Neptune

by Michael Conrad, Nathan Ooten (illustrator)

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

136 pages, Paperback

Published March 25, 2025

Reviews

[Valéria. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can we, please, get more comic books like this one?
I went into this because I am huge fan of Nathan Ooten, and I heard nothing but positive things about Michael Conrad. Been waiting and looking forward from the very first announcement, and waited for ages for physical copy. Wait was worth every minute of it.
The art is absolutely fabulous. The story takes you through some family issues and bad thoughts, the ending was grim, but very good. 5/5.

[James B · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterpiece. The art was gorgeous, kinda reminded me of a batman comic I read recently. The story was great, an emotional rollercoaster. I was gutted when it was finished.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Innovative artwork and a topical storyline makes Neptune a good, albeit grim read. Not your typical graphic novel.

[John R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting, but I have to admit that it really lost something -- to me, that was comprehension -- because of the overly stylized art. It reminded me of a Ben Templesmith/Dave Mckean/Sam Kieth/Brett Weldele sort of "freak out" style, which overall was cool. But the lack of consistency in tone, color pallette, style, from not only scene to scene, but panel to panel, really made understanding the story that much harder. Especially in how the story, in itself, is a little nonlinear and rooted in the "frazzled" mental state of the lead character.

It was also a weird choice to have, what I recall as, the only female character in the story be lettered with pink speech balloons. Everyone else, men (though the egg character also had an off-color -- blue and or pinkish/peach -- balloon style), had black balloons with white lettering or in flashbacks, the "regular" black type and white balloons with black outlines.

On top of that, I didn't find the story that satisfying. The climax became overly confusing because everyone kind of looked the same, no serious attention to scenery or location of where characters are in relation to each other, and, to me, some real nonsensical decisions.

All said, though, it was an interesting idea that just didn't land for me. Although, the egg mascot character was plenty disturbing.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, grim, timely, but somehow not great. The artwork was busy but not detailed; lots of color and shading changes that suffused emotion but sometimes hindered the impact or the meaning. I felt like I was skimming quite a bit of the time when I should have been engaged. There were two side characters that made little sense or impact and I wonder why. While I might not recommend it, I don't regret reading it, and I would read more by these authors.