Black Sciencecan be read in order, from the first to the last issue, without detours or additional series.It is a series of around forty booklets published by Image from 2013, written by Rick Remender and drawn from start to finish by Matteo Scalera. The story is completed: it has an ending, written as such. To find out, take the first bound volume; to collect, this is the booklet#1which counts, the following remaining abundant.
A scientist pierces the membrane that separates dimensions, leads his family and team into a leap he cannot control, and spends the rest of the story paying the price.
The concept allows you to change everything with each arc – setting, rules, secondary characters – which makes the series lively but raises a practical question: where to enter, and what do you really need to acquire? This article responds to it, and points out what distinguishes this series from others by the same author.
What the series tells, without spoiling anything
Grant McKay leads a team of dissident scientists. He builds a device capable of crossing dimensions, turns it on before understanding how it works, and the journey spirals out of control.
Each jump projects the group into an entirely new world, with its laws and its inhabitants. The device is not gratuitous: it forces the characters to constantly reconfigure themselves, and it gradually reveals who they are when all reference disappears.
The real subject, beneath science fiction, is authorship. McKay is a brilliant and absent-minded man, who puts his children in danger for an ambition he presents as selfless. The narrative never excuses it, and that's what saves it from ordinary adventure science fiction.
Comment la lire
In order, without exception
Unlike many concept series, this one is not read in autonomous episodes. Each leap follows from the previous one and the consequences accumulate. Starting in the middle makes no sense.
No additional series to know
There is no spin-off, prequel or mandatory crossover. It is a closed story, written and published as such — a rarity in this segment.
The bound volumes to discover
Each volume brings together a complete arc. It is the most economical and comfortable format for a first reading, and it avoids the risk of a series with gaps.
Une fin réelle
The series ends with an intended conclusion, not a cancellation. This is useful information before committing: the reading investment is not suspended on a hypothetical resumption.
What drawing brings to the story
Matteo Scalera draws the entire series, which is unusual over forty issues – and it is decisive.
His line is rapid, almost sketched, with vibrating contours. In a series where the setting changes with each arc, this nervousness keeps the whole thing together: the worlds follow one another, the hand remains the same. A series of this type drawn by five different people would have no unity.
Color plays at least an equal role. Each dimension receives its own dominant, so clear that we can often locate an arc at first glance on a page. It is a reading device as much as an aesthetic choice.
For a collector, this means thatthe boards in this series are immediately recognizable, and that the identification of an isolated number by its colorful atmosphere is often faster than by its summary.
The difficulties readers encounter
Un début volontairement désorientant
The first issue starts with full action, no exposition. It's an accepted choice, but it's confusing: several readers give up before the device becomes readable, towards the end of the first arc.
A wide and changing distribution
The team has many characters, some of which exist in several versions due to the dimensions. Keeping track of who's who requires attention, especially in split reading.
A difficult protagonist to like
McKay is selfish and a liar, and the story does not gradually redeem him as usual. A reader expecting redemption will be disappointed.
Several related formats coexist
Thin volumes and thick editions group the same chapters according to different divisions. Mixing the two creates duplicates and gaps.
What the dimensions device really allows
A story that changes world with each arc can veer into a catalog of ideas: one amusing dimension, then another, without consequence. That's not what's happening here, and the reason is worth understanding before we begin.
Chaque saut estirreversible. The team doesn't go back, doesn't fix its mistakes, and counts its deaths. The worlds crossed are therefore not interchangeable settings but stages of continuous degradation - which gives the story a direction, where the concept promised dispersion.
The second effect is more subtle. Since the dimensions house variations of the characters, the story can confront each person with what they could have become. This is a common procedure in science fiction, but here it is used to judge the characters rather than to produce surprise.
Concretely, this means that a reader cannot draw an arc at random, even if they find the setting attractive. What makes a world interesting is the state in which the characters arrive there — and that state comes from all of the above.
Collection side: what really matters
On this series, as on most author's titles, the value is concentrated on a single point.
The first number.This is the item the market is looking for, for the usual reason: it was printed before the series had proven itself, therefore in prudent quantities. The following issues have benefited from increased orders and remain in abundance.
The following numbers have no rarity.Completing the series in the booklet is possible without difficulty or significant additional cost. This is good news: the only real obstacle is the first number.
Alternative covers.They exist on several issues. As everywhere in this segment, the word “variant” says nothing about the print run: a widely distributed second cover and a ratio print carry the same label in the ads.
The question to ask yourself before buying the booklet.Do you want to read the series, or own its first issues? The two objectives do not call for the same purchase.
To read, bound volumes cost significantly less per chapter and store better. To collect, only the first issue justifies an active search - buying the forty others in the booklet amounts to paying a second time for a reading that you already own.
Its place in the author's work
This is the series that best shows what Remender does with a science fiction concept, and it occupies a special position in its production.
It is more accessible than its founding series, broader than its short stories, and less trying than its adolescence story - the subject of which is directly autobiographical. It therefore constitutes an ideal second reading: close enough to one's obsessions to be recognizable, different enough in tone so as not to give the impression of rereading.
We find its thematic signature intact: a protagonist responsible for his own misfortunes, a family in pieces, and violence which leaves traces instead of dissipating from one episode to the next.
The difference is in the register. Where his other series are anchored in harsh reality, this one uses the device of science fiction to put the same questions at a distance — which makes it, paradoxically, easier to read.
Who to recommend it to, who to avoid it
The series finds its audience quickly, and loses it just as quickly. Two profiles clearly emerge.
Elle convientfor those who like adventure science fiction without naivety, for readers who accept that a story mistreats its characters, and for those who appreciate expressive rather than realistic drawing. It is also very suitable for reading in volumes, each arc forming a coherent block.
She is not suitablewho is looking for a hero to identify with, nor who expects rigorous science fiction: the technical explanations are summary and assumed as such. Finally, it is poorly suited to a very fragmented reading - the large cast and the variations of characters require a certain continuity of attention.
This is not a value judgment but a question of expectation. Most of the abandonments reported by readers stem from an initial misunderstanding of what the series promises.
What to note in your catalog
Two sets of information avoid the most frequent errors on this title.
Format and edition.Booklet, thin volume or thick edition: all three exist and cover the same chapters according to different divisions. Without this precision, it is impossible to know later what is really missing.
The cover, on the booklets.Which one, and at what ratio if the information is known. This is what separates a current copy from a sought-after copy, and nothing on the comic reminds us of this.
A catalog which records “Black Science, volume 3” will leave a permanent ambiguity between two editions. The same specifying the format and the publisher answers in one second the question of whether a proposed volume completes the collection or doubles it.
Should you read it before or after the author's other series?
After an initial contact, but without waiting any further.
Starting with it is possible, but its disorienting openness makes it a less reliable test than other titles by the same author to know if its style suits you. A reader who drops out at the first arc will wrongly conclude that the author is not for them.
Reading it in second position, on the other hand, works very well: we then know what to expect basically, and we can appreciate what is new in the science fiction device. This is also the moment where the graphic unity of the series takes on its full meaning, in contrast with another designer.
Questions fréquentes
Yes, and on a conclusion written as such rather than on an interruption. This is information that matters before committing to around forty issues: reading is not suspended until a possible resumption.
No. There are no prequels, spinoff series, or mandatory crossovers. It is an entirely autonomous story, which remains rare enough to be noted in this type of series.
Yes, it's a bias. The story begins in full action without exposition, and the device only becomes fully readable over the first few issues. If you like the tone, the initial effort is quickly rewarded; if the confusion persists after an entire arc, the series will not clarify itself further.
Volumes to read, without hesitation: cheaper per chapter, complete by arc, and without the risk of missing series. The booklets are only of interest if you are targeting the first issue, the only truly sought-after item in this series.
No, Matteo Scalera draws the whole thing, which is unusual for a series of this length. This continuity is what gives unity to a story whose setting changes radically with each arc: the worlds follow one another, the hand remains the same. Color has had more than one speaker over the course of the publication, without the principle of one dominant per dimension being abandoned.
Three formats, the same chapters
Booklet, thin volume, thick edition: note which avoids having to repurchase what you already have under another cover.