It’s no secret that I love Matt Kindt’s work. You can look through my reviews of his comics over the last three years. There’s very rarely a negatively tinged review, and if there is, it’s full of trust that he knows what he’s doing, even if I don’t see it yet…and I’m usually correct, and he’s usually amazing.

Ether dropped last year a bit under the radar. It was a strange tale, really fun with hints of melancholy, as an adventuring scientist by the name of Boone Dias would jump between two realities: ours and the Ether. In the Ether, he would solve mysteries with science amidst a world of fantasy and magic. As the story continued, we dug a little bit at a time into Boone’s personal life until it gave me my favorite issue of a comic book last year, when Kindt and David Rubin destroyed me by showing how Boone’s eventual wife first came into contact with the Ether. It was the first sign that this tale of whimsy was whimsical only on the surface.

As a whole, I really couldn’t tell you where it was going, except that it was utterly effective. With the first issue of the Copper Golems story arc, Kindt and David Rubin solidified this series as a character-driven work of art. Yes, there is a story and a goal driving our characters forward – to seal the gates between the Ether and the real world which the Copper Golems are getting through – but this book is just as much about Boone and what he’s left behind in the real world to go on his adventures. As Boone gathers together a more and more eccentric party of adventurers and those adventures become more and more zany, I can only wonder how what he’s leaving behind will eventually come back to damage him.

Creative Team: Matt Kindt (writer), David Rubin (art, letters), Daniel Chabon (editor), Brett Israel (assistant editor), Mike Richardson (publisher), Anita Magaña (designer), Josie Christensen (digital art technician)
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
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