Ancestral Recall #2 Review

 

Writer: Jordan Clark, Carol Lay & Bryce Ingman

Artist: Atagun İlhan, Carol Lay & Shawn Crystal

Colorist: Pippa Bowland

Letterer: Rob Steen

Publisher: Ahoy Comics

Cover A: Atagun İlhan $4.99

Cover B: Jay Hero $4.99 (1:3 unlock)

Release Date: September 3, 2025

 

Melvin is a world-famous artist. His mind ranges across time to paint scenes relevant to people today. The outside world confuses him. Melvin can’t even visit the local pharmacy without getting lost. But with his wife on bed rest, he takes the prescription and ventures outside.

 

Something strange happens when Melvin enters the pharmacy. Things don’t look right to him. As he passes a sign for the Modern Living Corporation, a woman offers to help him. Melvin tries to show her the prescription but drops it. His neighbor, Myran, picks it up and guides him to the counter.

 

Melvin hates relying on others. But when June vanishes, and he can’t find her again, his teenage neighbor again rushes to his aid. Can Melvin and Myran find his wife? And what role will Petunia, Myran’s animatronic panda, play in Melvin and June’s lives? Let's grab our VR glasses, leap into Ancestral Recall #2, and see!

 

Story

Like forgotten Inkling Charles Williams, Melvin is a dreamer. His wife serves as a buffer between him and the minutiae that keep the modern world spinning. Freed from time-consuming details, Melvin can concentrate on his passion. But when June disappears, all thoughts of painting vanish. Instead of meeting with the Smithsonian, Melvin spends the day searching his neighborhood without rest or sustenance.

 

While Melvin’s thoughts span a vast tapestry of space and time, Myran is a keen observer. The irrepressible teen sees things others miss. She has noticed other neighbors disappear. And she photographed people garbed in MLC coveralls carrying away what looked like a body bag. In Ancestral Recall #2, Myran aids Melvin in his quest to find his wife.

 

At the crux of Jordan Clark’s story is Mitchell Evans, an MIT graduate who founded the Modern Living Corporation. He doesn’t share society’s fears about Artificial Intelligence. Mitchell’s company contributed the software that helps Petunia interact with Myran like a living pet. Yet like Melvin’s mind, Mitchell’s creations span space and time. Perhaps this explains the futuristic robots prowling the streets at night, carrying their neighbors away in body bags.

 

Art

Atagun İlhan paints a convincing portrait of life in near-future Oakland. While his car may seem old-fashioned, it transforms when Melvin envisions a famous ancestor. Like Dorothy and Toto, the woman gets swept up in a tornado summoned by Melvin’s lively hair in Ancestral Recall #2.

 

While Pippa Bowland paints Melvin and Myran’s roadtrip with a loaded palette, she casts June’s adventures beneath a green pall. Like her fellow test subjects, June wears a sleek, dark uniform with a white M emblazoned on her chest. Amid this confining industrial setting, Myran appears clad in her familiar blue jeans and white-and-black crop top. And like Myran, Petunia has matured in Ancestral Recall #2.

 

Rob Steen portrays dialogue with black uppercase letters in white balloons. Jordan Clark’s narration appears as blue uppercase letters in light blue boxes. Vibrant sound effects enhance Melvin’s search for June and her imprisonment in the future. Yet most important is the enlarged text that appears behind Melvin as he studies Myran’s sticker-adorned laptop. Thanks to Ahoy Comics and Superfan Promotions for providing a review copy.

 

Final Thoughts

Adherents insist that artificial intelligence will never replace human ingenuity. Yet as AI-created art proliferates, people craft stories, essays, books, and school reports with this emerging technology. While June finds solace with Myran in the future, Melvin returns the teen’s unflagging support in Ancestral Recall #2.

 

The issue also includes two prose stories. Carol Lay contributes a contemplative and affecting story about inventors and survivor’s guilt in “The Unhappy God of Children”. Then, Bryce Ingman compiles residents’ complaints about local wildlife in the wildly humorous “Animal Control Incident Reports: 437 Red Cedar Lane.”

 

Rating 9.8/10

 

To look inside see my preview of Ancestral Recall #2.

 

For how this series began, see my review of Ancestral Recall #1.