Good And Strange

• Date: 03.08.2008
• Book: Club Zero-G
• Author: plappen

Review

This graphic novel is about Zeke, your average unpopular, 19-year-old college student. He is a townie who happens to attend the local Elite University. One night, he discovers a hip, new club, Club Zero-G, where he is popular and accepted. The catch is that everyone is dreaming. The club exists only in the shared dream consciousness of its participants. Zeke remembers the club the next day, but he is the only one.

As time goes on, Zeke discovers that the shared dream space is actually a psychic field produced by four mutant children from the future. Conceived in zero gravity, they are the last of their kind. They live in a world where independent thinking is a threat to “consensus,” and are hunted by the authorities. The four seek the help of 21st century teens who, perhaps, can still alter the course of reality.

Then Zeke learns that he is being used, by the militaries of the future and present (including Zeke’s father), as a portal into the field of the Zero-G kids, so they can be removed, once and for all. Of course, there is a much simpler possibility. Zeke could just be losing his mind.

I confess to not being much of a comic/graphic novel reader, but I loved this story. It is sufficiently strange and influenced by Japanese anime, the drawings are easy to follow, and it will give the reader plenty to think about. Two strong thumbs up.