Cicadas

I don’t know very much about Riley Gale, but he certainly seemed to have excellent taste in comics. 

I say that based on Cicadas, an anthology that Gale, the late lead singer of the thrash metal band Power Trip, had been putting together to sell at his band’s shows. The idea was to expose fans to alternative comics, and at the same time give artists he liked a bit more attention. Gale's death in 2020 put a halt to the project. Three years later, however, his friends have resurrected and completed the book, which is now available at the Lockin’ Out Records website. 

The list of contributors should impress anyone who’s been paying attention to the indie comics scene over the past 15 years or so. Notable names include Josh Simmons, Lane Milburn, Marc Bell, Anya Davidson and Lale Westvind. If there is any theme or concept that binds this collection together, it’s “things that heavy metal fans would like.” So, you have a number of works that delve into such genres as fantasy, horror, crime and psychedelia, along with the occasional thumb to the nose towards authority and good taste. 

Art by Lando.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of the most straightforward fantasy work comes from Decadence Comics’ Stathis Tsemberlidis and Lando, both providing wordless, violent stories of oppression and rebellion set against otherworldly landscapes. You could imagine either being discovered in a back issue of Heavy Metal.

Others, like Davidson and Westvind, are more playful with the genre. Davidson offers a short, amusing romance between a swamp troll and a bro-y hitchhiker who might be dead (you may have also seen it in her MNSTRFCKR collection). Westvind’s submission, however, is a thrilling race (of sorts) involving giant flowers, motorcycles, insect-like vehicles, bouncy spider webs, explosions and trumpet playing, all done in her own inimitable, colorful style.

Art by Lale Westvind.

The surrealism continues with Lane Milburn’s two-page slice of M.C. Escher-like madness. And then there’s always-reliable Marc Bell, who can take a simple plot like getting a new issue of your favorite zine in the mail and turn it into a phantasmagoric wonderland. 

Art by Marc Bell.

But the best story in the anthology–or at least the most audacious–is Simmons’ “Micky” (which Simmons released as a standalone self-published comic in 2020). True to form, it’s a grisly, apocalyptic bit of horror. In fact, the story is so harrowing and dark that its sheer nihilistic force overpowers the rest of the collection. It was wise to save it for last, but as a result it ends up being what sticks with you the most long after you’ve closed the book. 

Art by Josh Simmons.

Not every entry here is stellar. Nick Kucway’s Ghost in the Shell-influenced tale of futuristic assassins chasing cyborgs feels rote and uninspired. Dyl Chadwick’s “I’ll Make You Run My Course” is an odd blend of bad parenting, train rides and foot fetishes that never really comes together. And Chris Wilson’s & Jason Tarpey’s “Syrtis Major,” which concerns astronauts facing ancient evil on a distant planet, has a) been done before; b) takes way too long to set up; and c) flubs the final payoff. 

On a more general note, I wish a bit more care had been put into the production. The table of contents just lists the contributors’ names; no titles, no brief biographies, not even page numbers. Who exactly helped shepherd this collection to publication is unclear from the book itself; a very brief introductory text is credited to musician Ned Russin, but you would need to check the Lockin’ Out Records Instagram page to learn he is the book's editor with AJ McGuire. More egregious is a printing error that puts several pages of “Syrtis Major” out of order.

Art by Stathis Tsemberlidis.

But those caveats aside, Cicadas remains an impressive and highly entertaining collection of work, even if some of these stories have seen publication elsewhere in the years since its inception. It’s a genuine shame that Gale not only wasn’t able to see this book published, but isn’t around to put a second volume together. He had an eye for talent. 

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