In Review: AMONGST THE STARS

Amongst The Stars by Jim Alexander, Mike Perkins & Will Pickering.



From the publisher blurb:
Following on from the success of GoodCopBadCop at last summer's True Believers/Eagles awards, I'm delighted to say that 'Amongst the Stars' has made the Scottish Independent Comic Book Alliance (SICBA) shortlist for Best Graphic Novel 2015.

The 64-page trade is written by Jim Alexander (Metal Hurlant, Star Trek Manga) and drawn by Mike Perkins (Stephen King's The Stand, Astonishing X-Men, Deathlok).

To celebrate we've put together a wee PDF sampler of the book, which features 5 pages of the story. This is absolutely free to everybody, so please feel free to publish/share/comment on as you wish. Also, the book is on sale at the Planet Jimbot online shop for a special SICBA price of £5.50 plus P&P.

For the Amongst the Stars PDF sampler, click on the following link
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1mcab4gr8utanu7/ATS_SICBA_Sampler.pdf?dl=0

Amongst the Stars is available at the Planet Jimbot shop:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/PlanetJimbot

For details of how to vote check out the official SICBA site:
http://www.sicba.org.uk/

Review:

As usual I’m ridiculously late at this (Jim sent me the press release a month ago for gosh-sakes) but having read the book a second time I feel better placed to actually talk about it.

As a high concept Sci-Fi this is as ambitious as anything I’ve read in the last few years. It boils down to (In my opinion) A race of beings who have transcended the physical to exist between the stars and live as beings of pure consciousness. They discover that rarest of things- life- on our planet. Of course our sheer chaotic physicality is too ‘alien’ for them and causes their very life support system to fail. Trapped inside the minds of human beings there is little hope for escape, unless we, the very humans who are unaware of their existence, can help them.

I hope that enough folk out there have read this book in time for the voting for SICBA, as I think it deserves to do well for Jim.

The story rewards paying attention, and Mike Perkins’ art is really well suited to the strip- able to convey the reality of the human world and the transcended reality of the Tchailling.

Also included is a short by Jim and Will Pickering featuring a one-shot about what happens when a father lets things get out of hand. Absolutely hilarious and well worth inclusion.

Highly recommended.