brain-food:

Wild Blue Yonder

 Decades of pollution and radiation have poisoned the Earth. The lower elevations are unlivable so people climbed higher. Those who live on the ground at the time this story occurs, even at high elevations, live harsh, sickness ridden lives that are spent wishing they were safe in the sky barges above. They spend their days providing fuel and supplies to those above them, praying they will be chosen to live among the clouds. The sky barges above spend their days scrounging for food, fuel, and fighting to protect what is theirs. They fight battles between sky barges with jet packs, crowbars and axes, because bullets ran out for most of them years ago. Neither choice sounds all that spectacular.

Cola is one of two pilots who helps defend the Dawn. Her days include dogfights, scouting missions around Radiation clouds, sorties looking for food, keeping the men and women of the Dawn alive, and feeding her dog, Critter. These are some heady responsibility for a teenage girl. She is the daughter of Olivia, the Commander of the Dawn, which you can imagine leads to some serious tension, and the Dawn’s cook, B.C. She’s recently lost her rocket pack wearing co-fighter and is looking to replace him. She has some doubts about her abilities as a pilot made even worse by her mother’s seeming lack of belief in her. However, the Dawn is her family and she will do anything to keep it flying.

The Dawn is a ship that runs on a combination of solar, hydrogen, and magnetic energy. It is the only ship of its kind and does not need any fuel, which is a resource that is running out in this future world. All of the other ships, including the Judge’s ship, The Executioner, run on different combinations of fuel and other resources, but none of them are sustainable given the state of the world. The time of those flying machines surviving in the sky is running out so the Dawn is a highly sought after place to hang your hat.

Wild Blue Yonder just wrapped up and all I can say is daaaaaaaaamn. This comic is incredible and the art is absolutely stunning. 

If you’ve never read it, you need to check it out now. 

ryallsfiles:

Happy birthday to Zach Howard, artist of such amazing works as his current Wild Blue Yonder. Here’s a page from the coming issue 5: pencils and inks by Zach, color art by Nelson Daniel.

Wild Blue Yonder has some of my favorite art, if you haven’t read this comic you’re really missing out.

ryallsfiles:

Wild Blue Yonder #4 cover by Zach Howard; colors by Nelson Daniel. One of a thousand thousand examples of the wizardry that color artists bring to comics. But then again, every day is #coloristappreciationday for me.

Incidentally, this issue is very obviously shipping late, but it’s done and off to print today, so look for it in early March. When you see what Zach and Nelson have done in this issue, you’ll see why this sort of thing takes added time.

If you’re not reading Wild Blue Yonder you need to take a minute to reassess your priorities…