Next Exit: Volume 1

by Christy Lijewski

Welcome to Alkaline, a world where humans are the minority and fragments of memory come to life. Here reality is a whim that can be bent to one's will. Those who can manipulate reality are governed by those who can not and existence is held in a tenuous balance. Join Markesh and Retrab, two young adventurers who may have found the only means to escape from this reality-- An Exit map leading to an ancient gateway said to release one from the bounds...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1593620373
• ISBN13: 9781593620370
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: SLG Publishing
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 13 to 16 years
• Grade Range: Grades 8 to 11

Customer Reviews

An excellent blend of style and story...

...with a little bit of a rough edge about it. If I hadn't seen Christy Lijewski's later works, including Re:play, I would have been tempted to give this a five star review. The story certainly deserves it - I started my collection of Ms. Lijewski's work with the first issue of the comic, and was thoroughly pulled into the world of Alkaline and it's blend of modern snarkiness with fantasy and sci-fi elements. There are enough unanswered questions in this first volume to leave your head spinning, and I can't wait to see the next one on shelves. As for the artwork - it's easy enough to see that she has a strong manga influence (I'm especially reminded of Bleach), but her work is by no means generic or derivative. She has a very strong, expressive style and an incredible sense of character design. For this collection of the first seven of her comics, you can see that everything is a bit new and untested, however - her work grows better towards the end, and as I mentioned, in later works. Next Exit is definitely something to pick up whether you're a SLG fan (Johnny the Homicidal Manaic, Lenore, etc), a manga fan, or just someone searching for an unusual and well done graphic novel.

On the edge of the world, that's where you'll find me, waiting forever...

"Next Exit" is fun from start to finish. Christy Lijewski has managed to concoct a comics series that combines unique character designs, snappy dialogue and countless pop culture references into a satisfying combination. The story of Retrab & Markesh's search for a way out of their world, Alkaline, is never predictable, while they and their fellow characters are always interesting. Even better, Lijewski's art is consistently excellent. My only complaint with this volume is that, especially in the first few issues, the influence of certain Japanese manga such as "FullMetal Alchemist" was slightly too apparent. On the other hand, Lijewski more than proved as the series went on that she was anything but dumbly derivative, and I look forward to more "Next Exit" as soon as possible.

An Entertaining Story

This happens to be one of my favorite comics that I have ever read. I collected the individual issues, and of course I enjoyed the graphic novel. The drawings in it are suberb (though, there are like 2 grammatical errors) and the story is very captivating.