Grammaton Punch Review

 

Grammaton Punch Review

Writer: Miles Gunter

Artist: Brian Andan

Colorist: Lee Loughridge

Letterer: Taylor Esposito

Issue One Cover Color: Dee Cunniffe

Logo/Design: Ed Dukeshire

Ebook Publisher: Comixology

Kindle Release Date: Available now

Kindle Price: $6.99 (free to read with an Amazon Prime membership)

Paperback Publisher: Ablaze Comics

Paperback Release Date: March 17, 2026

Paperback Price: $19.99

 

As an infant, Van Nguyen glimpses ghosts. When one touches the boy, she feeds off her energy. With the dead spirit sucking on his life force, Van frequently gets sick. His mother takes him to the doctor, and Van spends days in the hospital. After running a battery of tests, the doctors notice an irregularity with his eyes. Still, they can’t prevent the ghost from draining him of energy. Can Van elude the ghost lady? And how will she influence his journey to adulthood? Let’s leap into Grammaton Punch and see!

 

Story

Like anyone stuck in a dysfunctional relationship, Van’s early life falls into a familiar pattern. On his good days, he goes outside and plays. But like any abuser, the ghost always returns to drain the boy's health and happiness. Then, one day, Van realizes he can touch her, too. After that, the boy begins to fight back. As he learns how to fend off the ghost, Van can enjoy life again. Yet when he reaches school age, his life takes another turn.

 

In Grammaton Punch, Van rarely notices ghosts attacking other students in Kindergarten and Elementary School. But when their parents arrive to take their children home, Van sees ghosts preying on them. Yearning to protect the unwary adults, Van fights off the ghosts around the mothers and fathers. As they can’t see what he’s attacking, Van garners a reputation for his playfighting.

 

Unlike his teachers, his mother's colleagues smile when the boy punches the air around them. Van’s mother is a powerlifter in the World Weightlifting Federation. Her fellow competitors praise his fighting spirit, which enhances their regard for Susie Nguyen.

 

Trouble arises when Van encounters a ghost that injures him. Van thought he had the feeders under control. He had forgotten what it was like to feel defenseless. But when Van reaches his lowest ebb, he meets a kindred spirit. Their abilities differ from Van’s. Still, they recognize what the boy is going through.

 

Van’s eyes may be different from most people’s. His struggles will continue. Still, Van feels grateful to meet a kindred spirit in Grammaton Punch.  

 

Art

Susie Nguyen smiles as she pushes her stroller through the park. When a one-eyed ghost extends a finger toward Van’s forehead, the baby’s wonder at life transforms into a scream. The cyclops spirit hovers around Susie, never touching her as it feeds on the child. As the doctors study X-rays, an image of an optic nerve attached to an eye evokes the circumstances of Van's birth.

 

As Brian Andan fills Grammaton Punch with edgy, endearing characters, Lee Loughridge lavishes a loaded palette on the energy-fueled manga-style art. White hair and rose-tinted glasses signal Van’s uniqueness. When he sees a boarded-up house radiating a yellow glow, a stranger approaches. Along with the way she meets him, the man’s height and muscularity suggest another reason for how Susie Nguyen treats him.

 

Taylor Esposito fills dialogue balloons with uppercase black text that grows bold for intonation. Van’s thoughts fill blue narrative boxes, while a dangerous ghost speaks into white hexagons radiating halos. Enlarged letters deform balloons as laughter, exclamation marks, and hearts fill the air. Sound effects heighten Van’s increasingly dangerous battles with the supernatural. Thanks to Comixology and Superfan Promotions for providing a review copy.

 

Final Thoughts

Most people pass on to the afterlife when they die. Yet some spirits linger. While they work out unresolved issues, they drain the living to sustain themselves. Van may start protecting others at an early age. Other people may not realize the dangers they face. They mark him out as strange and different, leaving the boy isolated and alone. Still, Van fights to prevent the ghosts from draining their strength and vitality so they can achieve their potential in Grammaton Punch.

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

To purchase a trade paperback or read for free with Prime, visit Grammaton Punch at Amazon. 

Grammaton Punch TP Spotlight

 

 

Do our spirits linger when we die? As Van Nguyen explores the world around him, the boy sees spirits lingering in places where they lived. But that doesn't mean he gets along with them. Instead, the contentious relationship turns the boy gray before his time. And as Van grows, he discovers other dangers of battling the spirits. How will Van's life change when he reaches adulthood? And is he improving other people's lives, or exhausting himself for no reason?

Here's all the info from Comixology and Ablaze Comics:

 

Grammaton Punch 

Writer: Miles Gunter

Artist: Briane Andan

Colorist: Lee Loughridge 

Letterer: Taylor Esposito

Ebook Publisher: Comixology 

Kindle Release Date: Available now 

Kindle Price: Free to read with Amazon Prime Membership 

Paperback Publisher: Ablaze Comics

Paperback Release Date: March 17, 2026

Paperback Price: $19.99 

Van Nguyen isn't like other kids. Born on an eclipse, he has the ability to see and lay hands on the parasitic ghosts that feed off the energy of unsuspecting people. Van's abilities have made him a loner, but as he starts his freshman year of high school he finds himself confronting his own self-imposed boundaries while struggling to protect his classmates from the frenzy of spirits feeding off their adolescent energy.

Miles Gunter (BPRD) and newcomer Briane Andan take you on a wild ride full of action, humor, teen angst and heart.

 

 

Thanks to Comixology, Ablaze Comics, and Superfan Promotions for sharing this spotlight with us. 

 

Preview (or read for free) Grammation Punch at Amazon.com. 

 

Jim Zub Interview Part 4: Conan The Barbarian #13 & The Frost Giant's Daughter

 

After concentrating on his contributions to Titan Comics' series The Savage Sword Of Conan, I shifted topics to the latest issue of writer Jim Zub's Conan The Barbarian series. Still, I made a slight detour into Savage Sword along the way! Here's more of my interview with Cimmerian scribe Jim Zub!

 

David: With Conan The Barbarian #13, it seems like you've gone through cycles where Conan was with Brisa and then his world kind of breaks. He tries to go back to Cimmeria but he couldn't. So, he's goes to Shadizar to start over, and then that situation gets messed up. So now he’s going out into the wilderness on his own.

 

 

Conan The Barbarian #1 Cover B (Roberto de la Torre)

 

Jim: Well, we've jumped to an earlier part of the timeline. Like with the weird tale stories, we can move around. We don't have to go linear. So if you look in Conan The Barbarian #1, there's a flashback. It talks about him fighting at the battle of Venarium, and he's got this bear on his back, and it talks about him testing his might. Now we're going back and showing that story.

 

Conan The Barbarian #13 Cover A by Dan Panosian

 

We're showing Conan in his youth, questioning his faith, and wondering what it's all about. Chronologically, Conan The Barbarian #13 to 16 take place between zero [The 2023 Free Comic Book Day issue] and #1.  

 

David: The shape of his sword made me wonder. 

 

Jim: It is the Pict blade that he got at the end of the Free Comic Book Day special.

 

David: But in Conan The Barbarian #12, he discards it, right?

 

Jim: Yeah.

 

David: Okay, because it [the panel] was very small.

 

Jim: Yeah. No, he does discard it, yeah.

 

David: I'm going to revise my review then.

 

Jim: [Laughs] No worries. It's all good. 

 

 

The Savage Sword Of Conan #4 Cover A by David Palumbo

 

 

David: So, [in Savage Sword] you've done a prose story. You've done comics. You've done a poem. Are we going to see a pinup next?

 

Jim: [Laughs] You know, I am an artist. I was an artist before I became a writer. I'm not sure. I do sketches of Conan and stuff for people, but man! You know Doug [Braithwaite] and Rob [de la Torre] are so phenomenal! I would be extra intimidated to step into the ring. It's not impossible but it's not the current plan, no, but thank you for the compliment. It would be cool, for sure.

 

David: Yeah, something different.

 

Jim: Yeah, you’re like, “Are you doing a rock opera next?”

 

David: [Laughs] So, with your Conan The Barbarian series, you pass over some stories and you kind of blend on others.

 

Jim: Yeah.

 

David: Why retell “The Frost Giant’s Daughter’? 

 

 

Conan The Barbarian #13 Cover B by Amanda Conner

 

 

Jim: Good question! So, early on I made it very clear we weren't going to do straight adaptations because they've been done many times in comics. If you're a Conan fan you know “The Frost Giant’s Daughter”. You know the “God in the Bowl”. You know “The Tower Of The Elephant” and “The Queen Of The Black Coast”. So, we can build off those pillars and hopefully surprise you with the ways that we echo the themes or ideas or visuals from those stories, but not just retell them.

 

Doug [Braithwaite] specifically asked me to do a story set in the frozen north. He loves those [Frank] Frazetta paintings of Conan fighting in the snow, and he's like, “I want something that feels like that!” 

 

 

Conan Legacy Frazetta Cover #1 (Dark Horse Comics)

 

 

There’s only canon story that takes place in the north like that and that's “The Frost Giant’s Daughter”. I said, “I’ve got to think about it,” and I came across this idea of faith and Conan in his youth with wanderlust. Originally, I was going to finish it with him heading into “The Frost Giant's Daughter.” Then I realized thematically we could do something even more expansive.

 

I don't want to spoil it, but “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” is sort of central to the story now. So, we see before and after [Robert E Howard’s story] and there are some surprises. Even though you've read “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” before, there’s context for why they happen and where. We can give you a different story that is not just the one you've read before. There's more under the hood and I'm really excited for people to see it.

 

And it’s the 90th anniversary of the original story’s publication so it just seemed like kismet that we could do it and we'd be able to celebrate at the same time. 

 

 

The Cimmerian: The Frost Giant's Daughter #1 Cover A by Peach Momoko

 

David: I'm sure it'll be a lot different than Ablaze Comics’ version of “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” [in their series The Cimmerian].

 

Jim: [Laughs] Yes, I can say that with absolute confidence!

 

Thanks again to Jim Zub for speaking with me, Titan Comics for arranging the interview, and the press office at Comic-Con International for granting me the opportunity to speak with the author bringing Conan back to comic readers! I'll share more of this interview soon!

Traveling To Mars #11 Review

 

Writer: Mark Russell

Artist: Roberto Meli

Colorist: Chiara Di Francia

Letterer: Mattia Gentili

Cover Artists: Roberto Meli; Gabriele Bagnoli; Ciro Cangialosi; Brent McKee

Publisher: Ablaze

Price: $3.99

Release Date: April 3, 2024

 

Roy arrived on Mars with his robot companions. While Leopold and Albert's lives will continue, Roy's oxygen is nearly gone. He received his final message from the Easy Beef Corporation and a surprise missive from his ex-wife Candace. What can Roy accomplish in his remaining hours on the Red Planet? Let's put on our spacesuits, take a giant leap into Traveling To Mars #11, and find out!

 

Story

Traveling To Mars #10 ended so satisfactorily that this issue came as a surprise. Sometimes, a comic series goes on too long. But Roy, Leopold, and Albert make such charming companions that I couldn’t begrudge sharing more time with them.

 

In Mark Russell’s story, Roy has accomplished his mission. He’s staked his claim to mining rights on behalf of the Easy Beef Corporation. So what if Vera lied about discovering natural gas deposits, and all the machinery and people sent from Earth will accomplish nothing? There’s nothing Roy can do about that.

 

Like the animals in the pet shop where Roy worked, Albert and Leopold became part of his family. Each abandoned rover in Vera's community has a life to lead. Roy isn't a model spokesperson. Yet he's there. Roy cared for his animals on Earth. He spends his final hours caring for the robots on Mars.

 

In Traveling to Mars #11, something Roy didn’t do on Earth still plagues him. Ticking that box on Mars comes as a welcome surprise. Maybe Roy was a zero on Earth. Who cares? Since when did you have to be Somebody to give your life meaning or help others?

 

Like many science fiction readers, I’ve long been fascinated by our Red neighbor. I've read countless stories and novels about Mars. Some are fantasies like Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter Of Mars novels. Others offer thoughtful scientific extrapolation, such as Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. Perhaps it was Russell's flowing prose. It may be his sociological musings. Whatever the reason, as I read Traveling To Mars #11, my thoughts returned to Ray Bradbury’s novel The Martian Chronicles. Like this issue and Roy's accomplishment, discovering a comic that evoked a childhood favorite proved an unexpected but welcome bonus.

 

 

Art

As the sun sinks toward the distant hills, Roy sits on a boulder in his spacesuit and strums his guitar. The rover community surrounds a glowing lamp as Roy's loyal robot friends discuss their favorite movie. Roy steps onto a makeshift dais, envisioning great orators from Human history. Roberto Meli shows a shantytown of homes constructed from abandoned equipment in the background. The rovers' sensors gaze up as Roy talks and gestures. After his speech, Roy returns to Vera in Traveling To Mars #11. Then he kneels before a small robot and shakes its hand.

 

Purple fills a sky dotted with white beneath an orange-red landscape. Blue dominates Roy’s memories of holding Candace. Beneath his visor, his face fades to blue as a convoy of spacecraft travels through panels overlaying his features. Chiara Di Francia splashes the morning sky with yellow, orange, and magenta. Even though the rovers' metal bodies look gray and silver, the glowing, colored lights of their optical sensors grant them individuality.

 

Mattia Gentili's uppercase black letters fill white dialogue balloons. Smaller, italicized lowercase letters roam colored narrative boxes. The robots' machine-like font evokes signage in Buck Rogers In The 25^th Century. No sound effects distract from Roy's flowing memories and musings or the heartfelt conversations in this series-ending issue.

 

While I wrote this review, my wife glanced at my computer and said, "That looks like Scotty." I hadn't connected Roy with the Enterprise's Chief Engineer. Still, Roy becomes the robot community’s miracle worker in Traveling To Mars #11. Thanks to Ablaze Publishing and Arancia Studio for providing a copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

A man passed over in life finds peace, and a slave community embarks on an odyssey in Traveling To Mars #11.

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

Traveling To Mars #10 Review

 

Writer: Mark Russell

Artist: Roberto Meli

Colorist: Chiara Di Francia

Letterer: Mattia Gentili

Cover Artists: Roberto Meli; Romina Moranelli; Fernando Proietti; Brent McKee

Publisher: Ablaze

Price: $3.99

Release Date: February 7, 2023

 

Vera's reports of natural gas deposits on Mars bolstered a society teetering on the brink of collapse. The Easy Beef Corporation funded a mission to send a human to Mars. There was only one problem: they couldn't send the resources to keep the astronaut alive indefinitely. So they sent Roy, a man with an imminent expiration date, to stake their claim. Unfortunately for Earth, Vera lied. Somehow, the rover attained sentience and craved communication with others. So, the Easy Beef Corporation will fund the infrastructure for natural gas extraction and an intrasolar delivery system. Human society will still collapse when it consumes its remaining natural resources.

 

Cancer won’t kill Roy. Nor will he live to see the Easy Beef Corporation land on Mars and watch other companies and nations battle over its nonexistent resources. He’ll consume his remaining oxygen today and die. How will Roy spend his last day on Mars? Let's put on our spacesuits, take a giant leap into Traveling To Mars #10, and find out!

 

Story

What would you eat for your last meal? How about steak? Sounds great, right? Thick, juicy, and imitation meat. Still, it tastes great, so who cares?

 

How about afterward? One final moment of entertainment? Roy watches the Kangaroo Kid movie again. Leopold and Albert sit beside Roy. Their optical sensors glow while watching. The robots rock on their wheels at the movie’s climax. So, the man who devoted his life to animals made his robot companions happy one final time, thanks to Hollywood's CGI magicians.

 

Now it's time for one last walk. Roy likens hiking around Mars to tramping through Arizona in a beekeeping outfit, but it's what he came here for, right? Isn't that the grand dream: exploring an alien planet? Yet Roy's thoughts remain tethered to Earth.

 

In earlier issues, we glimpsed Roy's courtship with Candace. We saw them marry and survive the storm that destroyed their town. In Traveling To Mars #10, Mark Russell returns us to Eufaula, Alabama, in the year of our Lord, 2024.

 

Roy and Candace live in a FEMA trailer. Thanks to his job at the pet store, he's filled their trailer with animals. Candace wants to start their family. Roy wants to wait to have children. Hey, aren't animals family? The choices he makes define their relationship. Candace argues that life will try to curtail your potential, but he can't embrace bigger dreams. Ultimately, Roy achieves his career goal, but at too great a cost.

 

Mark Russell forges a link between Roy and Vera in Traveling To Mars #10. Life consigned the rover to the scrap heap, just as it threw Roy's marriage onto the rocks. Both seek meaning and purpose in their lives. Like Roy, Vera cared for others and became a leader. As with Candace, the rover's journey will continue, while Roy's will end.

  

Art

Roberto Meli begins and ends Traveling To Mars #10 with Roy confronting Vera and the other surviving rovers. He divides the remainder of the tale between life on Earth and Roy's final morning in the shuttle. Roy looks charmingly ridiculous in his cowboy hat as he sits at a table and eats his fake steak with one hand. Meli portrays the purposelessness of his mission and life in one glimpse of the town Roy left behind. He also shows us a final sketch from Roy's notebook, as the lone Human on Mars commits his thoughts on the meaning of life to paper.

 

Under the glowing starfield, Roy sleeps in his illuminated shuttle. Sunrise fills the sky with red. Light streams through the shuttle windows. Like Leopold and Albert, Chiara Di Francia paints the shuttle interior in blue and orange. Highlights and shadows convey individuality to wall tiles and interior furnishings. I don't know its origin, as I've not followed this series since its inception, but a child's handprint-turkey drawing on yellow paper sparks the most vibrant color in Roy's present.

 

Mattia Gentili relates Roy's reminiscences with uppercase black letters in white dialogue balloons. The yellow/orange narrative boxes—which match the faded color schemes of life back on Earth—feature small lowercase handprinted font. Gentili fills tan paper strips with tiny lowercase handprinted font in Traveling To Mars #10. The coloring of the tiny lettering seems faded, closer to brown than black. A solitary sound effect announces something unexpected that brings a sense of completeness to Roy's final day.

 

Thanks to Ablaze Publishing and Arancia Studio for providing this copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

Bittersweet and satisfying, Traveling To Mars #10 delivers a poignant reminder to live our lives to the fullest, cherish those closest to us, and nourish others' beliefs and values.

 

Rating 9/10

 

For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

On The Way GN Review

 

Writer: Paco Hernández

Artist & Cover Artist: José Ángel Ares

Publisher: Ablaze

Price: $19.99

Release Date: November 8, 2023

 

Emma gets off the bus from Pamplona in Roncesvalles. She mistakes the Spanish village's church for the Cathedral in Santiago. Emma discovers that 790 kilometers lay between her and the end of the French Way, the most popular variant of the Camino De Santiago, or The Way Of Saint James. Why would she embark on this ambitious pilgrimage without more knowledge and preparation? Let's leap into the On The Way GN and find out!

 

Story

Emma hails from Lleida, a city in Catalonia where she lives with her partner Dani. While Dani used his love of comics as a springboard to get a job at a magazine, Emma remains dedicated to her craft. He tires of her drawing at night when he wants to go out and socialize with their friends. Emma won a prestigious Revelation award at the annual Barcelona International Comic Fair. Still, Dani wants her to adopt a more conventional career.

 

Abby is a Camino De Santiago veteran in the On The Way GN (graphic novel). She senses Emma's confusion and takes the newbie in hand. With Abby's help, Emma gets her booklet, learns all the places she needs to stop to get it stamped, trims down her pack to the essentials, and explains the importance of getting to bed early each night. But in the morning, as they begin the epic journey, Emma asks Abby to slow down. Abby gives her a rough awakening. “Walk at your pace, or risk getting Tendinitis.”

 

 

Paco Hernández tries to convey the challenge facing Emma in the On The Way GN. As Abby tells her, many start, but few finish the entire journey. Emma spends most days and nights at her art table. To complete the Camino De Santiago in a month, Emma needs to average 25 kilometers each day. That's over fifteen miles and includes hiking up and down hills on Abby's "leg-breaker" stages.

 

As fellow hiker Ramon tells Emma in the graphic novel, pilgrims undertake The Way Of Saint John for different reasons, including sport, vacation, faith, honor the deceased, or to fulfill a promise. He warns her to choose her companions carefully, as some unscrupulous pilgrims take advantage of pilgrims and hostels. Yet she refuses to heed his advice about Abby when she reunites with her in towns and villages.

 

Emma welcomes others into her circle, including Francois, who yearns to perfect his potato omelets. Inspired by his grandfather's stories, the young man aborted two previous attempts due to Tendinitis. Then there’s heavyset Juan, who hopes to start a T-shirt business. He’s amazed by Emma's ambitions as a comic artist. According to his sister Eva, he has superpowers: he always hears about free food and drinks!

 

Art

Ares imbues characters with realistic body shapes and movements in On The Way GN. The characters visit vivid and compelling backgrounds. The landscapes, monuments, and historic architecture wow. Character faces and expressions have a gentle, easygoing appeal that evokes Funny Things, the Charles M. Schultz Comic Strip Biography from IDW that I reviewed earlier this year. Emma and Abby’s reactions to humor, insights, bonding, and surprise may seem more at home in a Peanuts strip than in a comic or trade paperback. Still, their love for each other and their wonder at their discoveries shine through their eyes.

 

Ares enhances the artwork with blue and brown shading. Blue seems poorly suited to Emma's trek through Spain, where pilgrims rise early each morning to miss the midday heat. Yet the shading enhances the depth and appeal of the characters and the historic locales they visit. Plus, it occasionally rains in sunny Spain. Imagine hiking 15 miles when it rains on the plains! (Sorry, but I had to throw that in). Ares uses brown to shade flashbacks of Emma's difficulties with Dani in On The Way GN. Perhaps the warm color suggests her passion for Dani and their increasingly heated discussions.

 

Large blue or brown uppercase lettering adorns dialogue balloons and narrative boxes in similarly shaded scenes. Fun and appealing sound effects lighten the drama while never undercutting the relationships or the enormity of completing this epic journey. Thanks to Ablaze Comics for providing a copy for review and allowing me to "Have a Nice Camino" with Emma.

 

Final Thoughts

The On The Way GN follows Emma on a breathtaking journey across Spain. A priest assures the comics writer and artist that she is far from alone in hiking The Way Of Saint John for nonreligious reasons. Yet she experiences the everyday miracles he promised on her month-long trek. What Emma learns during the Camino De Santiago empowers her to reassess her life and make decisions regarding her future.

 

Rating 9.6/10

 

This review was originally published on Comic Book Dispatch.

Traveling To Mars #9 Review

 

Writer: Mark Russell

Artist: Roberto Meli

Colorist: Chiara Di Francia

Letterer: Mattia Gentili

Cover Artists: Roberto Meli; Michele Benevento; Dario Tallarico; Brent McKee

Publisher: Ablaze

Price: $3.99

Release Date: November 1, 2023

 

In leaving the spaceship, Roy Livingston signed his death warrant. Already terminally ill, he’s got a few days on Mars before his shuttle and suit’s air runs out. Was his flag-planting exercise worth it? Let’s warp into Traveling To Mars #9 and find out!

 

Story

After six months, Roy reached Mars with his companions. Leopold and Albert talked, felt emotions, and enjoyed movies with him. The robots found new friends in the rovers from previous missions. Foremost among them is Perseverance II, which Roy calls Vera. The rover reported the natural gas deposits that excited energy companies back on Earth. Yet when Leopold and Albert introduced it, Vera admitted that it lied.

 

In Traveling To Mars #9, Mark Russell invites us to share Vera’s journey. It’s a story of heartbreak as the rover struggled to understand why its creators fell silent. What did it do wrong? How could it repair the damaged relationship? As it sought answers, it met more of its kind. Abandoned by their creators, Vera welded the scattered rovers into a community. Eventually, Vera conceived a way to become valued once more and get the answers it desperately craved.

 

As in previous issues, Roy’s thoughts return to the past. A hurricane caused him to doubt God's existence. The fragility of life taught him to value it more. He’s tempted to spend his remaining days avoiding Vera, Leopold, Albert, and the other robots. After all, they’ve done him and Humanity wrong. But as a former pet store manager, can he ignore these aging, mechanical beings who look to him for hope?

  

Art

When he met Vera, Roy sensed cruelty and indifference. Roberto Meli details the weathering, surface imperfections, and brokenness of the rovers in Traveling To Mars #9. As Vera rolls across the regolith, testing shale, sending radio signals, repairing its robot brethren, and gazing upon a member of the species that created it, we sense something more. We feel the pain, longing, and determination that earned it the name Perseverance II.

 

Roy likened trekking across Mars to exploring Arizona in a beekeeper suit. Chiara Di Francia brings light to this red planet with the dust Roy and the robots kick into the thin Martian atmosphere. Blue seeps into objects not bathed in the distant sunlight, whether a crater wall, a pile of mechanical debris, or Roy's transparent helmet. Light speeds across pages, following prescribed pathways, forming a circuit-like backdrop as Vera regales Roy. Mauve lines streak panels showing the rover's journey, while yellow circles make radio signals visible. Umber shadows roam orange dunes, darkening each wheel's tracks. A stained component deemed unsalvageable lays in a bluish shade while the robot community seeks its next temporary home in Traveling To Mars #9.

 

Mattia Gentili reveals the characters’ speech with black uppercase words in white dialogue balloons. Vera accompanies her illustrated past with black words in yellow narrative boxes. Roy’s thoughts appear as lowercase words written on scraps of beige journal paper. The latter may strain the eyes more than the robots’ conversations. Yet sound effects enliven Vera's story, and Roy's emboldened words swell as he attempts to come to grips with the robot community's leader.

 

Thanks to Ablaze Publishing and Arancia Studio for providing this copy for review.

 

Final Thoughts

Do you ever feel unwanted? Traveling To Mars #9 reminds us of the pain of abandonment and how those who work hardest are often deemed inconsequential and needy.

 

Rating 9.2/10

 

For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.

Traveling To Mars #8 Review

 

Writer: Mark Russell

Artist: Roberto Meli

Colorist: Chiara Di Francia

Letterer: Mattia Gentili

Cover Artists: Roberto Meli; Mili Montlló; & Emanuele Gizzi; Brent McKee

Publisher: Ablaze

Price: $3.99

Release Date: September 20, 2023

 

Twenty years hence, dwindling resources drive people into the streets. As states invoke martial law to quell riots and corporations battle to control Earth’s remaining resources, can one man succeed where governments failed? Let’s warp into Traveling To Mars #8 and find out!

 

Story

Roy Livingstone is a dying man. Unlucky in love and business, he faces his final days alone. Why not do something for his planet before his cancer kills him? So he boards a ship with two robots and shoots into space. If he can stake claim to Mars’ mineral wealth, perhaps he'll feel like he contributed to a better future and can bask in the glow of reaching another planet. That is until his oxygen runs out.

 

It's been six long months, but Roy’s finally arrived. As he prepares to leave the Erimhon, Roy indulges in a final morning of escapism. Packing up prompts reflections on what drives Human progress. A chat with folks back home grants insight into how we chart our journey through life. As his shuttle descends, Traveling To Mars #8 suggests that knowing you will die soon doesn't rob fear of its power.

 

Perhaps it’s unrealistic to believe we could build a space elevator in the next two decades, let alone set up an interplanetary supply system. Mark Russell dreams big in his satire-laced Traveling To Mars #8, even suggesting we could terraform Mars in a few generations! With corporations in the United States regularly traveling outside Earth's atmosphere and other countries getting into the Space Race, perhaps Russell's vision isn't impossible. Should Humanity realize his vision, let's hope the situation on Earth isn't as dire as he paints it.

 

Art

Roberto Meli delivers action aplenty, with kangaroos punching cowboys, a drone racing toward an oil platform, and Roy's shuttle hurtling through Martian skies. Even smaller moments—like the glances Roy shares with his robots—shine thanks to lifelike portrayals and attention to detail. We see how life has ground Roy down through his expressions and movements. Yet the Martian future he imagines inspires awe.

 

The red planet casts a warm glow into space as Traveling To Mars #8 opens. Stars twinkle as the Erimhon travels through the multi-hued vacuum. The blue-and-white robot Albert plants a flag in the yellow, orange, and red regolith while Roy stands bemused beneath a textured lavender sky. Light sources gleam, and highlights and shadows ground characters and structures. Pages shine thanks to the depth and nuance Chiara Di Francia creates with his vast array of appealing colors.

 

Mattia Gentili reveals the characters’ speech with black uppercase words in white dialogue balloons. Roy’s thoughts appear as lowercase words in colored boxes. The latter may strain the eyes as Mark Russell dishes out an ample serving of narrative-driven drama. Yet balloon and box sizes scale nicely within panels. Like Roy, we're amazed he arrives in one piece, thanks to the colorful and expressive sound effects that convey the shuttle's high-speed descent.

 

Final Thoughts

As Roy reaches his destination, Traveling To Mars illustrates the coming apocalypse and hints there's still time to make our future brighter.

 

Rating 9/10

 

For more cover art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.