Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Outpost Zero: The Complete Collection

Rate this book
Welcome to Outpost Zero: the smallest town in the universe. The people there work the land, go to the fights every Friday night, and tuck their children into bed... but the Outpost is no place for dreams. To survive is ambitious enough. As Alea and her friends graduate to adulthood under the artificial sky of a faulty biome, on a frozen world never meant to support human life, tragedy strikes.

And after the inexplicable suicide of her friend Steven, Alea searches for the reason why – and what she discovers will upend her world forever.

Meanwhile, a devastating storm has trapped the Outpost under ice, threatening the entire community’s survival. As the Planning Team ventures out into the Frost to save the town, Alea and her friends uncover greater mysteries buried beneath the surface.

328 pages, Paperback

First published April 25, 2023

5 people are currently reading
68 people want to read

About the author

Sean McKeever

537 books36 followers
After writing indie comics (such as the ensemble teen-drama The Waiting Place) for six years, Sean got his big break writing an issue of The Incredible Hulk for Marvel Comics in 2001. Since then, Sean has written hundreds of comics for Marvel, DC Comics and other publishers, including notable runs on Sentinel, Inhumans, Mystique, Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, Gravity, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, Birds of Prey and Teen Titans.

Best known for delivering introspective, character-driven work, Sean also wrote several weeks of the Funky Winkerbean syndicated comic strip, much of which has been reprinted in the celebrated collection, Lisa's story: the other shoe.

In 2005, Sean won the Eisner Award for Talent Deserving of Wider Recognition.

Sean continues to write comic books; he also writes for the videogame and animation industries.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
14 (11%)
4 stars
48 (39%)
3 stars
40 (33%)
2 stars
16 (13%)
1 star
3 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
Profile Image for Eule Luftschloss.
2,106 reviews54 followers
October 13, 2022
trigger warning


Four teenagers' lifes intertwine on a space station that is running into some serious trouble.

This collection features the whole series which is a format I really like. In the past, I was very frustrated especially when having comics from the library when I only had access to parts of the story.

Though the characters the plots center around are quite young, they're about to get their assessment done, meaning their aptitude will be tested so they can sorted into a profession that will benefit the station. We don't know how many humans live there, but it's made clear that every single person counts and nobody is able to afford the luxury of slacking or even just choosing where to direct their efforts - so if you happen to love what you do, it's a huge thing that has to be protected at all costs.

Additionally, the population is quite young. Somebody dying in their 60-ies is considered to have lived a long life, and there are rumors about humans back in the day having been able to live past 100, but nobody is really sure if that is to be believed. I like that they got into what that means for the information process on the station, that it's far easier to loose knowledge if people are not around for a longer time to share theirs, which had a practical impact on everyone's life because there are mysteries about to be explored - mysteries that could impact their whole existence because they're basically lost on a hostile planet.

This was quite slow but not bad. And low sci fi, it's more about teenagers rebelling against what they're told and them finding their own way than it is about typical sci fi stuff, though lasers and robots make an appearance.
Would recommend if you want a short-ish, finished sci fi story told in a graphic novel format.

The arc was provided by the publisher.
Profile Image for Kailey (Luminous Libro).
3,581 reviews547 followers
September 8, 2024
Alea has grown up in the Outpost, a massive spaceship that crash-landed on a frozen planet generations ago. So much time has passed that Alea's generation has forgotten how to use most of the technology their ancestors had, and much of the spaceship is inaccessible because it's buried underground. Alea believes that her society needs to push themselves to do more than just survive in the frozen wastelands of the planet. She wants to explore and find new innovations so that society can thrive. But people are afraid. Alea's friends are struggling too. Some have given up, seeing no hope in the future. When one of Alea's friends commits suicide, she knows she has to find out the truth about the Outpost.

I loved the sci-fi setting for this graphic novel! It's really interesting to uncover the history of the Outpost and figure out how their ancestors survived.

The artwork is really beautiful and colorful. Every page is fantastic, full of energy and emotion.

I was really intrigued by the mystery that keeps building with more and more questions as Alea discovers that there is a lot she doesn't know about her ancestors and her broken-down spaceship home.

The best part of this book is the complex characters. We get to see them each reacting in different ways to the mystery of the Outpost and to the difficult grief in the aftermath of their friend's suicide. They have to work through some tough situations to find that inner strength to make it through.

I was impressed with the positive way that this book explores some really difficult subjects like suicide and drug addiction. There is the character to commits suicide, and also another character who is contemplating suicide. This group of friends come together to support and encourage each other, and they find hope and comfort. Another character doesn't want to deal with their grief and fear, so they turn to drugs. But they quickly realize what a bad decision that was, and they seek medical help to get clean. I was glad that this book dealt with these subjects in a healthy way.

This would have been a four star book, but there is some profanity, so that took it down a star for me. It annoyed me quite a lot.


Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher/author in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts and are not influenced by anyone.
Profile Image for Johan Haneveld.
Author 112 books106 followers
October 22, 2023
9- I thouroughly enjoyed this slow burn graphic novel (a collection of three chapters published seperately before, but telling one story). It should technically be categorized as a Young Adult graphic novel, seeing how it is about a group of teens experiencing tensions after one of them commits suicide and going against the wishes of their parents and the larger community in their search for answers. But as an adult I can empathize with these themes as well, so I did enjoy this very much. The themes (as noticed: suicide, but also depression, bullying and substance abuse) are pretty grown up, but handled sensitively. There are also scenes from the parents perspectives (e.g. between the mother of one of the characters and a dying man) that elevate this into more of an 'all ages'-story (well, not young children, I would say, even if there's no overt violence of sexual content, so they might as well read it, I guess). The art is clear, with lots of straight lines and a bit of a blocky feel, not too many details. But every character was easily recognizable, which is the most important part.
The situation (a small colony on an inhabitable planet experiencing break downs without the knowledge remaining to repair it all) is not that original within the SF-genre, but the focus is not really on the SF-aspect, but on the interpersonal relationships. And I thought those were well done. Each character, even the agressive and confrontational Mitchell, have hidden depths and surprise by their developments. Those are built up and teased out in a slow burn way, but it works well. Also important is the political story, where the community has to decide whether to keep up the discovery section. Do they need to go outside and find out new things, or spend all their energies at keeping the city functioning? It's all woven through with the SF-elements, that of course build to a crescendo that fits into the other storylines perfectly. It all ends without all answers given, in a way that leaves room for the imagination of the reader. I thought all threads came together satisfyingly.
I don't think this story changed my worldview or even my view of the genre (but I'm an avid SF-reader since my youth), but as a character based YA SF-story it worked well and I certainly enjoyed my time reading it. Don't know if I would pick it up again though, as it didn't have the 'Wow'-factor of the stories I find to be really re-readable.
Profile Image for Dan.
2,235 reviews67 followers
July 20, 2023
This was a reread of volumes I had already read....nothing new.
Profile Image for V.M. Sawh.
Author 7 books132 followers
August 30, 2023
I wanted to like this more than I did.

The concept is really neat but the mysteries started to frustrate me after the first 30% because the answers came far too late and were unsatisfying for a variety of reasons. Art is good. Dialogue is decent, but for the amount of time spent on the characters various plotlines, I couldn't attach to any of them. Also they seemed older than their stated ages.
Robot and creature design was neat but this had potential to be really wild and it just...wasn't.
If you like CW style teen drama and lowscifi then this might be your bag.
Profile Image for Chad.
10.3k reviews1,060 followers
November 29, 2022
A story about a space colony that was last on an icy planet decades ago. They are slowly losing their knowledge of how things work. The story revolves around some 14 year old kids who survive after one of them commits suicide. It's about why they did it and how there may be more going on. The story moves really slowly. Too slowly at times. The art is capable. This was OK.
Profile Image for Doreen.
3,245 reviews89 followers
April 25, 2023
Collecting the entire fourteen issue run of the sci-fi comic book title.

So this book has an interesting perspective on the living-in-space genre. Outpost Zero is all that remains of a generation ship that left Earth centuries ago. The survivors have adopted something of a small town mentality, focusing on keeping their outpost alive and otherwise exhibiting a marked disinterest in exploring the icy planet on which they crash landed.

Ofc, not everyone is so inwardly focused. Alea is the brave, almost foolhardy daughter of members of the Discovery team, the dwindling group responsible for venturing outside the dome. As she and her friends approach Singularity -- i.e. the day they choose their grown-up career paths -- they contemplate their futures. Alea wants to follow in her parents' footsteps. Steven is happy to join his own dad in Engineering, while Lyss doesn't particularly care where she ends up, despite her father's ambitions. Mitchell wants to be a prizefighter, the dome's main entertainment. No one's heard from Mitchell's twin Maddie in some time. Steven's friend Sam, who for some reason rouses Mitchell's ire, is already interning for Security, under the watchful eye of his foster mother, who's the station's Chief Of Security.

But then Steven breaches the airlock in an apparent suicide. The rest of the kids are devastated. Alea refuses to believe that Steven would kill himself without any sign or warning, and begins to investigate. What she discovers could turn their entire community upside down, and either crush their spirits for good or give them a new hope altogether.

I do like the idea behind this comic, that insularity can still happen even in deep space, with people closing themselves off to new experiences and ambitions out of fear that these may threaten their survival. The suicide metaphors were deep and interesting, even tho I wasn't 100% convinced myself of Steven's fate. I was also quite drawn to Maddie's plight, even if I didn't find Lyss' resolution in the face of it all that assuring.

What bothered me about this comic was the pacing. It's deeply weird. Characters have the same arguments in different contexts, which feels deeply unnecessary, especially since we're not given much background before being shunted from one scene to the next. Our protagonists also have the bad habit of talking/arguing around each other, which might be realistic but is still deeply irritating. For goodness' sake, I don't read sci-fi expecting tedious literary verite. Almost as annoyingly, there's a lot of unexplained angst before things actually start happening. I can't tell if this is literary pretension, or if Sean Kelley McKeever is relying too much on Alexandre Tefenkgi's art to provide emotional nuance. I think it's a pretty big ask of any artist, tbh.

And the thing is, Mr Tefenkgi's art is great! But there's only so much any artist can do to extract meaning from the muddle that is this sci-fi story in its first two thirds or so. The book really starts firing on all cylinders in the last third, such that even when I disagreed with the narrative choices, at least I was entertained. But then... it ends. Which would be fine if not for the myriad and vast unresolved plot threads. There is a really outstanding sci-fi graphic novel in here, but Mr Tefenkgi's excellent art unfortunately illustrates a script that needs a lot of refining.

Outpost Zero by Sean Kelley McKeever & Alexandre Tefenkgi was published today April 25 2023 by Image Comics and is available from all good booksellers, including Bookshop!

This review originally appeared at TheFrumiousConsortium.net.
Profile Image for Online Eccentric Librarian.
3,400 reviews5 followers
February 4, 2023
More reviews at the Online Eccentric Librarian http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

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

These days, it is hard to find a 'generation ship' story that doesn't end the same way. And while this has the expected 'twist' we have seen so often, there are also some other surprises that make the end worth it. What sets this title apart is that it is about the people, not the situation: each person in the story is given time to develop and grow, be nuanced and have their own agendas. It can make for a slower read for those looking for a straight up adventure story; but those looking for an organic and well-thought out piece will be rewarded.

Story: At Outpost Zero, colonists have long been stranded in a biodome on a planet of ice. They have made the best of the situation - over generations some of the technology has been lost and they hope to eventually find evidence of life on the planet. 14 year old Alea is inquisitive and eager to follow in her explorer parents' footsteps. Her friend Steven wonders about life in general. Other friend Mitchell is preparing to be a fighter for the games. Lyssa wants to be a healer/doctor and then there's Sam - the weird kid and adopted son of the head of security. As a major destructive storm approaches and threatens to breach the dome, one of Alea's friends suddenly commits suicide. In tracking down the reasons for what seems like a senseless act, she will uncover startling truths about the colony.

Thsi is a story you are in for the long haul - it is less about solving mysteries and more about each characters learning about themselves and their place in the world. And while we could have all predicted many of the aspects of the ending there were at least some interesting concepts along the way. While following 14 year olds may sound tedious, it makes sense for the story that they are that young. Fortunately, the adults aren't really the enemies and behave in manners that make sense - protecting their children and also protecting the colony.

The illustration work is fine - I did have problems following the action/story at times but in all the characters were distinct enough that I could tell them apart. It is what I would expect from a sci fi story with decent paneling and emotive reactions. The coloring is clean and bright.

The story did run a bit long but it also had a lot to say. This felt more like a novel than a graphic novel in that regard: you get a full and nuanced story rather than something that flows too quickly and ends too soon. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by our publisher.
Profile Image for Trike.
1,958 reviews188 followers
December 11, 2023
This is very, very good. The trigger warning about teen suicide is front and center, and this deals with the subject in an adult, nuanced fashion, showing many reactions to such an event. There is also drug use, but it is equally well-handled.

The characters are all distinct with quite different personalities and attitudes, and although we spend the most time with a bunch of teenagers, every age is represented as fully-formed individuals.

The basic story is that a generation ship crashed on a frozen planet and the survivors are fighting a losing battle against the elements and decaying tech that they’re not entirely sure how to operate. I was reminded strongly of Hugh Howey’s Wool Omnibus, adapted for Apple TV as Silo. Except this is a completely different story in both broad outline and specific elements, not to mention themes — it just shares a similar vibe.

I like how these intrepid kids explore their limited world, as well as their varying reactions to what they uncover. One wants to press on in secret, one wants to tell everyone, another freaks out and retreats… it runs the gamut.

There are a couple minor things that bothered me, such as glossing over where they get paper for notes and how does the fabricator shop whip up a new helmet visor, but these are nitpicky little things that aren’t that big a deal. Overall it’s really good.

The art is likewise excellent, with clear storytelling and characters different enough to be unique.
Profile Image for Sebastian Lauterbach.
235 reviews4 followers
July 19, 2024
A very good premise trapped in an incredibly dull book, avoid!

A giant outpost setup in a hostile glacial planet and humanity is seeking other life and solutions to the ever growing threats from outside. This should've been the start to a great sci-fi book. Instead, the story follows a bunch of kids, rebelling against their parents and the entire sci-fi premise is forced to the background. I wish there was more mystery and less slice of life in this book.

It is utterly boring, none of these kids is particularly interesting and the adults are behaving like pricks for the most part. In the final pages, the book remembers its sci-fi premise and tries to wow the reader, but it failed completely in my regard.

What elevates this book from 1 to 2 stars is the artwork, which is very good, but I would still not recommend this by any chance.

Profile Image for Andy.
1,904 reviews
July 20, 2023
This was a very well-written and illustrated YA graphic novel. I enjoyed the storyline and most of the main characters. (Although there was one that kind of got on my nerves.) Also, I thought the author did a really good job of showing how a group of people will look at the same problem and they can all come up with different solutions and think they are right and everyone else is wrong. There are no easy answers for the colonists, and I liked how realistic that was.

Warnings for suicide.
Profile Image for Cadillac Jack.
81 reviews
November 13, 2024
Ooh, this is good! I was already a big Alexandre Tefenkgi fan after The Good Asian (amazing series, can't recommend it highly enough) and Outpost Zero only elevated my esteem for his work. McKeever writes a compelling narrative with believable + well realized characters (and a lot of adolescent angst) in a compact, fascinating sci-fi world. Check it out, especially in this nice little collected edition!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Shane Eric.
60 reviews
August 8, 2023
DNF. I made it 2/3 of the way through

There are so many interesting plots that can take place on a colonial planet with violent ice storms, Riverdale-esque teen conspiracies are not one of them.

The art is mid-tier and the rebellious teens are no different than the rebellious teens from any other YA story.
Profile Image for Ben Knapp.
91 reviews
August 23, 2023
4.5 stars

YA coming of age story. Sci-Fi, aliens, harsh climate, future problems. What’s not to love? Also deals with suicide, and psychological trauma for the people around the person who committed suicide. I love that Sci-Fi can tackle such heavy topics like this. Great GN.
Profile Image for Chris.
1,084 reviews
February 28, 2025
Big let down. I love the premise but it failed to have much of a story. I have the feeling this was meant to be a longer series maybe with another volume or two and thus they had to cut a lot of story to sort of wrap it up quickly.
Profile Image for Tom Ackerman.
92 reviews1 follower
August 5, 2023
This is a smart story with relatable teen characters and some interesting sci-fi ideas. I wish there was more of it.
Profile Image for Rae Rivers.
268 reviews1 follower
November 22, 2025
Generally good but just feels underdeveloped. Why is the alien like that? Is it being honest?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.