I’ll admit, I had no plans to pick this book up but that cover caught my eye so I gave it a go. It didn’t hurt that Rob Guillory is writing this story with Sam Lofti is on art.

Innards is a science fiction horror story that is setup as a future after a nuclear attack where our energy sources have been destroyed. We don’t hear much about what happened or why, but that adds to the story and I hope we hear more about it as the book continues. Because of the destruction, a new energy source is found called Lucifium. The bad news is that it exists beneath the Earth’s surface and it’s a dangerous job to mine it. So much so that it’s a high paying job with no guarantee you’ll survive.

Our main character Roy is a soon to be father and he decides to pick up a job mining Lucifium. We’re introduced to a crew he joins who introduces him to the job, the company who pays them and their own motivations. As you could guess, they aren’t exactly looking out for their employees.

All of the characters are given a little bit of attention, enough that you know enough about them to care. The crew that Roy joins has their own secrets and inner demons, who can or can’t be trusted?

The art is fantastic and the book is vibrant and colorful. You might think that’s a contradiction from the type of story this is, but it also has a closed in and dangerous vibe.

The story is well paced and you get a ton of information in one issue without feeling like it. It’s not an easy feat and it’s exactly what a first issue has to do to keep readers coming back. I’m hooked on this book and I can’t wait to see what secrets and horrors we’ll find under the Earth’s surface and corporate greed.

Innards is published by Ignition Press

You can listen to me rave about this book here on the Panel Chewing podcast here.