3 out of 5

A (mostly) sci-fi anthology published by the (kinda) influential but (sorta) short-lived Pacific Comics, despite an intention to mix known names with unknowns, the book ends up erring toward – outside of some main features – what read like amateurish entries.  The illustrations are on point, though, and the book does right by Brendan McCarthy by stepping up their print quality in issue 3 for some pretty grand color work.

There are three main features that pop up in these first five, which I bought for work from Mike Baron: Baron’s pre-Nexus team-up with Steve Rude, ‘Encyclopedias,’ which is wonderfully Baron-goofy and tells of an Encyclopedia salesman in a cannibal-infested wasteland; Baron’s Quark, a lesser entry done with Rick Burchett, and fits the ‘vague concept and we’ll see what sticks’ mode that Mike would work into backup material in Badger and Nexus; the first version of Milligan’s / McCarthy’s Freakwave, which is, on one level, a rather plain post-apocalyptic tale that’s not really about anything concrete, but also features some glimpse-of-what’s-to-come hilarious Milligan dialogue nuggets, and fantastic artistry from Brendan; and three standalone, exhaustively wordy and, eh, boring tales from newcomer David Campiti.  My opinion on these is mixed in to the descriptions above, but to expand on Campiti: he’s given quite a bit of space in each issue in which he appears, and his stories, alas, are written in such a roundabout fashion as to be nonsensical; he’s writing for a book and not for a comic, and the artists he’s paired with struggle to provide followable and interesting pages as a result.

The remainder of material is very much a mixed bag, with art generally bettering the writing.  Stories often aim for Twilight Zone twists but miss the mark; those that keep it simple tend to do okay.

Baron’s Encyclopedia is worthwhile reading; Quark may have been, had it had the time to develop; and Milligan’s / McCarthy’s Freakwave is definitely interesting as a comparison point to the more insane-ized variant they’d produce in their Strange Days mag.