Ignition City Volume 1

It is 1956 and the Earth is tired from wars and patrols in space and is closing all launching sites and is trying to isolate itself from the world. And in the middle of all this, one of the last pilots, Mary, receives the news that her father had died. This is how Warren Ellis opens its narrative and it is obvious from the very first page that we have a lot of catching up to do -- because this Earth has nothing to do with ours. And this catching up takes the form of a letter, numerous conversations and occasionally some guess work before the reality is confirmed.

Mary starts for Ignition City just to claim her father's body and anything he had left behind. But it soon become clear that he had been killed and that the city is very different from any other - to start with, it is artificially built and is becoming the only place that still allows ships to leave Earth. And it becomes clear very fast that things are not as they look - the citizens are at least as weird as the city. Old friends, new enemies, a Russian that drinks too much, a man from the future, a crazy professor (or is he?) and aliens - all of them had found their life in this forgotten from everyone city. And when Mary tries to find the truth, the things will turn out to be even more interesting.

It's Ellis - so the shocking elements are all there. And the art by Pagliarani is done in a style that suits the narrative - part Wild West, part SF, part something else. And a few times the art is left to tell the story - and it works incredibly well.

Overall a very nice beginning of a story that could grow to something big - even if the threads are closed, it can work as setting of the scene for future stories.

PS: The usual warnings about language, offensive content and so on - it is Warren Ellis. ( )

I really liked some of the art in this. Alot of it reminds me of Heavy Metal and then the retro paintings are very cool. It was definitely Ellis. Raw, dirty, filthy, none of the characters are that likeable. But it really seemed more like the beginning of something that was going to get much cooler. He's just setting the scene here and for $20 I would expect more. It was a little slow, I can't imagine waiting for it to come out in a monthly format (not sure if it did). So I'm definitely curious about what the second volume is like but a little scared to dish out the cash for it. Maybe I could find the individual comics and give them a look. ( )