The Out

by Dan Abnett, Mark Harrison (Visual Art)

Join intergalactic photo-journalist Cyd Finlea on assignment as she travels the cosmos in search of the greatest scoop in the universe! National Geographic meets Star Trek from the pages of 2000 AD !

Cyd Finlea is a photo-journalist working for the publishers Neographic. It has been a decade since she left Earth and travelled to into the deepest reassesses of outer space – otherwise known as THE OUT. Her encounters include meetings with strange alien societies and ex-pat humans, an experience that she shares with her trusty sentient backpack…

This exciting, first volume introduces a brand new world introduced recently in the pages of 2000 AD , with an intriguing new female lead brilliantly executed by writer Dan Abnett ( Guardians of the Galaxy ) and featuring the inventive visuals of Mark Harrison.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

144 pages, Paperback

Published October 26, 2022

Reviews

[Alex Sarll]

Far and away the best new series 2000AD has run since US comics came for Al Ewing. The obvious reference point is Halo Jones – after all, where did she go? – but this is no DC-style exercise in going through Alan Moore's bins. Rather, it wonders where the saga might have got to had tensions not intruded, and follows a different woman, Cyd Finlea, a photojournalist a decade gone from Earth, and far into the areas of space where she barely even sees other humans, round about the point where she finally starts to miss them. Only to discover, even there, that the world is vaster and stranger by far than she's ever imagined. Mark Harrison's art somehow manages to shimmer on the page, and if it occasionally sacrifices a little clarity in the cause of beauty, well, part of the point of the story is a sense of strangeness overload, so that can be forgiven. I preferred the first volume's emphasis on space tourism to the second's greater dose of darkness and war, simply because the latter seems more familiar, but I'm still very excited to see where Cyd, and The Out, are headed next.

[Johan Haneveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a great cultural difference between American comicbooks and British comicbooks. The first represented by superheroes, stemming from optimistic roots, interested in upholding the status quo, with cynicism and anarchy only blossoming following 'The British Invasion' of Alan Moore c.s. and since pushed to the sidelines. The second roots in 2000AD (the place where writers like Moore, Morrison etc. got their starts) and is more diverse in genre, leaning to SF - and is characterised more by anarchy, a dose of cynicism and an irreverent spirit, not holding back. It has more of an underground feel, even compared to non-superhero SF comics. That is because there is also a difference between American and British SF. The rift was already clear between Asimov and Heinlein on the one side contrasted with Clarke and Wyndham. British SF gives mankind a lower rung on the ladder, criticizes belief systems and systems of power. Often the best the main character can do is to adapt to changed circumstances (thus the 'cosy apocalypse') and make the best of a new situation instead of conquering it and creating a new eden - as is often the case in American SF. This is why something like 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' could only come from a British author: self depricating, making fun of human grandiosity and even of the idea of comprehensability and making clear that just surviving is a feat in and of itself (and if you can have a nice cup of tea once in a while, that is a bonus!).
This comic is clearly very British - and yes, it was first published in 2000AD. It is like a more serious Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. Like Arthur Dent protagonist Cyd is lost in a huge universe filled with weird aliens (and I wouldn't be surprised if an intelligent color blue showed up). The earth is not destroyed, but she doesn't know her way back. The joural she works for still pays her for her pictures though, so she travels from planet to planet. She doesn't have a hitchhikers guide, but she has a talking backpack that (in Adamsian fashion) has unlimited storage space. There is a lot of absurdism here, with irreverent humor, but the story gets more serious. There is war threatening on several worlds and Cyd searches for her daughter, who disappeared shortly after aliens first made themselves known on earth. Surprising twists and turns, a David Bowie-like musician and some truly touching moments.
The art took some getting used to, for me. It's not trying to be realistic. It's often rough, leaning almost to collage - more giving an impression of the strangeness surrounding the protagonist than trying to illustrate it. But the roughness also keeps it fresh, lively. It's sometimes grotty, as fits with some of the places Cyd gets to, but soon I realised it really fits with the irreverent nature of the story. It has a bit of a punk rock attitude, like the protagonist.
For those who love the British mentality in SF and in comics, as opposed to American can do-optimism, this is a great read!

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recent Reads: The Out. Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison collaborate on this psychedlic picaresque. Cyd Finlea is a photojournalist, following the spacelanes out, beyond. One of the best explorations of the alien, of the strange, I've read. Unsettling and beautiful, a compelling tale.

[Luis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A soft scifi tale of wanderlust and wonder that soon twists into something deeper; Abnett manages to convey the strangeness and difference of genuinely alien species, instead of creating the umpteenth anthropomorphic ones. Some truly touching moments can be found as well, which I did not expect.
There are more volumes coming after book 3, but it would be fine to just stop the story there.

The art is beautiful throughout, although it does become very difficult to read at points, having a hard time telling whether something is an alien, a starship, or just some piece of furniture; however I find that it helps to look at it as if it were almost an impressionist piece, as it instills one with the same awe and confusion that the protagonist would be experiencing.

Special mention to the lettering effects, which have to be among the best out there.


Read as collected in the 2000ad Ultimate Collection Volume #184, which includes the first 3 books.

[Mirko · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The Out' is what you hoped those 70s SF books with fantastic, weird spaceship-filled covers would read like but they didn't. It recalls the art of Jim Burns, Iain Banks' culture the Traveller RPG, and the glorious Terran Trade Authority books. It tells the story of Cyd, a hippie chick raver-style photojournalist immersed in alien worlds as pretty much the last human for light years. Abnett captures Cyd's burn out very well - anyone who has lived through a rave scene will recognise her. There are lots of words and panels in The Out but it works - Harrison both knows how to do the storytelling and do some fine world-building with his psychedelic, slightly messy and almost water-colored style.

[Joel Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here I my quick review:
The plot is everywhere, and the story is everywhere,.

But the book managed to hold my attention.

I'm curious to see, in the sequel, if Cyd will find another human she would connect with for an extended period of time, have closure with her child, and find out if Esrth is still out there.

[Mark Sexton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating premise and beautifully executed - seems to reference back to the likes of Halo Jones and Shakara and while the place it ends up is more typically 2000ad territory, it's all so nicely done I'll be interested to see where it goes next

[Nathan R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. Incredible sense of being far, far away from home, made more vivid by the intangible, hallucinatory art where alien forms are difficult to discern. A bit like a re-imagining of the later parts of Halo Jones.

[Sadie Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful read

[Jeffery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

Haven’t had a feeling like this reading 2000 AD stories since Halo Jones. Loved the story. Loved the art. Highly recommended!