John Carpenter’s TALES OF SCIENCE FICTION
THE VAULT
# 1 & 2
Series Created by John Carpenter & Sandy King
Vault created and written by James Ninness
Pencils and Inks by Andres Esparza
Colors by Sergio Martinez
Publisher: Storm King Comics
The Vault is the first tale (a three-parter) presented in the new science fiction anthology ongoing comic book series ‘John Carpenter’s TALES OF SCIENCE FICTION.’
In THE VAULT the crew of the ship GAIA stumbles across a mysterious alien vessel. The mystery? THE VAULT painted on the ship in English, and Emily Dickinson Poem scribbled on a wall and Arabic Numerals used on controls.
Plus, there is an alien lizard creature stalking the crew.
All the troupes one would expect from a John Carpenter sci-fi film are here. In fact this doesn’t just recall John Carpenter style films, there are elements from many starship set sci-fi films, from Aliens to knock-offs like Star Crystal and Dead Space.
The writing, from James Ninness is fairly solid – if just covering the same ground as every other sci-fi film or comic of the genre. The characters lack, but the pacing and action are decent.
The art work is both the best thing about the title, and the most problematic. Andres Esparza pencil work and inks are very good, but the coloring causes problems.
The book is very dark, murky and muddled to the point where some panels (and some entire pages) are mired in darkness and barely viewable. This is usually caused by the original file being too dark, and only becoming darker when printed (a common problem among indie comics).
This makes the pages almost unreadable, as one can barely tell what is going on. This destroys any flow the story and art may have.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Another comic book series with the ‘John Carpenter’s’ tag, but this is best one so far. Even if problematic, it is better than titles like ‘John Carpenter’s THE ASYLUM.’
RATING: 5
No comments:
Post a Comment