Daniel Johnson (9)

Having enjoyed Do a Powerbomb I'm making my way through some of Daniel Warren Johnson's older works for any gems I might have missed. This one's just an old rock though.

Jonah is a space trucker, running his cargo ship with the alien Alphius.

In the first half of the book we find out about Jonah's part in a civilian massacre when he was a space Marine and how that comes back to bite him on the butt. The second half of the book sees Alphius injured as part of the fallout and Jonah desperate to get him medical assistance. They end up in New Mars City, where aliens are treated as second-class citizens whose insurance is denied, and Jonah's only hope to get enough money for medical treatment is to gamble his spaceship on a roller derby championship.

The story meanders as it explores the lives of the denizens of New Mars City: doctors, nurses, skaters, bookies, unhoused aliens. The outcome is a dumb waste of those characters and our time spent with them, with Jonah and Alphius resuming the status quo but . . . sadder.

This volume collects four chapters of Johnson's webcomic from http://www.space-mullet.com/. There are four more chapters available online, but I guess plans for a second print collection fell through as Vol. 2 hasn't materialized in the last seven years. I'm not sure I care enough to read the rest of the story online, but I may wander there someday.… (more)