53. Out There #1 to 6 ... Image ...

Once upon a long ago, Image Comics various superstar creators decided to launch new "tier two" Image and the Cliffhanger Imprint was born. Unfortunately, it didn't last as people like J Scott Campbell and Joe Mad didn't stick around for long to built it. Only Humberto Ramos did. And naturally, the Imprint died

This is Ramos' second series for Cliffhanger after his smash hit Crimson

Continuing in a way in terms of theme from Crimson, we see this as a small town where everyday is happy to their neighbours, life is well and everyone is so perfect. So what is the problem? Well, there seems to be one and what a big one it is and this is what some school kids stumbled across

You see, some of them realized that they are born different with odd physical and mental talents (Mutants?). And one of these is seeing these cute little creatures with pointy ears and sharp teeth jumping all over the place. As the kids started to band together after a few incidents, the cutesy creatures stopped being so cutesy anymore. So what are they doing here? Who are they serving? And who can the kids trust to go to for help and advise?

And so the adventure begins

And it continues for a good 18-issue run although for me personally, sometimes the issues felt like too much padding. This is not manga. It is about 22 pages of story. While the artwork here is cute sy with huge empty spaces, unfortunately sometimes all it took is 5 minutes to flick through the pages and when not enough happens to move the story along, the comic lost its hook. I am not sure if it was meant to be 18 issues only but am glad it ended. I actually didn't feel compelled or attracted or hooked after this first arc and subsequently bought the loose issues only when they reached the discount bins

Sorry, Ramos, this is a negative

Ratings: 5 (7 for art but 3 for story)