- Orphans of the Impact Winter #5
- Created by
- Lee A. Carlisle (writer)
- Ross Carlisle (artist)
- Marina Gonçalves (colors)
- Marco Ventura (letters)
- Release date, April 09th, 2025
Chuck and Addie head North with Madeline, Brian, Ingrid and Warren in search of a way off their doomed planet, but quickly find the open road holds new dangers. They’ll have to trust each other even more than before if they want to survive, and for Chuck this might mean opening up about things he hasn’t been willing to admit. But when their route is blocked by an unexpected obstacle, the Orphans will face a dilemma that tests their bravery and risks shrinking their already small numbers even further…
There are stories that hit you in the feels, and there are stories that entertain. On occasion, you stumble across one that manages to do both. Orphans of the Impact Winter does that & more. The disturbing thing is that creative duo Lee & Ross Carlisle make it look easy.
As far as the story goes, Lee Carlisle presents your standard End of Days situation as the moon’s orbit decays and it’s drifting closer and closer to Earth. Chuck is left alone; his only companion is his loyal dog Addie, the duo living in a tree fort behind his house. Early issues showed Chuck’s extreme reluctance to go back into his house, horrified at the prospect of facing the decaying corpses of his parents left sitting at the dining room table. It’s been established that as a coping mechanism, Chuck approaches his grim reality through the filter of a young boy’s fantasy: no mere orphaned survivors on a doomed planet, he and Addie are intrepid space explorers, living on the edge of the great unknown.
And this is where Ross Carlisle’s art does its share of the heavy lifting, showing both worlds in outstanding detail. The real world Chuck and Addie live in is grim, dusty, full of dangers and lacking hope. Their sci-fi fantasy, however, will have a very familiar look and feel for any fans of a classic comic strip featuring a young boy and his stuffed tiger companion. What could be tossed aside as a cheap ploy to play on reader nostalgia is worked into a beautiful piece of the narrative & shines a spotlight on the tragedy behind the coping mechanism.
Individually, the members of Team Impact are creators of power and vision. The Carlisles handle their side of the equation with artistry and skill. They’re joined by Marina Gonçalves, using wildly varied color palettes to emphasize the sharp division between the real world and Chuck’s evasive fantasy with her colors, and Marco Ventura, adding letters and bringing the script to life.
Fans of the post-apocalyptic, folks interested in stories with emotional depth, readers who enjoy a mix of humor and horror, anyone who loves a story well told… This is where you need to be.
Final Score: (wait for it) 13/13
