Beyond the Breach by Ed Brisson (writer) and Damian Couceiro (artist)

Published by Aftershock Comics on May 17, 2022

Beyond the Breach is a graphic novel in five chapters, representing the five issues of the comic book of the same name in which the story first appeared. Ed Brisson tries to add human interest to a humans vs monsters story by giving soap opera lives to the humans. The monsters, on the other hand, have typical monster personalities, in that eating humans seems to be their only interest.

Vanessa’s husband Tristan was shagging her sister while Vanessa was in the hospital watching her mother die. That seems like the beginning of a bad drama, but in just a couple of pages Vanessa, while celebrating her freedom on a road trip, is involved in a multi-car crash instigated by monsters that eat the accident victims. Vanessa is remarkably unscathed. Brave woman that she is, Vanessa saves a kid named Dougie who is trapped in one of the wrecked vehicles before the monsters turn him into lunch. A friendly critter called Kai who resembles a walking bat isn’t much help but at least he’s not trying to eat humans. Kai would be the family dog if dogs could climb trees.

A fellow named Samuel who looks suspiciously like a wizard rides into the story on the back of a giant turtle. Samuel doesn’t know anything about California. Vanessa doesn’t know why a collision and a plane crash and hungry monsters have not attracted the attention of the authorities. Nor does she understand why the monsters come in various shapes and sizes, when alien invasion movies pretty much stick to a single species.

How did this happen? The vague explanation has something to do with interdimensional portals that seem to stick open when Samuel runs through them, dragging monsters in his wake. The reader is not encouraged to give the plot much thought.

Alien law enforcement is on the trail of Samuel. Is he a good wizardy guy or a bad wizardy guy? It seems he’s some of both. Vanessa explores Samuel’s character as they take a road trip to Ohio on the turtle's back. Vanessa wants to help out Dougie, who is now an orphan, but taking a turtle ride to Ohio in the midst of a monster invasion doesn’t seem like a good idea.

Vanessa is a bit of a twit. Vanessa hated her life before she met Samuel and hates it even more after monsters show up, but she proves herself to be plucky and a good friend to children and wizards and little bat creatures and giant turtles. None of that makes her particularly likeable, but at least she doesn’t have the double-D boobs that comic artists seem to admire so much.

Is Beyond the Breach worth reading? It’s about average for science fiction graphic novels that place a heavy emphasis on monsters. The art is a fashionable graphic novel style that’s too sketchy for my taste; human faces are optional, although all the bumpy and gooey parts of monsters are rendered with great care.

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