Vast Expanse was a Kickstarter we actually covered on the site during its initial run. I’ll be very open and honest with you and tell you that it’s been one of the few Kickstarter’s that have been sent to us that I had a real interest in. We get a lot of Kickstarter submissions, but finding ones that I actually want to help or even read myself… well it’s becoming harder and harder to do that. There are just so many projects out there and I can’t find the energy to be excited about all of them. Vast Expanse on the other hand caught my attention by being an anthology that offered four very different stories for the reader to check out. I’m not going to sum all of them up, but the first story is more of an old school style of story. It was reminiscent of EC Comics or even more European style of comics, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as standout good as the rest of the stories.
The last story had the least amount of story, but considering it was basically Beast Battles in real life… well I could live with it. The art was fantastic and really brought the battling mutated beasts to life. I mean it’s totally Beast Battles without saying it and I would read more set in this world especially if the artist was attached to it.
100% Weird is a story that a lot of people can relate to as it’s a nerd fantasy about a teenage girl being bullied and getting help from the Secret Council at the school. It’s a very clever story with a lot of humor and heart. The writing is strong and so is the artwork which was in my opinion tied for the best on the issue.
The last story… I want to tell you everything about, but I won’t. It’s extremely clever and would make a wonderful Twilight Zone episode. Hell, I can see Hollywood trying to make an entire movie out of it, but it works perfectly as a short story. That’s all I’m going to say because it was the crown jewel of the issue. The artwork was the perfect fit for it even if it was a bit too dark at times. If it was cleaned up some more it would have been absolutely perfect.
Here’s the thing about this anthology… there isn’t that one story that you don’t care for. Usually there’s at least one or two tales that are meh and feel like filler, but here I actually liked all of the stories. The first story wasn’t amazing or deep like the others, but it had such a classic feel that I couldn’t help but enjoy it. It was a window into another era of comics and something about that sucked me in. There isn’t a single weak link in this one-shot and so I wholly recommend that you check it out for yourself. No two stories are alike and so at the very least you’ll find something to enjoy.
Score: 5/5
Vast Expanse #1 Writer: Jeremy Scott Nichols Artists: Lautaro Capristo, Adrián Bago González, J.C. Quattordio, Anthony Pugh, Rosa Devine Publisher: Township Comics Price: $4.00 Format: Anthology; Print/Digital Website