We Only Find Them When They're Dead, T1 : Le Voyageur

We Only Find Them When They're Dead #1

by Al Ewing, Simone Di Meo

On n'oublie jamais la première fois que l'on voit un Dieu. Les Dieux sont toujours magnifiques. Et les Dieux sont toujours morts.

2367, aux confins de la galaxie. Dans ce futur lointain, l'humanité a épuisé toutes ses ressources et doit sa survie à l'exploitation de dieux morts flottant dans l'espace, dont les cadavres gigantesques servent désormais de matière première. Le Vihan II est l'un des nombreux vaisseaux nécropsiques qui arpentent le cosmos dans l'espoir de trouver ces divinités providentielles. Mais Georges Malik, son capitaine, nourrit une obsession : pourquoi les dieux ne se révèlent-ils que lorsqu'ils sont morts ? Pour tenter de s'émanciper de ce système gangréné par les inégalités et la pauvreté, tout l'équipage s'embarque alors dans un périple sous haute tension à la recherche d'un dieu vivant.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Space Opera, LGBT

144 pages, Hardcover

First published April 29, 2021

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mmmm. I don't know.



Times are tough in the future. <--so much has changed!
The crews of spaceships go around chopping pieces off of these massive dead beings they call gods, and selling the parts. Everything is regulated, so each ship calls dibs on a chunk of the god, and some kind of regulatory agency has ships out there that make sure the crews comply and play fair. If they try to take a god-part that isn't theirs and run, the space cops blow them up.
Sort of?



There's a backstory between the captain of one of the coroner ships and one of the agents. They have beef and she's always trying to catch him and his crew doing something wrong.
Meanwhile, the captain guy is on the hunt to find one of these gods alive. For some reason?
Spoilery things happen and...



If I'm 100% honest, I'm not sure what happened in parts of this, as the art is beautiful but chaotic when the action starts.
And I'm not even really sure what this was actually about because it was all very bare-bones storytelling.
I mean, I get what happened but...yeah, not really. You need to have some mystery to the story that keeps the reader intrigued, but everything about this was too vague for me.

Maybe it will get clearer in future volumes?

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

These scavenger ships mine the flesh of dead Gods floating in space. They are monitored by overzealous space cops, one of which has a grudge with our captain. It's an intriguing setup, but not nearly enough world building yet. The series is severely decompressed, it felt padded out for four issues finally delivering the history between the Georges and Richtor in the fifth issue. There's also some confusing time hopping going on. Still, I'm intrigued.

Simone Di Meo's art is gorgeous. My only complaints are that the coloring is sometimes too dark, obscuring the art, and the panels don't always flow well. There were a couple of times I had to backtrack to find something I thought I'd missed but nope, it just wasn't there.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 1 out of 5]

Small butcher-spacecraft carve up the corpses of dead gods floating in space. But then one of these small butcher-spacecrafts decides to “go rogue” and see a live god. Which is against the rules for some reason so a space cop chases after them.

This was awful. I mean… what?! People carving up god corpses for meat - could there be anything more banal as a premise!? For food. Do the people of the future not have cows or chickens anymore? They’ve mastered warp speed but haven’t figured out how to make any meat substitutes and/or farm cattle? Or is there something to the god meat - a magical property it imbues to the consumer? Don’t know because, oh yeah, Al Ewing is a shitty writer.

Nothing is explained so everything fails to make sense. I always thought gods were (mostly) ethereal beings rather than corporeal. How are these corpses “gods” - is it because they’re big? Does size mean you’re a god? Why are they all hot anime girls in armour - does that make them gods? Why is it against the law to see a live god - what happens if you do besides attract the attention of a space cop?

And that’s the book: nothing characters arbitrarily chasing each other through space for unclear reasons, saying weirdly antiquated ship sayings (why do they still say stuff like “eight bells” in the 24th century - are they hipster douchebag space-butchers?!), and occasionally stumbling across a giant hot anime girl in armour. This comic is garbage!

Al Ewing Only Writes Forgettable Bad Sci-Fi Comics, Book One: Don’t Bother is underwritten, poorly conceived, uninteresting crap.

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some notes:

Focuses a lot on a chase, but only makes the emotional stakes clear about that race in the last issue/chapter. Feels much too late, by then.

A lot of jumping in time, and it does get confusing - characters aren't distinct enough, or aren't introduced clearly enough in different times.

Too stingy on the worldbuilding.. why are these called gods? Is that a literal thing? Is it because of their size? How does this dead-god-based economy actually work? Nobody has ever wondered why they're always dead? I mean, we live in a world now where people believe the craziest shit, you'd expect there to be a lot of speculation on these dead gods.

"the ship has ears" x 1000

I don't like the art. Panels look like stills from a CG Saturday morning animation series. It has a computery slickness I just don't like.

The last panel made me laugh, I'll give it that.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a huge fan of Al Ewing and, true to form, the story here is really good. There are some great ideas here and some really emotionally powerful scenes as well as a nice plot twist towards the end. If I had one complaint it would be that it suffers slightly from bloat; this story could have been told equally well in three issues, rather than five.

As for the artwork, well, the line work is really good but I’m not a fan of the colouring. There’s a disturbing trend in comicbooks at the moment to use really bright, non-complimentary, almost neon colours and I really don’t like it. I find it migraine inducing, to be honest.

I’d give this 3.5 stars if I could but I’m feeling generous so I’ll round up rather than down.

[Whitney · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Closer to 3 stars, but I’m feeling spiteful.

Holy shit, this started off with a strong, albeit with heavy hand holding, first issue. Then the second issues comes around and is noticeably weaker. And it’s all downhill from there.

Sure, the art is very pretty but the storytelling and writing leave much to be desired. The writing alone was confusing at times and was just conveyed badly overall. The story shows a family with low morals doing low morals things. MC grew to his 50s but never matured past that teen with a tragic backstory. Instead of growing up, he once again chooses the selfish, fuck you path and chases a child’s dream, taking everyone with him.

Throw in characters I don’t care for, a phrase -‘the ship has ears’ - so redundant that I want to gouge myself so I don’t have to read it again, a cliched, hell-hath-no-fury scorned woman, and a plot that is slowed down and stretched thin so it wouldn’t have to give answers…

At this point I don’t need to read more. But I will because I believe in second chances. Which is something Richter obviously doesn’t believe in. Like, what more does she want?! Just call it even and get over yourself…

Individual reviews:

#1, #2, #3, #4, #5

[Adam M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Editorially this was a nightmare. The pacing is slow and it's stuffed with filler, someone crack the whip on Ewing please. - The art is great, but the color pallet is so dark that stuff gets lost/looks muddy. Also the panel layout/arrangement makes this really difficult to follow at times and the Hoopla app made it a nightmare to read some of these in zoom.

There were some interesting ideas floated through here, but at the end of the day it was a weird family drama that didn't seem to care about the idea that dead gods are floating in space and used as fossil fuel. That should be way more important or exciting, but again, too slow and too much filler for me to care about how big the ending was. *and for the record, the end was pretty big

[Oneirosophos · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first issue is astonishing and breathtaking. The whole premise is inconceivable and the consequencies immeasurable!

Then, an unneeded family drama bushwacks and hits heavily the whole plot. Until the last issue, it's an unfortunate trainwreck...

[Drew Canole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't finish this one. The art was nice, but a bit over the top. The color is cool, but I feel like I'm in a lazer tag arena after a few pages.

Ewing sets up a lot of mysteries that I will have to leave as mysteries. I just never found that thing to grip on to, the reason to give a care.

Did I give up too soon? Let me know if I should give it another try.

[RG · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art us glorious. The story a big mess. The world building is so confusing. The time jumps and parallel stories are too jumbled to resemble a full story. I'd read the first 2 issues and decided to jump on board for a tpb..was dissapointed

[Scott Rhee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Every once in a while I come across a graphic novel series that makes me scratch my head. I’m no genius, but I’m not particularly dumb either, so I’m not sure why I didn’t get Al Ewing and Simone Di Meo’s “We Only Find Them When They’re Dead”, (which is my vote for, at the very least, the coolest title).

While colorful, Di Meo’s artwork reminds me of photo-stills from the ‘70s anime series “Battle of the Planets”. The whole thing has that kind of “anime” vibe to me, a style that isn’t my favorite. (Di Meo, it turns out also drew for “The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” graphic novel series. Totally makes sense.) I used to watch, and love, “Battle of the Planets” as a kid. I have tried watching it as an adult, and it doesn’t make a lick of sense. That’s kind of how I felt reading this comic book.

Ewing, whose work on “The Immortal Hulk” is great, is mystifyingly incomprehensible in this. I literally have no idea what is going on. Nevertheless, I will attempt to offer a synopsis.

It’s far in the future, the 24th century to be exact, and humans have apparently depleted all natural resources from every inhabited galaxy. (I'm not sure how this is possible, but whatever.) The only sources for food, minerals, and metals are ginormous corpses of ancient beings floating in deep space. They look like humans in space suits, but they are planet-sized. And they are dead. Humans have taken to calling them “gods”.

Clearly (or not), Ewing is making a not-so-subtle statement about humanity’s current spiritual malaise: “God is dead” and so forth. The fact that humans in the future scavenge dead gods for food and resources is rather telling, too. Humans are space maggots. In other words, we are nothing but low-life scum. I totally get that.

So, that’s the backdrop. The main story is about a four-person crew of a spaceship called the Vihaan II. The captain wants to find a living god by traveling out into unexplored space, which is apparently illegal by galactic governmental laws. Why? I dunno.

Some space-cop has a hard-on for the captain, as his brother was her fiancee and she blames the captain for killing him, or something like that. I’ll be honest, I couldn’t follow this storyline very well. All I know is she chases him through, like, four issues in order to kill him. Then, she gets killed by a meteor to the head.

The gods kind of remind me of that scene in “Guardians of the Galaxy” where the Guardians make a stop at a giant floating head called Knowhere, which was all that was left of ancient god-like beings. I understood the storyline in that movie, though. Not so much in this graphic novel series.

I might read the next volume in this series. It will either hopefully clear up some of the confusion or convince me not to even bother with volume three.

[Trike · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was incredibly disappointed in this one, especially with my high expectations given Ewing’s terrific run on Immortal Hulk. I was hoping to get some weird Space Opera stuff along the lines of Outer Darkness, Vol. 1: Each Other's Throats, but this doesn’t compare. It’s basically that scene from Guardians of the Galaxy when they go to Knowhere, which is the decapitated moon-sized head of a dead Celestial that various aliens are mining for who-knows-what-purpose. Or how they use all the stuff from dead kaiju in Pacific Rim.





Except that’s not what the story is about. It’s about a smuggler squaring off against his former sister-in-law who is a space cop. And that story is pretty thin and ridiculously decompressed. Normally all of that would be contained in one or perhaps two issues, but here it’s stretched interminably over five issues.

The art is the worst part. De Meo can clearly draw but can’t convey a story. 95% of the book is done in closeups and most of the rest is impressionistic, so you pretty much can’t tell what’s going on. Only two characters are distinctive enough to distinguish between them, and the oversaturated colors combined with photoshop blurring with a general darkness makes it nearly impossible to tell what the hell is going on.

Maybe it’s just me, but perhaps you can tell me what I’m looking at here:





Oh well, live and learn.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this monthly as singles then decided to wait for the trades. The second trade took so long to come out that I figured a re-read of the first arc was needed. Still feel like this was awesome. Loved the story idea with these giant “gods” floating dead in space that these characters mine. But why are they always dead? Who are they? Where do they come from? The Captain of the ship we are following sets up a mission with his crew. To break protocol and the law and zip away to the dark regions of space to find one that’s still alive. That kinda stuff gets me excited. Add to that some tragic backstory that has our protagonist, Georges, and our antagonist, Paula, beefing with each other. Then the amazing artwork in here. Man it’s awesome!! Only complaint I had was I wish it was a tad brighter but seems like it didn’t bother me as much reading this trade versus reading the singles. Anyhoo, excited to finally read the next volume next.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Al Ewing's first creator owned effort at Boom! follows the crew of a salvage ship that liberates pieces of dead gods in order to sell them and keep the universe running. The rules around salvaging these body parts are tight, and there's an unspoken history between the captain of the ship that we follow, and the captain of the guard that unfolds across this first arc as both parties do the unspeakable.

WOFTWTD is the most ungainly acronym I've had to type in a while, but it's a damn good book so I'll let it off. The set-up here is intriguing to say the least, and there's a lot to be inferred from what isn't explained just as much as what is. I like that Ewing manages to create such a strange and interesting universe, and then chooses instead to focus on the inter-personal relationships between the crew and the law enforcement that hound them. It's all very Star Trek. And in typical Star Trek fashion, where we end up is absolutely not where you thought we'd be going - I'd never have guessed as to the way this first arc ends, and it really excites me as to what's in store next.

The art in WOFTWTD is literally out of this world. Simone Di Meo throws in all sorts of strange angles and perspectives that enhance the outer space setting, and the colours are all various shades of neon so the futuristic aspect is really played up. It's a very good looking book; if you enjoyed Di Meo's art on his Power Rangers run recently, then this will be right up your alley.

WOFTWTD flies at you full force, unapologetically crafting a galaxy worth of story opportunities and then taking all the ones you don't expect it to - and it looks gorgeous while it does it. Recommended, and definitely one to watch.

[Alex Sarll]

Al Ewing finally drops his first creator-owned comic, and it plays into the big cosmic stuff with which he demonstrated such flair at Marvel, giving us a society centuries hence built around mining the bodies of gigantic space-gods; as per the title, nobody has ever seen a live one. I'm not sure how long it's been in the works, but the notion of a world where the only way to scrape a living is to find things of awe and beauty, and then render them down for parts, is profoundly 2020s, especially when you factor in the way that big corporations and rules tilted in their favour are rapidly making even this melancholy trade impossible for anyone with the least hope of liberty. At its best, Simone di Meo's art has a limpid, simple quality which, for reasons I couldn't quite explain, reminded me in places of Avatar: The Last Airbender, or at least the promo art for it, because I've never actually watched the cartoon. There are times, though, mostly when shit kicks off, and especially once the palette darkens in later issues, where it can become unclear what's going on, and in places I found myself missing Ewing's collaborator on previous cosmic stuff, Christian Ward. Still, since I got the beard, protagonist Captain Malik may be the first character I've looked at and thought, yep, that might be an achievable fancy dress goal. Not that there's anywhere to wear fancy dress anymore, of course. Which brings us nicely back around to the engine of the story: "But I need more than to survive. I need more than to cut up bodies forever. I need something that's more than just living. Does that make me ungrateful? Is that wrong?" And so we follow the crew on an illegal, insane leap into the void between galaxies in search of something more, and the hope of just maybe seeing one of the gods alive... "On, on, the glorious quest!"

Of course, if there's anything the 2020s should have taught us by now, it's that leaping into the dark because you think it has to be better than what you've got is generally a really stupid plan, and there's worse than rotting fish and impounded cheese waiting out there for these poor bastards.

[Benji Glaab · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5🌟

[Lukasz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The art here is solid and the colors are vivid. The writing? Not really. Characters? Nope. The story? Nope.

That said, if you like chases, nice art, a diverse cast of characters, and world-building that's not explained or that doesn't make much sense, go for it.

[Nikola Š · Rating 2 out of 5]

The issue-by-issue format claims another victim, as a lovely premise gets bogged down by unnecessary cliffhangers and confusing time jumps, rushing from one mystery to the next. Anything goes, as long as the readers buy the next issue!

So, there are giant dead gods floating in space, and humans are decomposing their remains for food and technology. The intriguing setup is unfortunately the highpoint of this comic. Soon we are off down the well trodden path of evil corporations, struggling space miners, and generic space battles. As a result of its breathless pace, the characters remain just sketches that I found difficult to care about, or even tell apart at times (which is something, considering there's only 5 of them). The artwork wasn't helping either - in all its technical mastery, it's often too busy with digital effects and emotionless.

(Also, I understand that worldbuilding requires exposition, but there has to be a better way to put it in than experienced crew members explaining everything to each other.)

I guess I'm just being critical of the mainstream sci-fi comic genre, which is obviously not my cup of tea. So why on earth am I still reading it? The reason is actually pretty dumb: recently I ran into a random listicle about "The 15 most influential sci-fi comics of the past 15 years". Naively, I had my hopes up, and so far I've been underwhelmed at best, but mostly disheartened. Still the list goes on, and if it means reading 10 more books about space truckers who are actually space emperors nephews, so be it.

[david Wood · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started off full of promise but sadly wound up a confusing mess

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice space opera! Our protagonists have a spaceship plying their trade of (perhaps among other things) carving up dead gods for meat. I'm pretty sure that's why their ship is called an autopsy ship. The gods just show up in space, always dead, and looking like super-extra-giant humans. Our crew, led by Captain Malik, is not all that prosperous, and have some shady practices, so they get crosswise with the law, specifically Malik's dead brother's fiancée. Which makes it personal. We get backstory on Malik and his family, but otherwise not much world-building.

I enjoyed the book. There was a lot of action and a fair amount of character building, though I can't say that I particularly liked anyone. The art was lovely in places, and a bit too dark and stylized to see what was going on in other places. I may or may not have given it four rather than three stars because I've read several graphic books lately without enough backstory to know what was going on, and this one filled in enough.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a lot to attract you to We Only Find Them When They're Dead, from the striking cover to Immortal Hulk's star author, Al Ewing, to the captivating premise that space ships are mining the spacebound bodies of dead gods. It all seems so perfect! Unfortunately, it's not.

Ostensibly, we follow the crew of an autopsy ship as it runs from a rogue escort and discovers a living god. Do we get to know any of the crew? No. Is it clear why the rogue escort has it in for the autopsy ship's captain? No. Is the art in any way intelligible? No. The colors are vibrant and the occasional glimpses of a human face demonstrate that Simone Di Meo has some idea of how to craft a comic book, but the majority of the book is composed of misshapen panels and incoherent speed lines. The coolest part of space-based science fiction is the space ships and it's simply impossible to identify them here. Boo!

Furthermore, what the heck is the deal with the dead gods? The book ends with a glimpse of another living god, but that doesn't in any way explain the setting or even really clarify what's to come. Disappointment after disappointment.

[Jason A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as individual issues as it was released. The premise was intriguing and I liked what I had seen of the art from previews so I subscribed. Overall I've enjoyed this first arc and I think there's alot of promise here. I felt like the pacing was uneven at points and a coupe issues in I nearly gave up on the book but glad I didn't. I really picked up again near the end. In alot of ways I'd label this one as a space soap opera but not entirely in a bad way. This art is gorgeous and even in the slower issues for me the art was great and helped keep me engaged. Looking forward to seeing where this goes into arc #2.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really thought I was going to like this in the first couple of issues. Cool idea, beautiful artwork, etc. But it got less and less clear as it went along, both story AND artwork, which started to devolve into a bunch of colorful blobs that were almost impossible to make sense of. I guess I might try the next volume, but hopefully it will improve...

[Connor Oswald]

meh thinks it’s cooler than it is

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I own this book.

I wanted to pick this book up after seeing the artwork on Twitter and I have no regrets. This book follows a crew of scavengers almost who get money by harvesting the bodies of dead Gods who find their way into their patch. Tied by rules and regulations, Malik and his crew decide to go and search for something more. A meaning to it all. The Gods are always beautiful, and the Gods are always dead. Why are they always dead? Malik and his crew decide to go searching in the depths of space and end up learning more and more about themselves and the universe they exist in. I thoroughly enjoyed this and I can't wait for the next volume. I apologise if you're friends with me on social media. I think I posted photos of this absolutely everywhere.

[¸.•*¨*•Gina *A Bookwyrm in Belgium*•*¨*•.¸ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Looks nice, but the story telling was a bit confusing for me.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful, beautiful art that is dark and muddy enough that it actively obscures the story. That's pretty much the core problem of _We Only Find Them When They're Dead_. It was unfortunately enough to distance me from what otherwise looked like a good story.

I mean, maybe the premise is a little cliched. Giant aliens ("gods") found dead in space and carved up for resources. It's shocking, it's body horror, and it's a little on the nose.

But it's kind of neat too, along with the idea of searching for a live god (because "We Only Find Them When They're Dead", as the label says). But there's just not enough worldbuilding, and what there is is shorthand ("evil fascist corps!"), and there's too much decompression, and there's that muddy art.

Basically, I'd love to love this, but as it's produced, it's just OK.

[Billy Jepma · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Gods are always beautiful. And the Gods are always dead.”

There is so much about this that I loved, but it didn’t quite come together enough to make me care about it all that much. Ewing’s imagination is terrific, and the world he’s developing here is dense, fascinating, and steeped in anti-capitalistic ideals (among other timely themes) that I’m all about. But the character work is painted in broad strokes, and motivations never coalesce in a way that makes them feel tangible. I like the characters well enough—I’m just not remotely invested in them at the end of the day.

It does help that the art has one of the more distinct styles I’ve seen in a while. Simone Di Meo (with some coloring help from Mariasaea Miotti) makes the comic look like an anime in still-form, which works surprisingly well. I dug a lot of his layouts, too, as they gave the action a sharp sense of motion and energy. It’s the panels themselves that didn’t work for me, not entirely. There’s so much packed into each frame that it sometimes made it difficult to keep track of where the characters are in the space around them. Part of it is the colors, which are so vibrant they’re almost distracting, but most of it is the “blur-effect” used a lot. It works for some scenes, but for others, it only muddles the scene.

For a debut, this is a mixed bag. Ewing is a great writer, and the way the volume ends has me intrigued enough to stick around for the next one, but I hope the series can better define itself outside its (admittedly stellar) premise. I’m giving this 2.5 stars, but I'll round up because the ending did surprise me, and I gotta see how it plays out.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aside from any review, the series owes a deep, deep debt to James Morrow's Godhead books.

On it's own merits, blame can be equally split between the author and illustrator. The series timeline jumps are unclear early on and require frequent page-flipping to keep track, and the overly dark palette and swooping layouts lead to problems appreciating scales and actions.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Individual issue reviews: #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5

Total review score: 3.1