Saucer Country #14

Written by Paul Cornell
Art by Ryan Kelly

I'm disappointed that Saucer Country, one of the few new series from Vertigo over the last few years to really grab my attention, could not last for more than fourteen issues in the current comic book climate.  There is good news though, because creators Paul Cornell and Ryan Kelly have apparently made plans to continue the series with another publisher soon.

And so, that means that readers who have not checked out this excellent series should be snatching up the trades or recent back issues, because this is a great comic, and my hope is that when this book is being handled by a publisher who is more about promoting creator-owned books than corporate, written by editorial fiat ones, things are really going to take off.  These days it's all about the creator-owned book anyway...

In this issue, the Presidential race comes to its end, with the outcome you have always expected.  Presidential politics take a back seat to the alien stuff though, as Professor Kidd and the Governor's security team uncover the truth behind the two 'magic friends' who have been visiting the Professor since the series began.  This book has always been as much about governmental conspiracy as it has been about aliens (and perhaps those are the same thing), and that paranoid, secretive world gets exposed a little more in this issue.

Originally, this book was supposed to end with a tag line identifying it as the end of "season one", and that feeling is very present throughout this issue.  Cornell isn't wrapping up the story so much as finding a good place to pause it, and I hope it's not too long before things resume.  Meanwhile, and for the first time ever, I'm only reading one monthly book from Vertigo, and that's a strange feeling.