Tag Archives: high level

Around the Tubes

Adler #1

It was new comic book day yesterday! What’d you all get? What’d you like? What’d you dislike? Sound off in the comments below. While you decide on that, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web in our morning roundup.

Newsarama – Abrams’ Final Two Spider-Man Issues Postponed Four Months – So many delays for high profile series.

The Beat – A Year of Free Comics: Girls’ School of Knighthood is off to a great start – Free comics!

Reviews

Talking Comics – Adler #1
How to Love Comics – High Level

Preview: High Level #6

High Level #6

(W) Rob Sheridan (A/CA) Barnaby Bagenda, Romulo Fajardo
In Shops: Sep 18, 2019
SRP: $3.99

Truth, lies, myth and mystery collide with shocking consequences when Thirteen and Minnow’s harrowing journey to High Level comes to its shocking conclusion at the steps of the fabled silver city, where ancient secrets are laid bare and a hidden adversary finally makes himself known…

High Level #6

Preview: High Level #5

High Level #5

(W) Rob Sheridan (A) Barnaby Bagenda, Romulo Fajardo (CA) Otto Schmidt
MATURE READERS
In Shops: Jun 26, 2019
SRP: $3.99

Religious cults, terrorist cells, witch tribes, mutants, mafias, sunken cities, drug dens, false prophets, real prophets, fetish camps, cybernetic enhancement junkies…Thirteen and Minnow have survived them all just to get to this moment. At last, our heroes arrive at High Level. But will the legends prove true? The answers will shock you.

High Level #5

Preview: High Level #4

High Level #4

(W) Rob Sheridan (A/CA) Barnaby Bagenda, Romulo Fajardo
In Shops: May 15, 2019
SRP: $3.99

Thirteen awakens to find herself in the Sunken Lands, a flood-ravaged realm filthy with the massive bones of genetically engineered super-beasts bred before the Great Disruption. But where’s that child messiah she’s meant to take to High Level? Kidnapped! Now Thirteen must track Minnow through the most dangerous place on Earth: Pleasure Island.

High Level #4

Preview: High Level #3

High Level #3

(W) Rob Sheridan (A) Barnaby Bagenda, Romulo Fajardo, Jr. (CA) Otto Schmidt
In Shops: Apr 17, 2019
SRP: $3.99

Thirteen’s serious doubts about Minnow’s supposedly messianic powers are profoundly challenged when the mysterious child does the impossible to save them both from starving to death in the desert. But survival doesn’t mean safety when the pair’s already-harrowing quest to High Level requires a detour through Nibi Outpost, a treacherous smugglers’ network built under the ruins of the old world…

High Level #3

Preview: High Level #2

High Level #2

(W) Rob Sheridan (A) Barnaby Bagenda (CA) Guillaume Ospital
In Shops: Mar 20, 2019
SRP: $3.99

Tasked with smuggling the savior of humanity through thousands of miles of religious cults, mutant tribes, war zones, sunken cities, and cybernetic mafias, the woman known only as Thirteen does what any sane person would: try to get out of doing it. But the mystery of High Level calls whether Thirteen likes it or not.

High Level #2

Review: High Level #1

High Level #1

Hundreds of years after the world ended and human society was rebuilt from scratch, a self-interested smuggler is forced to traverse a new continent of danger and mystery to deliver a child messiah to High Level, a mythical city at the top of the world from which no one has ever returned.

I know of Rob Sheridan of his work with Nine Inch Nails and their “Year Zero” alternate reality game. His work influenced some things I’d later do so to see how he’d apply his world building to comics is something I’ve been excited about.

High Level #1 is all about the world building as we’re thrown into a future society where there’s clearly a caste system and the “haves” inhabit a place called High Level where they exploit the workers with promise of climbing the social ladder. But, High Level may also be a myth, a modern Biblical story in a way to control the masses and focus their energy and dreams.

High Level weaves these concepts into a story focused on Thirteen a scavenger scraping a living and just surviving in this world while keeping her head down from the war that wages around her in different regions.

The art by Barnaby Bagenda and Romulo Fajardo is beautiful and haunting in a way. The grime and dirt is around but at the same time there’s bright neon colors to distract. It’s an aesthetic we’ve seen in numerous apocalytpic stories but it still works. Every detail, every color choice, tells a bit of the story. Things look functional but at the same time worn and used. The world is lived in and in ways more real due to that.

The story is subtle in its politics to start, instead focusing on the world building and in many ways feels like Sheridan’s previous ARG work. It sucks you in and then layers on the deeper meaning. The first issue touches upon it but it’s focus is the hook and story and to build a world we want to see more of.

Story: Rob Sheridan Art: Barnaby Bagenda, Romulo Fajardo
Story: 8.5 Art: 8.5 Overall: 8.5 Recommendation: Buy

DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review

Graphic Policy’s Top Comic Picks this Week!

Black Badge #7

Wednesdays are new comic book day! Each week hundreds of comics are released, and that can be pretty daunting to go over and choose what to buy. That’s where we come in!

Each week our contributors choose what they can’t wait to read this week or just sounds interesting. In other words, this is what we’re looking forward to and think you should be taking a look at!

Find out what folks think below, and what comics you should be looking out for this Wednesday.

Black Badge #7 (BOOM! Studios) – The Badge of Champions reaches its blood conclusion! This series takes the concept of Scouts to a whole new level.

Go-Bots #4 (IDW Publishing) – Tom Scioli continues to rock this series which brings the classic property back with childlike fun.

High Level #1 (DC Comics/Vertigo) – The latest Vertigo release, written by Rob Sheridan with art by Barnaby Bagenda and Romulo Fajardo takes a look at a future society built from scratch and hopefully delivers the social commentary we’d expect from Vertigo.

Hulkverines #1 (Marvel) – Every time we’ve expected little from this concept it not only surprised us but blew us away.

Incursion #1 (Valiant) – It’s the Geomancer and Eternal Warrior standing against an invasion.

Letter to Survivors (New York Review Comics) – A graphic novel that follows a postal worker on his bizarre mail route in a post-apocalyptic world.

Naomi #2 (DC Comics/Wonder Comics) – The first issue set up an interesting mystery in the DC universe and we want to see where it goes.

Sharkey Bounty Hunter #1 (Image Comics/Millarworld) – With Millar’s Netflix deal, we want to see what properties are being created.

Stronghold #1 (AfterShock Comics) – From writer Phil Hester and artist Ryan Kelly, the concept is intriguing. Our planet is actually a prison designed to shelter and trap an amnesiac alien of incalculable power.

Wolverine: Infinity Watch #1 (Marvel) – Now we can finally find out what the hell is going on.

Around the Tubes

Heroes in Crisis #1

It was new comic book day yesterday. What’d everyone get? What’d you like? What’d you dislike? Sound off in the comments below! While you think about that, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web in our morning roundup.

CBLDF – Fun Home Removed Without Review in NJ High School Library – Grrrrr.

Reviews

Talking Comics – Buffy the Vampire Slayer #1
Comics Bulletin –
Heroes in Crisis #5
The Outhousers –
Heroes in Crisis #5
The Beat –
High Level #1
The Beat –
Submerged Vol. 1
The Outhousers –
Transformers: Unicron #6

Vertigo is Relaunching With 7 New Titles

DC Entertainment‘s Vertigo imprint is celebrating their 25th anniversary and this fall the line of comics will relaunch with seven original series that look to take on hot button topics. The creators attached feature long time comic creators as well as new voices such as Zoe Quinn, Nine Inch Nails art director Rob Sheridan, and sex education podcaster Tina Horn. The comics have no problem taking on touchy subject matter like white supremacy, virtual reality deities, and sex work. DC describes the line as “modern, socially relevant, and high-concept.”

These seven new series are on top of the new line of Sandman titles previously announced. In the announcement Vertigo executive editor Mark Doyle said:

It’s time to rebuild DC Vertigo. We’re returning to our roots by spotlighting the most exciting new voices in comics, as well as bringing new voices to comics. From the corners of television, games, music, activism, podcasting, comics and more, all of our creators are passionate and have something to say. These sophisticated stories have amazing new characters and vast worlds to explore. That’s what it has always been about for me — new stories, new voices, new possibilities. We’re creating a new generation of DC Vertigo classics for readers of all genres.

Vertigo launched in 1993 to publish more adult and graphic content that couldn’t be printed under the Comics Code Authority. It allowed more freedom than the DC line would allow. The line saw such titles as Sandman, American Vampire, Astro City, Daytripper, 100 Bullets, DMZ, Human Target, iZombie, Northlanders, Y: The Last Man, Sweet Tooth, and so much more by some of the best in the buesiness.

The series are:

Border Town by Eric M. Esquivel and Ramon Villalobos

When a crack in the border between worlds releases an army of monsters from Mexican folklore into the small town of Devil’s Fork, Arizona, the residents blame the ensuing weirdness—the shared nightmares, the otherworldly radio transmissions, the mysterious goat mutilations—on “God-dang illegals.” With racial tensions supernaturally charged, it’s up to new kid in town Frank Dominguez and a motley crew of high school misfits to discover what’s REALLY going on. (September 2018)

Hex Wives by Ben Blacker and Mirka Andolfo

“The women are too powerful. They must be tamed.” A malevolent conspiracy of men brainwashes a coven of witches to be subservient, suburban housewives. But it’s only a matter of time before the women remember their power… (October 2018)

American Carnage by Bryan Hill and Leandro Fernandez

In this thrilling crime saga, disgraced FBI agent Richard Wright, who is biracial but can pass for white, goes undercover in a white supremacist group believed to be responsible for the death of a fellow agent. (November 2018)

Goddess Mode by Zoë Quinn and Robbi Rodriguez

In a near future where all of humanity’s needs are administered by a godlike A.I., it’s one young woman’s horrible job to do tech support on it. But when Cassandra finds herself violently drawn into a hidden and deadly digital world beneath our own, she discovers a group of super-powered women and horrific monsters locked in a secret war for the cheat codes to reality. (December 2018)

High Level by Rob Sheridan and Barnaby Bagenda

Hundreds of years after the world ended and human society was rebuilt from scratch, a self-interested smuggler with a price on her head is forced to traverse a new continent of danger and mystery to deliver a child messiah to High Level, a mythical city at the top of the world from which no one has ever returned. (2019)

Safe Sex by Tina Horn and Mike Dowling

A dystopian sci-fi thriller about a ragtag team of sex workers fighting for the freedom to love in a world where sexual pleasure is monitored, regulated and policed by the government. (2019)

Second Coming by Mark Russell and Richard Pace

God sends Jesus to Earth in hopes that he will learn the family trade from Sun-Man, an all-powerful superhero, who is like the varsity quarterback son God never had. But, upon his return to Earth, Christ is appalled to discover what has become of his Gospel and vows to set the record right. (2019)