Psychedelic art inspired by 1960s Jack Kirby

See sample pages from this book at Wink.

Featuring hallucinatory, psychedelic art inspired by the classic 1960s comic art of Jack Kirby, Space Riders is boldly drawn and beautifully inked in vibrant ultramarine, fuchsia, chartreuse, and the inky blackness of space. Every panel leaps from the page in a dynamic shock of color. Referencing psychedelic rock posters, motorcycle culture, Dia De Los Muertos, and hindu iconography, and presented within the framework of an outer space road odyssey, Space Riders is a pulpy, gritty adventure in intergalactic chaos.

The first four issues of the rare, sold-out, and pricey Space Riders from Black Mask Studios are combined in this hardcover anthology for Local Comic Book Shop Day. Capitan Peligro, pilot of the skull-shaped spacecraft Santa Muerte, has been recently relieved of his duty with the E.I.S.F. and must complete three missions before being reinstated. He's accompanied by Mono, his monk-like baboon first mate, and Yara, a female robotic warrior. They're being pursued by the Vikers, armored viking space bikers, when the crew is inexorably dragged toward a haunted planetoid, ruled by the sultry wizard Dona Barbara. Afterward, they encounter the galactic behemoth An-Anu Gigantus, the Space Whale.

Recalling a more naive time in the Silver Age of comic books, long before the current state of multi-title event crossovers in graphic novels, Space Riders is an archetypical story told and presented simply, wherein lies its appeal. Adventurers travel through space, fight villains, and save the day. Biff, bang, pow! - S. Deathrage

Space Riders Volume 1: Vengeful Universe
by Fabian Rangel (author) and Alexis Ziritt (illustrator)
Black Mask Studios
2015, 96 pages, 6.4 x 10.1 x 0.4 inches (softcover)
$12 Buy a copy on Amazon