Faction Paradox

(Image, 2003)
™ and ©2003 Lawrence Miles, licensed to Mad Norwegian Press

The scene opens in 1774 with a gift being presented to the English court by the Russian. The gift? A wooly mammoth, the only living one in Europe. Welcome to the world of Faction Paradox.

Who or what are Faction Paradox? They are strange visitors in mysterious masks who know things they apparently shouldn’t. But where are they from? Heaven? Another dimension? The future? A parallel universe? Things are far from clear. Copious text pages, always appreciated in new titles, do little to shed light on this.

Faction Paradox clearly has a long pedigree, but Miles insists that “not a lick of foreknowledge is required” to follow the comic book. There has been a series of novels, but explaining it all in the text pages would be “far, far too confusing.” Readers are also told that readers “don’t need to listen to the CDs to make sense of the comic” and that reading the newly released book is “superfluous to basking in the glory” of the comic.

Miles plugs with one hand while insisting how freestanding the comic book is with the other. Maybe it is. Maybe it’s not. But readers are still left with the feeling of having entered the theater 15 minutes into the movie.

That having been said, the story is almost as interesting as it is enigmatic. The creators would be wise, however, to bring folks up to speed quickly.

— Jack Abramowitz

Jump to issue:

Notes

Writer

Artist

#1

August, 2003
Cover Price: $2.95
2 copies available from $1.75

Lawrence Miles

Jim Calafiore, Barry Kitson, Jim Pascoe

#2

October, 2003
Cover Price: $3.50
3 copies available from $1.70

Lawrence Miles

Jim Calafiore, Jim Pascoe