Publisher: Astronaut Ink
Writer: Joe St. Pierre
Artist: Joe St. Pierre
Release date: June 2015
Price: $3.50

So here’s the thing: Cricket is a psychic who can communicate with the dead because she’s in tune with the celestial energies of the Zodiac. Everything’s peachy until Madeline Stone asks Cricket to contact her dead husband so she can finally get rid of the old curmudgeon. Then things go haywire.

The opening is like a better drawn version of those Real Life Haunting TV shows featuring anoraks with Geiger counters take up an hour of your life that you’ll never get back and give nothing in return except blurry night goggle images supposed to be psychic phenomenon but look more like your TV’s gone on the fritz.

The difference in The New Zodiax #3 is the story gets better. Echoes of 1960’s horror anthologies but with more attention to character development and top class artwork. This is an ideal jumping on point if you haven’t seen the title before and will definitely make you want to see more.

The second story in The New Zodiax #3 showcases the Liberaider (so-so name, good costume) who is also in tune with those celestial energies which is kind of the underlying theme for everything here. It also gives the mag its Unique Selling Point.

Liberaider is the self-styled ‘Robin Hood of Cyberspace’ who goes up against a group of scavengers known as the Dregs but, get this, two real life podcasters, DW and Joe Nub play key roles in the storyline. Are you as excited as I am by that announcement? Not half as excited as DW and Joe Nub probably especially since real life guest stars are nothing new but the potential cross-fertilisation of two distinct forms of media is kinda special so hats off to Joe St. Pierre and Astronaut Ink for being the first to boldly go.

 

Reviewer: Gary Orchard
Review Editor: Steve Hooker