- Quantum #1
- Time Bomb Comics
- By…
- Steve Tanner, Pete Woods, Dave West, Joseph Parangue, David Morris, Marleen Lowe, Ed Machiavello, and many more
Quantum #1 contains five stories, and begin four ongoing serials, each one set in a world alternate to our own.
Stories in this issue:
- Major Rakhana: Pax Galactica part one (writer Steve Tanner, artist Pete Woods, colourist Dan Harris, letterer Rob Jones)
- WesterNoir: Moon Cursed part one (writer and letterer Dave West, artist Joseph Parangue, colourist Matt Soffe)
- Memphis (written, drawn and lettered by David Morris)
- Whatever Happened to the World’s Fastest Man? part one (writer Dave West, artist Marleen Lowe, letterer Andy Bloor)
- The Clockwork Cavalier (writer Steve Tanner, artist Ed Machiavello, colourist Dan Harris, letterer Bolt-01)
It also features a short gag strip from David Morris’ The Tale of Norton the Dragon series, and exclusive editorial content.
Y’know, reviewing an anthology book is no picnic. Trying to cover a quadruple threat of stories, each in their own lane and following their own direction. Not every piece of the whole is going to land in the win column for every reader, and that’s okay. The only way to do a thing like Quantum a lick of justice is to take it as a big, swingin’ for the fences, whole.
First, the not quite so great. Stories like Major Rakhana, for all its wink-and-a-nudge humor basted in social commentary, aren’t always for me. That said, artist Pete Woods does a fantastic job bringing that kind of classic movie serial sci-fi action to the page. On the flipside, Dave West and Joseph Parangue have me on the hook, big time, with WesternNoir. I’ll grant you, I was an easy mark as I’ve dipped into Dave’s weird west stories before and loved them.
Memphis, with David Morris pulling down all the creator credits, is a crazy alternate history/sci-fi/murder mystery where the Egyptian Empire is still going strong. Whatever Happened to the World’s Fastest Man is an outstanding look at a man able to stop time as he tries to save a city’s population from a doomsday bomb. This opening issue finishes up with The Clockwork Cavalier, following a steampunk righter of wrongs in a world Alexander Dumas might have almost recognized.
After backing issues 1-4 on Kickstarter and deciding that this insanity is exactly (with minor exceptions) my kind of thing, I’ve happily backed issues 5-8 and look forward to doing the same for 9-12. For all that Quantum, as an anthology, wasn’t the easiest thing to review, it was profoundly easy to read.
Minor spoiler, as the series goes on I think Death & Taxes (writer Katie Cunningham, artists Tom Newell & John Charles, and letterer Rob Jones) might be one of the coolest, and more disturbing concepts, I’ve read in a minute.
Final Score: 10/13
