Apocalypse 5000 #1

Apocalypse 5000 #1

Floating World Comics 2021

Written by Bob Huszar

Illustrated by Ken Landgraf

Lettered by Joe Pilati

Mankind has fallen and the weak exist only to serve The Great Machines. What rebels remain are hunted to die in the areas or enslaved to build the great computer pyramids. But this is not the end… Witness legendary Outlaw Comics master, Ken Landgraf’s comics apocalypse!

Originally published in the pages of the 1984 private press classic, New York City Outlaws, these are Power Comics in their rawest form.

I had no idea that this was going to be a reprint and I have to say this holds up incredibly well after all these years. Ironically it does look a lot like what we’ve been seeing from Floating World Comics which is why it came as a surprise to me when I learned this wasn’t the first time it has seen print. So kudos to Floating World Comics for having the wherewithal to put out something like this that so closely resembles their other titles. For me I can see the underground comix look, tone and feel here and it really takes the science fiction route to heart and delivers one of those early masterpieces in terms of storytelling, creativity and ingenuity.

I love the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. The character development is interesting and between the narration, dialogue and character interaction alongside how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter really flesh them out beautifully. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story, introducing us to the characters and this world as it is, was and how it came to be is truly fascinating stuff.

I am very much enjoying how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story emerge, grow and breathe even more life into this story. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is wonderfully achieved. There is something about the way that this is being told so that the overall flow is easy to follow and it engages the reader as it pulls you deeper and deeper into what is occurring within these pages.

The interiors here are bloody impressive. The black & white style is so unforgiving and if you make a mistake we’ll see it but here any of the little imperfections really make this even more charming and interesting. The linework and how we see its varying weights and techniques in laying it down is so well done. How all this works to bring about the detail work that we see is gorgeous. This is one of those that makes the case for black & white comics and just how damn good, expressive and utterly delightful they can and should be. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such a strong, natural and talented eye for storytelling. The creativity and imagination that we see in how the robots are portrayed and brought to life and our main character all of which appears to have some sort of influence to Thundarr the Barbarian to me.

​

I love seeing these stories, mainly because I missed out on them the first time around as I was something of a snob and thought underground comix were beneath me and I had this aversion to the black & white medium. I was young and stupid lol what can I say. Now I fully appreciate the talent, verve and sheer chutzpah it took to create these amazing stories. I want to see more of this and if there is a run then great if not than someone needs to continue onward in tribute because this is just too damn cool not to have more of.