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Writer: Alec Robbins
Artist: Kit Wallis
Colorist: JP Jordan
Letterer: Dave Lentz
Cover Artist: Sean Monaghan
Publisher: Titan Comics
Price: $19.99
Release Date: January 15, 2025
The G3 Cartel, led by the merciless Garmantuous, devastated Gatlian civilization. After using biological warfare to transform most of the sentient guns into zombies, Garmantuous captured the survivors for medical experimentation. (Not content with that, he executed the Human rock band Radiohead. What a creep!) How have the Gatlians fared since the Human Bounty Hunter brought peace to the Gatlus? Let’s grab our friendly talking guns, leap into High On Life Vol 1 TP, and find out!
Story
Harper lost her family during the G3 attack on her planet. Thankfully, Colonel Smithon Wesson took her in. From his underground compound, Wesson led the Gatlian resistance, training the survivors of his talking gun species to combat the blobby invaders. Along with Professor Creed Turian, Colonel Smithon Wesson forged his ragtag group of survivors into an effective fighting force. But they didn’t kill Garmantuous and defeat the murderers. That honor fell to the Human Bounty Hunter and his band of talking guns.
In High On Life Vol 1 TP, Colonel Smithon Wesson burns with rage. Garmantuous took his wife and family. After love blossomed with his new partner, the leader of the cartel army took away Professor Turian. When the Human Bounty Hunter killed Garmantuous, he left Wesson with nothing to live for. Stripped of his purpose and the people he loved, Wesson vowed to kill the person who took away everything that he built his life around. Wesson would kill the Human Bounty Hunter. Heck, he would kill all Humans!
Unlike Colonel Smithon Wesson, Harper discovered a better way forward. She befriended the man who freed her planet from the invaders. Now, she travels the spaceways with her friends and rescues people from kidnappers like Vardagan. Harper found a new home with their friend Gene and a traumatized Gatlian war hero. And they have a place they enjoy going to when they want to share their tragic backstories. Unfortunately, they never order anything except water, which angers the waiter because they take up the booth for hours. But hey, you can’t please everybody, right?
Art
Kit Wallis fills High On Life Vol 1 TP with colorful characters. Aside from Harper and the Human Bounty Hunter's other talking guns, there is Creature. He gives birth to tiny monsters that scurry off and devour their enemies. Knifey is a talking knife who briefly wrests the story from Alec Robbins and makes it his own. Then there is the Human Bounty Hunter, who never speaks and hides his appearance behind a spacesuit and helmet. Is he the Karma Police, or just a Man Of War?
Into this lushly painted world walks Steve Buscemi. The Human actor becomes our viewpoint character as Harper travels to her home planet aboard the interstellar taxi service Haul & Otis. Steve bonds with his colorful companions amid the eye-catching backgrounds of JP Jordan. The actor who voiced Starscream in Transformers One learns how Professor Turian replaced Harper's equine mechanical walker with an Iron Man-like suit.
Perhaps Steve is at his best when he remains with purple Gene and red Knifey to help his new friends evade Colonel Smithon Wesson. Unlike the red, blue, white, and silver Bounty Hunter and the yellow and red Creature with his tiny, toothy blue children, Harper and Colonel Smithon Wesson share the same skin color with the Human actor Vardagan stuffed in his burlap bag.
The dialogue proves as colorful as the characters in High On Life Vol 1 TP. Harper speaks with blue letters, Creature utters wobbly red dialogue, Humans and the three-eyed waiter speak black letters, and Colonel Wesson Smith speaks green. Dave Lentz uses a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters that enlarge, grow bold, and rarely shrink to convey the gripping drama and excitement of this down-to-Gatlus story. Sound effects help us hear gunfire, Creature giving birth, Harper hopping through a Targit store (They're like Earth Targets, only different), and Colonel Smithon Wesson squashing an enemy like Monty Python’s giant foot.
Final Thoughts
High On Life Vol 1 TP is about how grief and loss can transform us into monsters, and we can forge new lives through friendship. The story promises we can do extraordinary things if we believe in ourselves, whether relaxing at home, leaping through portals, fighting aliens on distant war planets, or hanging out with friends at the Space Applebee’s in Uptown Blim City.
Rating 9.5/10
To look inside see my preview of High On Life Vol 1 TP.
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