Welcome to my first post for Sci-Fi Month 🙂 I’m a massive fan of comics of almost every type – one of the ongoing disappointments in my life at the moment is that I don’t have enough disposable income to have a regular pull list – and I’m also a massive sci-fi fan, obviously. So it makes my heart sing when these two interests collide. Looking to get into comics with a sci-fi theme? Let me give you some pointers.
Five ‘Weird Science’ Titles
- Black Science – Rick Remender, Matteo Scalera & Dean White. A little bit alternate realities, a little bit military sci-fi, and a lot ‘none of this is happening the way we planned’. Travel through alternate version of Earth with Grant MacKay and his team. Particularly recommended to fans of Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.
- Clone – David Schulner & Juan Jose Ryp. So there you are, living your life, going about your business when you find out you’re actually part of a military experiment that created one hundred clones of the same man. Damn. Particularly recommended to fans of Orphan Black (duh).
- FBP: Federal Bureau of Physics – Simon Oliver & Robbi Rodriguez. When the laws of physics break down, the FBP is all that stands between normal people and the power of science. Yay! Particularly recommended to fans of The X-Files and A Town Called (Eureka).
- The Manhattan Projects – Jonathan Hickman & Nick Pitarra. An alternative history set in the 1940s, involving some of the best scientists the world has ever seen. Besides building an atom bomb, what on earth could the greatest minds of our time be up to? Spoiler: lots of things involving aliens and lots of things that definitely break the law. Particularly recommended to fans of Dark Skies (the television programme that I might be the only person in the world to remember, not the more recent movie).
- Nowhere Men – Eric Stephenson, Nate Bellegard, Jordie Bellaire & Fonografiks. Science is the new rock and roll. Sounds totally legit. A group of scientists change the world for the better, and are loved for it, but their fall from grace is all but inevitable. Particularly recommended to fans of Fringe.
Four ‘Military/Political’ Titles
- Bitch Planet – Kelly Sue DeConnick, Valentine De Landro & Robert Wilson IV. In a future where women who don’t maintain the status quo are labelled ‘non-compliant’, we follow the happenings on the penal colony the worst offenders are sent to. Particularly recommended to people who enjoy being awesome. Seriously.
- Lazarus – Greg Rucka, Michael Lark & Santiago Arcas. I don’t even have the words for how much I love this violent look at a dystopian future where the world is owned by ‘families’ each of whom has their own protector, raised to defend them at all costs. Particularly recommended to fans of Queen and Country (also) by Greg Rucka and Point Of No Return/The Assassin/La Femme Nikita.
- Transmetropolitan – Warren Ellis & Darick Robertson. No matter how corrupt a government gets, no matter how marginalised and side-lined citizens become, there is always someone willing to stand up and tell the truth. Unfortunately for the 23rd Century, that person is Spider Jerusalem, confirmed dirtbag. Particularly recommended to fans of Hunter S. Thompson.
- We Stand On Guard – Brian K. Vaughan & Steve Skroce. When clean water becomes a life-or-death matter, the USA invades an unsuspecting Canada. An ever-shrinking band of independence fighters attempts to repel the invaders, but who really started this war? Particularly recommended to fans of Escape From New York.
Three ‘Aliens Amongst Us’ Titles
- Paper Girls – Brian K. Vaughan & Cliff Chiang. Being a girl in the 80s isn’t always the easiest thing, but this gang of bicycle-riding newspaper-delivering super-cool girls isn’t about to let a silly thing like an alien spaceship get in the way of them defying the patriarchy. Particularly recommended to fans of Strange Things.
- Saucer Country – Paul Cornell & Ryan Kelly. Arcadia Alvarado has a lot on her plate – she’s on track to become the Democratic nominee for President of the USA, her ex-husband refuses to go away, and she was abducted by aliens. Wait, what? Particularly recommended to fans of The X-Files.
- Trees – Warren Ellis & Jason Howard. Alien objects, nicknamed ‘trees’, land all over Earth and do nothing. Towns rebuild around them, people live in their shadow, complacency sets in. Are the trees as benign as they seem? Particularly recommended to fans of Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel.
Two ‘Robots’ Titles
- Alex + Ada – Jonathan Luna & Sarah Vaughn. Alex doesn’t want an android companion, but when his grandmother buys him one, he is forced to question everything he knows about what it means to be human. Particularly recommended to fans of every what-is-sentience piece of sci-fi ever. Things like Humans and I, Robot by Isaac Asimov.
- Descender – Jeff Lemire & Dustin Nguyen. Although this deals with similar themes to Alex + Ada, Descender differs in that it isn’t set on Earth. Instead, events happen to the vast backdrop of an alliance of alien planets and species. It’s also, in my opinion, the superior title of the two. Particularly recommended to fans of every what-is-sentience piece of sci-fi ever, but also to fans of Mass Effect, for the political shenanigans happening in the background.
One ‘Environmental Disaster’ Title
- The Massive – Brian Wood, Kristian Donaldson, Garry Brown & Dave Stewart. In the post-apocalyptic tale, climate change has led to extensive flooding. With society breaking down as resources become scare, we follow the crew of The Kapital, who are searching for their missing sister ship, The Massive. As befits a post-apocalyptic story though, nobody aboard The Kapital is quite what they seem. Particularly recommended to… pretty much everyone. This one covers sci-fi, mystery, environmentalism, horror, military fiction, spy fiction with a touch of the supernatural.
And there we have it, fifteen recommendations if you’re looking to read some sci-fi comics. I have more comics I can recommend in almost all of these categories, and also for some titles that didn’t fit neatly into the structure I chose, so let me know if you’re looking for more!