INDIE BOOK SPOTLIGHT:
THE NEW ZODIAX
STORY & ART BY: Joe St. Pierre
COLORS BY: Andrew Covalt, Rainier Pettier, Ziggy Chen, Benny Fuentes, Chris Summers, Benjamin Carbonero and Atomic Paintbrush
PUBLISHED BY: Astronaut ink
"For over 10,000 years, the zodiacal energies have been available to those whose consciousness is open to the reception and manipulation of them. That access has been achieved only by a select few--twelve, to be exact. One human vessel for each of the houses of the celestial wheel. This is the saga of... THE NEW ZODIAX!!"
- Joe St. Pierre
According to this outstanding and radical graphic novel journey written and drawn by Joe St. Pierre, (Marvel, DC, Valiant, Image), "the stars are changing." Just as the quotation above states, human vessels that have the level of consciousness required are harnessing abilities and powers from the cosmic power of the zodiac!! This first trade paperback released by Astronaut Ink showcases the first four people to obtain this cosmic power: AQUARIUS or LIBERAIDER, a super computer hacker and "Robin Hood" of cyberspace, PISCES or CRICKET, a ghost hunter with psychic abilities, LEO or THE LION, the first stargazer and equal to the great King Imotep of Ancient Egypt and SAGITTARIUS or MULTAA, a woman of nobility in a far off galaxy who changes into a volcano monster to save her city of Aum'a.
Each of these tales of celestial empowerment kept me on the edge of my seat. Joe St. Pierre's storytelling is original, vivid and addicting. As soon as I opened this amazing trade paperback, I new my money was well-spent, and I became sucked into the universe created by St. Pierre. Before long, I had found myself caring about these characters and following their stories with emotion as well as pure comic geek-level excitement. I identified the most with the character LIBERAIDER, a young hacker named Benjamin F who was sick of the Dinosaur Corporation controlling society and ruining his life. Since Ben didn't have much going for him in reality, with his foster parents neglecting him, high school a constant drag, etc, etc; Ben had no problem risking his life as LIBERAIDER in cyberspace to try and take what he could from Dinosaur, and expose them as much as possible on the secret hacker webpage, Killer Vapor. I would never want to give all of this incredible plot development away, but just know that Joe St. Pierre really hit it out of the park with these character origins. St. Pierre is an amazing out of the box thinker and writer who came up with something fresh that I have yet to see anywhere else in any medium.
In regards to the artwork, it is simply top shelf. What else could one expect from a veteran of the comics industry? The attention to detail in each panel of this masterpiece just proves over and over again how much St. Pierre cares about his work, and how much fun his work is to read. The artwork sucked me right into the story almost immediately, and I was damned if I was going to put the book down before the adventure had ended. I am going to be bold here and state the truth. THE NEW ZODIAX was more exciting than anything I have read from the big two in quite some time. If you are looking for something a little different than your standard cape and cowl caper, an escape from the winter cold that delivers big fun or just an example of incredible eye candy in regards to artwork, go check out this book!! YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!
**To purchase "THE NEW ZODIAX," go to: www.thenewzodiax.com
...and as always....
STAY VIGILANT!!!!
