Why You Should Be Reading… Image Comics’ Southern Cross

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Hello Everyone, back again, another Friday, and another good day for comics. As always I hope things are well, and your weekend is starting proper. Hopefully we can help pass the time until the weekend by chatting about some cool comics, so welcome too, WHY YOU SHOULD BE READING…
With me Grainbelt Jones.

I came across this next series simply due to suggestion. It was a slow week in comic releases a few Wednesdays ago, (at least for me and the stuff I’m interested in) and my local comic shop owner strongly suggested this next title. Being only 4 issues deep, he suggested it be a good time to catch up and was curious to see what I thought. Trusting his judgement I took all four issues home and during one evening I flew through them quite quickly. To further my honesty I actually suggested this to my roommate who also went through all 4 issues in one sitting, and exhibited an extreme liking to the strong female lead character. The main character along with the fashion this series is written in, is very very addicting, and I can’t wait until later this month once it returns. One good thing about this being on a current hiatus is you have a couple weeks to catch up and make sure this makes your lists of comics to be pulled every month for as long as it lasts. I see big things are ahead for this title and as well as a the story is written, its clear there is a lot of story to be uncovered here, and I plan to be along for the ride, and you should be too. If you are not sold quite yet, let me fill you in on WHY YOU SHOULD BE READING…

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“Her name was Amber, and she was my sister.

Her body might still be on Titan, but I hope she is somewhere far away.

Far from this filth and the pollution. Far from the hopeless dregs of humanity.” – Alex

south3Southern Cross follows, Alex Braith as she travels to gather her sister Amber’s remains and belongings. Amber was stationed on a big ship rig called The Southern Cross, which travels on a huge loop between space colonies and orbits. Titan the ship’s destination, is the place where Amber did most of her work, and seemed to spend the most of her time. Since the trip takes quite some time in between travel, The Southern Cross also acted as a home of sorts for Amber and is quite the home for much mystery. Struggling with her troubled past, Alex started on the wholesome quest of taking care of what is left of her sister, and returning home. However her past has supplied her with an interesting set of skills along with a even higher sense of intuition, turning this wholesome trip into a mission to uncover the truth.  After spending time on this questionable ship, powered by a questionable engine system, it is quite clear her sister’s death was not the random accident it was meant to seem, forcing Alex to return to her old ways of conducting business.

During her trip, the roommate assigned to her cabin disappears, questionable things are uncovered about the Southern Cross’s Captain, crew, and engine, offering us first row seats to the compromising state that is Alex’s situation, giving us the readers a very trippy and interesting read. I love the artwork and panel assignments used to display all this for the story, it gives your read a good flow and keeps you turning pages with anticipations. Dynamic colors are also used quite well to show certain situations such as flashbacks and hallucinations, showing us how well they utilize the setting. Being in space, they capitalize on this by giving the comic a dark feel and panel background, this really makes the book look really cool in presentation, and gives each panel a certain pop. Presentation and Panel set up alone, are a big reason to read this book, and I just can’t express enough how beautiful the artwork and story translates on page, the designers are really nocking this out of the park giving us fantastic images and splash pages, showcasing an excellent art piece in itself. For those art freaks you will have a real good series to draw inspiration from in you own compositions.south2

As the story continues things get stranger and stranger, and writer Becky Cloonan really showcases her mass talent. The cast of characters are all interesting and offer plenty to be desired when it comes to uncovering each of their pasts and involvement in our current story, allowing us a lot in the ways of imagination and questioning the future. The execution of this comic as a whole is probably the high point of this series, and I hope all of you take a gander, especially those who one day plan on embarking in the journey of releasing comics of their own. This series is oozing with a infectious story, amazing artwork, and a mass amount of inspiration, and that is…

WHY YOU SHOULD BE READING…

Southern Cross

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-Grainbelt Jones

Mr. Jones has been a life long nerd, he started collecting vinyl, action figures, and comic books at a very young age. As he grew older his passions evolved into Djing, producing music, writing and traveling. He caught the wrestling bug in 95 after going to the first WCW episode on TNT, at the mall of America, and has been hooked ever since. A new collecting habit of wrestling tapes was born that night where he learned the history of wrestling as well as taping the present weeks during the Monday night wars. Through that process he became a lifer and the habit is not easily broken, and shows today in his mid 20's. His passion for art shows through his music and his obsession with comic books, which has also transformed into a hefty collection. You can expect good articles and reviews on, wrestling, comics, games and figures and anything else Mr. Jones may decide to tackle! Hope you enjoy! Thanks!!