Con Report Interlude: Dead Space

I received an e-mail today from a fellow affiliated with Electronic Arts today. After my sole prior incident, you might think I'd be used to people I don't know delivering warm, filling content... but I'm not. (It's all rather flattering, really.)

After a brief introduction, he moved on to the game, Dead Space. (For anyone who isn't aware, despite this being a Comics blog, I'm a voracious devourer of video games. As a rule, I don't discuss them here, but it's another subject that feel very strongly about.) Aside from the game, he wanted to make sure I knew about the accompanying comic book that was being released prior to the game's release.

Truth be told, though the game definitely had my interest, I hadn't paid any attention previous to his e-mail. As with anything else, a licensed comic book can range from very good (Image's adaptation of the PC game Freedom Force to Marvel's embarassing Marvel Nemesis: The Imperfects, tying into an equally bad game. I'm ashamed to have to admit that I actually own three issues of the latter.) With a few links provided, I figured I'd give a look to the material provided. Below should be the video feed for the online viewing of issue #3. In a move that's been popular over the past few years, the comic serves as a prequel to the game, explaining the initial situation when you put the disc into your system and turn it on.




Now I'm not sure if this is a preview, or if it contains the entire issue, but it strikes me as something with some promise. The art looks strong to me, and the creative team (Ben Templesmith and Antony Johnston) seem to have some work to their credit. Blending science fiction and horror has always struck me as one of those things that's very difficult to pull off well. When I stop by Ye Olde Comic Shoppe tomorrow, I think I'm going to see if I can find an issue or two.