With the Earth Above Us, billed as a black and white, retro flashback to an all-ages science fiction adventure, is a moody throwback that plays more like A Space Odyssey than Lost in Space. The art is simple and stylized, perfect for conveying the solitude of space travel, but struggles occasionally with perspective, bouncing around and undercutting the quiet, tension that pervades this comic. Several scenes lack a decisive geography, leaving the reader unclear what is happening and to whom.
This preview follows two astronauts maintaining a space station while the rest of the crew sleeps, presumably in some sort of suspended animation, with the company of a “HAL”-like main computer and at least one practical robot closer to R2D2. Funny enough, the two A.I. characters struck me as the most developed, with clear goals and interesting personalities, while the two human characters struck me as muddy, un-charismatic, and almost robotic. The story itself seems bigger than what can fit in a 21-page comic, casually referencing events, equipment, and lingo that remains unexplained and distancing to the reader, but it is likely to be cleared up in the full-length graphic novel, which is the ultimate goal of the writer, Lee Milewski.
You can read the comic and find out more about how to support With the Earth Above Us by going to his Kickstarter page.
