Written and Illustrated by Stephen McCranie
Published by Dark Horse Comics
I got about ten pages into this book and I was absolutely blown away by McCranie’s storytelling abilities. The page layout and the graphics he created here are just unbelievably magnificent. The opening line “In Space, the stars don’t twinkle” grabbed me right away. I was hooked.
The book is about a young girl named Amy. Amy’s family is from a mining colony in deep space.
In the first part of the book, we see Amy at school. She’s like any other young kid. She is happy on this mining colony. Amy has friends and she rates life in a unique way.
Then, something bad happens.
Her dad has lost his job so they have to travel back to Earth and live there. They go into a cryogenic freeze and it is for thirty years! So they do it and head back to Earth!
They arrive on Earth. They settle in. Everything is weird to her. The weirdest thing for her though is this strange boy at school.
He’s a boy that somehow she can’t get a read on.
The details here make the book amazing. Amy, for instance, has to get used to Earth’s new gravity. I thought that was great. McCranie shows the family waking up from their sleep. They have to be in wheelchairs until they can get their legs. It’s little touches like this that make it great.
The writing is great and it’s good for all ages. It’s full of emotion. When Amy figures out her best friend, Jemmah, will be 30 years older than her when she arrives on Earth, it’s heartbreaking as can be. It’s also very relatable and wonderfully done.
The art is expressive and wonderful and it has some of the best panel layouts I’ve seen in quite some time. I also love that it’s good for all ages. It’s a book you can read and enjoy for yourself and pass along to a younger comic book reader for them to enjoy as well.
RATING: A
