Like so many, I’ve always loved a good anthology comic book series.
Even though I was on the younger side of “mature”, I can distinctly recall searching out issues of Epic Illustrated in the mid nineteen-eighties and being introduced to long-standing loves like Dreadstar, The Sacred and the Profane and Marada the She-Wolf, serialized inside those oversized painted pages and covers.
It was where I was first introduced to writers and artists like Jim Starlin, John Bolton, Barry Windsor Smith, Jon J. Muth, Kent Williams and Ken Steacy. And it was where my love of fantasy and science fiction flourished, where I looked for more and even moved from the niche and started to actively reach for more mainstream anthology works in titles like Dark Horse Comics Presents or Wasteland (which cries out for a hardcover compendium, thank you very much, DC Comics).
It was in anthology comics where creatives could push the envelope and tell new, strange and always enticing stories. Where the artform’s debutants could earn their chops with short or serialized stories, along with a loyal following of readers.
Sometimes those stories would hit. Sometimes they’d miss. But they were always worth investigating.
Which brings us to today’s new release that nimbly follows in the footsteps of all the anthology greatness that came before in Flux House Presents #1.
Flux House Presents #1
Written by: Matt Kindt
Illustrated by: Various
Published by: Oni Press
Published quarterly by Oni Press, Flux House Presents #1 is the 64-page over-sized first offering from fan-favourite writer/artist, Matt Kindt (Mind MGMT, Dept.H, BRZRKR) along with a slew of talented artists in David Lapham (Stray Bullets), Brian Hurtt (Fort Psycho), Alison Sampson and Ella Kindt. Flux House itself is the imprint for all things Kindt and his circle of family and friends, great writers and artists themselves and Flux House Presents is the analogy series that will showcase some of those various works/titles along with pushing-the-envelope, one-off stories and serializations. Kindt himself explains his own love of the anthology format in a back-matter one-page tale here in the first issue.
Spoiler alert: his fondness for anthologies is just as deep as ours.
Flux House Presents #1 begins with the beautifully rendered “Talking to Strangers” story, where Sampson’s gorgeous artwork takes a decidedly gruesome turn at the end of the two-page tale, forcing the reader to question and re-read what they’ve just experienced. A tale from the world of the Flux House title, Fort Psycho, then gives heads a rattling spin, which is followed by the Lapham-illustrated tense motel time/space mystery of “Room 101: A Primer” which compellingly promises to continue in 2027. The issue concludes with part one of the longer form story in “Spark” where a young girl and her hunter-gatherer tribe fend off changing seasons and impending death.
Flux House Presents #1 is a wonderful gateway to story and art and simultaneously fulfills its promise of being a container for both creativity and an honour guard for the anthology format itself.
Make the run to your local comic book shop today and pick up the first offering of Flux Hose Presents.
I guarantee you’ll want to be there for the second helping.
