Sci-fi is a vast genre of ships, lasers, robots and aliens. One thing that’s missing from this genre is stoners just trying to get somewhere and do every drug in the galaxy. Enter “Void Trip†written by Ryan O’Sullivan and art by Plaid Klaus and you’ve one ride.
Ana and Gabriel are two intergalactic stoners who are trying to get to “Euphoria,†a planet that is considered “the promised land.†Of course, Ana crashes their ship (which looks like the Winnebago from “Spaceballsâ€) and now they have to have it fixed. Of course, Ana sees this as a more of a “the journey is better than the destination†thing.
This is an absolutely brilliant idea. The characters don’t have any special powers or skills or are highly trained anything. They’re just two stoners trying to get somewhere. This just screams of 1960s/1970s America where hippies moved en masse to California because it was the place to be.
The best way to describe what we’ve got here is what if “Cheech and Chong†were in space and replace one of them with a female. Gabriel is Cheech because he’s more of a straight man and Ana is Chong because he’s the biggest stoner. It may not have the humor of those movies, but it does come off as a sci-fi straight version of it.
Klaus’s art gives a nice touch to the story. The human designs are nice even though some of the facial expressions are a bit odd. The art shines brightly when it comes to the aliens. These aliens are awesome looking, especially the trucker character. He’s basically this giant bear thing and it moves exactly like how a humanoid bear would move and look without looking like a “Disney†character. The use of color to set the lighting and mood of each scene is also another strong example of Klaus’s skill. However, the android, on the other hand, is pretty boring.
“Void Trip†has a simple, different and awesome idea and the story and art bring it out perfectly. There’s a lot a bunch of stoners with a ship and the comic does offer a reason for readers to want to read the series and greatly enjoy it.
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