Losing one’s mind a few hundred light-years from Earth.
Creative Staff:
Story/Art: Dave Chisholm
What They Say:
Helen wakes up marooned on a lifeless alien planet 300 light-years from Earth with no memories beyond a hazy sense of extinction-level urgency to return to Earth. Joined by Arther, her strange robot companion, she explores the planet to find materials necessary to repair her ship. However, circumstances are not as straightforward as they seem. Along the way, Helen’s most painful memories return as monstrous manifestations hell-bent on her destruction. Canopus is Castaway meets Annihilation, with a healthy dose of ‘Phillip K. Dick’ thrown in for good measure!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Sometimes you come across an interesting book just going by the cover, or the coloring thereof, as it catches your eye and draws you in. The opening installment of Canopus did that with its hues and minimal design that tugs at my science fiction background in a big way. Written and illustrated by Dave Chisholm, it’s a four-issue series that feels like it touches upon a lot of classic science fiction short story concepts in a good way and uses that to launch us forward while the past tugs at the character. I’ve read a lot of similar stories in the monthly magazines years ago so there’s an affinity to see what Chisholm wants to do with it here and his own spin.
The premise introduces us to Helen, an astronaut who is some 310 light-years from Earth and has just woken up on the surface of a planet in her spacesuit. She knows the whole amnesia thing is cliche but she has no idea how she got here or what she’s supposed to do. The initial panic gives way to asking the right questions, which her suit and her ship answer a bit, in that she’s on a mission here for Earth – a world whose mention ignites visions of flame and fire in her mind’s eye. She can’t suss that out just yet but we do see over the course of this opening issue there are two big segments where part of her childhood comes flooding back, highlighting her father as an astronaut that disappeared during his own flight and the struggle she had over his leaving and the subsequent disappearance.
Helen’s intent on getting back and that’s the driving motivation in the series at the start here. She gets to play against the suit nav, InSuNav, and the ship itself, but she also gets a small humaniform blob named Arther that calls her mother and is kind of a robot. He’s always asking questions since he’s not connected to a network and ends up following her on her journey to find the materials they need to get the ship working again. And that leads to some pretty surreal things along the way, which pushes the flashbacks and adds to the kind of breakdown that Helen is slowly going through in trying to understand all of this. It’s solid classic science fiction material in the best ways and Chisholm has it unfold beautifully here against a stark backdrop.
In Summary:
Canopus opens on some pretty interesting ideas that while familiar is well-executed. Dave Chisholm has some solid pacing here to really move this along right and keep us engaging while also knowing how to deliver a lot of background in a very different way from the main storyline. It’s definitely intriguing with what it does and I love the kind of minimalist approach to the artwork with the clean lines, simpler color design, and the sparseness of the alien world and her own ship. When it gets busier and fills up you feel it all the more because of it. Definitely worth taking a peek if this kind of material is of your interest.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Scout Comics
Release Date: February 19th, 2020
MSRP: $3.99
