Memetic #1-3

Written by James Tynion IV
Art by Eryk Donovan

James Tynion IV is probably best known for his Batman work, supporting Scott Snyder since the New 52 relaunch in a number of ways, but he is also building a name and following for himself with his excellent body of work being published by Boom!  His The Woods is one of my favourite ongoing comics, and I've been enjoying UFOlogy lately.

This is why I decided to give Memetic a shot.  It's a three-issue mini-series, but each issue is oversized, and therefore Tynion has a lot of space to play with his themes.

In this story, a picture has gone viral on the Internet.  It's an image of a happy little sloth, with a background of concentric circles.  It looks exactly like the type of thing that people put funny sayings on.  What makes this particular image different, though, is the way it makes people feel.  It induces a sense of elation, and creates in people a form of mania that encourages them to pass it on to others, and to spend hours looking at it.

Our point-of-view character for most of the series is Aaron, a young college student with a number of issues.  To begin with, Aaron is completely colourblind, and wears a hearing aid (which becomes instrumental to the plot later on).  When he looks at the picture, he feels nothing, and is having a hard time understanding why people are so obsessed with it.  He'd rather worry about the fact that his boyfriend is not returning his calls.

Anyway, it doesn't take long before we realize that there is a lot more going on with this picture, and that it is rewriting the human brain somehow.  Another person who has figured this out is a retired officer in the Army, who used to specialize in information-based attacks.  He suffers from macular degeneration, and is therefore also unable to see the image properly.  He attempts to rally some of his old contacts, but is hard-pressed to find anyone in charge who hasn't seen the image.

And then things start to change.  The people who have looked at the picture begin to change into 'screamers', and things get very weird.

Tynion does a very good job of setting up this plot, and extrapolates nicely from our current obsession with social media.  He lifts some ideas from zombie and Apocalyptic stories, and then gives us a big finish that will leave the reader looking for more information.

Eryk Donovan is not an artist I'm familiar with, but he's very talented.  His work reminds me a little of Sean Murphy (it's the noses, which I've always thought of as Chris Bachalo noses), but is a freer artist in a lot of ways.

This series is thought-provoking and very effective.  I recommend it, and anything else that Tynion is doing at Boom!

Key of Z

Written by Claudio Sanchez and Chondra Echert
Art by Aaron Kuder

I grabbed the trade paperback for Key of Z on a whim, and because I'd liked the look of the Nathan Fox covers when I saw the mini-series on the comics stands.  I have never heard a song by Coheed & Cambria, the band that one of the writers is in, and was therefore not swayed by his celebrity in any way.

Basically, this book could be described as The Walking Dead meets DMZ.  After a zombie outbreak, the survivors in New York have coalesced into three stadiums - Madison Square Gardens, Yankee Stadium, and wherever it is that the Mets play.  Each of these stadiums are run by leaders who take slightly different approaches to things - the guy in the Gardens tries to keep a political/corporate approach to life, while the guy who leads the Yankees does it more like a gang lord.

Inevitably there is conflict, and our hero, a man named Nick Ewing, loses his family because of it.  He takes a few years to raid the Met of its ancient weapons (how come Rick Grimes and crew haven't been looting museums?) and plot his revenge, and most of this book is about how he goes about exacting it.

One other thing that the writers have added to the wealth of zombie mythology is the notion that Ewing can control sleepers (I guess walkers is trademarked now?) with a battered old harmonica.

This is a pretty well-written story, and I really like Aaron Kuder's art, which has a bit of the Frank Quitely about it.  It would appear that my impulse purchase was a good one.

Planet of the Apes Annual #1

Written by Darryl Gregory, Corinna Bechko, Jeff Parker, and Gabriel Hardman
Art by Carlos Magno, John Lucas, Benjamin Dewey, and Gabriel Hardman

Last week Darryl Gregory and Carlos Magno's Planet of the Apes series ended without resolving everything in the story, but they are already revisiting those characters in this Annual, which has a prequel to their epic.  In this story, Sully, the eventual Mayor of the humans, and Alaya, the future Voice of the ape city of Mak, are still young girls and sisters, each adopted by the Lawgiver.  In a story reminiscent of the school desegregations that happened during the Civil Rights Movement in the States, Sully attends her first day of school with apes.  This story nicely underscores why Gegory's series has been so good - he finds parallels between human history and current events and how those same stories would play out in a PotA society.

The second story is by Corinna Bechko (co-writer of the upcoming Cataclysm series) and John Lucas.  It's a cute take on the standard 'boy and his dog' story.  Lucas's art reminds me a little of Mike Ploog's.

Jeff Parker is the only writer here new to the Apes universe, and he turns in a cool little story about life on the fringes of Ape civilization, where an outpost has developed its own rules and forms of entertainment.  Cool stuff, with terrific art by Benjamin Dewey, an artist I'm not familiar with.

To close off the comic, Gabriel Hardman gives us a prequel to his and Bechko's 'Betrayal' and 'Exile' series, featuring the young gorilla soldier Aleron, who would eventually become a celebrated general and lawyer, before becoming an exile.  This story shows us how Aleron lost his eye, and the beginning of his disenchantment with the way Ape society was run.  It's nice to see Hardman drawing his own stories again.

If you have been on the fence about Boom's Planet of the Apes stuff, I suggest you use this as a sampler to see what the two main series have been like.  You won't be disappointed.

Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes #4

Written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
Art by Gabriel Hardman

Boom's two Planet of the Apes comics have continued to be a pleasant surprise.  The main title is excellent, month-in and month-out.  This mini-series, Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes has also exceeded all expectations.

It is set long after the main title, and about twenty years before the events of the first (presumably original) movie in the franchise.  The focus of this book has been the main rules passed down by the Lawgiver - that 'ape shall not kill ape', and that all apes should 'beware the beast man'.  The story centres around Aleron, a retired gorilla general and now lawyer.  After he defended a chimpanzee who trained a human to speak with sign language, Aleron was put on trial for a long ago murder - the first ape murder recorded - and sent to prison. 

All of this was a pretext for a corrupt member of the council to try to seize power.  This final issue has Dr. Zaius learn a few things about humans and their history at the edge of the Forbidden Zone, and has all the other characters confront one another one last time, as a number of truths are revealed.

Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman have done an excellent job of crafting this story.  The plot is very tight and involved, and Hardman's art is, as always, amazing.  There is going to be a follow-up series, Exile on the Planet of the Apes starting next month by the same writers, although sadly without Hardman's art (he starts on Secret Avengers next week).  This is a series anyone who's ever enjoyed the films should read.

Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes #1

Written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
Art by Gabriel Hardman

I wrote recently about my enduring love for the original Planet of the Apes movies (well, the first two at least, it gets a little hard to love them after that), and have warmly embraced Boom's on-going Planet of the Apes monthly comic, which is set a great deal of time before the continuity of the first movie.  Now Boom has given us this other PotA mini-series, by Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Bechko, whose Heathentown I also just read (scroll down a little).

This new series is set about 20 years before the first movie, at a time when Dr. Zaius has just ascended to the Senior Council (is it possible to ever read his name again without hearing that song from the Simpsons?).  The first case he is to hear involves a chimpanzee, Cato, who has trained his mute human pet to communicate with sign language.  He is found not guilty of heresy (for trying to elevate a human to the status of an ape), but not everyone agrees with this decision.  Cato is later visited by some gorillas who force him to drink poison, although the human escapes.

In the middle of all of this is Cato's lawyer, Aleron, a former general and hero among the apes, although there are a few questions about his past.  The most central tenet of ape society is the Lawgiver's statement that 'ape shall not kill ape', and now that it appears that that law has been broken (perhaps more than once), the stability of ape civilization is threatened.

Bechko and Hardman set up their story very well, and Hardman's drawing style is well-suited to the apes.  He gives them a more ape-like appearance than they had in the movies, but also keeps the aesthetic of the films present.  I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this series.

Farscape #24

Written by Rockne S. O'Bannon and Keith RA DeCandido
Art by Will Sliney

I came late to Farscape, discovering the show Sunday afternoons on a cable station a few years back, but thanks to the twin magics of DVD and EBay, I quickly acquired all four seasons and the Peacekeeper Wars mini-series that wrapped the story up.  I really grew to love the characters on this show, a diverse group of escaped convicts from different species, and the crazy and improbable situations they kept finding themselves in.  The series was a lot of fun, and had a lot of heart.

When I'd heard that Boom Comics was starting up a series of mini-series, co-written (or at least co-plotted) by the series's creator, I knew I'd be interested.  Like many a licensed comic, the earliest issues suffered from very stiff art, but the early stories were a treat.  It was nice to see familiar characters again, and unlike the Buffy Season Eight comics, they tended to stay in character.

After the mini-series approach gave way to an on-going series (and eventual spin-off featuring Scorpius), O'Bannon and DeCandido crafted a larger narrative around the idea of a new race, the Kkore, coming through a rift in space to conquer the Uncharted Territories.  This led to a twelve-issue arc that concluded with this issue.

During this arc, just about every world was subjugated to Kkore control, Aerynn Sun became the Commandant of the Peacekeepers and commanding officer to the large coalition of survivors and resisters.  Chiana found true love (with a bounty hunter hired to kill Aerynn and John Crichton's son), and a number of favourite characters met their final fate.

This story could never have been told on television, yet it felt, at every step, like classic Farscape.  DeCandido really nailed the different characters' voices, and among all the space opera bombast, found time to work in some good character-driven moments.  The art, by Will Sliney, worked well for character based scenes, although I never liked the way he drew spaceships.

There are some plot threads that were left unresolved.  We never did learn why Roiin was hunting Deke, Crichton's son, and the story potential of all worlds being left in a state of chaos is vast, but in the end, this was a satisfying run for this comic.  I would not object to the Farscape universe being revisited again some day.

Planet of the Apes #1-5

Written by Daryl Gregory
Art by Carlos Magno

Well, now this was a nice surprise.  I've been a fan of the Planet of the Apes since I was in grade 10, when City TV began broadcasting all five of the original movies at 1:00 each afternoon, and I ended up missing a week's worth of classes, choosing to stay home and indulge (ads and all).  That was the same year that Adventure Comics began their run with the property, with a black and white series drawn by the great Kent Burles.  I stayed a fan until the Tim Burton version of the movie ruined the franchise for me.  I haven't made plans to see the film currently in the theatres.

I was mildly interested in Boom's new take on the Apes, but am really trying to cut back on buying too many titles, especially if they are priced at $4.  I grabbed the first four issues at Fan Expo last week though, and this week's $1 fifth issue, and am very impressed and pleased with what I've found.

This series is set during the days of the Lawgiver, some 1200 years before the events of the Charlton Heston film.  Humans and Apes are living together, but separately, in relative peace and mutual distrust.  When the Lawgiver is assassinated by a human with an automatic rifle in the first issue, that peace looks to be shattered forever.  As it turns out, both ape and human populations are controlled (loosely) by the Lawgiver's adopted granddaughters - one human, one a chimp.

Each leader begins their own investigation, and they discover the depth of anti-ape sentiment in Skintown, the human township.  Alaya, the Council Voice frees an older general, imprisoned for anti-human war crimes, to track down the assassin, and he blockades the human settlement.  Meanwhile, Sullivan, the Skintown 'mayor' learns more about the dissent among her own people, including the 'silents', the younger generation who are loosing the ability to speak.

This story works very well because it channels any number of familiar political situations.  There are elements of Jim Crow America and apartheid-era South Africa, but what this comic made me think of the most is the Israel/Palestine conflict, played out in allegorical form.  Once I started reading this book in intifada terms, the appearance of suicide bombers made perfect sense.

Daryl Gregory is not a writer I'm familiar with, but I do appreciate the depth of thought and planning he's put into this title.  Carlos Magno is pretty interesting here.  The last I saw of him, he was drawing DC's horrendous Countdown series, but this book looks nothing like that.  Here, his work is highly detailed and quite believable.  I'm afraid that Boom may have just gotten me to add another comic to my pull-list.  I think this may be replacing Farscape as my one licensed title.

Swordsmith Assassin

Written by Andrew Cosby and Michael Alan Nelson
Art by Ayhan Hayrula

It's been a while since I've read a story like this.  Swordsmith Assassin is a typical example of the Western idea of a Japanese story.  Toshiro Ono is a legendary swordmaker, who, unlike his equally famous father, was willing to sell his swords to anyone that wanted one.  When his family is killed by a robber using one of his swords, he decides that he will track down and reclaim all of the swords he's made, and cast them into the ocean.

This quest takes many years, as he has to learn how to use a sword, and comes across other obstacles, such as figuring out a way to enter an impenetrable fortress, and to heal from a number of wounds at different times.  Ono demonstrates great vision and singularity of purpose, as his journey takes him as far as West Prussia.

What I like about this comic is the way in which the writers incorporate the history of the time period, and set the story against the backdrop of the Boshin War, and the Franco-Prussian War.  I'm always a sucker for historically accurate and researched stories, so this worked well for me.

I really like Hayrula's artwork.  He has a nice realistic style, and a strong sense of layout.  Searching the internet, it seems he hasn't done any comics work since this book, which is a shame, as I'd like to see more of his stuff.

CBGB #4

Written by Kelly Sue DeConnick and R. Eric Lieb
Art by Chuck BB and Dave Crosland

I hope this series, which was a bit of an experiment for a publisher like Boom, was successful enough that they will repeat it, giving us more thematic anthology mini-series, hopefully not just related to punk.

CBGB has been a pretty interesting title, each issue featuring a couple of stories set in, around, or inspired by the legendary New York punk club, all with a heavily indie feel.  This closing issue has two tales, the first of which, by DeConnick and BB, was amazing.

It's main character, Tex, is about to leave New York for Portland, with her husband and two young children.  Over the course of the story, she reminisces about her life since coming to New York, showing us how she met her husband, and detailing some fantastic conversations with her best friend, a professional fortune cookie fortune writer.  It's amazing how quickly DeConnick is able to develop these characters in such a short amount of space.

The second story, about a man who travels back from the future to CBGB to catalogue it for his society, is decent.  I like Grosland's art, which lies somewhere between Bá and Moon, and Christian Ward.

In all, this has been a cool series, and people should pick up the trade when it is published.

7 Psychopaths

Written by Fabien Vehlmann
Art by Sean Phillips

I had a few reasons to pick this new trade paperback up this week:
1.  I like Sean Phillips's artwork a lot, and have gotten tired of waiting for the new Incognito series to start.
2.  I like French comics, although I wonder why so many of the ones that get translated and published in North America have a WWII theme (I like war comics, but there is so much more than that being made in France).
3.  I'm always willing to grab a $10 trade paperback or graphic novel.  That seems to be the magic price for me - anything more than that, and I'm likely to just sit and wait for it to show up at a used book store or on Ebay.

Anyway, 7 Psychopaths is pretty cool.  The high concept is a pastiche of movies like The Dirty Dozen and Inglourious Basterds.  As the Second World War gets progressively worse for the British, a Colonel is presented with a plan to gather together a group of mentally ill or criminally insane operatives to travel to Germany to assassinate Hitler.  Most of the book (which was published in three issues earlier this year) is taken up with the Colonel and Joshua Goldschmidt, the architect of the plan and one of the titular psychopaths, assembling their team.

The plan doesn't work as planned, of course, but the way that Vehlmann has the story play out is pretty unpredictable, especially considering what is revealed about Hitler late into the book.  The plotting is very tight, and Phillips's artwork is as perfect as it usually is.  This is a very cool comic.

CBGB #3

Written by Kim Krizan, Robert Steven Williams and Louise Staley
Art by Toby Cypress and Giorgio Pontrelli

This issue is a disappointment compared to the first three stories across the two earlier issues of the comic.

The first story, written by Krizan (who is a screenwriter) is an odd tale about the origins of rock and roll (I guess), which can be interpreted as culturally insensitive or misinformed, and it has to do with three youth who leave their "tribes" and end up forming a band.  "Boy, do you like Big Noise?" is a good sample of the dialogue.  I was waiting for a character to say something like "Me make-um heap big music."  The art, by Cypruess, is as strange as his art usually is (and I mean that in a good way), especially with wide vertical bands altering the tone of many panels.  The art should be enough to redeem this story for me, but somehow it doesn't.

The second story, written by Williams and Staley (Williams edits the CBGB website) is a music and weed-fueled time travel story that is cute, but came across as flawed.  A professor of music (we assume) goes back in time to the night he broke up with his girlfriend and decides to stay for a concert instead, which somehow alters the timeline, although I don't understand how.

I like this series (more in theory than in practice this month), and hope that the last issue is going to be impressive.  This type of project is crying out for a Vasilis Lolos story, although I think I'm going to be disappointed there...

The Anchor Vol. 1: Five Furies

Written by Phil Hester
Art by Brian Churilla

I picked this up on the strength of Phil Hester's writing on titles like Firebreather (which really needs to come back as a series, not the over-priced one-shot coming out in November), and the fact that it got positive reviews on Comics Should Be Good, but I ended up being a little disappointed.

The Anchor is about an old, strong monk, who is fighting a massive army of demons in Hell, while also fighting five big monsters in our world.  It's his spirit doing the fighting in Hell, but any injuries he sustains there are visited upon his corporeal body as well, although they heal so quickly, you'd have to wonder why that would matter.

Clem (as he is called) first shows up in Iceland fighting a massive ice creature, and he gets help from Hofi, and local girl who likes history.  They start traveling the world fighting these monsters, and for a while are joined by the ghost of a recently-killed boy, and some part of the American army.

The writing didn't do much to draw me in (although there are a couple of good scenes - usually between Clem and the ghostboy), and while the art is nice, it wasn't particularly memorable to me.  This isn't a bad comic, it's just kind of bland.

Farscape: Scorpius #0-4

Written by Rockne S. O'Bannon and David Alan Mack
Art by Mike Ruiz and Gordon Purcell

Having been won over to the regular Farscape comic, I thought I'd check out the Scorpius spin-off trade when it comes out soon.  Then, at Fan Expo, I realized I could get the original issues for less than the trade will cost, and I dove right in.

The series is tied very closely to the parent book, although the events taking place in this have not yet had any bearing on that book.  Throughout the Farscape universe, an alien race called the Grennij have been attacking worlds on behalf of another, older race called the Kkore.  This series opens on a remote ice planet, where Scorpius, exiled by Rygel, has crashed.  When a Grennij fleet lands to repair a ship, Scorpius gets up to his usual tricks, ingratiating himself to the Grennij commander, and then insinuating his way into command of the fleet.  A meeting with the Kkore leads to a new purpose for Scorpius, who perceives his opportunity to finally get the power and revenge he's always wanted.

The writing on this book is tight.  Scorpius always had a certain pattern of speech on the TV show, and that has been continued here.  It's easy to hear his voice when reading this.  The art on the first four issues (#0 is really the first issue, and not an introductory story, like #0s used to be) is by Mike Ruiz, and it's great.  It has a sinister quality to it, and I especially like the way, in flashbacks, all characters other than Scorpy are rendered in a scratchy, hazy way.  Gordon Purcell, the artist for issue 4 is decent, but I much preferred Ruiz's work.

I'm impressed with what I've found here, and am now concerned that I'll have to add this title to my pull list as well, which I did not want to have happen.

CBGB #2

Written by Ana Matronic and Mr. Sheldon
Art by Dan Duncan and Mr. Sheldon

There are two stories in this issue of CBGB, of vastly differing styles and appeal to me.

The book opens with a story written by Ana Matronic, who is apparently in a band called the Scissor Sisters (should I know who they are?), and drawn in a style that seems like a cross between Becky Cloonan and early (ie. Shade the Changing Man era) Chris Bachalo.  In this story, the narrator is a writer with a bad case of writer's block, in 1970s New York.  Her only true release comes from attending shows at CBGB, and writing about them for the Village Voice.

It's a very nice piece, and works as a great tribute to a very specific time and place. 

The second story, by Mr. Sheldon, is cute I guess, but completely not my thing.  This is a pretty cool comic though - I like that Boom is trying something so different from what they usually publish.

Farscape #10

Written by Rockne S. O'Bannon and Keith RA DeCandido
Art by Will Sliney

I just recently re-watched the fourth season of Farscape, and followed that up with the Peacekeeper Wars, which served as a nice refresher on the state of the Farscape galaxy before reading this issue of the now very good Farscape comic.

In this issue, Chricton and Aeryn, along with the PK deserter Captain and her Lieutenant scout out the weapons that Commandant Grayza is preparing to sell to the Grennij, who are advance troops for a larger invasion force crossing an inter-dimensional divide. Later, the gang meets with Grayza, which always works well, as she must be an insanely fun character to write, so full of certainty and hubris.

As I've written a few times recently, this comic has gotten very good since it became an on-going series.  DeCandido has these characters down pat, and it's cool to see the way he and O'Bannon are working in the series' history to recent events.  A good example of that comes in this issue, where the commerce planet they visit is the same one that was visited in the very first episode of the show.

Most interesting to me is the way in which Aeryn is developing her own vision of what the Peacekeepers should be.  It's been clear that she never really accepted leaving the service, and now that she has discovered her spiritual side through studying the Books of Yemahl, it is nice to see her work to implement her vision.

CBGB #1

Written by Kieron Gillen and Sam Humphries
Art by Marc Ellerby and Rob G

I didn't pick this up when it came out last week because of the price.  I figured I'd trade-wait it or get it at a con some day, but then the manager at my comic store encouraged me to take a second look, and I'm glad he did.

I couldn't care less about punk or the history of punk music, but I do like it when Kieron Gillen makes comics about music, and I've liked Rob G's stuff for a long time (although I think it's a shame they didn't work together on this comic).  I also like comics that have a strong sense of time and place, and that is something this new anthology series has in spades.

There are two stories in this issue.  The first has a punk wanna-be experience a Dickensian moment, and get visited by the three ghosts of punk - two ghosts of punk past (one giving the romantic side of things, the other more actuarial in his focus) and the ghost of punk future.  It's a nice primer on the history of the famous New York club, and it's a cute story.  The second story is set in the late 70s, and tells us about a punk kid who discovers that his recently deceased uncle once played CBGB.

This is an odd little project, and very much a labour of love, which makes it deserving of some support.

Farscape #9

Written by Rockne S. O'Bannon and Keith R.A. DeCandido
Art by Will Sliney

Having recently gotten caught up on this series, and having watched a few episodes from Season 4 again, I think I'm going to need to add this comic to my pull-list.  Some of the earlier story arcs were good, but suffered from the usual curse of the licensed property - substandard art and slighty wonky stories.

With the last couple of arcs, this comic has really come into its own, and this issue, which starts the 'Compulsions' art has all the hallmarks of the best Farscape episodes: strife among the crew (Chiana), strange transformations (Noranti), spiritual awakenings (Aerynn, for a change), a big villain (the Grennij), and Peacekeepers up to no good (Grayza's carrier makes an appearance, even if she's not shown up yet).

Add this to some nice character moments involving the crew of the Cilla, the Leviathan that has joined Moya, and this looks like it would make an epic episode.  Will Sliney's art has improved quite a bit since he came on the title, and this book is really starting to satisfy my craving for new episodes of Farscape.

Farscape #5-8

Written by Rockne S. O'Bannon and Keith R.A. DeCandido
Art by Will Sliney

This series just keeps improving, with these four issues being the best of the Boom Farscape comics I've read so far.  In this arc, which has the crew of Moya responding to a distress call on Pilot's home planet, the creators have best captured the feel of the original TV show.

Issue five opens with four double-page splash panels, narrated by one of the five main characters on Moya (Jothee and Sikozu share their pages).  These pages are exceptionally well written, and help to establish some of the changes that these characters are experiencing as their stories continue.  The biggest change, as is usual in Farscape, is in Aeryn, who has been questioning many things since being exposed to ancient Sebacean religion in the last arc.

In no time, the crew gets the distress call from Pilot's homeworld, which he is prepared to ignore, but Moya overrules him, and soon our heroes are working with a group of deserter Peacekeepers to protect Pilot's race from an invading force of Grennij, strange aliens that came through a portal to this world.

Among all the action of these issues is a terrific sub-plot involving Pilot's shame surrounding how he came to be on Moya.  He does not want to face his family, and the scenes where this happens are handled beautifully.  I've been resisting buying this series on a monthly basis, but if it's going to stay at this level of quality, I feel I'm going to have to add it to my pull-list very soon.

Farscape #1-4

Written by Rockne S. O'Bannon and Keith R.A. DeCandido
Art by Will Sliney

I've been trying to pick up more of the Farscape series because I loved the show, and have enjoyed most of the Boom comics that have continued the stories of Moya and her crew ever since.

These four issues encompass the 'Tangled Roots' story arc that launched the on-going series.  In it, Crichton and Aeryn split up as they go on two separate missions, both related to their son Deke.  Crichton and Chiana try to track down Roiin, the bounty hunter that has been chasing them since the beginning of the Boom series.  To figure out who hired him, Chiana poses as a young woman that is interested in him, and the two of them spend some quality time together.  Unexpectedly, Chiana develops some serious feelings for him.

At the same time, Aeryn tracks down her former fellow Peacekeepers to see if she had ever been exposed to any nerve agents or gasses that may be accountable for the presence of a strange gland on Deke's spine.  She ends up on Prybella, a pacifist Sebecean colony, where she runs into Velorek, her former lover, and the parents of Captain Crais.  Things get a little weird here, as the story involves pure-blood Sebeceans (it is odd to me that a people so concerned with contamination would not have more pure-bloods), religion, and a deeply ingrained aversion to open conflict.

This is a good story, although some of the story elements don't feel completely true to the spirit of the original show.  It seems to lack the madcap spontaneity that I grew to expect from Farscape.  I hope that is something that develops as the book progresses.

That said, I enjoyed reading this story, and feel that Chiana's easily-conflicted nature is portrayed nicely.  I do look forward to finding out who hired Roiin eventually.

Farscape: D'Argo's Quest #1-4

Written by Keith R.A. DeCandido
Art by Caleb Cleveland

Set between the third and fourth seasons of Farscape, this story follows D'Argo as he heads out to track down Macton Tal, his brother-in-law and the murderer of D'Argo's wife.  Working off information he received from the Peacekeepers, he's arrived on the planet T'Lohrcate, where he's just chilling at a Sebacean bar, waiting for Tal to arrive.

Instead of finding his prey, he is instead found by Raxil, the annoying alien drug dealer that starred in the season three episode 'Scratch 'N' Sniff', which was one a huge cult favourite.

Raxil needs D'Argo to work for her as muscle in a Freslin sale, although they quickly end up in enforcement custody, before being used to infiltrate a criminal organization that holds the whole planet hostage.

This is a good, quickly-paced, amusing story.  DeCandido has a good ear for Raxil's speech patterns, and manages to capture the unique mix of anger, nobility, and humour that is Ka D'Argo.  Cleveland's art is very good; he manages to draw the characters convincingly, while avoiding the stiffness of most licensed comics.