40 seconds

40 Seconds is a 2022 Comixology Original comic. This 120 page edition collects releases 1 through 5 of the comic. The book is a science fiction story about a team of science explorers. They are traveling in space through a series of alien gateways using Forge Gate Technology in order to answer a distress call from a galaxy away. The scientists jump across the universe through strange and beautiful landscapes only to be hunted by a vast inexplicably unstoppable horde. They can only learn the truth surrounding the distress call if they make it through the final gate in time.

While the story was gripping and fast paced, the first thing I noticed was the color palette of the comic strip panels. They are gorgeous. The first gateway has a beautiful pink landscape. The second was done in browns but the buildings were Asian inspired. I couldn’t tell if they were Japanese or Chinese. Colorist Brett Weldele did a fabulous job here. The next gateway was pink, lavender, green, blue, teal, orange and brown. The drawings of these worlds included ruins, jungle, urban areas along with strange creatures and enemies. The artwork made this story a fun one to read.

What does the title reveal about the story? The explorers have forty seconds to jump through the gates before they close and they are lost forever. I loved this comic and immediately re-read it. It's a fun story suitable for kids as there is no foul language, sex or violence. 5 out of 5 stars.

.Self

 .Self (pronounced dot self) is one of the newest Comixology Originals limited series comics. It is a science fiction story that imagines what would happen if a piece of technology made a bootleg copy of your entire life and then showed up on your doorstep. Further imagine what would happen if someone hacked into that technology and made additional copies of you and sent them out into the world to pursue different life paths that you did not take.  This is what you get with .Self.

The story begins with Natalie Winters living a comfortable life in Seattle with her husband and a robot vacuum that she treats like a pet. Because her husband is a techie, Natalie has an account with Postscript, a service designed to allow people a sense of closure after death. Postscript gives people an opportunity to preserve themselves for one last visit with loved ones and works easily. All you have to do is swallow a capsule and Postscript begins logging your social media presence, your memories and everything else and saves it in a blank body. Upon your death, Postscript will give you 48 hours of an extra life to sort things out with your family and friends.  Our heroine Natalie discovers that her Postscript account has been hacked and is confronted by several blank bodies who think that they are her. In an effort to destroy Postscript Natalie smashes the device but she soon realizes that she has to find the uninstall pill to stop it.

The premise for this plot is phenomenal. Who would have ever thought about backing up your self onto a hard drive? Cartoonist Christopher Sebela! The Natalie character is a tough woman who can physically fight anyone. However, she is overwhelmed and angry from the angles that her blank bodies have taken. She soon receives many emails from friends and relatives asking her to explain herself but Natalie does not know what they are talking about. Her husband Simon is too busy with his medical practice to help her. He is really a secondary character in the story with Natalie and her additional bodies taking center stage.

.Self will be a 5 issue comic.  I have read the first and second issues, which were published in November and December 2021 respectively. I suppose that issue 3 will come out this month but I have not heard anything about it. In an interview between the author and syfy.com Sebela stated that the story will continue with Natalie's Postscript account being further hacked and the bodies of several different Blanks being uploaded to it, causing her more confusion. 

5 out of 5 stars.

The Pull

The Pull is a sci-fi comic book series written by Steve Orlando. It contains comics 1 through 6 in this one graphic novel format. The Pull is part of TKO Studios' third wave of complete comic book miniseries that they published in November, 2020. Artist Ricardo Lopez and colorist Triona Farrell also contributed to this comic. 

When the unstoppable cosmic force of the Undoer threatens the existence of Earth, Brenton Demm, a disgraced government agent, must shake off a lifetime's worth of regret if he is going to save everyone. Demm is one of Earth's thirteen super-science police, and with his ex-wife Gayano Tith, they are Earth's only hope for survival. With days left until the Undoer swallows the Earth, Tith can stop the Undoer as long as Demm can keep her alive. However, there is a catch. Ever since Demm's glory hounding caused a disaster that killed hundreds and put Earth on the Undoer's radar, he's been clinically incapable of giving a damn. Disaffected, corrupt, but still looking for a glint of hope in his last days, Demm finds it when Tith tells him the world doesn't have to end. Demm just has to get back to work. 

There is a political message here. The story concerns what happens when people refuse to deal with the effects of fossil fuels on our planet, referred to as "hard heat" in the story. Demm, as one of the thirteen police officers, is empowered by a newly discovered energy source called marbleite. Tith finds out that the energy marbleite releases will undoubtedly attract the attention of the Undoer, who wants to end all life on earth. Tith's father cannot handle the dread of annihilation so he forms a doomsday cult and makes plans for the cult to commit mass suicide.  Demm tries to stop the plan but is unable and he is traumatized by the experience. The story then picks up one year later when the earth has six days left before the Undoer ends life as we know it. The characters in the story discuss whether they can continue forging a future given the current dark times and with street drug usage at an all time high. Of course the street drug in this story is a little funky and is called the "big finish."  The drug brings about a "sexual euthanasia that brings user's lives to a climactic end." The characters are, essentially, f'ing themselves to death.

I enjoyed the story but did not like being preached to. Even though I agree with the political message, The Pull went too far with its spreading of the gospel.  3 out of 5 stars.

Sentient

Sentient is a science fiction story set in a comic book format. It is the story of the U. S. S. Montgomery, a space ship with both adults and children on board. The ship is traveling from an earth that is almost uninhabitable due to climate change to a colony located somewhere in deep space. One of the adults is secretly a separatist and she kills all the adults on board in a surprise attack. The separatists are a group that want the new colony to be completely disassociated from the earth's government. When the children find out that they have been left to finish the mission, they rely on their AI Valarie to learn new skills so that they can fly the ship to its expected destination. The kids have just barely learned their new skills when they are confronted with a dangerous force that threatens to doom them. They need to rely on Valarie in order to fight these forces but Valarie has only been programmed to complete minor tasks.

This is an awesome story. It has all the tension and character development that you would see in a novel length book within its 163 pages. The pace was fast and the plot premise was fascinating. The main characters are Val and the two oldest kids, Lill and Isaac. All three have tremendous growth in the story. Val becomes more of a parent than a machine but her machine capabilities allow her to learn the particular language that the kids speak. Lill is the most stubborn character and she gets the group into some trouble when she wants to leave the ship to explore a docking station where the Montgomery stops to refuel. Isaac is a tech prodigy who learns more and more about how the ship operates as the needs of the space ship develop as each day goes by. 

Great comic!  5 out of 5 stars.