Friday, February 01, 2008

Ready for the movies? The Stranded #1


I'm sure you've probably noticed that, of late, many movie and TV producer types have discovered the joys of comic books. They came a little late to the discovery that fans already knew: there are some awesome storeis being told in the sequential art medium. With all the comics being optioned for film nowadays, it's interesting to see a TV network actually helping to produce comics that could, someday, be filmed. The Stranded #1 is the first book to come from Virgin Comics in collaboration with the Sci Fi Channel. Written by Mike Carey with art by Siddharth Kotian, this book is a pretty darn good first effort.

The Stranded is about a group of mysterious aliens, forced to flee from their home planet. They ended up on Earth decades ago, and disguised themselves to blend in with human society. Most don't know that they aren't just as human as they appear to be, but there are a few caretakers out there, keeping an eye out for their charges. It's good to have sombody looking out for you, especially when they've got alien technology, superior knowledge, and loads of big guns. Gotta have big guns.

Tamree is one such caretaker, and she has to break out the big guns when her "sleepers" start to turn up dead. She quickly realizes that the enemy they have been hiding from all this time has found them. With her base of operations destroyed and her super-smart rat dead, Tamree has to get to her people before it is too late. Of course, discovering that they are really an endangered alien race may be disconcerting for some of them. (I think we should all have genius rats around. I'd give mine tiny little glasses and a fez!)

The art and the story in The Stranded are both very well done. This series could be easily translated to TV, so this could be the beginning of Sci Fi's next big thing, and you wouldn't want to miss getting in on the ground floor of that, would you? So, if you are who you claim to be, head out to Four Color Fantasies and try out this guaranteed Book of the Week. Just leave your rat at home. Unless he's wearing a fez!

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