Book Review

Destination X by John Martz

Photo on 14-07-2013 at 19.36 #2

Another original book from my local graphic novel publishing house, Nobrow, Destination X is a short science fiction piece about interstellar exploration and the possibility of inter-species romance. With a dash of insanity.

It has a pleasant, simple, aesthetic style, including a very small colour palate (though my colour-vision is so bad that most things do to my eyes) and a fun use of imagined, violent cut away scenes whenever the protagonist becomes angry. These increase in frequency as the narrative goes on, eventually culminating in some non-imaginary violence. Nasty.

It’s nicely dark, it’s very evocative of classic science-fiction with the shape of its rockets, the bubble-headed spacesuits, cryogenic freezing and weird alien plants… A pleasant, quick read. The kind of thing I’d hand to a nerdy friend if I was forcing them to sit alone in my house for ten minutes while I shaved/changed/showered/cleaned my teeth/pooed/drank secretly then claimed the smell on my breath was mouthwash, honestly it’s mouthwash, yeah, it does have a whiff of Cointreau to it, yeah, it’s orange mouthwash, yes, they do do that now, honestly they do it, I can show you the bottle, no, of course I’m not drinking, it’s nine am on a Tuesday, what do you think I am, no, I wasn’t shaking before, just shivering, a little cold, air-conditioning in here works like a… Yeah, I’m ready, you believe me, right? Let’s go.

Digression aside, Destination X is a good read, and surprisingly big, in terms of intellectual scope: obsession, sexual repression, wilful social blindness, madness, rage… If you’re looking for a short indie comic book, I’d happily recommend this. Go.

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