Remote Space

by Cliff Rathburn

In 2450, Earth's fate hangs in the balance. Two human paths one embraced cybernetic enhancements for space travel, the other employed genetic manipulation to adapt to Earth's harsh climate. For our species' survival, these divergent civilizations must converge.

Genres: Comics

130 pages, Paperback

Published March 4, 2025

Reviews

[Kevin MacDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Remote Space is an impressive series almost solely created by Cliff Rathburn, an artist who undertook the writing, pencils, inking, coloring, design, and lettering of this 4 issue miniseries. The sci-fi art is consistently engaging and the story has interesting concepts of transhumanism and worlds outside of our own. By the final double-sized issue, I felt that the story had run its course, with somewhat of an anticlimax and generic villain dynamics. All in all, however, remote space is an admirable science fiction comic. Although focused on future alien species, there is still hope for humanity amidst the chaos.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 3.0 of 5

400+ years in the future humans have split in two primary factions – those who have adapted for space travel using cybernetic augments to the body, and those who used genetic manipulation to have the body adapt to the devasting climate change.

There’s a virus that’s decimating the earth-bound humans and despite the advancements in technology, they can’t find the missing element to create a cure. Extinction may be the result. They need more humans and human DNA that is not infected and they need the space-bound humans to return to earth but the two factions are not friendly to each other.

I’ve read some pretty exciting sci-fi graphic novels recently and I was looking forward to this – the concept is fantastic and the cover promises some stunning comic art. And both of these things hold true through the book.

I like when the stakes are high, creating a conflict that really means something. The possible eradication of an entire species means something. Story-wise, very strong.

The art is definitely impressive. How fantastic it is to find a creator who thinks creatively! Some of these humans are not even recognizable as being human. There’s an absolute wildness, a real sense of future, in the art.

And yet, despite having the two things I was looking for, I didn’t enjoy the book.

The story rambled a bit too much for me (I think this is sometimes because this is a result of combining four issues of a comic series, rather than a being created specifically in a graphic novel format. this means we need to catch the reader up with each ‘issue’.

And the art … creative yes, but I honestly had trouble remembering who all the characters were. Some of them just looked too similar. The story moved slowly and when I had to flip backward to figure out who the characters was, I couldn’t get into the action of the book.

And here’s the weirdest thing … who notices ‘colors’ when looking at a graphic novel? Hardly anybody, except for those colorits who are out there fighting for attention. But you wouldn’t want to be noticed here. This story is hard and harsh. Two factions may choose to fight rather than work together. There’s space travel and a worsening climate.

So why would you want to use pastel colors in your book? Soft blues and reds fill this book which really clashes with the harshness of the story. It doesn’t really complement the work at all.

Looking for a good book? The graphic novel, Remote Space, by Cliff Rathburn, has a wonderful concept and good art, but the total package is lacking.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

[Shivesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in the original floppies. I don't know where this went wrong, but the first two issues started out very promisingly, with a great premise and world-building. Unfortunately by the end, the action got drowned out in a basic confusion over the protagonist and antagonist; all the robotic and cybernetic characters in this book look the same, and were very difficult to tell apart. However the designs were excellent, highly artistic, and showed incredible imagination. I really enjoyed the art the most these four issues, and spend most of my time admiring that rather than the confusing story.

Kudos to the creator Cliff Rathburn who clearly poured a lot of himself into this passion project. It's hard to create, design, write draw and ink everything in a modern comic. Scripting a complicated sci-fi tale is hard enough, and he did it himself.

The story really did not come together, but apparently has been set up for future volumes. Much credit to Image Comics in general for supporting artist-driven series like this. I'm not sure most of us would be still reading this art form as adults if it wasn't for creator-owned efforts.

[Theediscerning · Rating 1 out of 5]

A clash between augmented future humanity and, er, pretty much everything else, in this book that proves you can draw, write, ink, colour, letter and do the covers, but if you can't edit it's not nearly as enjoyable for the reader. This is a sheer mess, where one and a half stars sounds like getting people's hopes up too much.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of a mess, to be honest. Very ambitious attempt at telling a post-human science fiction story (not unlike the Prophet revival) that just becomes a bit incomprehensible by the time it ends. The art is good throughout.