A Review of Ghost Planet
Ghost Planet #1
Jeffrey Burandt words
Sean Von Gorman art and letters
From Scout Comics
Stressing about being around your family this holiday? Having a bit of a bad trip? Oh, have I got the comic for you. Peep the solicit:
A family of deep space explorers rushes to solve the mystery of Ghost Planet before their recently-dead loved ones return to kill them next! Murder birds, eye stalks and space pigs abound in this 40-page graphic novella. Ghost Planet is a classic sci-fi tale with a body horror twist.
When I was way too young, my dad showed me ALIEN, and it scared the absolute shit out of me. I loved every moment, but I was also waking up screaming from deep space nightmares. That mixture of science fiction and horror left a deep impression on me. It’s an epic genre mixture, and even though it emotionally scarred my young self, as I’ve grown, that mashup has turned into a very comfortable place.
Jeffrey Bruandt and Sean Von Gorman’s Ghost Planet brought me back to that comfortable, albeit frightening, nook in my subconscious with Ghost Planet. This comic succeeds in both the flourishing alienness of great science fiction and the necessary emotional impact of great horror. It’s about a family trying to survive the loss of a mother and the solitude of space. These strenuous emotions add a lot to the tension of the narrative before anyone leaves the safety of the spaceship. I don’t spoil comics here at Blake’s Buzz, but I’ll tell you that the local fauna and the blind space pigs are nothing but harbingers of doom.
Once the family crosses paths with the strange creatures inhabiting Ghost Planet, readers are thrown from a cliff to face a brutal ending that rises to meet our tumbling bodies with the rapidity of a coiled snake lashing out against its enemies. This is thanks to a wonderfully paced script from Burandt that wastes no time moving towards the narrative’s trauma while concurrently keeping readers oriented.
Burandt’s dialog impressed me as well. Every line is winnowed with the pain of loss and tinged with the aggravations stemming from the claustrophobia of space travel. There are notable moments when the dialog switches gears blossoming into a hopeful tone, but there is no hope here. These false smiles penetrated through the page, stabbing into fingers and filling the reader with a deep, hopeless dread. If you love horror, it’s a great feeling.
Ghost Planet’s art is top-tier as well. The body horror and complex emotions are luxurious in-panel and perfectly reflect the shining dialog previously mentioned. The colorwork is magnificent. The minimal palettes fluctuate from blues, reds, and yellows seamlessly controlling the mood through every page. The simple usage of primary colors pays off in big ways. Sean Von Gorman exhibits a lot of talent and isn’t afraid to stray from the norm. His lettering is stellar too.
I’ve been telling people Ghost Planet feels like Junji Ito in space, and this creative team worked damn hard to make that comparison ring true. It moves like manga and feels, at times, like a scene from Uzumaki in that the world around these characters will manipulate, torment, and leave them as a mixture both imaginative and terrifying.
Don’t let this family’s loss go for nothing. Snagging a copy is the right thing to do.
And now for some Buzzenings…
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