Wow!  What a great anthology.  I miss these old things–like short films and short stories, the 5 page comic story has definitely been lost to the huge trade-centric arcs.

Let’s see if I can review (and tease without spoilers) each of the 9 stories in this huge comic!

1) Case 21
Writer: Selwyn Hinds
Artist Denys Cowan
–A really nice futuristic mini-tale.  Very Blade Runner/Minority Report setting with an oppressive government, rebels, and a tattoo artist.  Not bad!  4/5

2)The White Room
Writer: Talia Hershewe
Artist: Juan Bobillo
–The art really stands out on this one: dreamy watercolors.  A nice story about a world where people are hooked on The White Room, basically a virtual reality that reacts to your desires.  An old concept, but rendered beautifully.  My second favorite story in the book.  5/5

3)Partners
Writer: Peter Milligan
Artist: Sylvain Savoia
–A great little story about what we’ll do to avoid the truth.  I don’t want to give too much away, but do you ever wonder if you’re only in someone else’s head?  4/5

4)All the Pretty Ponies
Writer: Lauren Beukes
Artist: Inaki Miranda
–Gorgeous artwork that’s reminiscent of Risso’s best in 100 Bullets.  A really awesome story that involves another escape-from-reality-technology: Pony Rides in which you get to experience someone else’s experience for a very large fee per hour.  Here we have some uber rich folks wanting to Pony Ride in some third world country people’s experience: “This is so naughty! I hope we get to do something really bad.”  Fantastic story, great artwork!  5/5

5)Ultra The Multi-Alien
Writer/Artist: Jeff Lemire
–Nice colorful Paul Pope-esque artwork on a character portrait of a lost DC hero, a man who’s body has been forged into a multi-alien.  Very reminiscent of the Sandman story about Element Girl; a tragic what-would-their-life-really-be-like story of a bizarre character.  4/5

6)Refuse
Writer/Artist: Ross Campbell
–My least favorite, but still an interesting work.  Simple but engaging color, and a really bare bones story about a woman who can’t throw anything away.  I’m not 100% sure that I got what Campbell was going for, but not too bad.  3/5

7)The Post Modern Prometheus
Writer/Artist: Kevin Colden
–Probably the longest story in the book, it’s about a little monster-like man and his tragic life.  A little funny, a little horrifying, and very, very ironic.  3/5

8)A “True Tale” from Saucer Country
Writer: Paul Cornell
Artist: Goran Sudzuka
–A strange, post-modern story about a man who writes about UFOs–or does he make it up?  Or do the aliens make him up?  What’s going on again?  A great nice narrative twist in the end makes it totally worth it.  4/5

9)Spaceman
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Eduardo Risso
–I have to admit, I didn’t like it as much as I had hoped, coming from these two.  There was a bit of back story about some mutant children bred for the journey to Mars, but other than that I was pretty baffled.  In 100 Bullets they had such an amazing talent at capturing street language: now they’re trying to do that in a post-apocalyptic future, with a language that hasn’t come about yet?  Honestly, I was mostly confused and looking for characters.  Hopefully the ongoing series will be a little better defined.  3/5

Overall, this was a fantastic book, and well worth the $7.99 price tag, especially if you miss The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crypt, and other great (and lost) anthologies!