Injection Deluxe Edition Volume 1

Love this Graphic Novel!

This newly released edition encompasses the first 15 issues of "Injection", previously available in three separate 5 issue volumes. "Injection" is an interesting enough series even if you have just had a chance to read an issue here or there, (piecing it together over the gaps), but when it's read in full and in order, (as here), the effect is stunning and satisfying.The premise is that, (under the auspices of some shadowy, bureaucratic organization), five accomplished people with highly specialized and unique skills, created a "non-biological artificial consciousness emulator", (the "injection"), based on a weird combination of cutting edge tech, folklore, and eldritch "magic". The purpose of the project was to make the future more "interesting". Well, mission accomplished. The AI escaped and took up hiding, although it reemerges from time to time and makes its presence known by creating reality-bending events connected to folktale, horror, and mythic themes and tropes. When the AI manifests, the group of five is reconstituted to contain the outbreak. There are complex love/hate relationships among and between the five, which can be a mix of humor, pathos, loathing, affection, or some shifting combination of all four. The characters are a bit random, but are better than the usual cliches, and grow on you as the series proceeds. So far each five issue arc has featured one or two of the five.You see where this is headed? It's all Outer Limits, Torchwood, X-Files, Dr. Who, but with a well constructed frame, shoutouts and sly references to various other authors and genres, and five deeply eccentric characters who take turns, through flashbacks and the like, in leading the action.The writing is crisp. Banter is clever, and even the occasional monologuing is engaging. There are even a few laugh out loud lines. Set out in one volume as this is, I didn't have any trouble following the story. Spread out over 15 different issues, and taking into account the random flashbacks, I could see this being a bit of a memory chore. It's true that some bits are confusing and there are occasional lines that seem to go nowhere, but that's also true of my cable bill and I still pay that every month.The drawing is serviceable and always suits the plot and action. It's realistic when needed, but can also be horrific, psychedelic, gruesome, or awesome, as the story requires. The splash pages and big backgrounds are usually more convincing and interesting than the small panels and talky transition settings, but that didn't strike me as unusual.Bottom line? This isn't a new artform or the dawn of a new literature or anything like that, and it wasn't promised or promoted to be that. It can sometimes feel like a low key myth-tech update of "The Golden Bough" or "The White Goddess". But it is also entertaining and smart in an engaging fashion. And it has that nice Celtic seasoning that always improves the flavor of myths and folklore. So I was a happy reader.(Please note that I had a chance to read a free ecopy 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.)

I’ve been waiting for this edition of Injection for a while. I looked forward to reading the series as a whole, rather than piecemeal. Ellis rarely disappoints and he doesn’t here. Lots of interesting ideas and a clever story, held together by Shalvey and Bellaire’s fine artwork. Based on just that, I would give this 4 and a half stars. Why only 2? None of the series really neat and evocative covers are present here. Not the main covers and not the variants. This is a fifty dollar book. It’s put together well enough. It’s handsome and very sturdy, but omitting the covers is inexcusable. What comic geek doesn’t care about covers? Especially when they were as good as most of these were. To bad. It was a great read, but I can’t help but feel that something’s missing...

Love the book. Very disappointed with the condition it arrived in. Brand new 50 dollar book shows up beat up.

Injection has very much an roleplaying game session made into a comic particularly Bruce Cordell's The Strange using the Cypher system from Monte Cook Games.On reread it is still great. You have the Genius Scientist, a teleporting hacker "The Doctor", Sherlock, Bond, and Merlin operating in England while everything goes more interesting because of an Injection of weirdness which is an AI blended into the Otherworld that they created to make the world not plateau from boredom. Has elements of Planetary and Zelazny's Donnerjack.Art is gorgeous. There are a ton of extra pages at the end which are appreciated.

Very worthwhile purchase if you can get it for a good price. Wonderful off beat story that will leave you wanting more..... That may never come!

Como es costumbre en el señor Ellis, va haciendo grandes obras que luego, por diferentes razones, se quedan inacabadas. Esta es una de ellas, en una espectacular edición deluxe de Image en formato grande tapa dura.

Excellent story and art.

Loved it!

I liked what they did. Wish they actually finished the story. It’s a good book just know that the end isn’t the end but there’s not any more out there.