed some, whilst other storylines were a little more confusing and crazy to me. The jelly baby man and the cute robot creature were probably my favourite characters, but some of the imaginative ideas within this book were very entertaining.
The artwork is very changeable from issue to issue with each one being started with a beautiful watercolour/digital coloured image of Prophet. These initial pages/covers were always beautifully coloured and the design work I found very lovely.
Some of the stories I liked more than others and some had certain styles or colour tones which really worked for my such as the pastels for the cute robot issue and the intense blues and reds for the creepy Jell City issue. I think that they were probably the most eye-catching and startling changes of pace, but the image of the giant caravan scene was also really beautifully coloured and designed.
One element I really hated was that the main character John was always eating something kind of gross, and not only this but the way he was drawn made him look constantly like a gorilla or monkey to me - not really so appealing as a human saviour. I don't know if this was intentional to show the struggles humankind have gone through or if it relates to earlier information from the previous Prophet series, but for me it was rather disconcerting each time we saw him close up.
On the whole I'd say that this one is a very different one to much that I have read before and I am still unsure how exactly I feel about it. I liked a lot of it, but I never felt that I fully understood it or connected with the character himself. I also felt that some of it was visually stunning, and some just not drawn as I would have liked and I suppose that this all comes from the fact that it's a combination of many people working together.
I did like the added material at the back such as the sketchbooks and the sprawling cityscapes and designs for the various planets and terrains Prophet encounters. I would certainly say there's a strong Mœbius influence there and that's something I enjoyed a lot.
So what do I rate a book I enjoyed reading but don't get at all? I'm going to settle on a 3.5*s as it was a read that I liked a lot overall. The artwork is probably the extra half a star factor for me, and I loved that it was all very similar, but with some slight differences... I'd say that if the idea intrigues you then it's worth giving a go to, and I feel like I would like to continue with the story to see where it is headed. I think it could become a very cool book, if I start to understand more of it, so I may go ahead and buy Volume 2 sometime soon, who knows?!
July 24, 2014
Dammit, I was looking forward to this one! “Prophet” looks different and mysterious and it’s an Image book and it’s nominated for an Eisner - I was so prepared to love this book, and it ended up disappointing me. To say “Prophet” is an incoherent book is to presume it was trying to say something to start with and I’m not sure that it was. The authorial touch is so light it feels like you’re not so much reading a book as you are glimpsing some strange images through a rain-streaked window at a murky puddle in the street.
Based upon a 90s comic from the fascinating mind of Rob “What’s better than a sword? A sword with a GUN attached!” Liefeld, I had never read or was even aware of this series before this book. It is labelled Volume 1 though it collects issues #21-26 and no effort is made on catching the reader up with what came before it. You sink or you swim.
Some kind of tunnelling device pops out of the ground and out of it tumbles a man in a kind of space suit. He emerges onto what looks like an alien planet and begins killing random alien creatures to eat, for survival, whatever - he’s been asleep a long time for some reason and has emerged for some reason to do something for some reason. Clones are involved on numerous planets in the universe. Some kind of quest. Aliens. That’s about all I got from this book.
Maybe this kind of schlocky spacey weirdness is right up your alley if sci-fi is your bag but I haven’t been much interested in sci-fi since I was a kid who enjoyed Frank Herbert’s Dune and Asimov’s Foundation. Today I look for substantial stories, something about them that’s interesting, that speaks to me in some way rather than mumble pointlessly through an assortment of images flimsily labelled a story - it’s like William Burroughs reciting some of his avant garde gibberish to the accompaniment of an 80s synth track.
The art is the best thing about the book. Simon Ray’s work on the first three issues reminded me of Carlos Ezquerra’s style by way of Guy Davis - fine artists all. The artists then change on every issue, all of whom bring something new and interesting to the table. But pretty pictures aren’t enough when there’s no real story going on here, nor even an attempt at characterisation. I should’ve known from the title page when I spotted Liefeld’s name as creator of this series that things like story and character were going to be a big ask of this book, and I was right.
Lots of fighting, aliens, space stuff, all kinds of cool graphics and what appears to be an amazing story - all superficial once you begin reading Graham’s laborious, over-expository prose. There’s nothing to this book beyond the surface texture. Sorry Image, Brandon Graham et al., but I won’t be picking up another Prophet book anytime soon.
Based upon a 90s comic from the fascinating mind of Rob “What’s better than a sword? A sword with a GUN attached!” Liefeld, I had never read or was even aware of this series before this book. It is labelled Volume 1 though it collects issues #21-26 and no effort is made on catching the reader up with what came before it. You sink or you swim.
Some kind of tunnelling device pops out of the ground and out of it tumbles a man in a kind of space suit. He emerges onto what looks like an alien planet and begins killing random alien creatures to eat, for survival, whatever - he’s been asleep a long time for some reason and has emerged for some reason to do something for some reason. Clones are involved on numerous planets in the universe. Some kind of quest. Aliens. That’s about all I got from this book.
Maybe this kind of schlocky spacey weirdness is right up your alley if sci-fi is your bag but I haven’t been much interested in sci-fi since I was a kid who enjoyed Frank Herbert’s Dune and Asimov’s Foundation. Today I look for substantial stories, something about them that’s interesting, that speaks to me in some way rather than mumble pointlessly through an assortment of images flimsily labelled a story - it’s like William Burroughs reciting some of his avant garde gibberish to the accompaniment of an 80s synth track.
The art is the best thing about the book. Simon Ray’s work on the first three issues reminded me of Carlos Ezquerra’s style by way of Guy Davis - fine artists all. The artists then change on every issue, all of whom bring something new and interesting to the table. But pretty pictures aren’t enough when there’s no real story going on here, nor even an attempt at characterisation. I should’ve known from the title page when I spotted Liefeld’s name as creator of this series that things like story and character were going to be a big ask of this book, and I was right.
Lots of fighting, aliens, space stuff, all kinds of cool graphics and what appears to be an amazing story - all superficial once you begin reading Graham’s laborious, over-expository prose. There’s nothing to this book beyond the surface texture. Sorry Image, Brandon Graham et al., but I won’t be picking up another Prophet book anytime soon.
July 1, 2013
Because I’d heard such good things about the Prophet revitalization, I decided to check it out. I rarely read reviews before buying a book, mostly due to fear of spoilers, but because I wanted to be sure I spent my money well, I did just that this time around. The reviews were, like the word of mouth I’d experienced, favorable.
I pulled the trigger and bought a copy.
Let me be frank … the reviews did not do it justice.
At the age of thirty-six, I basically just want one thing from my books and movies—originality. Please give me something new, something I haven’t seen before. Now, I realize this is an ironic statement considering that Prophet is a reboot of sorts, but trust me, this book is blazing new trails.
In fact, Prophet: Remission is one of the most original and refreshingly weird books I’ve read in quite a long time.
It begins with John Prophet awakening in the far, far future. Humanity is seemingly lost, and the world is a devastated heap inhabited by creatures that you’ll have to see to believe. He has one mission, to try to “awaken the Earth empire.”
But, as you’ll soon realize with this book, what you presume to come next does not. In fact, Prophet delighted in its unpredictability. I love that the writers are building their own worlds by their own rules. All of the medium’s conventions for which you expect are gone—this is a book unlike any other.
The prose is sparse and direct, and the artwork is … well, it’s excellent, but it’s not pretty. It looks like the world is falling apart. The creatures are gross. The tone is unpleasant. In other words, the art fits the story perfectly and is absolutely part of the reason Prophet won me over.
This isn’t a super hero book, and that’s a good thing. John Prophet is almost out of a Cormac McCarthy novel—he’s tough, resolute, and absolutely self-reliant. This is not a science fiction story, though it does wade heavily into those waters. It’s not a fantasy space epic, but it carries that vibe, too. There is plenty of adventure, to be sure, but there seems to be an underlying philosophical message just beneath the surface. Is it a post-apocalyptic dystopian tale? In all honestly, I don’t know how to label this book, and that’s fantastic.
I want to keep reading Prophet for one simple reason: I have no idea where this story is going.
I pulled the trigger and bought a copy.
Let me be frank … the reviews did not do it justice.
At the age of thirty-six, I basically just want one thing from my books and movies—originality. Please give me something new, something I haven’t seen before. Now, I realize this is an ironic statement considering that Prophet is a reboot of sorts, but trust me, this book is blazing new trails.
In fact, Prophet: Remission is one of the most original and refreshingly weird books I’ve read in quite a long time.
It begins with John Prophet awakening in the far, far future. Humanity is seemingly lost, and the world is a devastated heap inhabited by creatures that you’ll have to see to believe. He has one mission, to try to “awaken the Earth empire.”
But, as you’ll soon realize with this book, what you presume to come next does not. In fact, Prophet delighted in its unpredictability. I love that the writers are building their own worlds by their own rules. All of the medium’s conventions for which you expect are gone—this is a book unlike any other.
The prose is sparse and direct, and the artwork is … well, it’s excellent, but it’s not pretty. It looks like the world is falling apart. The creatures are gross. The tone is unpleasant. In other words, the art fits the story perfectly and is absolutely part of the reason Prophet won me over.
This isn’t a super hero book, and that’s a good thing. John Prophet is almost out of a Cormac McCarthy novel—he’s tough, resolute, and absolutely self-reliant. This is not a science fiction story, though it does wade heavily into those waters. It’s not a fantasy space epic, but it carries that vibe, too. There is plenty of adventure, to be sure, but there seems to be an underlying philosophical message just beneath the surface. Is it a post-apocalyptic dystopian tale? In all honestly, I don’t know how to label this book, and that’s fantastic.
I want to keep reading Prophet for one simple reason: I have no idea where this story is going.
January 19, 2025
In the distant future, a man awakens on an alien planet. Instinctively, he sets out on a mission, using his inherent warrior skills to face off with strange creatures and cultures. Then it happens again. And again.
The protagonist John Prophet (who looks like conan the barbarian) was the ultimate warrior for The Empire. He was so valued by them that he was cloned. Thousands of times. Now, tens of thousands of years later, Aliens have colonized the ruined earth, hunting and farming the apes humans have devolved into. The Empire has fallen into disrepair, sleeper clones buried under ground are activated to help re-establish this vast interstellar power, carrying out individual missions and sometimes teaming up with other clones to help their Queen.
The only thing in the way of their shared mission? An ancient, warrior John Prophet, who is assembling his own Rebel Alliance to fight off the return of the Empire.
Nice pitch!
The protagonist John Prophet (who looks like conan the barbarian) was the ultimate warrior for The Empire. He was so valued by them that he was cloned. Thousands of times. Now, tens of thousands of years later, Aliens have colonized the ruined earth, hunting and farming the apes humans have devolved into. The Empire has fallen into disrepair, sleeper clones buried under ground are activated to help re-establish this vast interstellar power, carrying out individual missions and sometimes teaming up with other clones to help their Queen.
The only thing in the way of their shared mission? An ancient, warrior John Prophet, who is assembling his own Rebel Alliance to fight off the return of the Empire.
Nice pitch!
March 21, 2024
Like Fear Agent if all the agents were clones and Remender was bludgeoned with a bathtub of Morrison-Hickman psychedelic acid. Prophet is a surreal space opera set against a backdrop of inter-dimensional war, evolution and ascensions of power. There’s good versus evil, alien friends and foes and lovers, and deep space/dimensional exploration. And it’s delightfully self-indulgent and philosophically Kubrick-esque: What is reality, existence, and time?
The plot is as wandering as John Prophet in space, but it’s adventurous, macroscopic, and deeply thought-provoking every step of the way. Surreal and so mightily ambitious it tends to crumble under its own gravity—just go with it through confusion and creative chaos. Gorgeously and mind-bendingly illustrated, one of my favorite reads in about a decade.
The plot is as wandering as John Prophet in space, but it’s adventurous, macroscopic, and deeply thought-provoking every step of the way. Surreal and so mightily ambitious it tends to crumble under its own gravity—just go with it through confusion and creative chaos. Gorgeously and mind-bendingly illustrated, one of my favorite reads in about a decade.
June 10, 2015
3.5 stars rounded down for not knowing wtf was going on.
This book was weird. It's one if those books that hits the floor running. This is volume one yet in the back it says issue 21-26. So I need to look into this because pretty much nothing made sense to me.
The artwork is s bit rough, but the ideas drawn are great and it seems to work.
I was intrigued by this futuristic coloristic story and there are some unique and very cool ideas going on here so after I've done more research I'll be checking out the further volumes.
This book was weird. It's one if those books that hits the floor running. This is volume one yet in the back it says issue 21-26. So I need to look into this because pretty much nothing made sense to me.
The artwork is s bit rough, but the ideas drawn are great and it seems to work.
I was intrigued by this futuristic coloristic story and there are some unique and very cool ideas going on here so after I've done more research I'll be checking out the further volumes.
December 27, 2014
I read Prophet, volume 1 without any background information or context, save two details passed on by an enthusiastic Richmond, Virginia comic book seller:
It's science fiction.
It feels like European, not American sf.
Both of these observations proved correct.
A quick sketch: Prophet takes place in a far, far future, when humanity has reached out into space, built an interstellar empire, then fallen back. The Earth is now occupied by many alien and often violent life forms. The protagonist, (a) John Prophet, appears on the first page as he wakes up from some kind of cryogenic sleep. He's an agent or operator, tasked with restarting that human empire.
What follows is nonstop exploration and action, as John works his way across alien/Earth landscapes. Later issues shift the setting to other worlds, adding other characters.
This graphic novel offers many pleasures, the first being an instance of the "dying earth" subgenre. Best exemplified by Jack Vance's classic novel of the same name, these stories take place in a distant future, when Earth shows the ravages of time, and humans are no longer top dog. Other examples include Gene Wolfe's very great Book of the New Sun, the Nausicaa manga and anime, Wells' Time Machine, Brian Aldiss' Long Afternoon of Earth, and Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique stories (my review).
Following this lead, on every page Prophet shows us different aliens, new technologies, transformed landscapes, new developments in human evolution. It's a very fleshy, carnivorous future. John's a clever agent, but nowhere near the world-conquering engineer of classic American sf. The Earth looks ruined, slightly rebuilt, definitely posthuman. Very well done.
The European feel is certainly there. Prophet reads like a story from Metal Hurlant, or a lost Moebius tale (without the humor). There's a touch of the western, as seen from Europe.
I'm encouraged, and look forward to the next volume.
It's science fiction.
It feels like European, not American sf.
Both of these observations proved correct.
A quick sketch: Prophet takes place in a far, far future, when humanity has reached out into space, built an interstellar empire, then fallen back. The Earth is now occupied by many alien and often violent life forms. The protagonist, (a) John Prophet, appears on the first page as he wakes up from some kind of cryogenic sleep. He's an agent or operator, tasked with restarting that human empire.
What follows is nonstop exploration and action, as John works his way across alien/Earth landscapes. Later issues shift the setting to other worlds, adding other characters.
This graphic novel offers many pleasures, the first being an instance of the "dying earth" subgenre. Best exemplified by Jack Vance's classic novel of the same name, these stories take place in a distant future, when Earth shows the ravages of time, and humans are no longer top dog. Other examples include Gene Wolfe's very great Book of the New Sun, the Nausicaa manga and anime, Wells' Time Machine, Brian Aldiss' Long Afternoon of Earth, and Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique stories (my review).
Following this lead, on every page Prophet shows us different aliens, new technologies, transformed landscapes, new developments in human evolution. It's a very fleshy, carnivorous future. John's a clever agent, but nowhere near the world-conquering engineer of classic American sf. The Earth looks ruined, slightly rebuilt, definitely posthuman. Very well done.
The European feel is certainly there. Prophet reads like a story from Metal Hurlant, or a lost Moebius tale (without the humor). There's a touch of the western, as seen from Europe.
I'm encouraged, and look forward to the next volume.
October 30, 2012
As reboots go, PROPHET is somewhat out of the ordinary. Image’s update bears only a passing resemblance to the Extreme title from the ’90s on which it is based. Yet instead of beginning at the beginning with a #1, the creators decided to pick up the numbering where it left off, at #21. The effect is somewhat disorienting. Is it important that we know what came before? Honestly it’s probably best enjoyed if you don’t. The original Rob Leifeld-penned PROPHET is an artifact from a different time in American comics, replete with boisterous dialogue and heavily exaggerated physiques. The rebooted book, written by Brandon Graham, is a much more cerebral take on the character and the space barbarian subgenre in general.
Prophet Vol. 1: Remission collects issues #21-26, or the first six issues in Graham’s reboot. The first half of the book follows John Prophet as he awakens on a desolate and alien-infested Earth and attempts to reboot the human empire. Along the way he encounters the rusted out remnants of human civilization and must battle warriors from a number of extraterrestrial species. This section is illustrated by the formidable Simon Roy, whose conservatively inked pages allow his colors to dominate. Later artists, including Graham himself, stick to the clean lines and color palette established early on by Roy.
The rest of the book can be summarized as the further adventures of John Prophet and friends, and here the book loses its way slightly. Read as a monthly comic, these loosely-connected stories seem to advance the overall plot, but the real joy is in the awe-inspiring world building of Graham and new artists Farel Dalrymple and Giannis Milonogiannis. Read in a single sitting, the book could feel like a novella and 3 short stories. Despite the reading experience being enjoyable, the reader could be left looking for the thread of plot that holds them all together.
Graham is a self-professed Moebius admirer, and the artists’ influence is everywhere here, from vast orbiting cityscapes to geometric patterns to fantastical creatures. That being said, Graham and company are marvelously inventive in their own right, and reading a Prophet story can leave the reader in awe at the possibilities of science fiction in comics.
There’s little reason to buy this volume if you’ve been buying the monthlies. The book offers no introduction, no sketchbook section, and furthermore excises most of the backup stories from the individual issues. Aside from being a collection of one of the best science fiction comics of the year, the creators have offered no incentive to wait for the trade.
Originally posted on Comic Book Daily
Prophet Vol. 1: Remission collects issues #21-26, or the first six issues in Graham’s reboot. The first half of the book follows John Prophet as he awakens on a desolate and alien-infested Earth and attempts to reboot the human empire. Along the way he encounters the rusted out remnants of human civilization and must battle warriors from a number of extraterrestrial species. This section is illustrated by the formidable Simon Roy, whose conservatively inked pages allow his colors to dominate. Later artists, including Graham himself, stick to the clean lines and color palette established early on by Roy.
The rest of the book can be summarized as the further adventures of John Prophet and friends, and here the book loses its way slightly. Read as a monthly comic, these loosely-connected stories seem to advance the overall plot, but the real joy is in the awe-inspiring world building of Graham and new artists Farel Dalrymple and Giannis Milonogiannis. Read in a single sitting, the book could feel like a novella and 3 short stories. Despite the reading experience being enjoyable, the reader could be left looking for the thread of plot that holds them all together.
Graham is a self-professed Moebius admirer, and the artists’ influence is everywhere here, from vast orbiting cityscapes to geometric patterns to fantastical creatures. That being said, Graham and company are marvelously inventive in their own right, and reading a Prophet story can leave the reader in awe at the possibilities of science fiction in comics.
There’s little reason to buy this volume if you’ve been buying the monthlies. The book offers no introduction, no sketchbook section, and furthermore excises most of the backup stories from the individual issues. Aside from being a collection of one of the best science fiction comics of the year, the creators have offered no incentive to wait for the trade.
Originally posted on Comic Book Daily
September 5, 2017
COSMIC JOURNEY WEIRDNESS. Recommended for consciousnesses only loosely affiliated with the space-time continuum.
July 19, 2018
Volume 1 starting at issue #21? WTF? Ok, I'm aware now that this is actually a reboot and, guess what, it's pretty damn good. Plus, I loved the art.
In a very distant future when humanity has reached the vastness of the cosmos, John Prophet awakes from cryosleep to fulfill one mission: restart the Earth empire.
I really feel like I need to stop now and start with the original ones. I hope that makes sense at all.
In a very distant future when humanity has reached the vastness of the cosmos, John Prophet awakes from cryosleep to fulfill one mission: restart the Earth empire.
I really feel like I need to stop now and start with the original ones. I hope that makes sense at all.
January 12, 2015
The most imaginative science fiction of today, hopefully a taste of the future of the genre in this decade, the art is fantastic but not perfect, nor is the wisp-thin story without fault, but the world-building is the main attraction—it's among my favorite fictional settings.
Read
February 1, 2016This book I have no idea how to rate. Full of incredible images and ideas but borders on incoherency.
July 10, 2017
The advertised blurb had everything I usually love- A Gully Foyle like outcast and his trippy interstellar adventures in future. But the writing and art, kind of, grossed me out.
I was looking forward for an accesible introduction to Prophet, who in my mental image, was more of an elseworld Captain America gone rogue. In this volume Prophet wakes up from cryosleep and goes on hiking a seemingly post apocalyptic earth filled with awful looking creatures, and probably multiple versions of himself. He eats pretty much everything on the way, almost raw, though he seems to be well equipped to do far better. The creatures of the story, to me, were really uncomfortable to look at, especially with their multiple pairs of eyes, legs, mouths and what not. The writing wasn’t helping either, I found it painstakingly blunt. Anyway there is a particular charm to the series, which might be appealing to many, like someone said in the review that made me pick this book up - A sci-fi Conan the Barbarian on drugs. (I am tempted to include plot’s Tom Cruise ‘Oblivion’ vibe, somewhere in this review, just can’t find how.)
Artwork looked gorgeous on covers, but the inside panels were often poorly illustrated(with rare stunning exceptions), masquerading lazy inking under the post modern excuse of ‘art’. On a serious note, John Prophet made me miss another John and another Prophet- Jodorowsky’s John Difool from Incal and nanosuit powered dystopian Prophet from Crysis.
I was looking forward for an accesible introduction to Prophet, who in my mental image, was more of an elseworld Captain America gone rogue. In this volume Prophet wakes up from cryosleep and goes on hiking a seemingly post apocalyptic earth filled with awful looking creatures, and probably multiple versions of himself. He eats pretty much everything on the way, almost raw, though he seems to be well equipped to do far better. The creatures of the story, to me, were really uncomfortable to look at, especially with their multiple pairs of eyes, legs, mouths and what not. The writing wasn’t helping either, I found it painstakingly blunt. Anyway there is a particular charm to the series, which might be appealing to many, like someone said in the review that made me pick this book up - A sci-fi Conan the Barbarian on drugs. (I am tempted to include plot’s Tom Cruise ‘Oblivion’ vibe, somewhere in this review, just can’t find how.)
Artwork looked gorgeous on covers, but the inside panels were often poorly illustrated(with rare stunning exceptions), masquerading lazy inking under the post modern excuse of ‘art’. On a serious note, John Prophet made me miss another John and another Prophet- Jodorowsky’s John Difool from Incal and nanosuit powered dystopian Prophet from Crysis.
May 20, 2013
This review originally appeared on my blog Shared Universe Reviews.
When I first heard about this comic, I knew I would read it eventually. I read Brandon Graham’s previous comic, King City, and I really enjoyed it. There was a creative vibe to it that I really appreciated. My feelings towards Prophet increased during its monthly single issue publishing. It was received great reviews and, more importantly, some bloggers and reviewers online whose opinion is close to my own (or whose criticisms of comics and entertainment in general are excellent) also praised it. Prophet is published by Image comics and it’s a reboot of a Rob Liefield comic of the 90s. That doesn’t matter at all though; this comic is carving its own path and is an absolute delight.
With his previous comic, King City, Graham's writing was loose and casual. With Prophet he's a bit more structured but he retains a very relaxed, almost improvisational, tone to the story. Like some of the best science fiction, Graham and his team of artists give the reader the time to settle into this future world and familiarize ourselves with its alien inhabitants. The story is captivating but not because of storytelling momentum, although Graham does built some of that. No, I was mesmerized by all the strangeness present in the comic. I was enraptured by John's mission to the towers of Thauilu Vah as well as the strangeness of the civilizations Graham put in John’s path as he journeyed across the desert landscape of what was once planet Earth.
I really enjoyed Graham's King City. Not as much as others, I found him too be too playful of a storyteller, but it's still a very, very good comic. With Prophet, Graham has impressed me with his skill as a writer. In a similar way that Sean Murphy did with Punk Rock Jesus. Graham impressed me in a different way, though. Few words are to be found on these pages but Graham makes sure they've earned their place. Most of the world building of the future Earth in the first three issues is done by the art alone. John Prophet barely utters a word and most of the dialogue we read is alien languages translated trough a floating device that hangs around John. The majority of the story is told with the use of narrative caption boxes. Graham gives us the name of some creatures and future cultures and technology. It adds just enough structure and insight into what's developing in front of our eyes to allow the reader to follow.
I like how the artists gave John Prophet the appearance of a caveman. He is a member of an old, possibly extinct, species on a future Earth (men, or at least some form of primate still exist and are used as cattle, quite ironic when you think about it). Bugs and highly evolved bug-like creatures now rule the earth and John is nothing but an echo of what used to be. He barely speaks. He doesn't have to. His actions speak for him.
This comic is pretty dense compared to Graham's King City. It's not dense in the way a comic by Alan Moore is dense. No, Prophet has room to breathe. This comic is dense in ideas. There is so much imagination at play that the just sheer delight to take your time and read the captions that guide you through pages upon pages of fascinating, creepy and well thought out art. Unfortunately, many casual reviewers online have described this comic as being light and underwhelming. This frustrates me because too many people who read comics don’t give the art more than a passing glance. It’s a visual medium and often times, the art is more important than anything else. I want to blame superhero comics for this since they’re primarily composed of colourful characters in heroic poses with unnecessary exclamatory speech bubbles surrounding them. It could also be something more symptomatic of our society not taking the time to enjoy things any more. It’s more important to watch an entire season of a TV series in one weekend than it is to actually stop and think about what we’ve just experience. I’m losing focus here. This is supposed to be about how great a comic Prophet is, especially for the readers who took the time to connect the dots of what Graham and his artists were showing us.
The art here is as much I a surprise as anything else which is fitting since the art more than contributes to its fair share of the world building and storytelling. The story is also dense even though it doesn't appear to be. In six issues Graham and company give us four complete stories that all contribute to the larger story that is to come. I mentioned how the book has an improvisational feel but you also get an impression that the creative teams has a good idea where it's going even though some of the details might not be completely pinned down. Prophet is drawn by Simon Roy (issues #21-23 and 26), Farel Dalrymple (issue #24), Brandon Graham (issue #25), and Giannis Milogiannis (issue #26). Their styles all work well together and it’s not jarring to have a different artist from issue to issue. The first three issues tell a continuous story while the last three tell single issue stories that all interconnect in some way or another. I really liked the art. It played a crucial role in making this a great comic.
Prophet breathes fresh air into science fiction comics. Prophet is at times challenging, gross, emotionally rewarding and absolutely fascinating to read. I would love to break down these issues page by page but that's the Sri approach for a book like Prophet. Especially considering it’s still ongoing. The best way to enjoy Prophet at this point in time is to grab a copy, be it from a book store, or a public library, and take an evening to enjoy the strange vision of the future Graham and his team of artists are unveiling.
When I first heard about this comic, I knew I would read it eventually. I read Brandon Graham’s previous comic, King City, and I really enjoyed it. There was a creative vibe to it that I really appreciated. My feelings towards Prophet increased during its monthly single issue publishing. It was received great reviews and, more importantly, some bloggers and reviewers online whose opinion is close to my own (or whose criticisms of comics and entertainment in general are excellent) also praised it. Prophet is published by Image comics and it’s a reboot of a Rob Liefield comic of the 90s. That doesn’t matter at all though; this comic is carving its own path and is an absolute delight.
With his previous comic, King City, Graham's writing was loose and casual. With Prophet he's a bit more structured but he retains a very relaxed, almost improvisational, tone to the story. Like some of the best science fiction, Graham and his team of artists give the reader the time to settle into this future world and familiarize ourselves with its alien inhabitants. The story is captivating but not because of storytelling momentum, although Graham does built some of that. No, I was mesmerized by all the strangeness present in the comic. I was enraptured by John's mission to the towers of Thauilu Vah as well as the strangeness of the civilizations Graham put in John’s path as he journeyed across the desert landscape of what was once planet Earth.
I really enjoyed Graham's King City. Not as much as others, I found him too be too playful of a storyteller, but it's still a very, very good comic. With Prophet, Graham has impressed me with his skill as a writer. In a similar way that Sean Murphy did with Punk Rock Jesus. Graham impressed me in a different way, though. Few words are to be found on these pages but Graham makes sure they've earned their place. Most of the world building of the future Earth in the first three issues is done by the art alone. John Prophet barely utters a word and most of the dialogue we read is alien languages translated trough a floating device that hangs around John. The majority of the story is told with the use of narrative caption boxes. Graham gives us the name of some creatures and future cultures and technology. It adds just enough structure and insight into what's developing in front of our eyes to allow the reader to follow.
I like how the artists gave John Prophet the appearance of a caveman. He is a member of an old, possibly extinct, species on a future Earth (men, or at least some form of primate still exist and are used as cattle, quite ironic when you think about it). Bugs and highly evolved bug-like creatures now rule the earth and John is nothing but an echo of what used to be. He barely speaks. He doesn't have to. His actions speak for him.
This comic is pretty dense compared to Graham's King City. It's not dense in the way a comic by Alan Moore is dense. No, Prophet has room to breathe. This comic is dense in ideas. There is so much imagination at play that the just sheer delight to take your time and read the captions that guide you through pages upon pages of fascinating, creepy and well thought out art. Unfortunately, many casual reviewers online have described this comic as being light and underwhelming. This frustrates me because too many people who read comics don’t give the art more than a passing glance. It’s a visual medium and often times, the art is more important than anything else. I want to blame superhero comics for this since they’re primarily composed of colourful characters in heroic poses with unnecessary exclamatory speech bubbles surrounding them. It could also be something more symptomatic of our society not taking the time to enjoy things any more. It’s more important to watch an entire season of a TV series in one weekend than it is to actually stop and think about what we’ve just experience. I’m losing focus here. This is supposed to be about how great a comic Prophet is, especially for the readers who took the time to connect the dots of what Graham and his artists were showing us.
The art here is as much I a surprise as anything else which is fitting since the art more than contributes to its fair share of the world building and storytelling. The story is also dense even though it doesn't appear to be. In six issues Graham and company give us four complete stories that all contribute to the larger story that is to come. I mentioned how the book has an improvisational feel but you also get an impression that the creative teams has a good idea where it's going even though some of the details might not be completely pinned down. Prophet is drawn by Simon Roy (issues #21-23 and 26), Farel Dalrymple (issue #24), Brandon Graham (issue #25), and Giannis Milogiannis (issue #26). Their styles all work well together and it’s not jarring to have a different artist from issue to issue. The first three issues tell a continuous story while the last three tell single issue stories that all interconnect in some way or another. I really liked the art. It played a crucial role in making this a great comic.
Prophet breathes fresh air into science fiction comics. Prophet is at times challenging, gross, emotionally rewarding and absolutely fascinating to read. I would love to break down these issues page by page but that's the Sri approach for a book like Prophet. Especially considering it’s still ongoing. The best way to enjoy Prophet at this point in time is to grab a copy, be it from a book store, or a public library, and take an evening to enjoy the strange vision of the future Graham and his team of artists are unveiling.
December 7, 2023
4.0 stars—-
I didn’t always know what was going on, but it was entertaining. The art was great, but the sci-fi world-building with fantasy monsters was the coolest part. I also enjoying the breakdown or physical display of all the gear Prophet had on him before his adventures, it allows the reader to consider what gadgets he may have available to him when chaos inevitably finds him.
The one guy had a tail? Others had these mech suits and were blasted through space. Then some guys were supersized and had specialized weapons that seemed alive.
Issue 6, the last 1/6 of this combo volume leaves the reader hanging and wanting more.
Cool fauna, weird story, crazy characters, chaotic planets = entertaining? It’s definitely unique.
I didn’t always know what was going on, but it was entertaining. The art was great, but the sci-fi world-building with fantasy monsters was the coolest part. I also enjoying the breakdown or physical display of all the gear Prophet had on him before his adventures, it allows the reader to consider what gadgets he may have available to him when chaos inevitably finds him.
The one guy had a tail? Others had these mech suits and were blasted through space. Then some guys were supersized and had specialized weapons that seemed alive.
Issue 6, the last 1/6 of this combo volume leaves the reader hanging and wanting more.
Cool fauna, weird story, crazy characters, chaotic planets = entertaining? It’s definitely unique.
September 7, 2019
Brandon Graham’s Prophet continues a book by Rob Liefeld in the style of Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Moebius’s Arzach. It’s an insane combination of influences that, despite the odds, totally works.
January 10, 2014
Man, I am currently on a kick for reading books I don't understand, I guess. It makes me feel bad even adding them to my "read" list -- like, the pages moved and the words and pictures happened, for sure. But other than that? Questionable.
Prophet is apparently sort-of-like-a-continuation of Prophet, a forgotten 90's relic so obscure I had to set up the entry for it just to make that link work. But the modern revamp of the book is what's got the nerds talking, so that's where I started with nary a Wikipedia research sesh to get me warmed up.
When I borrowed Remission and a stack of other comics from a friend, he looked at the cover, nodded, and said "Yeah, so just be ready for a bunch of weird alien shit."
How right he was. Prophet, indeed, is a bunch of weird alien shit. Protagonist(s) John Prophet is/are a clone cast thousands of years into the future to do weird things with aliens. He's always on a mission he doesn't quite understand -- perhaps scientific, perhaps imperial, perhaps religious -- and the beats of each adventure are follow-able in the way that Star Trek technobabble is followable. (Like, I still don't know what a Jefferies Tube is, but I know that if you want something done with tachyon pulses, Geordi's gonna be in the 'tubes to make it happen.)
But by the same token, I never understand what John Prophet is doing -- I know that somewhere, somehow, a button needs to be pushed or a key must be turned or a door must be opened, and the journey to pushing/turning/opening will involve waking out of cryosleep in order to root through alien guts, navigate castles of alien corpses, mate with aliens who have vaginas for heads, and all other manner of Cronenberg-esque oogly-moogly. And ultimately more John Prophets will awaken as the result of these buttons/keys/doors, who in turn will do more creepy things with aliens and their bodies/vaginas/corpses.
Because of the book's mad flow, and its shocking hivemind of killer artists, heavy atmosphere is pretty much enough to keep things moving. From the hungry single-organed Tulnaka through to Brainrock the Boy-Planet, there's a lot of haunting, existential effed-up sqwak in this book, like the result of a threesome between 2001: A Space Odyssey, Prison Pit, and John Carter of Mars.
It's strange, but I think it's good. And I don't think it would have helped to look on Wikipedia before I read it.
Prophet is apparently sort-of-like-a-continuation of Prophet, a forgotten 90's relic so obscure I had to set up the entry for it just to make that link work. But the modern revamp of the book is what's got the nerds talking, so that's where I started with nary a Wikipedia research sesh to get me warmed up.
When I borrowed Remission and a stack of other comics from a friend, he looked at the cover, nodded, and said "Yeah, so just be ready for a bunch of weird alien shit."
How right he was. Prophet, indeed, is a bunch of weird alien shit. Protagonist(s) John Prophet is/are a clone cast thousands of years into the future to do weird things with aliens. He's always on a mission he doesn't quite understand -- perhaps scientific, perhaps imperial, perhaps religious -- and the beats of each adventure are follow-able in the way that Star Trek technobabble is followable. (Like, I still don't know what a Jefferies Tube is, but I know that if you want something done with tachyon pulses, Geordi's gonna be in the 'tubes to make it happen.)
But by the same token, I never understand what John Prophet is doing -- I know that somewhere, somehow, a button needs to be pushed or a key must be turned or a door must be opened, and the journey to pushing/turning/opening will involve waking out of cryosleep in order to root through alien guts, navigate castles of alien corpses, mate with aliens who have vaginas for heads, and all other manner of Cronenberg-esque oogly-moogly. And ultimately more John Prophets will awaken as the result of these buttons/keys/doors, who in turn will do more creepy things with aliens and their bodies/vaginas/corpses.
Because of the book's mad flow, and its shocking hivemind of killer artists, heavy atmosphere is pretty much enough to keep things moving. From the hungry single-organed Tulnaka through to Brainrock the Boy-Planet, there's a lot of haunting, existential effed-up sqwak in this book, like the result of a threesome between 2001: A Space Odyssey, Prison Pit, and John Carter of Mars.
It's strange, but I think it's good. And I don't think it would have helped to look on Wikipedia before I read it.
September 14, 2021
As is explained in most reviews, this is technically about an obscure superhero called Prophet, who was created by Rob Liefeld and appeared in various Image comics in the 1990s. However, there’s a consensus that the old Prophet comics are of no real relevance to this series by Brandon Graham and co., which kicked off in 2012. Indeed, I have less than zero interest in the kind of comics that Rob Liefeld made in the ‘90s (famously over-the-top, action-packed and unintelligent), and yet I really, really enjoyed this new take on the character.
For me, this is the perfect marriage of a low-brow action-adventure story with a heady, mysterious undercurrent and intelligent storytelling. On a surface level, it reminds me a lot of Mad Max, and to a lesser extent of Star Wars. It’s firmly, unashamedly in the realm of genre fiction, following super-warriors as they fight their way across inhospitable alien landscapes. However, it never feels the least bit vacuous, instead maintaining my unwavering interest through its intriguing hints at intellectual depth and a complex backstory. Vitally, unlike most action-driven fiction, it trusts in its readers’ intelligence, revealing its broader plot in a gradual, organic way, through oblique references, always maintaining a strong sense of mystery. As a result, despite being someone generally not moved by action-driven comics, I find these adventures totally engaging.
Central to this comic’s appeal is its brilliant art. This isn’t the slick, realist, digitized style that I associate with mainstream US comics from the 2010s, and it certainly isn’t the dark and gritty, over-the-top dynamism of ‘90s Image comics. Each artist here has a distinctive style, but they all share a coherent overall aesthetic: expressive, loose and fluid, generally with a high level of detail, light inks and no straight lines. Moreover, the changes in artist never jar, always coinciding with changes of setting.
Above all, I love this comic’s worldbuilding. Its universe is crammed full of great sci-fi ideas, imaginative alien species, and alluringly fantastical landscapes. Through casual passing references and fleeting encounters, the comic imparts a powerful sense of a real, lived-in and totally fascinating world. I can’t help but favourably compare the setting and worldbuilding to that of Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. While that comic’s focus on the weird and wacky leaves its setting feeling shallow and goofy, this one maintains a serious tone, and therefore the result is believable, coherent and engrossing.
In sum, this comic boasts wonderful worldbuilding, amazing artwork, exciting action, and a totally compelling plot. I'm hooked, and my expectations for the rest of the series are high.
For me, this is the perfect marriage of a low-brow action-adventure story with a heady, mysterious undercurrent and intelligent storytelling. On a surface level, it reminds me a lot of Mad Max, and to a lesser extent of Star Wars. It’s firmly, unashamedly in the realm of genre fiction, following super-warriors as they fight their way across inhospitable alien landscapes. However, it never feels the least bit vacuous, instead maintaining my unwavering interest through its intriguing hints at intellectual depth and a complex backstory. Vitally, unlike most action-driven fiction, it trusts in its readers’ intelligence, revealing its broader plot in a gradual, organic way, through oblique references, always maintaining a strong sense of mystery. As a result, despite being someone generally not moved by action-driven comics, I find these adventures totally engaging.
Central to this comic’s appeal is its brilliant art. This isn’t the slick, realist, digitized style that I associate with mainstream US comics from the 2010s, and it certainly isn’t the dark and gritty, over-the-top dynamism of ‘90s Image comics. Each artist here has a distinctive style, but they all share a coherent overall aesthetic: expressive, loose and fluid, generally with a high level of detail, light inks and no straight lines. Moreover, the changes in artist never jar, always coinciding with changes of setting.
Above all, I love this comic’s worldbuilding. Its universe is crammed full of great sci-fi ideas, imaginative alien species, and alluringly fantastical landscapes. Through casual passing references and fleeting encounters, the comic imparts a powerful sense of a real, lived-in and totally fascinating world. I can’t help but favourably compare the setting and worldbuilding to that of Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. While that comic’s focus on the weird and wacky leaves its setting feeling shallow and goofy, this one maintains a serious tone, and therefore the result is believable, coherent and engrossing.
In sum, this comic boasts wonderful worldbuilding, amazing artwork, exciting action, and a totally compelling plot. I'm hooked, and my expectations for the rest of the series are high.
October 8, 2012
This is a book of unbridled imagination... There are some truly mind-bending concepts, and each page is packed with bizarre creatures and environments that beautifully rendered by the artists. It seems like this is very much an artist-centric book, but the 3 artists mesh very well together. I am always interested in what Farel Dalrymple is doing, and thisbook has introduced me to a couple of other excellent artists in a similar vein.
I love the over-arcing idea behind the whole thing. Without giving anything away, Graham has come up with an interesting take on the far-future, hard S-F future fate of humanity.
The only down-side is that it can be confusing and hard to follow the ot at times, but it's always a fun ride, regardless.
I love the over-arcing idea behind the whole thing. Without giving anything away, Graham has come up with an interesting take on the far-future, hard S-F future fate of humanity.
The only down-side is that it can be confusing and hard to follow the ot at times, but it's always a fun ride, regardless.
August 13, 2018
A Master Class in World-building - even if that World is Earth
Great tale by Brandon Graham, who breaks all the rules when it comes to what can and can't happen in Science Fiction.
The titular hero wakes up to a very different, and very hostile earth - and then nothing follows the rules the way a standard graphic novel should.
Check it out - great tale, and great start of a new series!
Great tale by Brandon Graham, who breaks all the rules when it comes to what can and can't happen in Science Fiction.
The titular hero wakes up to a very different, and very hostile earth - and then nothing follows the rules the way a standard graphic novel should.
Check it out - great tale, and great start of a new series!
July 7, 2019
Starts off intriguing and with fantastic action scenes. I enjoyed the first 3 issues. After that, the comic descends into utter gibberish that is impossible to follow.
November 17, 2023
I am not, generally a big comics reader – like, I’m fairly sure you can count the number of comics I’ve read any real amount of on one hand, and exactly one of those was capefic/part of a shared universe – and that’s only one of several reasons why this isn’t a series I’m likely to have picke up on my own. But a good friend has relentlessly bullied me into trying it (up to and including physically shoving the entire run into my hands) and the alternative is pacifying him by reading more Malazan, so I’m giving this a try and approaching it with an open mind.
The book opens in the unimaginably distant future, on an earth where humanity and all its works seems less erased and more just forgotten, the ruins and wastes settled by a whole variety of different alien species. In this, an ancient crypod hisses open and John Prophet, vaguely superhuman soldier of the old Earth Empire, awakens with an itch in his brain urging him across the world towards the mission he was called upon to complete.
The first half of the volume is John’s adventures across the alien earth on his way to receive his mission and then complete it. Once he has, and the old Empire begins to awaken, things get weird – old Earth was really big into cloning and gene-editing, apparently, and there’s a lot of very variably recognizable other Johns buried and frozen across the Galaxy; the story takes some time to jump between a few of them and the worlds or spacecraft or artificial megastructures they find themselves on.
This is a very visual comic, significantly moreso than the others I’ve read – dialogue is sparse to nonexistent, with the detached narration providing the vast majority of the text in every issue so far. Which makes the overwhelming appeal of this visual – do you like looking at weird acid-trip aliens and sci fi vistas and lots of richly coloured violence and action with the bare minimum of text to make the narrative cohere? Then you will unironically adore this.
The later chapters are what start leaning into the actual plot of the series – John is either the original or a now-uniquely high caste clone, and was involved in the civil war that ruined the old empire on account of having or developing a conscience, I think, and with him having woken up the empire this will presumably be pretty key going forward. Despite that, I found myself enjoying the first few episodic chapters of him journeying across Earth rather more. The Jack Vance/Sword&Planet sci fi adventure is a genre I basically haven’t seen since my reading material expanded past the bookshelf my dad had in the basement as a child, so reading through them was oddly nostalgic. The tension between John wanting to get in trouble and help people and be a hero and the programming in his head pushing him to focus solely on The Mission could be a fun dynamic, too. Honestly slightly dissapointed they didn’t drag it out longer.
Anyway these things are incredibly bite-sized for something Goodreads classifies as a whole book, so it’s not like this was much of a time commitment. Which is good, because I’ve got four more to go.
The book opens in the unimaginably distant future, on an earth where humanity and all its works seems less erased and more just forgotten, the ruins and wastes settled by a whole variety of different alien species. In this, an ancient crypod hisses open and John Prophet, vaguely superhuman soldier of the old Earth Empire, awakens with an itch in his brain urging him across the world towards the mission he was called upon to complete.
The first half of the volume is John’s adventures across the alien earth on his way to receive his mission and then complete it. Once he has, and the old Empire begins to awaken, things get weird – old Earth was really big into cloning and gene-editing, apparently, and there’s a lot of very variably recognizable other Johns buried and frozen across the Galaxy; the story takes some time to jump between a few of them and the worlds or spacecraft or artificial megastructures they find themselves on.
This is a very visual comic, significantly moreso than the others I’ve read – dialogue is sparse to nonexistent, with the detached narration providing the vast majority of the text in every issue so far. Which makes the overwhelming appeal of this visual – do you like looking at weird acid-trip aliens and sci fi vistas and lots of richly coloured violence and action with the bare minimum of text to make the narrative cohere? Then you will unironically adore this.
The later chapters are what start leaning into the actual plot of the series – John is either the original or a now-uniquely high caste clone, and was involved in the civil war that ruined the old empire on account of having or developing a conscience, I think, and with him having woken up the empire this will presumably be pretty key going forward. Despite that, I found myself enjoying the first few episodic chapters of him journeying across Earth rather more. The Jack Vance/Sword&Planet sci fi adventure is a genre I basically haven’t seen since my reading material expanded past the bookshelf my dad had in the basement as a child, so reading through them was oddly nostalgic. The tension between John wanting to get in trouble and help people and be a hero and the programming in his head pushing him to focus solely on The Mission could be a fun dynamic, too. Honestly slightly dissapointed they didn’t drag it out longer.
Anyway these things are incredibly bite-sized for something Goodreads classifies as a whole book, so it’s not like this was much of a time commitment. Which is good, because I’ve got four more to go.
January 20, 2015
Hoo boy. This one gets moved right to the front of the line. I had intended on reviewing another book or comic before this one, but my god. This was incredible. I have never read something this long and had so little idea what was going on.
Don't get me wrong, I've been confused before when reading a comic, but this is is whole new level of confusion. I learned more by reading the back cover copy on the graphic novel than I did reading the 100 pages (or however many there were) of the comic itself. So I had tons of problems here.
I honestly, no foolin, don't know what was happening. There is probably no more than half a dozen panels of actual dialog in this whole thing, and most of that is stuff like, 'you ready?' and 'let's do this.'
No actual, you know, information is being communicated. The narration on those pages are mostly just descriptions of what's happening on the panel anyhow, so it's not really helpful either. It's mostly stuff like a panel that shows a long shot of a caravan moving across the desert, and the caption saying something like, 'the caravan moves across the desert."
I appreciate it, because sometimes the art appeared to be nothing more than squiggly lines and colors. Kind of pretty, but not understandable as a way of communicating story.
In all, I felt this was a pretty big mess. I'm prepared to say that this just wasn't my thing and move on. Mostly because other people seem to like it, and also because I typically don't revel in not liking things. But then again, there are times where I feel like I've spent my money and MY TIME on a thing and I want to enjoy that thing. I'm an hour closer to my own death now, and all I have to show for it is a comic I didn't enjoy. So when I think of it like that I kinda get angry.
Make good things! Make awesome shit! Don't give me this. This is like Conan the Space Barbarian.
Wait, did that sound good? If it did, then I made a mistake. I mean, that is what I'm reminded of when I think of this, but that isn't really saying anything about the quality of the product. It's like saying Rob Schneider looks like The Rock. If you look for the similarities, I think anyone can see what I'm talking about (just Google it, you'll understand). But that isn't to say that they have equal amounts of presence if you put them in a movie.
This starts off with the guy waking up after an undetermined amount of time in a hypersleep, and finding that the humans aren't around anymore, but that aliens all live here, guy kills a bunch of aliens, has sex with one (one that looks like a giant cockroach), has some sort of organ removal surgery (don't know why) and then kills a bunch more aliens until he gets to space by climbing a mountain and finding more humans that have been following him. Then he restarts a machine and then people just start popping up all over the galaxy. Seriously, I have no idea. I'm not sure you'll get that much out of the story if you read it.
Whatever, I'm done. I'm sorry I didn't like it. I did like the cover though.
Don't get me wrong, I've been confused before when reading a comic, but this is is whole new level of confusion. I learned more by reading the back cover copy on the graphic novel than I did reading the 100 pages (or however many there were) of the comic itself. So I had tons of problems here.
I honestly, no foolin, don't know what was happening. There is probably no more than half a dozen panels of actual dialog in this whole thing, and most of that is stuff like, 'you ready?' and 'let's do this.'
No actual, you know, information is being communicated. The narration on those pages are mostly just descriptions of what's happening on the panel anyhow, so it's not really helpful either. It's mostly stuff like a panel that shows a long shot of a caravan moving across the desert, and the caption saying something like, 'the caravan moves across the desert."
I appreciate it, because sometimes the art appeared to be nothing more than squiggly lines and colors. Kind of pretty, but not understandable as a way of communicating story.
In all, I felt this was a pretty big mess. I'm prepared to say that this just wasn't my thing and move on. Mostly because other people seem to like it, and also because I typically don't revel in not liking things. But then again, there are times where I feel like I've spent my money and MY TIME on a thing and I want to enjoy that thing. I'm an hour closer to my own death now, and all I have to show for it is a comic I didn't enjoy. So when I think of it like that I kinda get angry.
Make good things! Make awesome shit! Don't give me this. This is like Conan the Space Barbarian.
Wait, did that sound good? If it did, then I made a mistake. I mean, that is what I'm reminded of when I think of this, but that isn't really saying anything about the quality of the product. It's like saying Rob Schneider looks like The Rock. If you look for the similarities, I think anyone can see what I'm talking about (just Google it, you'll understand). But that isn't to say that they have equal amounts of presence if you put them in a movie.
This starts off with the guy waking up after an undetermined amount of time in a hypersleep, and finding that the humans aren't around anymore, but that aliens all live here, guy kills a bunch of aliens, has sex with one (one that looks like a giant cockroach), has some sort of organ removal surgery (don't know why) and then kills a bunch more aliens until he gets to space by climbing a mountain and finding more humans that have been following him. Then he restarts a machine and then people just start popping up all over the galaxy. Seriously, I have no idea. I'm not sure you'll get that much out of the story if you read it.
Whatever, I'm done. I'm sorry I didn't like it. I did like the cover though.
January 11, 2013
Hype. This reboot was all hype and little else. Brandon Graham took an old idea of Rob Liefeld's and... well... basically made something completely different and with absolutely none of the original characteristics of Liefeld's Prophet.
Not that I give two s@#ts about Rob Liefeld's awful Prophet series, anyway. It was an embarrassment, as far as I'm concerned, like everyhting else Rob has ever done. I would have much preferred this to just work on it's own name and merit and not try and hype itself as a 20 year anniversary reboot for Image.
So Brandon Graham wrote a completely incomprehensible series of single issues that really should have been title 'Airtight Garage' because the whole damn thing just reeks of a nearly exact replica of Jean Giraud's work as Moebius. I mean, especially the art. Although all the art in this is just damned gorgeous, that's for sure. But it is non-linear and feels more like a dream journal than something fully fleshed out. Graham made something that is altogether overly artsy and sacrificed any kind of real story or narrative in order to achieve that end. News flash, bro- you can do both. Don't expect an actual story here, but just a collection of visceral happenings and an extremely light monologue to kind of fill in the blanks but not really.
But, if for no other reason, this book should be adored for the art. Each and every artist in here is fantastic. Even though I've already said that they all seem a bit too derivative of Moebius. The way these different artists use line, their styles, is just too damn good. Coupled with the downplayed coloring, it is just too gorgeous.
Writing: C
Art: A
Not that I give two s@#ts about Rob Liefeld's awful Prophet series, anyway. It was an embarrassment, as far as I'm concerned, like everyhting else Rob has ever done. I would have much preferred this to just work on it's own name and merit and not try and hype itself as a 20 year anniversary reboot for Image.
So Brandon Graham wrote a completely incomprehensible series of single issues that really should have been title 'Airtight Garage' because the whole damn thing just reeks of a nearly exact replica of Jean Giraud's work as Moebius. I mean, especially the art. Although all the art in this is just damned gorgeous, that's for sure. But it is non-linear and feels more like a dream journal than something fully fleshed out. Graham made something that is altogether overly artsy and sacrificed any kind of real story or narrative in order to achieve that end. News flash, bro- you can do both. Don't expect an actual story here, but just a collection of visceral happenings and an extremely light monologue to kind of fill in the blanks but not really.
But, if for no other reason, this book should be adored for the art. Each and every artist in here is fantastic. Even though I've already said that they all seem a bit too derivative of Moebius. The way these different artists use line, their styles, is just too damn good. Coupled with the downplayed coloring, it is just too gorgeous.
Writing: C
Art: A
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