Outer Darkness Vol. 1: Each Other's Throats
John Layman, writer; Afu Chan, artist
Image Comics-Skybound, 2019
This is a strange tale set in an interstellar future, but one where science meets horror and magic. It is not exactly unique--G. Willow Wilson & Christian Ward's recent Dark Horse series Invisible Kingdom comes to mind--but this series employs gods and demons in a distinctive blend of horror and high fantasy. These spaceships are powered by god-engines and hate-engines (although they look about equally horrific, requiring human sacrifice to function) and encounter things like necro-storms (a crowd of spirits of the dead who attempt to take over any living people they encounter). The crews include a Ship's Oracle and teams of Mathematicians and Exorcists. The good news is that if you get killed in a fight (and are insured) your soul can be retrieved and reunited with your body. But one of this crew has been possessed by a demon, so his soul retrieval turns out to be far from the stroke of luck it first appeared. And it makes for a partnership between him and the ship's first officer that spells trouble for the captain in future installments. Layman displays the imagination and characterization skills that was displayed in his long-running series Chew. Chan has mainly been known as a cover artist for Boom! and Marvel. He favors a simple, cartoonish style with bold coloring. An enjoyable read, but probably not appealing enough to me to continue with it.
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