EXTremiTY

released OUT NOW! Publisher Image Comics

Writer/artist daniel Warren Johnson

“Ghibli-esque” is a phrase that sets up certain expectations – in particular, of the same kind of warm-hearted tone and spectacular stories you’ll find in the Japanese studio’s well-loved animated movies. However, while new Image ongoing series Extremity owes a considerable debt to the work of director Hayao Miyazaki, it also plays as if 1980s Ghibli classic Laputa Castle In The Sky has been welded together with Mad Max: Fury Road.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world of floating castles and airborne pirates, it’s the story of Thea, a girl whose artistic skills define her life… until an attack from a rival clan results in the loss of her right hand. Now barely able to draw, all she wants is revenge. When Thea’s father takes her whole clan to war against those responsible, how far is she prepared to go for her vengeance against the people who have wronged her?

Writer/artist Daniel Warren Johnson has delivered some impressive world-building here, mixing lurid action scenes and grotesque violence with a visual tone reminiscent of Brandon Graham’s gonzo sci-fi epic Prophet. What makes these opening four issues even stronger is that they’re anchored to an affecting emotional core that touches on dark and challenging themes.

Maintaining this kind of harsh bleakness across a whole series might not be easy, but so far Extremity is off to a very promising start. Saxon Bullock