- Amelia Sky #4
- Prismacation Studios
- Written by Jermaine M. Boyd
- Illustrated by Martina Niosi
- Edited by Brittany Matter
- Cover B by Gwynn Tavares
Amelia Sky, the sci-fi/horror series, chronicles the life of Amelia Sky, a young girl who awakens in a post-apocalyptic world with no memory of who she is or where she came from. Along her journey of self-discovery, she finds that she possesses extraordinary abilities that could save the human race from extinction by the deadliest threat the world has ever seen—an invasion of an alien species from the beginning of the universe that lives only for energy and will obtain it by any means necessary: the Shriekers. Amelia will face villains like no other, turning her from a shy, naive girl into a calculated killing machine. She will stop at nothing to protect the friends and allies she meets along her journey, and in the end the hopeless will scream for Amelia Sky.
A while back, I saw something pop up on Twitter & it piqued my curiosity. The post was some impressive promotional art for a sci-fi/horror comic, with a question… “Who is Amelia Sky?” It did its job as an advertising campaign, and I started looking into this crazy concept series about alien invasions, amnesiac heroines, and mysterious superpowers.
Helming the post-apocalyptic mayhem is writer Jermaine M. Boyd. Where many creatives might take a more straightforward approach, Boyd sweeps young Amelia along on a chaotic ride, jumping from one frying pan to the next. The narrative so far almost reads like an anthology, featuring Amelia as the common POV character and each issue ending on a “what the hell just happened?” cliffhanger that could work for or against the story. On the one hand, it’s a unique angle that could set the comic apart as Boyd builds his dark world of vicious aliens and mysteries creeping just out of sight. On the other, the scheduling pitfalls common to many indie books could work against the cliffhanger as readers try to follow along from issue to issue.
Amelia Sky shines in its art by Martina Niosi, with illustrations that have all of the polish of anything being put out by the Big Two publishers. Her pages are packed with visual information, panels arranged to show quick bursts of action followed by dramatic pauses. Niosi’s visual storytelling is solid, with only a couple of cases where a layout might have been set to give a clearer picture of the order in which the action was going. Those few breaks are easy to forgive after time spent looking at the amazing artwork and character designs.
With a few hints at Amelia’s true nature dropped issue 4 continues the story’s slow burn, with anything like a Big Reveal still waiting to be dropped. I hope to see something in issue 5 that starts to build on the groundwork Amelia Sky has been laying out. There’s a pretty great comic series waiting to happen, once the pieces start coming together into a bigger picture.
Final Score: 10/13
