STATION, a taut locked-room murder mystery set about the International Space Station meets and exceeds Boom! comics' normal high standard for graphic novels. Writer Johanna Stokes and illustrator Leno Carvalho turn the screws on the dramatic tension on every page, leaving you to figure out who killed the Russian scientist on EVA — the American space-tourist? The visiting Italian and Japanese astronauts? Or was it one of the Russians or Americans on-board? And who keeps sabotaging the life-support?
Stokes is a writer on the Sci-Fi Channel's show EUREKA, and she plots like a TV drama writer — lots of twists and turns, snappy dialog and quick, deft characterization. Carvalho's art complements the writing nicely, skipping from an expressive, impressionistic to a highly detailed hyperrealism that captures both the claustrophobia of the ISS and the terrifying vastness of space.
