by Clyde Hall. To infinity, and below! That’s technically the meaning of ‘Aleph Null’. Infinite, but in the smallest possible package. Unlike the Toy Story gang, Aleph Null isn’t a plaything. Just played by the System and decidedly unusual. A bodyhacker, a human guinea pig, an orphan, a corporate asset, and a hardcore future junkie in search of a home. For Aleph Null, there’s no place like the mythical Midwestern town of Laurelwood. That’s where the future is being test-marketed today, using tech that doesn’t exist. Yet it will, and what better time than the present to decide what’s going to sell big in the future?
In the new series Test from Vault Comics, writer Christopher Sebela will cyber-weave a science fiction adventure of liberation. Success will depend on piercing abstract layers of a segmented Looking Glass. Mysteries inside enigmas inside riddles. Test market control groups with more façades than a Russian nesting doll. A shared reality construct beyond time, based on opinion poll and survey. Capitalistic consensus morphed into a system for choosing renewal or cancellation? Candidate A or Candidate B? Coke or Pepsi?
Test is merely the newest innovative Vault series in the redefining wake created by such titles as These Savage Shores and Friendo. It’s the latest Sebela offering in a year that’s seen his bountiful imagination blossom into successful creator-owned projects Shanghai Red, House Amok, and the acclaimed Crowded. The Eisner-nominated Sebela cites time spent in the trenches of a market research firm as his inspiration for Test.
Art inspiration, meanwhile, comes courtesy of Jen Hickman, known for her work on Jem and the Holograms, The Dead, and Moth & Whisper. The following non-final pages are Hickman’s interior art, with color to be added by Harry Saxon and letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. The first issue should be on shelves by June 26 but here’s a Test-drive to keep you satisfied in the interim.
$3.99 | M | JUNE 26
From Vault Comics: Aleph Null is a lot of things: An orphan, a human guinea pig undergoing medical tests for cash, a bodyhacker, a hardcore future junkie, and a corporate asset. But now, Aleph is on the run from their old life, in search of a mythical, Midwestern town named Laurelwood—where they’re test-marketing the future with tech that can’t possibly exist yet, and won’t for decades.
From Eisner-nominated Chris Sebela (Crowded, High Crimes) and Jen Hickman (Moth & Whisper) comes the story of a town out of time, full of mysteries, and populated by guinea pigs in need of liberation by the misfit least likely to be their savior.
TEST #1
Written by Chris Sebela.
Art by Jen Hickman.
Colors by Harry Saxon.
Letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.
Vault Vintage Variant by by Nathan Gooden and Tim Daniel.
