BLACK SCIENCE Vol. 1: HOW TO FALL FOREVER

BLACK SCIENCE Vol. 1: HOW TO FALL FOREVER

Writer: Rick Remender

Artists: Matteo Scalera with Dean White (colors)

$9.99, Image Comics, 152 pgs.

ISBN 978-1607069676

(NOTE: Your reviewer is actually on vacation for the next couple of weeks, but he wrote reviews for you in advance of his departure! Now that, dear reader, is love. You should return the love, and share this blog with all your librarian friends far and wide!)

Brilliant iconoclast and absentee father Grant McKay has mastered the forbidden art of Black Science: his invention, the Pillar, allows him to travel between alternate realities. Unfortunately, the Pillar is damaged on its maiden voyage. It cannot be shut down, and it departs for a new reality after intervals of randomly-determined length. With his children and a handful of compatriots in tow—one of whom is responsible for sabotaging the Pillar—Grant must survive one harrowing trip through the Eververse after another, hoping to eventually find the technology to repair the Pillar and make his way back home. Along the way, Grant must also try to repair his eroding relationship with his estranged children.

BLACK SCIENCE puts writer Rick Remender smack dab in his element: pulp-inspired science fiction. Everything happens at a breakneck pace, and we are whisked along with Grant and company from one bizarre reality to another. While some readers might feel cheated that we never really get to see too much of any of these realities, that’s kind of the point: by keeping us off-balance, Remender lets us share in the insanity of the life Grant has accidentally created for himself and his children. It’s a dizzying adventure, full of unearthly weirdness brought to life by Matteo Scalera’s edgy, unique artwork and Dean White’s rich colors. It’s a shame White’s color palette changes radically from the first chapter to the second—originally, he digitally painted over Scalera’s art rather than coloring it in a traditional style—but the end result is still gorgeous, rich in alien wonder and horror alike.

There’s nothing else on the shelves like BLACK SCIENCE. An elegantly simple concept with visionary artwork and a narrative combining the adventuresome spirit of pulp science fiction with interpersonal drama, BLACK SCIENCE is a profoundly different kind of comic book.

TIPS FOR LIBRARIANS: Like a lot of Image’s first volumes, this one is bargain-priced to attract new readers; there are six comics in this issue for the dirt-cheap price of only $9.99 before wholesaler discount. You can’t go wrong at that price, but don’t wait forever to order; if this book goes to a second printing, and it may very well do so, odds are the second printing will be at a more conventional price-point.

READER’S ADVISORY: Suggest this to your science fiction fans, your alternate history buffs, and those readers looking for action/adventure with a unique, even bizarre stylistic twist.

CONTENT ADVISORY: Mature themes, ideologically sensitive material, violence, adult language…and, um, does it count as nudity when the naked people are aliens? Because that happens, too.

Review©2014, C. Michael Hall.