Best of Vault Comics 2020: Where to start
By Zack Quaintance — Long-time readers of this site are surely familiar with Montana-based indie publisher Vault Comics by now. In the few years that this humble platform has existed, myself and my crack team of contributors have covered Vault often, with the publisher’s output often ranking among our favorites in any given year.
Even so, I still have the question posed to me from time to time: where do I start with Vault Comics? Which in a sense is really a question of what are the Best Vault Comics? It’s a good question. Finding the right entry point is important, especially with a publisher like Vault that covers such a wide range of themes and narrative interests. A great place to start for one reader might not be ideal for someone else.
So, with that in mind...today I’ve created a new guide — the Best of Vault Comics: Where to Start. Below you will find info about 12 great series from Vault, why those series are cool, and what kind of reader they are most likely to attract. Enjoy!
Best Vault Comics
Black Stars Above
Writer: Lonnie Nadler
Artist: Jenna Cha
Colorist: Brad Simpson
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
A young fur trapper flees her overbearing family only to get lost in a dreamlike winter wilderness that harbours a cosmic threat. The year is 1887 and a storm brews. Eulalie Dubois has spent her entire life tending to her family’s trapline, isolated from the world. A chance at freedom comes in the form of a parcel that needs delivering to a nameless town north of the wilderness. Little does Eulalie know, something sinister hides in those woods and it yearns for what she carries.
Why It’s Cool: It’s cosmic horror meets historical fiction, and it’s executed with some of the finest comics craft in recent years, expertly blending existentially claustrophobic and chilling visuals without thoughtful and poetic prose. A must-read for a different kind of reader.
Additional Reading: Read Our Reviews!
Buy It Online: Click Here!
Fearscape
Writer: Ryan O’Sullivan
Artist: Andrea Mutti
Colorist: Vladimir Popov
Lettering: Andworld Design
The Fearscape is a world beyond our own, populated by manifestations of our worst fears. Once per generation, The Muse travels to Earth, discovers our greatest Storyteller, and takes them with her to the Fearscape to battle these fear-creatures on our behalf. All has been well for eons, until The Muse encounters Henry Henry—a plagiarist with delusions of literary grandeur. Mistaking him for our greatest Storyteller, she ushers him into the Fearscape. Doom follows.
Why It’s Cool: It’s the most literary of all of Vault’s offerings, which really says a lot because Vault is perhaps the most literary of the publishers making a high volume of monthly single issue comics. Fearscape is about the artistic journey itself, tinged with pretensions, insecurity, and deep-seeded trauma/terrors.
Additional Reading: Read Our Reviews!
Buy It Online: Click Here!
Friendo
Writer: Alex Paknadel
Artist: Martin Simmonds
Colorist: Dee Cunniffe
Letterer: Taylor Esposito
Leo wasn't allowed toys as a kid, but now that he's all grown up he's going to take yours. He used to play by the rules, but then governments and corporations set fire to the rules and still expected him to behave. He probably would have if it hadn't been for his new friend Jerry. See, Jerry isn't human; he's a personalized marketing VR... and he's malfunctioning.
Why It’s Cool: It’s a joyous grindcore romp through a near-future late-model capitalism hellscape that oscillates between over-the-top and all too real. Everyone involved with this book had a blast creating some true terror with sharp commentary, and it shows.
Additional Reading: Read Our Reviews!
Buy It Online: Click Here!
Heathen
Writer: Natasha Alterici
Artists: Natasha Alterici & Ashley A. Woods
Letterer: Morgan Martinez
Aydis is a viking, a warrior, an outcast, and a self-proclaimed heathen. Aydis is friend to the talking horse Saga, rescuer of the immortal Valkyrie Brynhild, and battler of demons and fantastic monsters. Aydis is a woman. Born into a time of warfare, suffering, and subjugation of women, she is on a mission to end the oppressive reign of the god-king Odin.
Why It’s Cool: This book (to my mind) first put Vault on the map. It’s a deeply-personal vision filtered through a norse lens, telling the story of an outcast viking warrior and he her search for safety, love, heroism, and ultimately acceptance.
Additional Reading: Read Our Reviews!
Buy It Online: Click Here!
Money Shot
Writer: Tim Seeley & Sarah Beattie
Artist: Rebekah Isaacs
Colorist: Kurt Michael Russell
Letterer: Crank!
Designer: Tim Daniel
In the near future, space travel is ludicrously expensive and largely ignored. Enter Christine Ocampo, inventor of the Star Shot teleportation device with a big idea: She'll travel to new worlds, engage—intimately—with local aliens, and film her exploits for a jaded earth populace trying to find something new on the internet. Now, Chris and her merry band of scientist-cum-pornstars explore the universe, each other, and the complexities of sex in MONEY SHOT! A story about scientists having sex with aliens for the glory of mankind—and money.
Why It’s Cool: This is a deeply-hilarious book with much to say about sex, science, and what garners public attention. It’s a book about a team of scientist space adventurers who are fundingg their research through having sex with each other and alien species in far ends of the galaxy — what else do you need to know?
Additional Reading: Read Our Reviews!
Buy It Online: Click Here!
The Plot
Writers: Tim Daniel and Michael Moreci
Artist: Joshua Hixson
Colorist: Jordan Boyd
Letterer: Jim Campbell
In order to receive... first you must give. When Chase Blaine's estranged brother and sister-in-law are murdered, he becomes guardian to MacKenzie and Zach, the niece and nephew he hardly knows. Seeking stability for the children, Chase moves his newly formed family to his ancestral home in Cape Augusta -- which overlooks a deep, black bogland teeming with family secrets.
Why It’s Cool: The indie horror comics field has become crowded, but The Plot stands out as one of the best entires. It’s polished, character-driven, and liable to thoroughly scare you as it raises questions about how our families and pasts define our futures.
Additional Reading: Read Our Reviews!
Buy It Online: Click Here!
Relics of Youth
Writers: Matt Nicholas & Chad Rebmann
Artist: Skylar Patridge
Colorist: Vladimir Popov
Letterer: Andworld Design
Nat Rodrigues keeps dreaming of an island. Soon, the dreams become waking visions. Alone and concerned, Nat manages to locate other teenagers across the globe who share her intense obsession with the unmapped enclave. And then, the strangest part: Every one of them wakes one morning with a mysterious tattoo. A tattoo only the six of them can see. Now, each of them knows-no matter the obstacles in their way-they must discover this unknown paradise.
Why It’s Cool: This book is Vault’s slow-burning and really smart take on the teen adventure superpower genre. It’s an incredibly well-done comic that to me continues to feel a bit overlooked. If you want to get a teen superhero fix and also bragging rights for finding a hidden gem, this is the title for you.
Additional Reading: Read Our Reviews!
Buy It Online: Click Here!
Resonant
Writer: David Andry
Artist: Alejandro Aragon
Colorist: Jason Wordie
Letterer: Deron Bennett
A decade has passed since the first Waves hit, unleashing humanity's darkest impulses and plunging the world into chaos. Paxton, a single father of three, must venture from the secluded haven they've built to restock the medicine his chronically-ill youngest son needs to survive. When the somewhat routine trip goes awry, Paxton and his children—now separated—will battle everything in their path to reunite.
Why It’s Cool: All of the concepts for Vault books are airtight, but perhaps none more so than Resonant, which takes place in a world where unpredictable waves fall upon humanity every so often, causing all of society to give into its darkest impulses. So, come for the great concept but stay for David Andry’s excellent character work and Alejandro Aragon’s terrifying imagery.
Additional Reading: Read Our Reviews!
Buy It Online: Click Here!
Submerged
Writer: Vita Ayala
Artist: Lisa Sterle
Colorist: Stelladia
Letterer: Rachel Deering
On the night of the biggest storm in New York City history, Elysia Puente gets a call from her estranged little brother Angel, terrified, begging for help. When the call cuts out suddenly, despite the bad feelings between them, Ellie rushes into the night. Finding his broken phone in front of a barricaded subway station, Ellie follows echoes of her brother into the sinister darkness of the underground, desperate to find him before it's too late.
Why It’s Cool: Submerged is perhaps Vault’s most complete and rewarding contained read, a four-issue journey through New York during a hurricane, the rich relationships within a family, and an urban mythology so engrossing you’ll likely be unable to put this book down once you’ve started.
Additional Reading: Read Our Reviews!
Buy It Online: Click Here!
These Savage Shores
Writer: Ram V.
Artist: Sumit Kumar
Colorist: Vittorio Astone
Letterer: Aditya Bidikar
Two centuries after the first European ship sailed to the Malabar Coast and made landfall at Calicut, The East India Company seeks to secure its future along the lucrative Silk Route, in the year 1766. An old evil now sails aboard a company ship, hoping to make a home in this new found land. But he will soon find that the ground along the Indus is an ancient one with daemons and legends far older than himself. Along These Savage Shores, where the days are scorched and the nights are full of teeth.
Why It’s Cool: These Savage Shores is the critical breakout hit from Vault, earning heaps of praise from fans and review sites alike. This book is a nativist vampire story set in 1700s India that shows how colonialist imperialism was the true horror. These Savage Shores is the Vault book most-likely to be talked about for decades to come, and it’s making stars out of creators Ram V. and Sumit Kumar, very much deservedly so. Additional Reading: Read Our Reviews
Prose for fans of These Savage Shores
Why Ron Marz loves These Savage Shores
Buy It Online: Click Here!
Vagrant Queen
Writer: Magdalene Visaggio
Artist: Jason Smith
Colorist: Harry Saxon
Letterer: Zakk Saam
Former child queen Elida was driven from her throne at age ten and forced to wander the galaxy, evading the revolutionary forces that wanted her dead. When an old frenemy claims to know the whereabouts of Elida’s long-lost mother, she is forced to return to her former kingdom and stage a rescue.
Why It’s Cool: This is the first Vault Comics title to make its way into another medium, adapted as it has been for TV. It’s actually airing right now, bringing scores of new fans to this rip-roaring space adventure.
Additional Reading: Read Our Reviews!
Buy It Online: Click Here!
Wasted Space
Writer: Michael Moreci
Artist: Hayden Sherman
Colorist: Jason Wordie
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Billy Bane is a prophet who got it all wrong, and the galaxy has been burning ever since. All he wants is to waste away in the darkest corner of space with his best pal Dust, a supercharged Fuq bot. But when a new prophet comes calling, Billy is summoned to save the galaxy he's at least partially responsible for destroying. Too bad he couldn't care less.
Why It’s Cool: A philosophical space opera that has created a fun and flexible tone capable of swinging from deep and thoughtful soliloquies about societal ills to fast-paced laser battles between space terrorists and sex robots. Wasted Space is the no-holds-barred space opera comic we all need in 2020.
Additional Reading: Read Our Reviews!
Buy It Online: Click Here!
Other Great Comics From Vault
Next Big Vault Comics (New or Forthcoming Series)
Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.