After the adrenaline rush Die! Die! Die! of R, the catalog of SaldaPress is about to be enriched with a new work that will make all science fiction fans happy: we are talking about Cemetery Beach. Warren Ellis he returns to collaborate with the designer Jason Howard (Trees, The Astounding Wolf-Man) and what comes out is an action-packed comic story, showing an alternative future bordering on sci-fi. Cemetery Beach it arises precisely from the need for Ellis e Howard to unplug from "Trees“, Their previous work (but still in the continuation phase) which always follows the sci-fi genre, but much harder, and now they are ready to amaze us with their new emblematic genre work. In this new comic book adventure the two give vent to their creativity thanks also to the infinite possibilities that the more classic comic can create compared to an "author" comic, giving life to a product that winks at the scenarios and dynamics seen. in George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road.
History
We are in the future, but we do not know exactly in what historical period. Mankind has managed to reach a newly discovered planet with the aim of colonizing it. Years pass, and what seemed to be the most important mission in the history of mankind is incredibly forgotten. After more than a hundred years from that fateful mission, the "government" sends the agent Michael Blackburn (protagonist of this incredible story) to check and find out in what condition the inhabitants of the new and unknown planet live.
As soon as he lands on the new planet, Agent Blackburn is captured and forced to a room where he will be interrogated shortly thereafter. From an initial exchange between Michael Blackburn and the military man who has the task of questioning him, it is clear how much the inhabitants of this new planet harbor a deep hatred towards the inhabitants of the Earth and how much it is technologically behind compared to the most modern earth technologies. Indeed it seems that the inhabitants of the new planet have remained anchored to the technologies of a hundred years ago. A series of events, however, will lead our protagonist to escape from prison to look for the spacecraft with which he landed on this unknown planet. In this race in search of the spacecraft Michael gets to know Grace Moody, a young rebel, tough and enterprising, who can't wait to leave that planet that is now in a state of deep-seated decay.
New world, new problems
Ellis, in the course of an interview, stated that he had seen Miller's aforementioned Fury Road more than nine times while writing Cemetery Beach. This obviously influenced the writing since the protagonists of this new adventure are very similar to those of the film. People Michael Blackburn is a man haunted by the ghosts of a past that marked him, while the rebellious Grace Moody is very reminiscent of "The Empress Outside" played by Charlize Theron in Mad Max. The characters of the comic are well characterized so as to feel almost "connected" to them right from the start. Cemetery Beach, despite its one hundred and sixty pages, is a quick read - perhaps too much - and this means that the part related to the drawing fades into the background. Only after a second reading will you be able to fully appreciate the imprint that the designer has Jason Howard wanted to leave on this work. Cemetery Beach is an adrenaline-pumping, action-packed comic that's firmly grounded in an interesting and well-researched storyline. The only flaw of this comic is that, being a single volume, it is born and ends as it is: a real shame given the enormous potential that these characters and this new and mysterious planet have to offer.
