By Zack Quaintance — There have been a lot of comics in the past four years about America. Specifically, there have been a lot of comics in the past four years that have extrapolated headlines about America into a fallen state, many of them via Image Comics, be it via total society implosion (see Undiscovered Country) or subtler economic quo shifts that change the nature of daily life (see Crowded). And there are likely to be a good many more, given the spiderweb of awful that has been a four-year Trump presidency combined with the timeline it takes for ideas to go from sparking to forming a full comic.

That said, it is to my mind becoming increasingly difficult to use dystopian sci-fi to really find interesting questions to raise about America today within comics. We’ve just been down so many of the various paths that thinking about our recent horrors can bring us down. That, however, doesn’t mean that a comic can’t strut into this space and absolutely wow audiences with impeccable and near-flawless execution, which is exactly what Post Americana #1 (due out December 16!) has done.

Post Americana #1 is the new book from virtuoso writer/artist Steve Skroce, who is colored on the project by veteran Dave Stewart and lettered by Fonografiks. Skroce is a powerhouse comics talent, and all of his work feels like an event, even if the ideas it tosses around are as well-tread as those in this book. This is another book where income inequality, isolationism, obsession with the military-industrial complex, and however many other factors have sent the United States into a death spiral. We pickup during a recovery effort being launched by the elite, who seem to have orchestrated some or all of the problems as they hid away in a safe bunker. A group of staffers within that bunker have organized and rebelled, and our plot is off!

It’s a great and clean plot construction that enables the book to really shine from scene-to-scene, doing so with Skroce’s usual blend of top-tier comics storytelling and honest characterizations. It’s the latter of which that really took the book to another level in my opinion, launching it to a different place than many of the other comics occupying the same or similar spaces. Simply put, of all the comics telling dystopian stories about American in 2020, Post Americana looks the best and has the most interesting characters, which really makes it a better read for those of us who’ve read/thought/discussed the current state of the country and the many calamities for which we are likely headed at length.

This is all why Post Americana #1 gets the heartiest of endorsements from me. At this point, I’m content with reading an ongoing wave of comics about how American is messed up and might get even more messed up. It’s a genre that obviously is helping creators and readers alike find some ways to cope with our times. But moving forward, I might not be content with no entries into the space, given how fantastically-well done this first issue was. It has without question hooked me for the length of its six-issue run.

Overall: The best comic about America falling to pieces in terms of art, plotting and execution, Post Americana #1 joins a crowded field of near-future dystopian stories about the United States — and immediately sets itself apart from the field, doing so with top-tier art and memorable characters. 9.5/10

REVIEW: Post Americana #1

Post Americana #1 (of 6)
Writer/Artist: Steve Skroce
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Lettering and Design: Fonografiks
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
From MAESTROS creator, WE STAND ON GUARD co-creator, and The Matrix storyboard artist STEVE SKROCE with coloring by Eisner Award-winning DAVE STEWART. The Cheyanne mountain installation, aka The BUBBLE, is the most sophisticated super bunker in the world. It was built to ensure the survival of America's executive branch of government and its most important citizens, should the unthinkable happen. When the world ended, the executive branch failed to reach the sanctuary, but the elite citizenry did. Eighty years later, one of their own has named himself the new President of the United States. His plan? Subjugate the survivors of the American Wasteland using the same bunker resources meant to rebuild it. The only thing standing in their way is a deadly Wasteland girl, hellbent on revenge!
Release Date: December 16, 2020
Buy It Here: Post Americana #1