Old school heroic fantasy comics fans – especially Nexus fans – and, of course, Steve Rude fans are hereby granted an amazing, fantastic, heroic – and fun! – comic book story, spread over five standard, full color, comic book issues and filled with page after page of stunning art by Steve Rude (who also wrote the script this time around – and did the lettering; with the coloring chores handled by Glenn Whitmore, who did a bang-up job). Readers who have not heretofore encountered the Nexus universe may feel a bit overwhelmed at first, joining this multi-decade epic in medias res, but will be drawn in nonetheless and enough pieces will fall into place that it will be possible to hold on and enjoy the spectacular ride that this series provides.
The approach to the art and storytelling in this series – as the subtitle, "The Newspaper Strips" implies – is that of a series of full page, full color Sunday pages, so that each page is complete in and of itself, but each subsequent page follows and builds upon what came before (think Hal Foster's Prince Valiant).
Nexus captures the overall look and feel – the vibe – of the classic mid- to late-'sixties Kirby/Lee Fantastic Four and Thor which were filled with cosmic concepts spread over interplanetary action involving alien worlds and civilizations, and splices it onto the mid- to late-'sixites, Alex Toth designed Hanna-Barbera cartoon, Space Ghost, featuring the titular character flying through space with his kid sidekicks, discovering planets, having adventures and confronting aliens – with always at least one epic battle. While the story mechanics driving Battle for Thuneworld are a bit clunky at times, and the thread of the narrative occasionally frays, Steve Rude's artwork carries on the tradition embodied by these great 'sxities works in grand style. He has managed to capture that magical moment in comic book history and bring it alive once again in the present, in the pages of Nexus; he is a true master of the form.
AND, Rude is now self-publishing Nexus (through his Rude Dude Productions) and offered a special price on this particular five-issue series, and so we snapped up a stack. Copacetic is, in turn, at this time, discounting that special price further and offering this entire five-issue series – ALL five issues – for the price of one single comic book. It's hard to imagine getting more comic book bang for your buck than what is offered here.
Check out this gallery of page spreads that we posted on Tumblr to get an idea of what we're talking about (and it also includes spreads from The Art of Steve Rude 2024).
>>> Limit: ONE set per customer
