An engrossing dystopian graphic novel with an unusual cast and a fresh setting.
After a young woman’s brother is kidnapped, she teams up with a ragtag band to save him in this comic collection set in a post-apocalyptic world.
It’s a century-and-a-half in the future, and teenage Kasa Fain and her 8-year-old brother, Adam, have been alone since their mother left them some time ago. However, Kasa promised to keep Adam safe, and she is determined to do so. However, while she’s out hunting for food one day, Adam is discovered by the Rumblers, and they kidnap him in the hope of selling him to the highest bidder. In a world where everyone has some sort of psychic ability, telekinetic Adam stands out as a super-powerful being known as a Shaper. This makes him incredibly valuable, and the Rumblers know that he’ll fetch a high price in Tradetown. Kasa teams up with Gargarin, who can track the kidnappers and her sibling. On the way, they pick up Toy, who has a vehicle, and the tough Ruth, who has an impressive healing ability. However, a being named Shattersword is also after the Rumblers to get to Adam, under the direction of Rask—one of the most powerful Shapers, who controls the empire. Kasa doesn’t care about any of that, though; she just wants her brother back, and she’s willing to do whatever it takes. However, will they ever be safe again, now that people know what he’s capable of? In this first collected volume of a new series, writer Jordan and artist Tyasseta transport readers to a world that’s 147 years “after the break”—much like our own, but with a wide range of superpowered people. The brightly colored milieu, with a diversity of body types and skin colors, feels realistic and offers a future that’s recognizable, even as strange creatures roam the world of the Breaklands. The banter between the heroes of the story gives it a found-family feel and make them easy to root for, as when Gargarin says that he has a plan, and Ruth asks if it’s a good one: “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Gargarin quips.
An engrossing dystopian graphic novel with an unusual cast and a fresh setting.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781545821251
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Lush visuals bring this thoughtfully constructed tale to life.
Wondrous visitors encounter a desperate pocket of humanity.
Lori, a white orphaned teen who’s finally been adopted after bouncing around various foster homes, awakens to discover that nearly everyone has disappeared. The rapture? Maybe. She runs into her classmate Annette, who has brown skin and curly black hair, and they partner up to scavenge for food. The pair tries to evade several threats, such as the large Wolves and a gang called The Dogs. Supernatural Giants arrive, seemingly from space, speaking an impenetrable language of “musical chiming and weird bass-rhythms.” Lori and Annette then meet Beatrice, an older white woman who shares important observations about the Giants and Wolves. The tone of the story then subtly shifts from post-apocalyptic desperation to one that’s somewhat playful. After a certain point, a visual element that appears early on takes on clear significance and meaning in the context of the story at large, offering a subversively humorous twist for readers to consider and a creative element that deviates from other alien invasion narratives. Hans’ artwork and paneling fill each scene with wonders. An interaction with a giant sees the red, violet, and pink figure standing against a bright, otherworldly white-and-blue backdrop with dark contours. Elsewhere, Lori and Annette pause at night as they behold ominous shadows, their foggy breath forming clouds, and they hear a “KRRNCH” sound. The quick-moving plot wraps everything up neatly.
Lush visuals bring this thoughtfully constructed tale to life. (character designs) (Graphic science fiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781534387072
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Image Comics
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
IMAX-scale bleeding-edge techno-horror from a writer with a freshly sharpened scalpel and time on his hands.
The world as we know it ended in Wanderers, Wendig’s 2019 bestseller. Now what?
A sequel to a pandemic novel written during an actual pandemic sounds pretty intense, and this one doesn’t disappoint, heightened by its author’s deft narrative skills, killer cliffhangers, and a not inconsiderable amount of bloodletting. To recap: A plague called White Mask decimated humanity, with a relative handful saved by a powerful AI called Black Swan that herded this hypnotized flock to Ouray, Colorado. Among the survivors are Benji Ray, a scientist formerly with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Shana Stewart, who is pregnant and the reluctant custodian of the evolving AI (via nanobots, natch); Sheriff Marcy Reyes; and pastor Matthew Bird. In Middle America, President Ed Creel, a murdering, bigoted, bullying Trump clone, raises his own army of scumbags to fight what remains of the culture wars. When Black Swan kidnaps Shana’s child, she and Benji set off on another cross-country quest to find a way to save him. On their way to CDC headquarters, they pick up hilariously foulmouthed rock god Pete Corley, back from delivering Willie Nelson’s guitar to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This novel is an overflowing font of treasures peppered with more than a few pointed barbs for any Christofacists or Nazis who might have wandered in by accident. Where Wanderers was about flight in the face of menace, this is an old-fashioned quest with a small band of noble heroes trying to save the world while a would-be tyrant gathers his forces. All those big beats, not least a cataclysmic showdown in Atlanta, are tempered by the book’s more intimate struggles, from Shana’s primal instinct to recover her boy to the grief Pete buries beneath levity to Matthew Bird’s near-constant grapple with guilt. It’s a lot to take in, but Pete’s ribald, bombastic humor as well as funny interstitials and epigraphs temper the horror within.
IMAX-scale bleeding-edge techno-horror from a writer with a freshly sharpened scalpel and time on his hands.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-15877-7
Page Count: 816
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
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