Self Published Spotlight Solar Flare

Coming on the heels of the SDCC News cycle, I was forwarded a Wall Street Journal article over Facebook that talked about how SDCC is now more about getting a comic optioned than it is about the comic books themselves, that it used to be the physical copies that were the hot commodities and  now it is about licensing. The article was sent to me by a guy named James Haick. He said, “the article features my comic.” I ususally read these sorts of things, but receive a ton of them, and look at the book and kindly brush them off. However, when I read what the book was about, I contacted James in reference to getting me copies to read. 

So James was very nice and sent me a PDF of the completed six issues that he has self-published via Kickstarter funds (six successful Kickstarters). I sat down later that evening with my iPad, and started reading. I got through the first issue and instantly sent James Haick a message asking where I could buy the physical copies, since I greatly enjoyed reading the first issue and prefer to read comics via the floppy copies.  James gave me his website, Solar Flare Comic, and I went on and bought all 6 issues. Flash forward a couple of days, I have the books in hand,  and I read all six issues in one sitting. The book was that good.

The story is about Jake Clifford, a single father living in Florida, who works in finance. He has good friends, close family, and a daughter that he loves. I do think parts of this are autobiographical since James Haick also works in finance and lives in Florida (unsure but I believe he has a daughter as well.) Jake’s daughter is several states away, visiting her grand parents. She is set to fly home the next day and Jake is excited to see her. But this is where things go pear shaped. A massive solar flare hits, causing an EMP that wipes out the entire power grid, all electronics, all vehicles, pretty much everything we rely on in our daily lives. In addition, there is an eerie green glow to the sky. In a world without power, things quickly turn brutal and ugly, very dangerous. Jake just wants to get his daughter back.
 
The book is well written by James Haick, who has never written a comic before. The dialogue is very believable, they speak like real people. The motivations of the characters are easy to follow and they act in ways that you would expect people to act in this situation. And I loved that the book had enough real science to make it believable, and very scary. I googled several things in the book to see exactly what they were talking about. Different characters have different beliefs as to what caused the power to go out, some think government, some aliens, and some Zombie Apocalypse.
 
The art is also very good. There are some fun celebrity Easter eggs in the book since characters are modeled after real actors and actresses. (James has hopes of getting this property adapted as per the Wall Street Journal article.)
Think of the book as Survival Sci Fi (we are used to survival horror.)
If you are looking for a great self published read that will not cost you an arm and a leg (copies are $3.99 for the first one and 2-6 are $3.50) check out Solar Flare Comic for copies. I have even seen some copies appear on eBay. The regular covers are limited to 3,000 copies and the variants are 400 copies. James did let on that this book is being picked up by a publisher who will reprint the first six Kickstarter funded issues and they will continue the story from there.