I'm generally bad about following serialized webcomics, regardless of how much I enjoy them. So when I stumbled on Scott Base's short snippets of sci-fi existential horror at his website Bad Space Comics I fell in love with them as each is a quick done in one piece of work. It also doesn't hurt that that his style is very reminiscent of the likes of Greg Smallwood or Chris Samnee with a bit of Scott Hampton as well, all artists that I adore.
The Suit was my introduction, the story following a travelling astronaut whose suit keeps him alive and moving as he treks through a wasteland regardless of the cost. We never know why he's travelling or where's he's going and it doesn't matter, all that matters is that he's slowly loosing bits of himself as sacrifices are needed.
The collected works have a very Twilight Zone/Black Mirror nature to them, just with a much more vicious edge and more pinpoint accuracy so that we don't get any unnecessary bloat. The tale Ghosts follows a time traveler who quickly sets the rules up for what is a fairly telegraphed ending that definitely gave me some Twilight Zone/EC Comics vibes. The joy though was more in capturing that tone and giving us the payoff quickly while still feeling satisfying.
The tale of After Life is one of the darker pieces, as even though it offers a hope of some sort of Heaven after death it still manages to paint that out as a terrible nightmare scenario. Even though Base allows for a glimpse of hope, he still finds a way to knock it down and kick it repeatedly while it's down, and I appreciate that.
Which isn't to say they're all soul shatteringly dark. One of the newest installments titled Empires of Light takes a look at a reality where Crete was never laid low by the eruption of Thera and the course of humanity is radically different due to equality of the sexes. Although you could still argue this one is also depressing as it's more of a window looking into a better world that we're probably never gonna achieve. Hooray!
At the moment there are just ten stories, so it's a pretty quick binge. I love the format of short snippets of sci-fi ideas that hit their point quickly and don't suffer from bloat or too many characters, and again I'm just a fan of Base's style so it's a very pretty binge to work through as well. So if you're in the mood for a bunch of rapid fire combo hits of existential dread that you can digest during a lunch break then I highly recommend checking these out.
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