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A review by thecommonswings
Black Science, Vol. 1: How to Fall Forever by Rick Remender
5.0
Ostensibly the rise of Image Comics as the front runner of mainstream alternative comics has been in part fuelled by DC’s neglect of Vertigo. For so long the only real way weird comics could become hugely popular, and very reliant on creators from 2000AD, was as to be published by Vertigo. But the weirdest thing about Image’s rise isn’t that they have become Vertigo 2.0 (although you could argue it has relied on a handful of really big tent pole comics to allow the weirder stuff to be published like they did)but that their main stylistic influence is what 2000AD has become since those early creators were tempted away
Although many later prog writers did follow in the steps of writers like Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, it’s been great to see 2000AD find a new and strange way to tell stories from a range of writers so if an Al Ewing, say, hits the big time there’s still a bunch of other creators still bubbling under. And under Matt Smith’s tenure as Tharg the comic seems to have new confidence in telling big, mad and eccentric stories with increasingly different artistic styles to match them. And where Vertigo seemed to be a weirdly inward looking, melancholy range of comics about gods and demons after a while (with exceptions), Image seems to enjoy adopting the huge mad ideas any prog reader is very familiar with
Which brings me to Black Science. Like Saga it starts in media res, but is a lot more frantic and disjointed in doing so. We join the action literally in a wild and extraordinary sequence with two people we vaguely guess must be our heroes pursued by the strangest of strangest alien races. Saga has been so popular because Vaughan and Staples enjoy wildly strange alien cultures, but Remender and Scalera are incorporating even wilder ideas - the sort of territory Moebius relished in his collaborations with Jodorowsky. And by the end of this volume you kind of get where things are heading but only about as much as you get where things have started from. It’s tremendously confident to barely pause to allow you to understand these characters, and Remender seems particularly not fussed about slowing down to do so. In fact it feels like another Image classic, The Manhattan Projects, in the sheer giddy rush of ideas but that comic sped up considerably. Yes it’s a bit too manic but by god it propels you along into their creative vision. Extraordinary stuff
Although many later prog writers did follow in the steps of writers like Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, it’s been great to see 2000AD find a new and strange way to tell stories from a range of writers so if an Al Ewing, say, hits the big time there’s still a bunch of other creators still bubbling under. And under Matt Smith’s tenure as Tharg the comic seems to have new confidence in telling big, mad and eccentric stories with increasingly different artistic styles to match them. And where Vertigo seemed to be a weirdly inward looking, melancholy range of comics about gods and demons after a while (with exceptions), Image seems to enjoy adopting the huge mad ideas any prog reader is very familiar with
Which brings me to Black Science. Like Saga it starts in media res, but is a lot more frantic and disjointed in doing so. We join the action literally in a wild and extraordinary sequence with two people we vaguely guess must be our heroes pursued by the strangest of strangest alien races. Saga has been so popular because Vaughan and Staples enjoy wildly strange alien cultures, but Remender and Scalera are incorporating even wilder ideas - the sort of territory Moebius relished in his collaborations with Jodorowsky. And by the end of this volume you kind of get where things are heading but only about as much as you get where things have started from. It’s tremendously confident to barely pause to allow you to understand these characters, and Remender seems particularly not fussed about slowing down to do so. In fact it feels like another Image classic, The Manhattan Projects, in the sheer giddy rush of ideas but that comic sped up considerably. Yes it’s a bit too manic but by god it propels you along into their creative vision. Extraordinary stuff