Ether, Vol. 1: Death of the Last Golden Blaze

When the rigidly scientific Boone Dias travels from our world into the fantasy realm known as the Ether, he brings his inquiring mind with him. Surely, he reasons, there is a reasonable explanation for it all—including, as it turns out, the sudden, mysterious murder of the Blaze, protector of the Ether. The story by Kindt (Mind MGMT) is largely reliant on well-worn fantasy tropes and archetypes: Boone is a daring adventurer with a painful past, shady people with ulterior motives skulk around, sidekicks are quirky and spout exposition. Visually, however, this book is tremendous. Rubin (Hero) crams every panel with more life, imagination, and whimsy than is found in some entire books. Sapient lavender apes guard interdimensional crossroads, canaries with teeth warble off-key, giant candy-colored snails act as taxicabs—under Rubin’s pen, the fairly standard story becomes a springboard to something weird and wonderful. (Aug.)