The Life After Volume 1: Square One Edition Paperback – 4 April 2017

Heroes caught between Heaven and Hell show up a lot in graphic novels, and I'm all for that. Gives an author a lot of room to stretch out and go epic. But sometimes those novels can get a little too earnest, dark, or, more commonly, heavy and cryptic. I mostly liked this version because it told a good and twisty story with a very generous share of tongue-in-cheek that actually complemented the story.Our hero Jude finds himself in a purgatory/limbo halfway place, (we don't seem overly concerned with a strict theological distinction among the various levels and parts of the afterlife), and he finds that its denizens are unaware of who they are or where they are until he wakes them up. His touch both wakes people up and injures or destroys a variety of bad guys, which is, you know, handy.Bottom line, Jude decides this halway place is unfair and cruel, and decides to mount a revolution of sorts. Now, with that basic thread of a plot we can have all sorts of sub-plots, and even if some of those threads go nowhere or are confusing, the main line holds everything together well enough that the story never becomes densely incomprehensible.The best part is that Jude picks up an unusual crew of accomplices. Number one, of course, is a guy who was already awake when Jude first showed up - Ernest Hemingway. I know that shouldn't work, but it does. Ernest is funny, deadpan, tough, wise, and up for adventure and a fight, and is a really fine Yoda/sidekick character. Then we meet up with a tough cookie woman who Jude woke up by accident. She is a game addition. Toward the end we get hints of more allies to come. So this ends up being an ensemble sort of affair.The halfway world is overseen by grey bureaucrats who monitor and interfere with the action, and they are played as a cross between Matrix agents and the Three Stooges, which adds to the snarky humor that underlies some of the action and plotting. As per usual, God is a bit distracted and doesn't like to get directly involved in the dirty work.The drawing is sharp and nicely colored. Some of the big scenes are especially well drawn, and you always recognize the characters and know what's going on, which is always for the best in a book like this.So, it's well paced, a little light, imaginative, (if a bit predictable), and overall engaging. I enjoyed reading it, which is, I guess, the main test. This Volume 1 collects the first five issues of the comic. There are two more collection Volumes, so expect a cliffhanger ending.(Please note that I received a free advance will-self-destruct-in-x-days Adobe Digital copy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Kleiner Comic Tip oder Graphic Novel Empfehlung:The Life After von Joshua Hale Fialkov...Warum sieht Gott aus wie eine schrumpelige Niere? Und warum hat Maria trotzdem mit ihm rumgemacht?Wie ist das Fegefeuer für Selbstmörder? Und warum sind sich nur Jude und Ernest Hemingway dessen bewusst?Was passiert mit den Seelen, die nicht erlöst werden können, weil sie vor den aktuellen Glaubensrichtungen geboren wurden?Warum ähneln die Seraphim eher Monstern aus Resident Evil?Und wird es Jude gelingen die Bürokratie von Himmel und Hölle zu stürzen?Die teils bösen, schwarzhumorigen, aber auch spannenden Antworten gibt es in einem außergewöhnlichen Comic, wie er nur von einem Atheisten stammen kann.