For Sunday, 12 July, I’m thankful for the four-issue comic Aliens: Dead Orbit.
This is a second entry in what looks like it’s going to be an ongoing series about comics I’ve been sitting on unread for nine years. I have to give some thought as to what the heck happened in 2017 and ’18 that caused me to stop reading comics, even after I’d collected complete runs. For now it’s a mystery.
But I digress.
Aliens: Dead Orbit is a short comic arc set on a space station in position above a gas giant. It’s a fun dual narrative. One thread is about what’s happening to the protagonist now, the other is an ongoing flashback sequence telling us how our man came to be in the situation he’s currently in.
I don’t know much about James Stokoe, but I do remember that the reason I collected this book is because of the art in issue number 1. And it doesn’t let up. The art is outstanding throughout. The style reminds me of one of my all-time favourite Heavy Metal stories, Pepe Moreno’s Bunker 6A. And it’s really impressive that Stokoe wrote, drew, coloured and lettered the whole work himself.
Another great thing about the story is it’s solidly in the camp of Smoking in Space. I wish the streaming channels had a filter (heh) for that genre. But again, I digress.
You can still find copies of both the single issues and the soft and hard cover collections on Abebooks and eBay. But try to find it locally if you can. Check out your favourite comic shops and used book stores first.
