CEMETERY BEACH

released OUT NOW! Publisher Image Comics

Writer Warren ellis Artist Jason Howard

Casting aside the measured, slow-burn pace of his recent creator-owned comics like Injection and Trees, this latest project from Transmetropolitan writer Warren Ellis is a full-tilt, pedal-to-the-metal burst of lurid action. Cemetery Beach combines pulp weirdness and political subtext in a selfcontained seven-issue miniseries that comes across as a high-octane blend of pulp space opera and ultraviolent chase movie.

The story sends soldier Michael Blackburn on a reconnaissance mission to an off-world colony that was secretly established in the ’20s on an alien planet, and has evolved in mind-bending ways. All Blackburn has to do is make it home with what he’s discovered, but he’s being hunted by the colony’s government, his only hope a borderline psychopathic female dissident.

These first three issues deliver non-stop action while barely pausing for breath, with Ellis indulging in the kind of all-out mayhem and black humour he hasn’t fully showcased since his work on demented Marvel romp Nextwave. Combined with Jason Howard’s inventive and energetic visuals, this is very much the work of two creators letting their hair down and enjoying themselves. While Cemetery Beach isn’t in any way subtle, it’s also a sinful amount of crazed sci-fi fun. Saxon Bullock