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Empty Zone #1-5
Empty Zone, Vol. 1: Conversations With The Dead
SPECIAL LOW INTRODUCTORY PRICE OF $9.99!
Eisner nominated artist JASON SHAWN ALEXANDER (Abe Sapien: The Drowning, Queen and Country) brings us a future eighty years after a worldwide black out. The world is a much darker and scarier place. Corinne White is an ex-soldier turned black market spy, data courier, manic-depressive, alcoholic. Punishing herself for mistakes from her past, Corinne is brought out from her spiral when she's contacted by her dead friends who inform her of a plot to reanimate the bodies of the dead by a psychotic billionaire.
EMPTY ZONE follows Corinne as she confronts these undead monsters and comes to terms with her past.
�...this is truly above and beyond anything I've seen before.� -MIKE MIGNOLA (HELLBOY)
“What a gorgeous book.� -BRIAN K. VAUGHAN (SAGA)
Eisner nominated artist JASON SHAWN ALEXANDER (Abe Sapien: The Drowning, Queen and Country) brings us a future eighty years after a worldwide black out. The world is a much darker and scarier place. Corinne White is an ex-soldier turned black market spy, data courier, manic-depressive, alcoholic. Punishing herself for mistakes from her past, Corinne is brought out from her spiral when she's contacted by her dead friends who inform her of a plot to reanimate the bodies of the dead by a psychotic billionaire.
EMPTY ZONE follows Corinne as she confronts these undead monsters and comes to terms with her past.
�...this is truly above and beyond anything I've seen before.� -MIKE MIGNOLA (HELLBOY)
“What a gorgeous book.� -BRIAN K. VAUGHAN (SAGA)
136 pages, Paperback
First published June 17, 2015
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253 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
April 5, 2019
A gritty cyberpunk world with a bad-ass woman. If the storytelling was better this could have been really great. The way it was written I didn't really know what was going on until the 4th issue. I was super confused and then the whole story just gets handed to you and resolved. The art had a great style to it. I just wish it was more consistent. There were places where I couldn't tell what was going on.
August 1, 2016
4,5 Ghosts of your sins
Fantastic art. Gritty, sensual and perfectly urban-decay, so compelling and eye-holding I kept staying on the pages to absorb every little detail. I loved the colours, the mixed techniques, framing and sequencing, plot and characters. Yes, everything, I know. I am an easy target for this story, with its elements of fallen technology, post-apocalyptic world, horror, machine-mixed men, military experiments and corrupted politics, all wrapped up in lost love, violence, guilt and personal choices.
I want more. I want to know if Corinne will forgive herself or join the rest of her ghosts, see more of this savaged world.
Fantastic art. Gritty, sensual and perfectly urban-decay, so compelling and eye-holding I kept staying on the pages to absorb every little detail. I loved the colours, the mixed techniques, framing and sequencing, plot and characters. Yes, everything, I know. I am an easy target for this story, with its elements of fallen technology, post-apocalyptic world, horror, machine-mixed men, military experiments and corrupted politics, all wrapped up in lost love, violence, guilt and personal choices.
I want more. I want to know if Corinne will forgive herself or join the rest of her ghosts, see more of this savaged world.
April 19, 2020
A great female lead in a weird grungy cyberpunk world. The positives. The main character was cool. The art was amazing like loved it. However the storytelling was a little confusing. I didnt really know what was going on until the last two issues. Good but not outstanding.
April 23, 2023
Very good sci fi!
Very sci fi, very off beat. Enjoyed volume 1 and onto volume 2. Art and story are very effective and sets the dark tone of the story.
Very sci fi, very off beat. Enjoyed volume 1 and onto volume 2. Art and story are very effective and sets the dark tone of the story.
April 5, 2019
SUPER FAST REVIEW:
Hmm... Stuff like the action scenes and artwork are fantastically done in this book. Unfortunately the story is confusing as fuck and I couldn’t understand what was going on. The characters were also not very interesting. Yeah, guess I wasn’t into it.
2/5
Hmm... Stuff like the action scenes and artwork are fantastically done in this book. Unfortunately the story is confusing as fuck and I couldn’t understand what was going on. The characters were also not very interesting. Yeah, guess I wasn’t into it.
2/5
April 24, 2019
Not my thing. The story was super confusing. I still got no idea what happened. It felt all over the place to me. The main character wasn’t that interesting either. She looked cool, but that was about it. I really liked the artwork, but it wasn’t enough for me to get some enjoyment out of this book. I have zero interest in checking the following volume, which is a shame because I thought this could be good.
July 29, 2016
Dark, gritty, cyberpunk as can be and one mean-ass female character this side of overkill you won't believe (I think I'm in love). All this and a wee touch of horror. Can't wait for the next arc!
December 25, 2018
'In a world where most cars look like aerodynamic testicles, Hank drives a big black cock.' Too funny! There are some perfectly gratuitous sex scenes and spectacular fighting, but the cyberpunk genre is still not my cup of tea. It's not helped by the sketchy artwork. The story reveals very little to the reader and does a good job of presenting only what the main character sees. She is as confused as I was while reading the story.
Corinne White is a hacker and has been having trouble sleeping. She is having hallucinations of her past or maybe it's someone's way of communicating with her. This obsesses her and she wants to get to the bottom of it.
Corinne White is a hacker and has been having trouble sleeping. She is having hallucinations of her past or maybe it's someone's way of communicating with her. This obsesses her and she wants to get to the bottom of it.
July 23, 2018
There is a lot going on in this graphic novel, for certain. Futuristic dystopia, weird mind stuff, technological improvements in limbs, the whole bit. It is perhaps a little too all over the place to function the way I wanted it to, but the art more than helps the story along, and it made me fairly anxious to pick up the next volume, so that’s a plus. Not bad at all, closer to a 3.5.
November 23, 2019
Very good graphics. Excellent script. Highly recommended.
December 30, 2019
Interesting and original story set in cyberpunk world. Fast pace, full of action sequences, with dark rough art and kind of supernatural twist. Firs five issues contains complete and closed arc. 4,5*
January 14, 2020
Дещо специфічний кіберпанк.
November 18, 2024
This oozes with awesome
April 15, 2025
u can tell this was written by a man
March 8, 2020
Steam Punk Detective
Good Graphics, original storyline & quite a thrill ride with this Steam Punk Detective Mystery Thriller, I’m definitely getting the next one...
Good Graphics, original storyline & quite a thrill ride with this Steam Punk Detective Mystery Thriller, I’m definitely getting the next one...
May 1, 2018
The art was incredible... outstanding. You enter the world and though the world is dystopian, you never want to leave. This is a good book that quickly alters your mood upon reading. The story needs a little work though... needs to carry the audience along more.
February 20, 2016
This was very well drawn, and very well executed. I love the whole steampunk vibe to, it's so awesome!
May 14, 2017
The art is wow but the story is eh.
February 23, 2025
This had been sitting in my bookcase for years and for some reason I’ve always picked something else over it. I'm not sure why. A graphic novel about a dystopian cyberpunk future. That’s right up my street. Finally deciding to pick up I learned two things.
1. It's now off my to-read at last.
2. It isn't very good.
In the near future, the earth was hit with a solar storm, that for years bombarded the planet in electromagnetic radiation, destroying global communications and large parts of the modern world. The caused turmoil across the globe. Decades after, the world is one where corporate monolithic entities are the ruling force, pushing governments into second place. In Pittsburgh, Corrine is barely surviving a life of drink, drugs, and sleepless, tormented nights. She works in the shady area of data transfer and theft. Information can't be trusted to be sent wireless now, so it's now transferred by cybernetic augmentation between people (so basically ripping off the sci-fi classic Johnny Mnemonic). Corrine’s job is either to safely transport the data in her head or steal it from others. But now the traumatic past she’s being trying to hide from had literally come back to haunt her.
The one word to describe this book: messy.
The art, while having a certain style and I can see it matching the cyberpunk tone, some of the decisions made just make out harder to get what's actually going on. It's hard following the panels at times and while some scenes are exciting and imaginative, more often than not, it fails, or both tell the story and grip the reader. And to that, there's nothing for the most part, that you haven't seen in other cyberpunk stuff; assassin robot with a screen for a face with a childish picture on it? Check. People who've spliced their DNA with animals? Check.
Unfortunately, the story doesn't do the heavy lifting of the book. The main crux of the plot doesn’t really get going until past halfway through, maybe even getting to two thirds in. So before then, things just happen that either aren't explained or then don't matter. Once it gets going, there’s an interesting idea there (the former special ops team Corrine used to serve the corporations in, and who she betrayed including her lover have been resurrected using their ghosts, as they work better than an AI), but it took so long to get there, both on terms of the last third of the book and the long winded way of doing it as well, that by the time you get there, you're frustrated and just don't care enough. The writing is trying to be ‘edgy,� but because the story is such a mess, or doesn’t work, and probably works against it. There's a lesbian sex scene, which comes out of nowhere, and I feel was added just to get that edgy tag; Corinne leaves a grisly scene, see a woman who works at a dive bar she goes to, they hook up and it's never mentioned again. it's not like it's a short scene either, it's like three pages, no words, and I don’t think it even comes up again. The lesbian thing doesn’t bother me, other than the reason it’s in there is a blatant attempt to be “cool� it’s the fact it serves only a purpose to show a cyborg and has no emotional impact on Corinne. Having Corinne turn down lesbian sex as she’s still broken from her dead lover (who was a man, she bi by the way) might have had a more meaningful punch to it. It’s just this scene kind of encapsulates the issues with the book. A lot of flashy art attempts it be subversive, with a nugget of an idea let down by the fact there’s nothing underneath.
I like a good cyberpunk story (or at least the idea of one), and while this has a one somewhere, it’s tucked right at the back. That takes ages to get there, and you have to wade through a ton of stuff that doesn’t pay off in the end. Unless I find a cheap copy for volume 2, I don’t think I'll carry on with this one. A better cyberpunk book similar is , something a bit different that at least carried a story better. Disappointing.
1. It's now off my to-read at last.
2. It isn't very good.
In the near future, the earth was hit with a solar storm, that for years bombarded the planet in electromagnetic radiation, destroying global communications and large parts of the modern world. The caused turmoil across the globe. Decades after, the world is one where corporate monolithic entities are the ruling force, pushing governments into second place. In Pittsburgh, Corrine is barely surviving a life of drink, drugs, and sleepless, tormented nights. She works in the shady area of data transfer and theft. Information can't be trusted to be sent wireless now, so it's now transferred by cybernetic augmentation between people (so basically ripping off the sci-fi classic Johnny Mnemonic). Corrine’s job is either to safely transport the data in her head or steal it from others. But now the traumatic past she’s being trying to hide from had literally come back to haunt her.
The one word to describe this book: messy.
The art, while having a certain style and I can see it matching the cyberpunk tone, some of the decisions made just make out harder to get what's actually going on. It's hard following the panels at times and while some scenes are exciting and imaginative, more often than not, it fails, or both tell the story and grip the reader. And to that, there's nothing for the most part, that you haven't seen in other cyberpunk stuff; assassin robot with a screen for a face with a childish picture on it? Check. People who've spliced their DNA with animals? Check.
Unfortunately, the story doesn't do the heavy lifting of the book. The main crux of the plot doesn’t really get going until past halfway through, maybe even getting to two thirds in. So before then, things just happen that either aren't explained or then don't matter. Once it gets going, there’s an interesting idea there (the former special ops team Corrine used to serve the corporations in, and who she betrayed including her lover have been resurrected using their ghosts, as they work better than an AI), but it took so long to get there, both on terms of the last third of the book and the long winded way of doing it as well, that by the time you get there, you're frustrated and just don't care enough. The writing is trying to be ‘edgy,� but because the story is such a mess, or doesn’t work, and probably works against it. There's a lesbian sex scene, which comes out of nowhere, and I feel was added just to get that edgy tag; Corinne leaves a grisly scene, see a woman who works at a dive bar she goes to, they hook up and it's never mentioned again. it's not like it's a short scene either, it's like three pages, no words, and I don’t think it even comes up again. The lesbian thing doesn’t bother me, other than the reason it’s in there is a blatant attempt to be “cool� it’s the fact it serves only a purpose to show a cyborg and has no emotional impact on Corinne. Having Corinne turn down lesbian sex as she’s still broken from her dead lover (who was a man, she bi by the way) might have had a more meaningful punch to it. It’s just this scene kind of encapsulates the issues with the book. A lot of flashy art attempts it be subversive, with a nugget of an idea let down by the fact there’s nothing underneath.
I like a good cyberpunk story (or at least the idea of one), and while this has a one somewhere, it’s tucked right at the back. That takes ages to get there, and you have to wade through a ton of stuff that doesn’t pay off in the end. Unless I find a cheap copy for volume 2, I don’t think I'll carry on with this one. A better cyberpunk book similar is , something a bit different that at least carried a story better. Disappointing.
June 2, 2017
The dark, grim setting is perfect in this emotional and gruesome tale.
The main character was easy to get to grips with, and revealed a heavy backstory as the book progressed. The gritty future really worked for me and the art was exceptional. The painted, scratchy style gelled with the scenes and tone.
Its a story of choices and exceptional people in a future of enhanced individuals, where everyone has their quirk. The characters path is paved with violence, regret and darkness which makes for a riveting experience in a bleak future.
The main character was easy to get to grips with, and revealed a heavy backstory as the book progressed. The gritty future really worked for me and the art was exceptional. The painted, scratchy style gelled with the scenes and tone.
Its a story of choices and exceptional people in a future of enhanced individuals, where everyone has their quirk. The characters path is paved with violence, regret and darkness which makes for a riveting experience in a bleak future.
April 27, 2019
That was, uh, bad. Points for creative, frenzied art, but the story is seriously lacking. The world went through a dark age because of solar storms, but it's still technologically advanced? Ghosts are information and can therefore be seen? Sort of? But only by the main character?
It's a jumbled mess and I'm not even sure what the point of another volume would be since it seems to wrap up the one bit of story that makes sense. Wait, is there another volume? Who cares?
Avoid it.
It's a jumbled mess and I'm not even sure what the point of another volume would be since it seems to wrap up the one bit of story that makes sense. Wait, is there another volume? Who cares?
Avoid it.
August 15, 2024
It’s been a good few years since I last read this title, but I must admit enjoying it a lot more this time round (possibly because I have more of a sense of the overall narrative).
Set in a cyber-punk/post apocalyptic world, with a compelling protagonist and beautiful, evocative artwork, this is definitely a book that holds up well to a reread.
Set in a cyber-punk/post apocalyptic world, with a compelling protagonist and beautiful, evocative artwork, this is definitely a book that holds up well to a reread.
August 2, 2017
Shockingly good, characters you quickly actually feel something for, I couldn't put it down.
August 23, 2017
Complicated art style.
December 31, 2018
Awesome art and the main character's name is Corinne! Fun and readable but not necessarily drawn to continue the series. 2018 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge - A cyberpunk book
February 1, 2019
great artwork boring, slow-moving story line
May 3, 2019
Incredible art makes this worthwhile, even if it is a little hard to follow on the odd occasion. Great gritty setting.
October 17, 2020
For funs if cyber punk.
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