A gripping tale that features chilling monsters, an eerie mystery, and intriguing characters.
While searching for her lost boyfriend on Mount Denali, a woman finds something more sinister than she ever imagined in this graphic novel.
Hooky Hidalgo is climbing Mount Denali and livestreaming the experience when he loses his handhold and falls onto a ledge. After assuring the streaming audience that he’s fine, he mentions seeing a cave entrance with weird carvings (“They look majorly ancient”) and then the feed goes dead. Only 33 hours later, Hooky’s girlfriend, Becca Burgos, has made it to Mount Denali to find out what happened to him. With no vacancies available in town, the local cops are surprisingly helpful, finding Becca a place to stay in a rental cabin. But it’s a setup—Becca is meant to be a sacrifice to a large, haunting creature and the locals are hoping her death will keep more people from trying to follow Hooky up the mountain. Escaping the monster, with the help of a local, Shailene Simmons, Becca runs farther up the mountain with her new friend. Shailene has been studying the weird creatures in the area and the Dark Pyramid—a structure inside the mountain—that the government has been keeping quiet for years. Since Becca and Shailene survived the first attack, the military is pulling out all the stops to try to prevent them from uncovering the truth about the Dark Pyramid and what happened to Hooky. And if killing the pair is the easiest way to do that, so be it. While they are battling the military and monsters alike, can Becca and Shailene survive what the Dark Pyramid is throwing at them? In this tense and violent graphic novel, Tobin and Holden have created a captivating world of gods, monsters, and strange, human-faced goats. With a mostly dark color scheme, the striking art fits the vibe of the engrossing tale. Cryptids abound, and the mystery of the Dark Pyramid will appeal to readers who prefer a little mythology and archaeology with their SF. This spooky story, which stars two distinctive female heroes facing terrifying creatures, will also delight horror and cryptozoology fans. While the action-packed tale offers a satisfying conclusion, the final pages set the stage for a sequel.
A gripping tale that features chilling monsters, an eerie mystery, and intriguing characters.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781545820452
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 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
An ambitious but plodding space odyssey.
Having survived a disastrous deep space mission in 2038, three asteroid miners plan a return to their abandoned ship to save two colleagues who were left behind.
Though bankrolled through a crooked money laundering scheme, their original project promised to put in place a program to reduce the CO2 levels on Earth, ease global warming, and pave the way for the future. The rescue mission, itself unsanctioned, doesn't have a much better chance of succeeding. All manner of technical mishaps, unplanned-for dangers, and cutthroat competition for the precious resources from the asteroid await the three miners. One of them has cancer. The international community opposes the mission, with China, Russia, and the United States sending questionable "observers" to the new space station that gets built north of the moon for the expedition. And then there is Space Titan Jack Macy, a rogue billionaire threatening to grab the riches. (As one character says, "It's a free universe.") Suarez's basic story is a good one, with tense moments, cool robot surrogates, and virtual reality visions. But too much of the novel consists of long, sometimes bloated stretches of technical description, discussions of newfangled financing for "off-world" projects, and at least one unneeded backstory. So little actually happens that fixing the station's faulty plumbing becomes a significant plot point. For those who want to know everything about "silicon photovoltaics" and "orthostatic intolerance," Suarez's latest SF saga will be right up their alley. But for those itching for less talk and more action, the book's many pages of setup become wearing.
An ambitious but plodding space odyssey.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-18363-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
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