Euthanauts: Ground Control

Euthanauts #1-5

by Tini Howard

Death is like a seemingly unknowable, terrifying blackness, that yields incredible discoveries and truths—if only you’ve got the right kind of rocket ship. What if suicide isn’t a desire to die, but a desire to be somewhere else? What if there is a place we can go after death, but we have no way to phone home about it? What if the Freudian death instinct is not destructive... but discovery? After a near-death experience, lonely funeral home receptionist Thalia Rosewood is recruited into the Euthanauts, a select group of psychonauts, sick folk, and other intrepid explorers who pass over willingly to determine What Lies Beyond. Tini Howard combines her trademark black humor and grounded, realistic storytelling with an otherworldly and mind-expanding exploration of the one thing we all have in common in this collection of the first five issues.

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

124 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 19, 2019

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started out so interesting, and then it became a bit of a mess. It doesn't help that the main character, Thalia, becomes kind of selfrighteous, and I couldn't shake the feeling that she's one of those characters the writer thinks is reaaally interesting, but it doesn't translate.

The whole way how Thalia becomes the "tether", it all feels so coincidental. This is a story with some really interesting ideas about death, and it just needed a lot more grounding, I feel.

Science lady's husband, Science guy, is the first euthanaut (a person who willingly is euthanised, to then enter "deadspace"), but we get told this, it's never shown. Then he spends so much time alone in deathspace, he goes nuts. Again, we're told this, and we get to see him, looking all scary with crazy spiral eyes. Weird how this is all sort of skipped over.

The art is pretty great, though.

[Dev · Rating 3 out of 5]

actual rating: 3.5

This was interesting but I'm not sure I really understood what was going on 100% of the time. Still, it's definitely an interesting concept and I liked the characters and the art and character design in general was absolutely gorgeous. I would probably check out another volume if they decided to do one.

[Václav · Rating 2 out of 5]

(3 of 5 for nicely drawn (and coloured) but otherwise underperforming comics about the afterlife)
Well, I was intrigued by the idea of Euthanauts and art. The art didn't let me down - the comic looks mighty good. But the story is kind of chaotic and not delivering. In nutshell - girl meets a scientist who is exploring the afterlife and for some reason, she is the chosen one for afterlife exploration. It's not even "cool" afterlife, just some kind of space between death and eternal void. The whole science is the very "new age", the story is annoying with the absence of proper direction and most of the time we discover the characters but not the story. It feels like meeting with friends when they poorly explain you a new board game but there is no time to actually play it. The culmination of the story is some pointless "hasty rescue". The comics talks too much, instead of perfecting the story it promotes outsiders, diversity, LGBT+, New Age spiritual something. It feels like "I don't care if the story sucks and doesn't make any sense, here is chubby pierced lesbian of the colour main character, give me my five-star rating for how diverse I am". Exactly opposite approach than in The Low, Low Woods and I reward that with one star down.

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Euthanauts is about some scientists trying to discover how one persists after death, starting with one dude who euthanizes himself so he can enter the dead space. It goes into more philosophy about what death means and why, the purpose of self-identity and the ego, and the relationship between the dead and the living. But all that is pretty boring with some characters I didn't care about.

But my god.

Nick Robles is a beautiful artist and this book is worth reading for the art alone. Incredible layouts, an ethereal portrayal of life and even grander portrayal of death. What a star!

[Des Fox · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great concepts, some really dope art, but boy, not a good comic book. The characters are pretty difficult to like, and nothing really happens over the course of the book. It's clear there should be more, but this appears to be a contained miniseries, which really doesn't have an ending at all. There's some neat pontification on death, and some good ideas strewn in, but the plot holes widen with each turning of the page, and the end of the book takes you nowhere.

[Dávid Novotný · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting premise, nice art and work with panels, but it's very chaotic and ending it's kind of dumb. They left door opened for another volume, but don't think I need one...

[Jesus Flores · Rating 3 out of 5]

La historia está interesante, lo del muerteverso, la máquina de la doctora Wolf, lo de los eutanatas, se me hizo interesante. El dibujo está muy bien logrado, varios paneles si te dejan WOW y disfrutas verlos a detalle.

La historia de estos 5 números, si bien logra exponer bien los puntos de que ocurre, y generar una especie de conflicto, este se siente un tanto entre flojo y apurado. Y los personajes no logran generarte una razón para interesarte por ellos, la reacción a ellos va de "meh", a "que cliche", a "blargh"

Por las páginas finales pareciera que existía la posibilidad de continuar la historia, pero por las fechas de publicación, creo que no paso. Yo si hubiera leído una posible segunda trama para ver si lograba levantar, ya que como dije, la idea general suena muy interesante.

2.7 stars

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this; intrepid scientists & engineers / magicians exploring the concepts of the afterlife, death, and surrounding customs & practices. A weird story in terms of characterization and plot flow, but fun ideas and good emotional core, here.

[Alex Sarll]

Way too many people I know have lost someone this past week, making it a perfect and/or terrible time to read a story about rogue scientists exploring the great beyond. The struggle for any story about what comes after life is that if you say there's nothing, you've not got much of a story; and if you say there's something, you have to differentiate it from, and compete with, some of humanity's oldest and deepest and most cherished stories. So if Howard and Robles don't entirely succeed here, there's no shame in that, and they do pull off some wonderfully grand and eerie moments along the way. I found a particular beauty and comfort in the notion that the Light should be "the color of mothers to babies".

[Sarospice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the concept and the art and even the back page interviews... But what it had in concept, it lacked in actual story. Maybe now that the groundwork is layed the cast can move beyond their family in the hereafter...

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful art, loved Thalia and Indigo, but tried to be smarter than it was. In reality, it's a disjointed read with awkward pacing and grand ideas that flourish beyond the confines of just five issues.

[S.E. Martens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Euthanauts has an interesting premise: scientists who decide to explore the afterlife like astronauts explore space. I would have loved to see some retro 1970s tech for the vibes. Instead we get a barely-realized conflict between a new age guru and some interns at an industrial laboratory. Sort of.

Back in the day, Doctor Mercy Wolfe worked alongside her husband on their theories regarding the afterlife. One day, while tripping on hallucinogens at a circus, she comes to the epiphany that "will power" might be involved somehow. Armed with this idea, her husband voluntarily ends his life in order to test their theories. I mean, look, the grant money was running out.

We then learn that Mercy was meant to be her husband's "tether," anchoring his consciousness in "deadspace." Which seems to have been successful, because he's there. But he went crazy from being alone for so long. Yet we see a projector in the doctor's lab that allows the scientists to communicate with the person in "deadspace," so why did he degrade? And what was the point of Mercy being his "tether," if she couldn't help him, and apparently never used his continued existence as verification of her theories?

In the present day, we meet a young woman named Thalia who works as a receptionist at a funeral parlor because she's just so "obsessed with death." She's chosen by Doctor Wolfe to carry on her experiments and be the doctor's tether. Why? I don't know; we're told that she can "see" death, but what this means is never explained. It's also implied that this only happened because Doctor Wolfe's ghost travelled in time and made an impression on young Thalia.

Doctor Wolfe's interns/assistants approach Thalia and take her to the doctor's lab, where they can communicate with the doctor in "deadspace." But here's another major problem with this story: for all the focus on exploring the afterlife . . . they . . . don't.

Mercy and her husband have managed to snag their consciousnesses in a sort of limbo between physical death and whatever happens when people actually crossover. And it's just a blank void with nothing in it. I guess it demonstrates Mercy's theory that a person who "trains" is able to hold their consciousness together after the end of their physical body. But none of the characters do anything with this information.

Also, considering Thalia works in the funeral industry, the author did not do enough research into how the industry works. At one point, Thalia tells grieving parents that their daughter wanted a sky burial and that "there aren't laws expressly forbidding it." So, is Thalia an idiot? There are absolutely laws forbidding it! You cannot just do whatever you want with a body. The funeral industry is highly regulated and this would one hundred percent count as "desecration of a corpse."

I guess you can tell, but I'm disappointed with this and not surprised that it didn't last beyond the initial five-issue mini-series. The creators probably wanted to engage in discourse surrounding death practices and afterlife beliefs, but the book never actually goes anywhere.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is like the first toe of zaniness into Sandman. It's unfortunate that something with some legs and longevity will no longer be viable anymore. I had hopes with Border Town and the "Nu"-Vertigo, but that was dashed quickly.

Black Crown and Berger Books are currently a bit of a beacon right now; but the problem is--there are other competing beacons and little eccentric and quirky books like this are ultimately not long for the world.

Regardless, Euthanauts is a wonderful punch from Black Crown, and it's more impressive than Peter Milligan's Kid Lobotomy.

This book is a a fantasy version of a Death Cafe, it's helping normalize death with bowie goth trappings.

I first came across the idea of the "Necronaut" in Mark Millar's Red Son and it's stuck into my mind ever since. Here' the first time I've seen the concept done any justice. However, it's too ambitious of a concept in a economic environment that won't generally allow for long stories. The rules are laid out but not the logic/why yet.

Tini Howard is definitely making quite the name for herself. And I'm looking forward to seeing what she does next.

[Owen Townend · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book about death goes in some fascinating directions.

Is there a connection between the recently dead and those who have suffered a near death experience? Can a preoccupation with dying be preordained? Does it really matter if one approaches the afterlife scientifically or spiritually?

While Euthanauts explores these questions with gusto, plenty more go unanswered. Then again this is only volume 1 and it would be unfair to expect the creators to know the full extent of their theories of the hereafter just yet.

That being said, if you're anything like me, then you will need to persevere through the first 30 pages. Euthanauts really does throw an awful lot at you but everything after, from the broad cast of characters to just what Thalia is experiencing, will be explained in greater detail.

I recommend this book to graphic novel enthusiasts and those prepared to explore some unusual concepts of death. If that is you, why not indulge Thanatos with Euthanauts?

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

El arte es muy bonito y juegan muy bien con los conceptos a la hora de ilustrarlos 🌌

Pero me da la impresión de que he empezado a leer una historia a la mitad, los personajes están muy poco presentados y las relaciones entre ellos se tienen que sobreentender porque no tienen tiempo ni espacio para entenderse… vamos, ha sido como leer el fanfic de una obra desconocida para mí.

Aparte de eso, las ideas y la estética son chulas, pero odio el tropo de la maestra que no da suficiente información y el del matrimonio de científicos que deberían haberse divorciado en lugar de investigar juntos. Así que, una de cal y una de arena.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uma história algo confusa, se bem bem que soberbamente ilustrada, sobre um grupo de cientistas que se dedicam a explorar a existência de algo para além da morte. E, para isso, necessitam da colaboração de uma jovem rececionista de agência funerária, que se vê arrastada para um mundo onde o impensável acontece. Morrer não é o fim, e o que está para lá é um território de mistérios, que os jovens exploradores mal afloram. Se a premissa é interessante, a narrativa é confusa. Safa-se o grafismo, que é excelente.

[David Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off: this book is beautiful, wildly so. The story itself if a wonderous examination of death and experiments into understanding and exploring same. Be sure to be comfortably settled with some grounding token (I recommend a furry companion, two or three if you've got 'em) before you start though, as this book is quite a heavy ennui trigger.

Very very good stuff here. Maybe don't read it before bed though.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

The original five issues of Euthanauts compiled into this trade paperback set forth a compelling and unique story. Thalia Rosewood is a mild mannered receptionist at a funeral home who becomes an unlikely and unwilling explorer beyond the veil of death "tethered" to one who has gone before. Solid writing and beautiful art makes this one of my recent favorites in the comic realm. Highly recommended (if you can find it).

[Stoffia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un comic bien original, psychédélique à souhait, quoi que trop "New Age" pour mes goûts personnels. La série termine en queue de poisson. J'imagine qu'une suite était planifiée mais n'a jamais eu lieu.

Malgré tout ça, c'est visuellement l'une des plus belle BD que j'ai lu. Le travail sur l'esthétique, les détails et les couleurs sont à couper le souffle!

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Freaky story and beautiful art, hearkening to Sandman (I even mistook Circe for Death when they were sitting in the graveyard). It left me wanting to know more, which is not a bad thing.
Death needs to be a more prominent topic of conversation, of everyday life, to help lessen the fears.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent concept. Great art. Unfortunately, Euthanauts is lacking a story hook. None of the characters or events are all that interesting. It’s a bummer because the covers and interior art are great aside from the hipster aesthetic. Not a terrible comic, just not for me.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some really good ideas in here and it looks great – I especially liked the colors and suit designs – but overall it didn’t quite work for me. I didn’t like any of the characters and it felt like the story was building towards something but rushed to its ending and never got there.

[Christa Seeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wrote about issue 3 of this series in my Sept/Oct IDW Pubwatch column at Women Write About Comics

[Michael Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ultimately this wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but was very good none-the-less

[Mikael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great art. Grand ambitions. Shallow execution of the plot.

[Malex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gorgeous art and interesting concept but there isn't much of a story here and I felt the characters are not properly fleshed out.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up for the gorgoues art

This little series about death gripped me after the first issue a while back. I only just got around to finishing it. Some of the plot was underwhelming a little bit confusing. However I think the different take on death and our experience after death was new and not something I have seen before. I really like the characters and found myself attached to Thalia and Indi, although I didn't really care about an of the other characters. I would have loved to see where this series would go next but it doesn't seem like it's receiving another volume.

Check out all my review's here: 📚Blog 📚

[Riley]

This is very confusing, and not it the "I just have to read more to find out the mystery" kind of way, but in the "this is just terribly crafted" kind of way. Great artwork though.