We Only Find Them When They’re Dead #1 Written by Al Ewing Drawn by Simone Di MeoColored by Mariasara Miotti Lettered by AndWorld Design Published by Boom! Studios
The Skinny: A weird and beautiful space opera about small business and giant corpses.
In the distant future, mankind has scoured the galaxy clean of resources. Pushed to the edges of a depleted galaxy, they find space’s last mineable source of minerals, metals, and even meat: Dead Space Gods. But the competition between fleets of ‘autopsy ships’ is fierce, and heavily regulated. As corporate entities dominate the market and push out independent operators, Captain Georges Malik and the crew of the Vihaan II struggle to stay afloat under the watchful eye of a zealous enforcement officer. We Only Find Them When They’re Dead is a sad, beautiful, and imaginative high-concept space opera of the sort that only really works in the comics medium. Ewing’s script is tight and economical, bringing the four-person crew to life in just a few pages. But Di Meo’s art with Miotti’s coloring is the real star here. There is a breathtaking use of light and shadow in this book. The characters seem to float right off of the page, and the space scenes do an excellent job conveying both the enormity of the titanic corpses and the tiny, cramped vessels that carve them up for parts. We Only Find Them When They’re Dead #1 is the start of something massive. I can’t wait to read more, and I highly recommend you check it out. Find it at Your Local Comic Shop, or digitally from Comixology!
When the lake filled with poison, the knight looked at his sword in disgust. His sole duty was to protect his lord, his kingdom, his family. He had failed. He felt like a vestigial organ, unable to defend against this new attack. His weapon and his ideals were relics. He allowed his grief to move through him, and when it passed, his sword waited for him. It couldn’t cut the poison from the water, or raise the dead. But he could find the men responsible, and show them that slow poison is no match for a quick and determined blade.
Thanks for reading! For more Everyday Drabbles, Follow me on Facebook and Twitter, and you can support the project on Ko-Fi!
The bluffs overlooked the vast lake, carved over thousands of years of glacial erosion. He’d visited them often as a child and he wanted to climb them again while he still had the strength. As he looked out at the horizon and felt the wind on his face, he couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed about how much smaller they’d become. He’d always known they would fall to wind and wave, but seeing them diminished still hurt him. The dunes were towering formations in his youth. Seven-hundred years seemed too short a time for them to change so much.
Thanks for reading! For more Everyday Drabbles, Follow me on Facebook and Twitter, and you can support the project on Ko-Fi!
The last circus touches down on the lunar surface in a cacophony of zoological discomfort. The caged animals hate microgravity, but the return to stable gravity, even the moon’s reduced pull, is even worse for them. Once we’re green, I clean out the cages and get them ready for transport into Armstrong City. I’m brushing down one of the lions when I see a line of scar tissue under his mane. I ping the owner. “Boss, Leon’s got cell degradation. You’d better call the cloners.” I pet the lion and stare up through the dome at the lifeless, ruined Earth.
Thanks for reading! For more Everyday Drabbles, Follow me on Facebook and Twitter, and you can support the project on Ko-Fi!
The villagers called her “The Widow.” She could be seen along the bluffs, or sometimes, on dark and desolate nights, a ship would spot her on the beach, with her lantern held high and her tattered black dress rippling against the wind. There was some debate over who the ghost had been in life, and several likely candidates were proposed from the many widows who waited for sailors who never returned over the years. All were deemed unlikely. The apparition continued to appear, watching the ships come and go. Someday her package would arrive, and then she would be free.
Thanks for reading! For more Everyday Drabbles, Follow me on Facebook and Twitter, and you can support the project on Ko-Fi!
The prototype superweapon was nearly completed. The Space Forces needed something big to strike against the Earth Armada. The lead designer was nervous as he led a team of dignitaries through the assembly floor. Finally they came to the machine. It stood on two massive legs, a giant robot over a hundred meters tall. It was painted fire-engine red, and it bristled with gun placements and spikes. Some rocket launchers were welded on for good measure. The others stared up at it for a moment, then burst into peals of laughter. He knew he shouldn’t have made his 12-year-old co-designer.
Thanks for reading! For more Everyday Drabbles, Follow me on Facebook and Twitter, and you can support the project on Ko-Fi!
Super Mario Bros. 35 Published by Nintendo Played on Nintendo Switch
The Skinny: A neat idea, but I hope you like level 1 – 1.
Following on the success of Tetris 99, Super Mario Bros. 35 is a Battle Royale game that pits players against 34 others in a contest to survive the longest on a single life in the original Super Mario Bros. Much like Tetris players simply don’t play simultaneously, but can target other players and send them ‘junk,’ but instead of random lines of blocks, players send defeated enemies into that paths of their rivals. Players start by voting on a starting level, and can unlock new levels to choose as they progress through the game. But even though there is a vote, every time I’ve played I have started on 1-1. Players get 35 seconds on the timer, and defeating enemies adds more time up to the full 400 seconds in addition to sending them to other players’ screens. Once you finish a level, the game starts you on a new one chosen at random. This isn’t a bad system, but the result is that I have played level 1-1 and 1-2 approximately a hundred times by now, and it’s getting a bit repetitive. The real magic comes in late in the game, as more and more enemies get traded back and forth between players. 1-1 is old hat, but it is a fun thrill to come out of a warp pipe thinking you’re in a safe place and discover the screen covered in bloopers. Super Mario Bros. 35 is definitely a new way of looking at a classic, and it encourages tactical thinking rather than just playing to survive or get a high score. It’s available for free from the Nintendo eShop until March, which feels about right to me. It’s a novelty, but worth a few hours of your time to see the game that launched a genre in a new light.
The haunted castle loomed in the fog like a malevolent dragon, its empty windows seeming to watch the ghost hunters’ approach with disdain. They parked the van in the front courtyard and started lugging in the detection equipment. “The British government is only giving us the night, so everybody stay alert,” Devon said, hoisting a EMF reader and nearly tripping over a sign for the gift shop. As the night wore on, they combed through the drafty halls, finding nothing. The ghosts huddled in distant rooms, waiting for them to leave, and complaining to one another about ‘the boorish colonials.’
Thanks for reading! For more Everyday Drabbles, Follow me on Facebook and Twitter, and you can support the project on Ko-Fi!
Just in time for Halloween, my quick chiller, “The Head That Wears the Crown” has been featured on an episode of The No Sleep Podcast! The story starts about 10 minutes in, is produced by Phil Michalski and read by David Ault and Erika Sanderson, and they all do a phenomenal job bringing the story to life. You can listen to the story online HERE, or support the podcast by buying the full episode or a season pass.
Thanks for your support, and I hope you enjoy the story.
“This is a restricted area. You do not have clearance to enter.” Mac stated, but he followed me into the old factory. “I know,” I said. “So keep it down, will you?” We crept through a field of rusting cooling tanks standing like broken snow globes. Rumor had it there were still viable fuel cells hidden somewhere on site. “Scan for energy signatures,” I told Mac, and the robot paused. “Southwest of this position, .25 kilometers.” “Well, let’s go, buddy!” The company had announced they would no longer supply our district. I had to find something to keep Mac going.
Thanks for reading! For more Everyday Drabbles, Follow me on Facebook and Twitter, and you can support the project on Ko-Fi!
