Tales from Hyperverse

by William Cardini

Tales from the Hyperverse collects a series of short comics that Will Cardini has been sporadically drawing from 2009 to now. The comics are set in the same psychedelic space fantasy cosmos, the Hyperverse, where wizards and witches battle over strange artifacts left by ancient aliens. It includes comics published online at Study Group and Arthur Mag, in newsprint anthologies such as Smoke Signal and Secret Prison, and 14 new pages. All the comics that were originally black and white will now be in color and Cardini has enlisted his frequent collaborator Josh Burggraf to add his own painterly colors to 5 pages.

William Cardini lives in Kansas City with his wife and daughter. His first graphic novel, Vortex, was published by Sparkplug Books in 2014. Most of his second graphic novel, Skew, was serialized on the Study Group Comics website from 2014 to 2016.

Genres: Comics

40 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Will Cardini is a psychedelic SF cartoonist. He lives in Kansas City, Missouri with his wife and daughter. His comics include Vortex, his first graphic novel; Skew, which is available on the Study Group Comics website; and Tales from the Hyperverse, a collection of his short comics drawn from 2009 to 2017.

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recall a new supermarket being built in Jenison, Michigan in the seventies that they decided to call a hypermarket. I thought it was bizarre, this clueless tapping into the cultural zeitgeist. Let’s get hyper and go shopping, yeah! It’s a good thing! Who needs meds! I guess there is a technical distinction between super and hyper-markets, but I don’t care. It’s a stupid thing to call a store hyper.

But it might be amusing to call a comic hyper. So welcome to Tales From the Hyperverse, a kind of alt-fantasy comic where William Cardini gets to draw lots of cool creatures, though the most remarkable dimension of the work is the bold and stark coloring. That basically earns a star alone. So it’s cool to look at, but I have to say I couldn’t really concentrate on whether there was any substantial world-building or even a plot. Okay, it’s a collection of different shorts he drew over time, so it’s not a novel. Titles like “Assault on Yurg,” “Soul Syrup,” “A Bat Attacks a Worm.” You get the picture.

He says the hyperverse is “where space sorcerers hurl face-melting spells in battle, ancient wizards and witches scour the universe for fuel. And less powerful beings just try to avoid being ground into powder,” so let the reader beware. I thought it was 1) interesting to look at; 2) James Kochalka-sh, and 3) mildly funny. One of the 2016 Retrofit productions.

[Mike Kleine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was drawn to this work only because of the colours. I liked how the cover looked. That's it. Now, I know nothing about Mr. Cardini and I'll add that I made the mistake of purchasing Vortex before even reading Tales from Hyperverse. But what is it that I actually don't like? Pretty much all of it--every single story (or tale) is a single page long. The art style is so bananas it's nearly impossible for me to know what is happening. The stories themselves, to me, are not that interesting. There isn't anything interesting happening anywhere in here. It's zanny characters exploring grade one (or maybe two)-level science fiction ideas and then abandoning the ideas as quickly as they start them. There is no substance. And yes, you might argue that if there is no substance, could this then be considered light reading? Alas, no. It's just a poor experience, all around. I don't even know that I know of anyone who'd be willing to take this, for free. I haven't been this disappointed in a text in a long while. I guess it's bound to happen, eventually, every now and then, right?

[Grant M Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was already a big fan of what Cardini does just with black ink, but the rich overlapping patterns of color add new dimension to the world of the Hyperverse. And this collection of short stories really opens a window to this alternate alien universe unlike anything else I’ve seen. A must-have for any indie comic enthusiasts shelf.