Jason Shawn Alexander’s art made Frostbite one of my favorite comics. In Empty Zone he is responsible both the art and the story. I don’t know how well this story would work without his art. Art makes you believe more far out concepts of the story. First issue doesn’t start too strong with non-linear story telling and putting one of the weirder aspects of the story in front of you when you try to figure out how the world works. Continuously running superhero comic have advantage of most readers knowing how everything works at the beginning of the story. New comics have to give reader time to learn what is and isn’t possible. Empty Zone doesn’t do that. And that is the only nitpicking I can do.
By the end of first issue I was fully on board. Empty Zone is dark and bleak cyberpunk story with one fantastical element. I don’t want to say the element because the story revolves around it and it is one of the mysteries. It gets you off-guard if you expect hard science fiction which rest of the comic points to.
Empty Zone went to my all time favorite comics list along with Frostbite. Jason Shawn Alexander’s art is just amazing. Pages and frames could work on their own and he can phase the images in correct way. He is like Dave McKean has toned down experimentation and learned better phasing. I will get more comics from both of them. Empty Zone is not only about art. The story hits you hard when it starts to work after midway of first issue. Specially the ending.