Gone

by Jock

NEW GRAPHIC NOVEL DEBUT from DSTRLY by JOCK - writing and drawing a creator-owned project for the FIRST TIME!

On an impoverished and distant planet, where menial workers scratch out a living resupplying starships, the best place to be is GONE...and that's exactly where 13-year-old ABI wants to be. Along with her street-tough friends, Abi stows away on a colossal luxury space-liner for a chance at a better life. Unbeknownst to her, some of her "friends'' are not who they seem. Abi suddenly finds herself branded a saboteur as she desperately struggles to evade the ship's deadly crew and to stay alive!

Beautifully written and drawn by JOCK - Eisner Award winning artist of SNOW ANGELS & ONE DARK KNIGHT - GONE is in an action-packed sci-fi adventure where a young heroine confronts betrayal, discovers her true allies, and fights against all odds discovering that nothing is farther away than...home.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Ebooks, Fiction

163 pages, ebook

Published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another DSTLRY release with good art and a half-baked story. Large-format comics are nice, but they need more than pretty pictures. Also, it gets the theory of relativity backwards, which is integral to the story...oops.

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young girl named Abi joins a team of scavengers trying to steal food from a luxury space ship as it is docked. Abi lives in a future where the gap between the haves/haves not has widened; she lives in a slum with her mother and there is never enough food (and now her mother is pregnant). She is unable to get off the ship before takeoff and is 'hunted' by security forces as she tries to survive. Abi is constantly moving and hiding (think of 'Newt' from Aliens) and is mistaken for a member of a group of saboteurs who want to take over the ship. Original and thought provoking - wonderful art!

[Alex Sarll]

Jock is one of those artists lots of people seem to love, whereas I merely like; it probably doesn't help that the one comic of his I did really get into was Wytches, whose next issue I'm by this point expecting around the same time as Big Numbers #4. But if you are one of those people, you'll probably be well into this, given it's that art at DSTLRY's oversized scale, or at least I presume it will be; on my wee tablet, and in an Edelweiss ARC formatted so it all comes up as double-page spreads at that, it doesn't have quite the same grandeur. Still, you could blow this up as big as you liked and - bar maybe the scenes of the ship flaring through the vastness of space (I suspect Lee Loughridge's assistance with the colours was most noticeable here) - I'm not sure it would save Gone from feeling like a 2000AD filler strip with decompression sickness. Because as writer, the best he could give himself to draw was unequal society, inadvertent stowaway, cultist saboteurs, deadbeat space dad, you know the drill - and for saying this is supposed to be a luxury space cruiser, it's weird how drab the interiors look compared even to a modern liner.

[Frédéric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Positive point: art and design are top notch. The book is splendid.
Negative points: Everything else. The plot is ridiculous—the cheap twist left me speechless—and very poorly constructed, bordering on incomprehensible. As for the characters, they are completely non-existent. Further proof that a good graphic artist does not necessarily make a good scriptwriter.

[Peacegal · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars--In a distant world, the residents of a shantytown struggle to find the basic necessities for life. Many have resorted to stealing food from luxury spaceships that cruise the galaxy for the wealthy classes' amusement. In this story of the have-nots and the have-everythings, a teenage girl named Abi vows to help her tiny family by going on an especially dangerous mission, in which everything quickly goes sideways.

This story had a lot of potential, and stated out on a strong note with sympathetic characters, a thought-provoking premise, and an understandable storyline. However, as others have noted, GONE tries to cram a LOT of story into a relatively short book, and suffers for it. It has the feeling of a pebble skipping across the surface rather than taking the time to really explore or explain.

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gone collects issues 1-3 of the DSTLRY series written, drawn, and colored by Jock.

Abi is a young girl who lives on an extremely poor planet that must scavenge for food to survive. Young kids will gather together to run food raids on starships that have stopped to port on the planet. After a raid goes wrong, Abi finds herself as an unwanted stowaway on a massive starship, fighting for her survival.

I read the first issue to this series this time last year and I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the first issue is the best issue. There is a lot of story here that is both crammed into too few issues as well as not expanding the characters enough. This story could have been an epic sci-fi book that lasted dozens of issues, but it all feels super glossed over by the end. The art is stunning throughout, but that just was not enough to save it. I have only read a couple of DSTLRY books so far, but they seem to pride style and design over substance which is going to hurt their long term goals. I am all for more independent comic publishers, but the most important part is to produce great, original stories with captivating art. Getting just half of that is not enough with today’s talent producing books at multiple other independent publishers. They are going to have to do more to stand out.

[Rahul Nadella · Rating 3 out of 5]

The talents of Jock flood each page with excellent artwork supporting the astounding story being constructed. The artwork is exceptional from cover to cover. Its high level storytelling at its finest. Jock's first miniseries at DSTLRY is a triumph, marrying narrative depth with visual splendor in a package that readers will find irresistible. Though I think Jock could make better use of some exposition throughout the book. He predominately relies on dialogue to advance the story, but the reader is missing a lot of background information that would make these conversations land better. Since this is Jock's first major foray into writing, I'll cut him slack. Overall, this series has scattered moments which hint at a deeper, more emotionally resonant story waiting to be told. The reveals could have shown the potential for genuine pathos, only if Jock can begin to couple it with more/stronger exploration and world-building.

[Isaac Lewsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad for a first independent outing but I struggled a lot with this. It feels like it’s trying to do too much across its three issues and is tripped up by its various threads. It excels when Abi is crawling through vents, navigating the elm and exploring the underworld of this floating city but it started to lose me when it came to the plague and the dad twist. I don’t know. It was fine.

DSTLRY make very pretty books though and they show a lot of promise as a new publisher. I just wish this had some more time to breathe and then it might not feel as clunky.

[Nicko · Rating 2 out of 5]

*2.5 stars*

I really wanted to like this more than I did. I love Jock — I actually really enjoyed ONE DARK KNIGHT. And the premise of this book sounded sweet to me. I thought, all the way up until Issue 3, that it was a fine attempt at a sci-fi, let’s-make-our-way-home type of story. Nothing reinventing the wheel, but, I thought Abi and her thoughts — the beating heart of the story, worked. It’s Issue 3 where it falls apart. Introducing the Entity as this Plague ruined it for me, I think. Having a third party sort of villain wasn’t necessary in a story that’s about a family (Abi’s). And the fact that it contributed this sort of lazy set piece where the Entity infects people like zombies and we have to see Abi and Jay fight them — was also unnecessary. Jock’s art is so awesome to look at — but I do think he needs to sharpen as a writer. Some things were confusing, undercooked, underdeveloped. Other things worked fine. But how about at the end when injected Jay was talking about how Abi’s Dad got taken over by the Captain? Wasn’t Abi’s Dad THE Captain? Lots of things like that throughout the book that makes the storytelling quality suffer.

[Wesley Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the new comic publisher DSTLRY, we have a new comic set in a dystopian world. We follow Abi, a young teenage girl looking for more than her desolate planet provides. She doesn’t want a life of hard physical labour and not much to show for it. Abi and her friends sneak onto a ship when Abi realizes she has made a huge mistake and needs to survive in a place she is unfamiliar with.

I hadn’t read much about this book before jumping in, so I was a little disoriented at first, but as I continued reading, I became more and more intrigued by Abi’s situation. The world-building reminded me a little of Dune or Mad Max, and the artwork fits perfectly with the storytelling. There was just enough violence without it being over the top. I am excited to learn more about the different people in this universe and their motivations.

Overall, it is a promising start for this new publisher! I am excited to continue reading their works, and I even reached out to my local comic bookshop to see if they have copies of The Devil’s Cut!

[Elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Edelweiss+ for the digital copy of the book.

Gone is a graphic novel written in three parts. The story is fast-paced, which is the strongest point, but, unfortunately, also the weakest point of this story. It has a pretty strong beginning that hooks you very quickly and the main character is likeable, which adds to the delight of reading Gone.
When Abi ends up "stranded" on a space ship far away from her home, we realise that she bit more than she could chew. From that point on, she has to learn to survive hidden on a huge Titanic-like space cruise while other stowaways are trying to sabotage the ship.

As I mentioned, the quick pace is also the weakest point of Gone. The main problem with this story is how it ends. There comes a point towards the end when you get the feeling that the story will include further volumes showing Abi's adventures alone in space trying to get home, but none of this happens, as the story concludes shortly afterwards.

All in all, it was a very good stand-alone graphic novel without an open ending that has great potential to become a series if the author decides to fill in the blanks of the time jumps.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jock's art is dynamic and engaging (though some key characters look alike). The issue here is with the storytelling, which is stilted and assumes wider knowledge that the reader doesn't have. Basically, we have an underclass kid who gets caught about a first-class starship. Also onboard? A group of mysterious saboteurs.

The kid sort of falls in with the saboteurs as they battle against the main deck crew. It's not clear why this conflict is going on or why it matters. Adding to the uncertainty: loads of time passes in this book. Like, one page to the next will jump several years. How are these people living in the ship's underbelly for upwards of ten years?

The fast pacing and limited world-building make Gone a pretty confusing read. It looks cool, but it's not very good.

[Youssef · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8

[Valéria. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is just bad. In almost every way.. 1,5/5

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

I stopped reading this three times and had a hard time forcing myself to start it again and finish it. It can be very inscrutable, especially in the beginning. The story never engaged me and I felt like this had too many ideas going on - a mash up of so many obvious science fiction themes with little coherence or depth. That said, there is some amazing paneling work throughout.

Story: Pre-teen ABI lives a hardscrabble life with her mother trying to eke out enough of a living to survive. Now, with her mother pregnant with a second child and their father having abandoned them for space, ABI is desperate and willing to do a risky mission: team up with her young friends and two strangers tp raid a luxury starliner and steal some supplies. It should be an easy job; unfortunately, the two strangers turn out to have an extra agenda that will trap ABI into a desperate future.

The artwork is fine - it's about what we usually get from sci fi graphic novels. Gritty, harsh, heavily shadowed, Earth toned, busy. It's all detailed lines that can often make it difficult to determine what characters are doing or even their gender (I didn't even know ABI was female until later in the book). This worked fine in the poor colony and in the guts/ ducts of the ship. It did not work at all once we were in the living areas, where one could never really get a feel for luxury at all. But the inscrutability of the line work is offset by brilliant and engaging paneling, often double page, that was incredibly creative.

The story itself was meh - throw a lot of sci fi plots into a blender then chuck that mélange onto a page and see what sticks. There are a lot of subplots and by the end it just gets weirder and weirder when it should have instead become more ABI character growth focused. The surprises were just so left field and convenient/unbelievable that the story become more annoying than engaging. The images were no longer working with the story to create art and instead felt like two separate ideas, each fighting each other.

There wasn't enough here for me to really feel like I want to continue to see where the story goes. Even less so after the 'plot twists' near the end. The art didn't wow and the story failed to engage. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Rick Ray · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gone is a three-issue series from the cartoonist Jock, building off the eight-page story titled "The Stowaway" from The Devil's Cut.

A sci-fi story about a teenaged girl named Abi who stows away on a luxury space craft to escape the impoverished conditions she was raised in. As a stowaway, Abi has to hide in the nooks and vents of the spaceship, stealing food as needed, and befriending only but a few people. Attainted as a saboteur, Abi is relentlessly hunted by the ship's security forces. Abi soon learns there are factions aboard the ship, though not everyone who poses as her friend is trustworthy.

As with a lot of sci-fi, there is meta-commentary on societal observations at play. It's not hidden within the subtext - the story makes clear that there are the privileged, and there are those who are not. Abi's journey in space isn't anything that feels unique to the medium though, and much of Gone reads like pretty vanilla genre fare. It's a bland story, and the artwork itself doesn't boast any real imaginative settings or character designs. Jock's art is good, don't get me wrong, but it also doesn't elevate the mundane story.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jock's second foray into writing as well as drawing his own comics goes OK. It's about a really poor girl on a planet that is attempting to steal food from a space liner. She gets trapped there and due to a FTL drive, years will have passed for her while only months pass back at home. She's hiding away on the ship but so are a bunch of rebels. The captain is also her dad who left or someone who knocked up her mom. It's very unclear and that's part of the problem here and what I've seen as DSTLRY's biggest problem. These books need editors, really badly. Or at least a focus group that catch these big story problems because there's several things that make no sense. Jock just hand waves over things and now the main character has a big scar on her face or missing an eye but you never know how or why. That's the main thing with everything introduced in this book, you never really know how or why things are happening.

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been cautiously curious about DSTLRY's output, seeing as I've enjoyed some of these creators' Big Three works. I haven't quite been wowed yet.

Jock's Gone is a space thriller, that follows a young scavenger that gets stranded on a cruise ship during a scavenging mission gone sour. Visually, there's some great stuff in there. The space shits are gorgeous, as are most of the wide shots of the interior of the ship. Jock makes the place feel truly huge. Both lived in and desolate. It almost feels like a city rather than a spaceship. The close ups and action shots leave more to be desired. I still struggle with the way he draws people.. As far as the story goes, it's fairly predictable, riddled with clichés and absolutely overwritten. a good artist does not necessarily make a good writer...

[Theediscerning · Rating 2 out of 5]

Underwhelming sci-fi drama, where a girl and her friends decide to sneak on an interplanetary cruiser at the last second, and then leave it with the stashes of food etc in the supply shuttles, what with times being so hard. But also getting on board are some political sabs, who ruin that – and then conspire to engage in a kind of three-way war in space with the crew and the girl. You can't really blame it for the 'life while hypersleep happens' aspect it kinda borrows from "Passengers" but there's no real good to come from some unexplained pink gas gunk goo, nor for it devolving into daddy issues. The art thinks it's got the wide scope of space and hyperdrive travel to a T – it hasn't got characters clear enough, though. Two and a bit stars.

[Issac Bright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gone, which may be DSTLRY's euphemism/motto for the $ you allot for comic books every month, is a solid well rounded first punch from this new creative driven imprint. I didn't know the lead was a girl until halfway through. I then received a text from DSTLRY telling me to go eff myself for misgendering her which I took in stride. Jock's art, as many have pointed out, is spectacular and befits a prestige format, but the story is mnyeh; which is Jewish for mnyeh. It's compelling and pretty enough to want to come back for more but so are psychotic actresses who demand fancy dinners and trips to Tulum. Full take at:
https://standupcomicreader.blogspot.c...

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art looks great, though some characters tend to blur together (seriously, you need to distinguish between the captain and Jay a bit more). But the story is seriously underdone. This poor girl gets stuck on a spaceship while scavenging and then has to make peace with a group of "sabs" (I'm guessing that's short for "saboteur," but this is never clearly explained) who are trying to take over. Because of the faster than light propulsion, only a few months have passed at home, while the girl ages several years. She gets a scar and apparently loses an eye, though these things are never shown or explained, either. Just too much stuff is left vague and unclear for this to really be successful.

[Gage Melton · Rating 1 out of 5]

Found this to be really boring and contrived. There were some interesting concepts presented here by basically none of them played a role in the story. Many pages had confusing panels that were hard to understand what was happening. Across the chapters the story jumps ahead in time so we don't really see the character develop, you just turn the page and then she's older and thus different. I didn't really understand the pink fog stuff either, didn't seem to serve any role in the plot. For a sci-fi book the sci-fi elements here were paper thin.

[Lynn DiFerdinando · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought from the cover that at least the art would be good. Alas. Gradient backgrounds and beige and grey everywhere. Characters with barely differentiable faces.

Also, the plot doesn’t make sense, her dad is her dad but isn’t her dad??, the captain jettisons the ship but immediately turns around and tries to take it over again a day later, and also last but not least. That’s not even how popsci general relativity works?? The time differential makes more time pass on earth, not on the FTL spaceship, lol

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am so happy this book is gone from my life... no pun intended. The story was very disjointed and needed more development. The storylines weren't fleshed out well, and the characters lacked depth. If it hadn't been for the art, I probably would have DNF'd (Did Not Finish). Each page flowed into the next artistically, playing with your eyes. The coloring was vibrant, and the panels were dynamic. I’m not sure if I’ll ever pick up another book by Jock unless my book club mistakenly votes on another one of his works. I gave this a 6.5 at book club, and on Goodreads, it’s a 3.5 stars.

[Terry Mulcahy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good premise for a story. Really great ideas - perhaps too many. It would have made a good, long, multiplot novel. 170 pages of story ain't bad, but there's a typical plethora of art - full pages, half pages, and some four-panel pages - often with a few words, one word, or no words. The art is well done, but the story is key for me. Finish the book, and the art is gone. But you'll remember the story, which is more implied than shown. Perhaps that is enough as an introduction for the series.

[Jason Holtzman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it. The book is very well drawn and I love the expansiveness of the world, both in regard to space and the ship. The double page spreads look great digitally and help create a visually stimulating environment.

With that in mind, the story is ok. I wouldn't say "half-baked," it is just the standard hero's journey. Perhaps a bit of a slower pace and more knowledge of the story's world could have helped it land better, but at the end of the day it was still an enjoyable read.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jock’s art is great in places but is sometimes confusing.

In terms of writing his transitions between scenes and indeed between issues also need some work, but his dialogue is nicely minimal and restrained.

An engaging enough read with a solid first issue that sets the story up well, but it doesn’t live up to its initial promise and very much loses its way in the final third.

[pampampampampam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely art with fantastic use of color. The plot doesn't make loads of sense, and somehow they've got time dilation going the wrong way round. However, when assessing my motives for reading this, it was really for the art, not the story. Abi reminded me of Jyn Erso.

My one question is why did Abi's eye suddenly become opaque? Was it due to exposure to the virus??

[Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not Jock's best work with art but probably their best written story.
It didn't interest me once we got to the plot and the character's didn't have enough characterisation to keep me interested. I think the colours were dull/lacklustre.
Read the two released issues and I won't buy the trade now.

[Rakan · Rating 2 out of 5]

خسارة حماسي.
قصة اخرى مبعثرة هنا وهناك، يشفع لها الرسم الجميل في تقريبًا كل مشهد.
اول قصص رسام/كاتب باتمان الشهيرين. عمل كامل من صنعه بتعاون كبير من صناع الكتابة القصصية والرسم اللي المفترض "تعبيري"
اخيرًا احس الرسم بذل فيه مجهود لو ربع منه فقط بذل في محاور القصة كان طلعت افضل من ما كان