Aftershock Comics will be launching a new series this April written by Jeff 
Loveness (Groot, Nova and Jimmy Kimmel Live) and Juan Doe (American Monster and Animosity: The Rise) with World Reader #1. It sounds like a fun, female-led, sci-fi adventure exploring themes of life, the universe, and everything in between.
Sarah, an astronaut travelling from dead planet to dead planet, talking to the ghosts of the dead worlds…as she fights to discover the secret that’s killing the universe. But Death doesn’t give up its secrets so easily, and as Death hunts her from planet to planet, Sarah struggles to maintain the trust of her crew and her own sanity in the endless ocean of lives. Every world has a story, and if she can find the secret tying them all together, she can save Earth from being the next world to die.
World Reader #1 hits comic book stores on 19 April 2017. For what it’s worth, this combination has me genuinely excited. The premise alone has my attention, and the art looks stunning. Watch this space, literally.
“When Mike Marts and AfterShock offered me my first creator-owned series, I tried to pitch the biggest idea I could think of. I’ve always loved big, existential sci-fi that takes a swing at the Universe. Films like Tarkovsky’s “Solaris” and “2001”, mixed with modern ones like ‘Contact’ and Arrival’ and Ray Bradbury sci-fi were huge huge influences on this story. AfterShock gave me the freedom to combine spirituality, sci-fi, and horror with Cosmogony and Apocalypse narratives in every issue. We’ve got a psychic astronaut travelling to dead worlds, talking to space ghosts and trying to figure out what’s killing life across the Universe… should have something fun and weird for everybody. And on art, Juan Doe brings such intense stylization to this. I’ve been a fan of his work for years, so it’s great to finally collaborate with him. I am not worthy, and luckily he hasn’t figured that out yet. Please don’t tell him.” – Jeff Loveness
The series’ artist Juan Doe also weighed in on working with Jeff and was equally enthused and quick with the compliments.
“Working on World Reader from Jeff Loveness has been a blast. It’s very different from my work on American Monster and I’ve always wanted to do a story that takes place in outer space. Jeff’s framework for the story has some very cool, metaphysical narratives. It brings to the forefront the questions humans have had from the beginning of civilization, the questions of origins and why we were created and it is very much an operatic space thriller with some nice twists and turns.” – Juan Doe
