Publisher: AfterShock Comics
Writer: Paul Jenkins
Artwork: Wesley St. Claire
Letterer: Marshall Dillon
Release Date: 29th August 2018

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Jacob Tate is a kid who loves cryptography, mysteries and a good conspiracy theory, the more convoluted the better. He’s currently working on finding the connection between the death of George Mallory, the village of Avebury, a dead, illiterate man with an unbreakable code in his pocket, and a 2000 year old computer… oh and trying to discover why is his uncle so obsessed with sandwiches.

Paul Jenkins (Hellblazer, Werewolf By Night, Alters), has written a comic that has all the makings of a classic “boy’s own” tale.  A slightly more grown up and precocious one with the added perils of a flatulent one-eyed Welsh Corgi, but the hallmarks are all there. I get the impression that this is going to be a story along the lines of Tin Tin’s adventures with Indiana Jones vs. The Agents from The Matrix and the aliens from They Live! And to be honest, who wouldn’t want to read that?!?!

There’s even a real world code breaking challenge hidden in the panels and pages of each issue that, if you’re much smarter than I am, will lead you to an “awesome prize”. I actually wrote them all down and even colour coded them like the book and after about two hours of staring blankly at my notes, realised that I will never, ever, be asked to go and work at Bletchley Park…

I’ve been a fan of Jenkins since his run in Hellblazer but I particularly enjoy reading the work he does that is his own creation rather than adapting and reinventing an existing world.  The Beyonders is no exception. There are some nice little nods to the Sci-Fi shows and films of my youth that I found I was grinning to myself about, along with a real urge to get into the next issue as soon as possible.

Wesley St. Claire’s (Fu Jitsu, Teen Titans) art and colouring is in a style I really enjoy, not too polished, like a hand has actually dragged a pencil across a page and I really liked his depictions of the historical aspects of the story. I genuinely don’t know a lot about St. Claire’s previous work but he’s done a great job here of bringing the drama and intrigue of Jenkins’ story to life.

Rating: 3/5.

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The writer of this piece was: Mark Scott
Mark Tweets from @macoy_comicgeek ‏

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