Gone

Image Comics’ new series Generation Gone is about the future, but the science-fiction comic isn’t set in the far flung. In fact, you’ll recognize its setting as practically identical to our own. Its characters live in a surveillance state, bogged down by the cost of health care, student loans, racial disparity and middle-class malaise. But writer Ales Kot and artist André Lima Araújo are nonetheless focused on the idea of the future — namely, who has the right to it. Millennials have had the future stolen from them, Kot suggests. They’re on the verge of stealing it back. That’s a paraphrase from Mr. Akio, the shadowy government contractor whose behind the scenes actions launch Generation Gone into motion. Part Elon Musk, part J. Robert Oppenheimer, he’s working on mechanized weapons technology for the US government. His ambition is rooted elsewhere, in something called Project Utopia. “Everything in the world is code,” Akio explains to a board of government operatives. From computer

“Goners” #3 continues to deliver the unfurling saga of the Latimer family as told by writer Jacob Semahn, artist Jorge Corona, colorist Gabriel Cassata and letterer Steve Wands. This issue gives readers a little more history while continuing to build the world around the Latimers in King’s Bluff, where readers last saw the primaries of the cast plummeting from a window. An opening scene doubles as a prologue for the entire adventure, and sends readers back to the Alamo, which was more supernaturally charged than previously believed. Juxtaposed with the current Latimer predicament in King’s Bluff, readers are led to believe the problems of today have roots that stretch farther back than “Goners” #1, when we all met Zoe, Josiah and the rest of the Latimers. Corona’s cartoon-tinged artwork packs exaggerated expressions and undermines the eerie tragedy seeping through “Goners” #3 as the two Latimer children try to find their way in a terrifying world that has them on the run. Zoe and J

Despite the similarities the logo shares with “Goonies” and the apparent zombie on the cover of this comic book, “Goners” #1, co-created by writer Jacob Semahn and artist Jorge Corona contains a story that is equal parts mystery, adventure and supernatural thriller — imagine “Escape to Witch Mountain” meets “Leave It To Chance” with a side of “Invincible.” Semahn and Corona elect to hit the ground running in “Goners” #1, introducing readers to the Latimer family and the rain-soaked, shadowy world that surrounds them. The elder Latimers, Raleigh and Evelyn, are news darlings, chasing down mysterious threats and righting wrongs in televised affairs. In this debut issue, however, their adventures are cut short while the spotlight shifts over to their children: seventeen-year-old Zoe and twelve-year-old Josiah. Semahn keeps the duo arm’s reach from most of the literary sibling cliches, a choice that gives the characters a chance to reach out to readers. The writer doesn’t dwell on either

I’ll be honest, if John Severin drew issues of “Witchfinder” every month, I’d be pleased as punch. His art is just gorgeous here, a reminder that we have a living legend who’s still active in the comics industry and turning out amazing comics. So for a minute, let’s put aside the contributions of Mike Mignola and John Arcudi, and let me just say that for Severin alone, you should read “Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever.” From the opening panel, with a cloud of smoke billowing around a revolver being fired by the walking dead, we’ve got something special. There’s so much detail crackling in this image; the dead eyes, the startled horse pulling back in fear, the wisps of smoke coming out of the camp fire, even the scrub grass and bushes in the background. It’s the amount of work that people would put into a huge splash page, but it’s just the first panel of the comic. And from start to finish, Severin doesn’t quit. That amount of detail is throughout the entire book, from the opening

It’s fun to wonder which came first: Mike Mignola and John Arcudi wanting to write a western-themed “Witchfinder” mini-series and Dark Horse hired John Severin, or someone at Dark Horse heard that Severin had a hole in his schedule and Mignola and Arcudi quickly said, “We’ll write a western-themed story for him!” (I suspect it was the former, but it’s an entertaining idea to picture the latter.) Whatever the reason, Severin drawing a supernaturally themed western comic is almost always good in my book, and “Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever” is no exception to that rule. Here, Sir Edward Grey is dropped into 1880s Utah, on a stop-over for the evening when he discovers a mysterious burned down church with arcane symbols. And, being a witchfinder and all, it’s not long before he starts investigating. From the very first page, Severin’s art draws you in, from the plains and scrub grass that the carriage is rolling through, to that initial glimpse of the church’s burnt-out shell, barel