City of Dust #1

With Radical Comics' latest release City of Dust, readers enter a futuristic Earth, consisting of strict bureaucracy and seemingly unjust persecution.

The City is made up of 2 different levels – the upper level, where the rich dwell, and the lower level, a place of darkness, crime and fear segregate Steve Niles’ world.

All religious beliefs and prayers are considered "curses" and reading children's books and fairy is considered pollution. Any involvement with the items above warrants one of two punishments - a life of imprisonment or death.

Our opening scene is one of the best in the book. Two fairly unimportant characters (but quite important if one views them literally as an introduction to the evil), Dirk and his girlfriend, are driving their hovercraft through the upper level and get into an accident, forcing them into the depths of the lower level.

To make a long story short, ripped limbs make this issue worth spending money on. The pictures that make up City and Dust are easy to indulge in.

A mysterious man known as Zid did the art contained in COD, and his work is quite breathtaking. It is hard to handle the physical copy of City of Dust, since it often seems as though it is sacred scripture, delicate to the touch.


Philip Khrome, our story's protagonist, is one of the pawns in this unfathomable game; he is a cop, a confused one, who wants to believe what he is doing is right. He often contemplates his past. Khrome turned daddy in for reading him a bedtime story.

And one could only imagine what Khrome turns to in times of confusion and depression - cigarettes and a hooker named Kylie.

Niles' writing is entertaining,, and his 5-part series looks quite promising. COD is book to look out for next month.

4/5 stars