Comic Review: Prophet: Empire

    The many threads of the many John Prophets are beginning to weave together into a tapestry of marvelous oddity.  In this, the third volume of this Dune-esque science fiction epic, we witness the liberation of Earth, the waking of weapons, and connections to the past.  Hero Johns and villain Johns, and everything in between.

    Prophet is a wonderfully off the wall tale, the likes of which you just don’t see every day.  It’s nowhere near as relatable or friendly as Star Wars or Firefly.  It’s nowhere near as tame as Interstellar or Avatar.  It does not help you, and does not care if you get it.  Prophet is.  Perhaps I’m ascribing too much to Brandon Graham and Co.’s work.  But whatever the case, I’m loving this obscure, out there, trippy, freaky story, writ large on the face of a chaotic universe.

    In previous reviews (volume 1, volume 2), I’ve mentioned the art.  It remains.  I’ve mentioned the ‘similarity’ to The Incal, Dune, Metabarons, and the like.  That is all still true.  It is a series that science fiction fans should be reading.  Seek this out.  It’s a punch in the brain, and it’s awesome.

Prophet: Empire
Authors: Brandon Graham, etc.
Artists: Simon Roy, etc.
Publisher: Image Comics
ISBN: 978-1-60706-858-7

-Matthew J. Constantine

Comic Review: Prophet: Brothers

    The continuing adventures of John(s) Prophet.  The universe continues to expand, and the truth behind John Prophet and his returning empire is revealed in small pieces.  What is going on?  What’s with all the Prophet clones?  I still don’t know, but by the end of this volume, I’m starting to get some ideas.

    As with the first volume, the art is often rather ugly, but it fits well with the bio-tech sci-fantasy universe being imagined.  The ultra-tech, bio-tech, and just plain weird-tech in Prophet is awesome.  A gold mine of strange creatures and devices (sometimes a bit of both).

    One of the things I love about this book is how the characters simply act, knowing all the rules of their world.  We see them do what they do, and must piece together how to feel about it, what it might mean, where things are headed.  And, as we see all these various incarnations/iterations of John Prophet putting pieces into place, we must try to construct the larger plot.  Old Man John is probably my favorite version, but several of the others are cool.  The sequence where he lets his mental shield down and takes in the movements of the universe is especially cool, and produces one of the best splash pages I've seen in a while.  I really can’t wait to see where this all ends up.  One of the best comics on the market today.

Prophet: Brothers
Author: Brandon Graham, etc.
Artist: Giannis Milonogiannis, etc.
Publisher: Image Comics
ISBN: 978-1-60706-749-8

-Matthew J. Constantine

Comic Review: Prophet: Remission

    With a rather bland cover and semi-ugly art, this book doesn’t jump off the shelves at you.  But I’d heard a lot of good things (granted, from many of the same people who love Saga…), so I thought I’d give it a try.  Sadly, it sat on my ‘to read’ pile for quite some time.  Still, I’ve read it now, and I’m glad of it.

    This isn’t a book that holds your hand.  The story starts, and things start happening, and you’ve got to observe and piece things together.  I like that.  Who is this John Prophet?  What’s his mission?  What’s with all the weird stuff that seems to have corrupted the Earth?  How bloody far in the future is this, anyway?  All valid questions.  Some of them get answered.  The story works almost as a mosaic, revealing new aspects as each stone fits into place.  And what it reveals gets weirder, wilder, bigger, and more batshit as the pages turn.

    So much weird tech, aliens, and wacky ideas packed into so little space, it might be overwhelming for some.  But if you like Dune-type crazy science fiction, this is one to sample.  As I was reading it, in fact, I kept thinking about Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Metabarons (I haven’t read The Incal, yet).  That comic was rooted in Jodorowsky’s failed attempt to bring Dune to the big screen in the early 70s.  Prophet is the same type of science fiction madness, but without any of the baggage.  And I’ve got no bloody idea where it’s going from here.  But it’s a ride I’m willing and excited to take.

Prophet: Remission
Author: Brandon Graham, et al.
Artist: Simon Ray, et al.
Publisher: Image Comics
ISBN: 978-1-60706-611-8

-Matt