Disaster Inc #1 is due out May 20, 2020. — **Disaster Inc #1** is due out May 20, 2020.

By Jarred A. Luján — New comics are finally coming back, maybe, I don’t know…does anyone know? Or are we all just latched onto whatever semblance of normalcy we can reach for in the hope in order to ignore the massive and constantly-frightening turn our lives have taken? Maybe! It’s a disaster!

On that note, Disaster Inc #1 is a new title from Aftershock Comics that’ll release at the end of May (it was originally meant for April 1st, but, you know). So, let’s take a dive into one of the first new comics I’ve read in a while!

So, Disaster Inc feels like an old school samurai movie colliding with underground tourism. It’s about a group of tourists that have clearly paid a lot of money so that they can go and venture around the sealed off area around where the Fukushima nuclear disaster occurred. Honestly, the concept has a lot of legs. It’s just such a strange sort of mixture that it’s enough to make the ears perk up.

There’s a bunch of characters introduced in the first issue. I liked the way we’re introduced to the characters, as well as keep them at enough of a distance to have some mystery to them. Our central character, Abby, does seem to be forced to take a backseat for most of the issue. A lot of the stuff unfolding around her seems to be done by people more interesting than her (at least initially,) but writer Joe Harris leaves enough breadcrumbs in her inner monologue/interactions, for us to know something lies under the surface with her. It’s enough for us to be interested in her while watching the situation unfold in front of her.

I’ve never read a book by Sebastián Piriz, but I love his art work. Piriz has phenomenal line art. Clear and emotive, Piriz really sells the story great. While the page layouts can be a little stiff, I really think the color work breaks the mold enough for each page to be a showstopper. Each page has these deep, beautiful colors that I really enjoyed and combed over on every page. Piriz is doing excellent work here.

The first few pages, despite giving us some of the coolest and best looking art moments in the book, feel extraneous. It’s done to feel impactful and to show the scary part of the book, but with no character tie-ins that we can tell, it just kind of seems like it was done to look cool…and, to be fair, it does look cool as hell. So, overall, I think the book holds its own. There’s enough mystery, character interest, and potential frights to have me hooked for #2.

Overall: There’s enough mystery, character interest, and potential frights in Disaster Inc. #1 to have me hooked for a second issue. 7.0/10

Disaster Inc. #1
Writer: Joe Harris
Artist: Sebastian Piriz
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
Publisher: AfterShock Comics
In 2011, the worst earthquake in Japan's history (and the catastrophic tsunami that followed) breached the costal Fukushima Daiichi power plant, causing three of its four nuclear reactors to melt down. Forced evacuations followed as the event released enough radioactive material into the air, ground and water to force officials to set up an "Exclusion Zone" for only the second time in history after the Chernobyl disaster, effectively sealing off the land for what may well be the rest of human history. But that's only if you don't have the right connections, the right people to pull the strings, and the desire to experience catastrophe, failure and misery as it really is! Enter DISASTER INC., an underground tourism outfit intent on helping people of means, secrets and agendas explore the dark corners and off-map attractions typical tour groups won't go to (and various laws don't al-low). Only Fukushima, known for its famed warrior class and their protection of the land and people dating back to ancient times, is full of deadly surprises and old ghosts.
Release Date: May 20, 2020
Buy It Online: Click here!

Read more great comic book reviews here!

Jarred A. Luján makes comics, studies existential philosophy, and listens to hip-hop too loudly. For bad jokes and dog pictures, you can follow him on Twitter.