This week, I had the pleasure of reading through the first four issues of Arks, a series by the talented creative team at Clicky Sprout Wife.
The story is set in a distant future where new technologies and methods of travelling through space and terraforming planets provide humans with a way to move throughout the galaxy.
The team behind the comics, which consists of writer/creator R.J. Collins and artwork from Collins himself for issue 1, and Andrew Morris for the three following issues, have done thorough research over the last ten years to make this story as grounded in scientific fact as possible.
All that research has paid off in the story as everything outlined feels eerily realistic. The crux of this research and the foundation for this story is a scientific method of transporting microorganisms referred to as directed panspermia.
The story follows a pair of terranauts who are tasked with ensuring the planet is habitable and the terraforming process is progressing as it should be.
Described as a mixture between Adam and Eve and Alien, this is a story that needs to be read multiple times to fully appreciate the depth of the story and the mind-bending twists as they play out.
Overall, Arks is an incredibly well thought out set of comics with significant detail in prologues, appendices and wonderful insights in to what the future of these technologies could be.
In the same way that Star Trek defined and informed a variety of technological advancements thanks to the imaginative team creating communication devices, scanners and ships, Arks may well provide a sneak peek at what technologies like AI and space travel could look like in the future.
This series is expected to run for seven to eight issues and will continue to be published alongside another series set in the same universe, Arks Proximan #1.
If you enjoy hard science fiction, biological technologies and stories that see humanity travel far beyond our own planet, you need to check out this series.
To purchase previous issues of Arks, you can visit clickysproutwife.com
And to keep up to date with news and updates from Clicky Sprout Wife, you can follow them on X.com (Formerly Twitter) at @ClickyW
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Territory Issues #1-4 - Blake McCarthy: Almost 75% funded, ends October 6th
Ten #1-2 - Christopher Rhodes: Almost 50% funded, ends October 11th
Gods: Untold Anthology - Paganini Stories: Almost 50% funded, ends October 12th
Haunting #1-6 - Lifeline Comics: Almost 90% funded, ends October 13th
Kingsville #2 - World at War Comics: Almost 25% funded, ends October 15th
Path of the Pale Rider #4 - Part-Time Comix: 66% funded, ends October 17th
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Clash of the Cryptids #1 - Afterlight Comics: Ends October 11th
Rovers #1-2 - MC Comics: Ends October 11th
Arks Proximan #1 - Clicky Sprout Wife: Ends October 12th
The Space Between The Trees - Norm Konyu: Ends October 12th
Glitch #1-2 - Wasteland Comics: Ends October 13th
They Call Her… The Dancer #4 - Lifeline Comics: Ends October 13th
Long Distance Anthology - Beserat Debebe: Ends October 15th