By d. emerson eddy — Now for something transcendent. And I don't just mean the subject matter of the series. For the final look into this month's spotlight on Black Crown titles, I couldn't not mention Euthanauts by Tini Howard, Nick Robles, Eva de la Cruz, Aditya Bidikar, and Neil Uyetake. There's really nothing else like it out there, carving out a story that takes a unique look at death and what happens afterwards. I'd say it captures the spirit of some of the best arcs from The Sandman, but does so in its own way.

The story introduces us to Thalia Rosewood, a receptionist for a funeral home, when her life is turned upside down by the seemingly random attack by a dying woman. It propels Thalia into a world of bizarre science experiments into what happens after death, the liminal spaces between, and various aspects of the concept of attachment. It presents many ideas that could be considered terrifying, and indeed the presence of one of the dead characters is truly horrifying, but those elements of horror are tempered with some bitingly funny dark humor from Howard's dialogue and the sense of personal growth and exploration that we get from the main living characters.

Nick Robles also provided an absolute tour de force with his artwork on this series. His work previously on Clockwork Angels and Alien Bounty Hunter was stunningly beautiful, but it seemed like he leveled up with this series. The character designs, color choices, and facial expressions seemed to channel some of the joy and beauty of Jill Thompson's work, while the layouts started to really play with the experimentation of JH Williams III and Marco Rudy, resulting in a unique and beautiful style. Inviting in how fully realized the characters appeared and intriguing in how the pacing broke across double page spreads and through inventive panel transitions. The colors from Robles himself and de la Cruz, with some lush purples, blues, and greens giving it a somewhat trippy feel.

That feel is matched by the lettering from both Aditya Bidikar and Neil Uyetake (who takes over a little before halfway through), with some impressive personalized word balloons for some of the characters and a couple moments where we get direct text on background as we fall into the liminal spaces.

Both Howard and Robles are well on their way to hopefully becoming household names, with higher profile work for Marvel and DC Comics like Excalibur and The Dreaming: Waking Hours respectively, but their work together on Euthanauts, with de la Cruz, Bidikar, and Uyetake remains one of my absolute favorites. The story is an absolute trip with some incredibly inventive and enthralling artwork. There's a blend here of sci-fi, horror, fantasy, magic, new age, humor, and personal drama that is unlike anything else.

It was hard to come up with three Black Crown titles to choose specifically, simply due to how high quality all of the line was. Lodger, Eve Stranger, Assassinistas, both Punks Not Dead series, Femme Magnifique, and the Black Crown Quarterly anthology are all also well worth your time and, on a different day, I could easily have been gushing about their wonders too. The entire line was comfort food for this Vertigo reader and a testament to the creators and the curation by Shelly Bond of the wonders that they achieved. I highly recommend checking out the line, checking in on what the creators are working on now, and what Bond has been doing with her Kickstarter projects.

Classic Comic of the Week: Euthanauts

Euthanauts
Writer: Tini Howard
Artist: Nick Robles
Colorists: Nick Robles & Eva de la Cruz
Letterers: Aditya Bidikar & Neil Uyetake
Publisher: IDW - Black Crown
Death is like space-a seemingly unknowable, terrifying blackness, that yield incredible discoveries and truths-if only you've got the right kind of rocket ship.
What if suicide isn't a desire to die, but a desire to be somewhere else?
What if there is a place we can go after death, but we have no way to phone home about it?
What if the Freudian death instinct is not destructive... but discovery?
After a near-death experience, lonely funeral home receptionist Thalia Rosewood is recruited into the Euthanauts, a select group of psychonauts, sick folk, and other intrepid explorers who pass over willingly to determine What Lies Beyond. Tini Howard combines her trademark black humor and grounded, realistic storytelling with an otherworldly and mind-expanding exploration of the one thing we all have in common.
Release Date: February 26, 2019
More Info: Euthanauts

Read past Classic Comics of the Week!

d. emerson eddy is a student and writer of things. He fell in love with comics during Moore, Bissette, & Totleben's run on Swamp Thing and it has been a torrid affair ever since. His madness typically manifests itself on Twitter @93418.