SCI-FI COMIC NEXUS

  Grizzled space veteran and living legend Gritt Grimstone is on board a ship cruising through the solar system. Preparations for a party to celebrate his 104th birthday are underway. A bored little boy seeks diversion... "Don't you have like a bazillion stories or something?"   So begins Gritt Grimstone: Tales From A Far Out Future by writer Drew D. Lenhart and artists Hernan Molina and Rowel Roque, an anthology of tall tales told by the titular protagonist to his young audience of one.   We are in retro/classic sci-fi territory here, with missions to the moons of Jupiter, dodging asteroids and battling grotesque alien villains. It is a light-hearted romp through nostalgic space with several twists and turns along the way. The action-packed escapades are smoothly rendered by the artists with a satisfying balance of the dramatic with the comic. If the tongue-in-cheek adventurous tone feels familiar, you may have read Lenhart's Caspian Porter series, in which expect...

  I spoke to Jamie Primack, writer and artist of Tapas series Binary Star. Zaki is a bounty hunter from the planet Anaxis, part of the Intergovernmental Council of the Human Empire. Anaxis is part of the Castores binary star system. The companion star also has an inhabited planet, Hakden-Aio, home to the humanoid Hakden-zarift (or ' snowmen' as they are commonly known). The humans of Anaxis have a long, bitter history of conflict with the snowmen, with atrocities committed by both sides. WATCH THE VIDEO: https://youtu.be/VEzAi9QDop8 ....... JAMIE PRIMACK BINARY STAR: https://tapas.io/series/binarystar REVIEW: https://scificomicnexus.blogspot.com/2021/02/review-binary-star.html Website: http://www.jamieprimack.com Instagram: @jamieprimack - https://www.instagram.com/jamieprimack/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamie.primack    Zak Webber infinitydragonfly.com scificomicartist@gmail.com Twitter -  @sfcomicartist  Instagram -  @sfcomicartist JOIN US ON ...

  In this issue, Captain Kang McAlmatov and his ragtag crew are finally formed but are declared traitors. As if the Æsynja Empire gunning for them wasn't bad enough, they are now on the run from their former allies. Their ship becomes a lone wolf in outer space. Zak Webber also manages to give a bit more spotlight to one of the antagonists. I can't wait to see this lethal character come face-to-face with McAlmatov or anyone from his crew.     Oliver Francisco  Infinity Dragonfly: Renegade Souls # 4  

  I spoke to Raudric Curtis for his podcast and we talked about science fiction comics, finding and promoting new talent, how to reach our readership, how the sci-fi genre and the comics medium work together so well... LISTEN TO THE PODCAST Royal House Comics Royal House Comics Podcast   Royal House Comics Podcast discusses Indie Comics and book publishing as well as a diverse range of topics in creative content creation. royalhousecomics.com       

    “You know the truth. The universe is unutterably vast and it is made almost completely of darkness. Everything else is just an aberration, an illusion we spin ourselves to try and ignore the reality.” An unexpected attack renders the future of the main protagonists grim, and one of the traitors surfaces, upping the stakes even further. Zak Webber seamlessly injects the conspiracy element in the storyline, making the reading experience doubly exciting and suspenseful. Can't wait to see what happens next.   Oliver Francisco  Infinity Dragonfly: Renegade Souls #3              

  “You’ve been given the most terrifying gift in the universe: freedom.” I’ve read numerous weird robot/android stories, but the android in this story is something new to me. At the end, she literally becomes a renegade soul, which makes the comic title very appropriate. We are also given a back story of Kang, and the awesome skirmish that he engages in brings to mind some of the more exciting Star Trek space battles in the past where captain Kirk defeats a more powerful enemy by thinking outside the box. Will definitely read issue 3 to find out what happens next.   Oliver Francisco      Infinity Dragonfly: Renegade Souls #2      

Star Trek Voyager was my introduction to space operas. From there I went back and watched the original series, TNG and DS9. Then I fell in love with Firefly and, lately, The Orville. All of the foregoing shows have two things in common: space battles and great stories. I’ve always wished though that they’d produce an edgier version of Star Trek. While I yet have to see that come to pass on the small screen, my wish has already been granted via the comic book format by the indie comic called Infinity Dragonfly by Zak Webber. In the first issue, we are introduced to the crew of an old, retrofitted colony ship that’s been modified for interstellar war. What makes this different from the aforementioned shows is that this comic is not afraid to go where others have not gone before. And this being an indie book, it has the potential to be as graphic as it wants to be. The art style is something like if Moebius relied more on computer programs to illustrate his stories. After a few pages,...

  Interview with Bill McCormick, writer of sci-fi comics Legends Parallel and Hybrid Zero. Bill has written scripts for several comics and has also published novels, writes blogs and is Assistant Editor for ICC Magazine, the Independent Creator's Connection.   INTERVIEW: https://youtu.be/EZbD7ZcIpN4    Website: https://billmcscifi.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BillMcSciFi/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/billmcscifi Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BillMcSciFi Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigbadbillmcscifi/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@billmcscifi? LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/international-distribution-ip-development-bill-bill-mccormick REVIEWS: Legends Parallel - https://scificomicnexus.blogspot.com/2020/11/review-legends-parallel.html Hybrid Zero - https://scificomicnexus.blogspot.com/2020/12/review-hybrid-zero.html       Zak Webber infinitydragonfly.com scificomicartist@gmail.com Twitter -  @sfcomicartist ...

  https://youtu.be/R2gqC6_Qq3Q I spoke to Pam Harrison, writer and artist of A Deviant Mind, the tale of a woman whose escape pod drifts into range of a orbital medical facility in the Alpha Centauri system. She has no memory of who she is, but it soons becomes apparent that she is far from ordinary... Pam is also the Chief Editor of ICC Magazine, the Independent Creator's Connection. In 2008 she won the Prism award for House of the Muses, her graphic novel based on the life of the poet Sappho. A Deviant Mind: Read online here: http://adeviantmind.com/ or download from Indyplanet: https://www.indyplanet.com/a-deviant-mind-vol-1 Read the review: https://scificomicnexus.blogspot.com/2020/11/review-deviant-mind.html House of the Muses: https://www.amazon.com/House-Muses-Phokaian-Pam-Harrison/dp/0981650007?ref_=ast_sto_dp ICC Magazine: http://independentcreatorsconnection.com/icc-magazine/     Zak Webber infinitydragonfly.com scificomicartist@gmail.com Twitter -  @sf...

  The nightmares continue unabated in the third installment of writer/artist Oliver Francisco's Parched Earth Chronicles anthology series. Human survivors of a world-ravaging apocalypse are pitted against horrific mutations indistinguishable from hell-spawned demons. Stranger brings together the threads from two previous stories as wannabe journeyman Henry and his grandfather hunt down a creature that used to be human until a quest for immortality led to a hideous transformation... Porter part two follows the body horror tale of a man infested with a spectacularly bizarre and destructive parasite... The Mountain (script and art by Jorge) is the story of a man who has also been altered by the wasteland, but who uses his new abilities like a superhero. Adventures of Corben and Ezquerra is the story of a fishing expedition, but the catch of the day is something that will take more than a flick of the wrist to reel in... Intruder (art by Mauro Vargas) is a dog's eye view of a ...

    Wolf Titan Base, February 20, 2050... Lieutenant Gason is woken by the base computer. It is time to get up and get to work tracking an anomalous signal that has been detected somewhere on the moon... Climbing aboard a trover, accompanied by his robot driver TC, he begins the search. A few kilometres from the base, they pick up the signal. There should be no other people on Titan, so who could be transmitting? They pinpoint the source: a deep, narrow cavern where the trover cannot follow. To investigate further, Gason must suit up and proceed on foot through the hostile atmosphere of Saturn's moon. It could be the discovery of the century... or something he never could have imagined. In The Signal by writer/artist Pizo Meyer, one man's venture into the unknown takes a turn for the bizarre. Meyer's rough-hewn style, with a restrained palette of cold blues, creates the chilling atmosphere of an unsettling dream. There are shades of 2001 in this mystery, wit...

  In Digital issue 3 by writers Rich Watkin and Zaky Hnana and artist Alex Paterson, the saga of three refugees from an Earth overrun by robots continues. Having discovered a child stowaway on the spacecraft they stole, they then had to make an emergency landing on an unknown planet in order to make repairs. Bear, Noose and Aisha venture out with their new addition, young Eve. The planet is life-bearing, including some cute, cuddly pink, six-eyed tiger cubs... but there are other inhabitants also, who may not be quite so charming. Will the natives turn out to be friendly? Or have our hapless heroes jumped out of a fearsome frying pan and into a ferocious fire? New artist Paterson carries the baton from Flaviu Pop, who drew the previous issues, and manages to keep a consistent look. The reader has no trouble recognising the characters and the change of style is not at all jarring. Paterson's linework is a little softer but with no loss of dramatic impact. Back on Earth, the escape...

 Dommie loves you .   Who is Dommie? That would be Dominaytra, also known as 'Big Sister', head of the Global Freedom Authority. As the GFA is the world government, she is effectively the ruler of the planet. Her statues are everywhere, but the woman herself is elusive. Does she even exist, or is she just a symbol, a personification of the totalitarian regime that controls the populace? Rammur does not give it much thought, to be honest. All he really cares about is his work. He is a professional thief, aided in his exploits by his 'fusion rig', a wearable contraption incorporating wrist blasters and jet boots.  Being able to fly is a definite plus when it comes to being a career criminal. In this brave new dystopia, however, the police are also airborne. Not only that, but being robots ('Ruptors') they are ruthlessly efficient. In Rammur by writer Charles Santino and artists Paulo Peres, Andrew Wendel and Joe Stanton, the emphasis is on action right from the b...

"If there was another way, I would have tried it! But nothing can save us ... we weren't meant to be saved." The universe has ended. Entropic decay - a wave of darkness destroying reality itself - swept through all of space, annihilating everything in its path. Two thousand human survivors live in a huge space station, the Orpheus , protected by a pseudoreality field. Outside is absolute nothingness: not the void of empty space but a total absence of existence. Security Director Deva Karrell is haunted by the cosmic apocalypse that drove the remnants of humanity to this final oasis, and is shocked when the Orpheus turns out to be not the safe haven it was meant to be. In a deactivated district of the vast station a dead body is uncovered; a scientist brutally murdered, the crime scene covered in strange, rune-like symbols... Infinite Dark by writer Ryan Cady and artist Andrea Mutti is a sci-fi/horror drama which exploits the primal fears of the dark, the unknown and the ...

"They are real. They are coming. And they bring the end of your world with them." Earth is governed by two factions: Equilibrium and H.A.L.O., with an uneasy truce between them. Parminder Patel is a specialist in alien technology and is summoned to the Slingshot,  H.A.L.O.'s Breach Containment Facility, a fortress floating above Groom Lake, Nevada. The Slingshot contains a very unusual prisoner: Pharos the Lightbringer, an alien who arrived suddenly on Earth and killed many people before he was captured. H.A.L.O. intends to kill the intruder, but hope to gain some useful information from him before his execution. Given her area of expertise, Patel is the best candidate for the job of interrogator. Pharos - a hulking, red-skinned figure in exotic armour - turns out to be obligingly talkative. He tells Patel of his life on his home planet, where he was raised by farmers in a society of beings who have a unique relationship with plants. Using an intimate type of bonding, his...

Humanity has spread amongst the stars, finding new worlds, new friends and a new frontier, but also new enemies. In the aftermath of the Great Galactic War thousands of civilisations, human and alien alike, were left decimated. Chaos reigns in the galaxy. The Q'Bi system, Alliance space: a small starship drops out of hyperspace after making a random jump. Princess Ariesa of Natal is fleeing a fleet of the fearsome Watu Mutilons. Before she can initiate the next jump, however, her enemies are upon her and open fire. Her engines damaged, she is forced to make an emergency landing on the planet below... and hope that it can offer her sanctuary. Q'Bi 4 is home to ten million people; a technologically advanced civilisation. Ariesa crashes in the city Ch'Yuli but emerges from the wreckage unscathed... It seems Natali princesses are made of some pretty stern stuff! The Watu Mutilons despatch Raptors: armoured troopers diving from orbit towards their quarry. Here the gold-skinned p...

Welcome to a future in which violent criminals have a third option besides prison or execution: Absolution . You like killing people? Cool. We'll install a camera in your eye with an uplink and send you out to assassinate some sleazeball kingpin.  The whole thing will he livestreamed and the public will vote on your performance. Pundits will critique your style and technique. Your ratings will determine your fate: reach the minimum Absolution score within one month or surgically implanted explosives in your body will automatically detonate... Nina Ryan was a young woman with deep-seated anger management issues. After a short, brutal career as a hitwoman she is arrested and sentenced to death ... until a medical scan reveals a neurological basis for her homicidal tendencies. This mitigating circumstance offers her the chance to escape punishment by becoming a rather unique breed of social media star. To stay alive, all she has to do is keep on doing what she is good at ... killing. ...

As interplanetary war threatens the Perseid system, a scientist ventures to the far reaches of space in her search for the truth: is humanity the master of its own fate, or is destiny truly inescapable?  The Republic and the Hegemony are gearing up for war. Tertia, Oracle of the Ordana, can forsee it. She is one of only two surviving clones from a batch of eight, engineered to provide guidance to the Ordana religious institution in the Perseid system. But that is not all she sees... some unseen force is disturbing the flow of mana - the source of  magic - through the ley lines of the star system.  These visions of madness destroyed six of her clone sisters... The other survivor is Octavia, who does not have 'the Sight' and instead works as a lone scientist, investigating the physical basis of the mana .  A stranger seeks her out, a man called Sebastian who hopes that she can answer a question that troubles him very deeply... the question of what he is. He wears a "g...

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO I spoke to Harrison Prime, young writer and artist, creator of science fiction comics Meta 6 and The Gold Bullet, who is based in Lagos, Nigeria. We discussed the African comic scene, how culture, politics and diversity come into play, and how technology is shaping our world. An artist always creates work that is deeply personal, and especially so in Harrison's case. What does the future hold for the comics scene in Africa, and the world? ....... You can read Meta 6 issues 1 & 2, and The Gold Bullet issues 1 & 2 FREE on the Cosmic Land Studios website: http://cosmiclandstudios.com Follow Harrison on Instagram: @harrison_prime Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/harry.hjosephat ....... SCI-FI COMIC NEXUS: Blog: https://scificomicnexus.blogspot.com Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/801474813951393 This group is for for people who love science fiction comics - those who read them and those who make them! Starships, planets, aliens, robots......

"Who do you think is in control? On the one hand it's a free world. We all make our own choices. Be whatever you want, right? But we're also shaped by our genetics. Our imposing parents. Our persuasive friends. "Our education, our politics, our religion. Our whole lives. Influenced. Branded. Brainwashed.  "And now the newest participant to code our minds ... social media. Our own devices plotting against us. Technology telling us what to do.  "So I'll ask you again. Are we really making our own choices, or are they being made for us?" Mind control.  You can probably imagine lots of disturbing things in this universe... Bug-eyed monsters with huge claws. Killer robots. A fiery meteorite aimed right at you and your city, promising obliteration... But: mind control . The absolute loss of your free will, your entire decision-making ability. To be turned into the proverbial meat puppet, the theft of control over your brain and body... That is a chill tha...

There was once a dreaded force in the galaxy, devouring everything in its path. It was the Viper Onslaught! Only three races stood between them and total conquest.  That was over a thousand years ago. This on again, off again war has strained the Triumvirate, some say beyond repair! In this current wave of peacetime, will they be able to consolidate their power? Will the Vipers return? Will the galaxy be destroyed? In "the big black nothingness that spans the distance between the islands we call planets" the RTS Cerberus patrols the borders... "keeping the empire safe from... well, nothing." Ir's the graveyard shift. Corbull (purple squid alien) is bored. Nobody has even seen a Viper for more than twenty years. He and his friend Komak (red pterodactyl alien) have flight duty. Technician Lintak (blue monkey alien) launches their fighters out into the void... ... where Corbull promptly nods off and starts dreaming of his homeworld, complete with a Jane Austen sty...

A new dawn! More than three Earth years have passed since the fall of the Terran Empire and the collapse of civilization. But freedom has its price. The remains' centre is dominated by lawlessness and piracy and the void has never been more wild... The colonies at the frontier are the only places where some order is still maintained. Gunnar, a former detective, who works as a freelancer to make ends meet and protect freedom from chaos, is on his way to finish a job... It is the Earth year 2533 and Gunnar sets down on the planet Gemini 2 in the Helen Nebula. It  is a rocky, dusty wasteland of a world with just a few thousand inhabitants. A huge mechanical ring - a 'jump gate' - hangs in the sky over the city; a transportation portal for supplies (including much needed water from the ocean world Gemini Prime). It has a Wild West, frontier town vibe, the streets peppered with junkies hooked on "dust" and disreputable young women offering companionship to weary travel...