Reading this hyper packaged graphic collection of unrelated short stories reminded me of a project that might be put together by a bunch of school friends. The idea is fun at the beginning and everyone promises to participate, but in the end many people fail to deliver and the project ends up feeling kind of half-assed. There is, however, usually someone whose talent shows through and their efforts nearly carry the day. In the case of TALES FROM BEYOND SCIENCE, that person is illustrator Rian Hughes. His work illustrating the stories is good but where he shines is the myriad of mock 60’s & 70’s supernatural comic book covers that pepper the book--marvelous images of Stonehenge or the heads from Easter Island coming to life to ravage mankind. Each cover is unique but clearly and cleverly of a type to convey the theme of the book—recreating the 60’s & 70’s American supernatural comic as if they originated in England. While this is mostly achieved, the stories remain lackluster. Mark Miller’s work (my favorite being THE MEN IN RED or THE SECRET MONTH UNDER THE STAIRS) comes off best but even his stories seem a page or two shy of a good thing. Beyond the myriad covers, what makes this feel hyper packaged is the inclusion of 10 pages (a lot in an 86 page book-plus inside the front and back covers) of faux advertisements spoofing the often spoofed ads at the end of comics, i.e. hypnotism, ventriloquism, shrunken heads etc. Humorous for the most part, my favorite being for liquid carpet-CARPETFLO, the net result is that the stories themselves feel like an afterthought. That should certainly never be the case in a story collection. If this book was a house, it would have no floor—nowhere for me to pour out my CARPETFLO. ( )

The amusing part here is the little references scattered around the comic to other comics, animations and ...not exactly pop-culture, but images recognizable by comic fans. ( )