With online comic "Sword of My Mouth," SF author Jim Munroe continues his tale of the Rapture and its aftermath that began with Therefore Repent!. Anarchist urban farmers fight paramilitary angels in this moving story about family and apocalypse.
Written by Jim Munroe, with gorgeous illustrations by Shannon Gerard, Sword of My Mouth is about how single mother Ella tries to deal with a world in the grips of something like the Rapture. We already learned in the previous series that we're not exactly dealing with Bible stuff here: People are transforming into creatures who reflect their belief systems. So many people in America are Christian that signs of the apocalypse are everywhere, but aren't leading where you'd expect. Christian believers who Raptured floated up into space, where they hung in orbit and died. And pagans - who are among Munroe's heroes - are turning into half-animals while witches clip wires to their bodies to become internet nodes.
In a Detroit divided between people who still believe they'll be claimed by God, and those who are trying to make it on Earth, Ella's partner has abandoned her and their newborn. When her apartment burns down, she moves in with a group of anarchist urban farmers - some of them part-animal - to begin life again. Making things even more complicated is that fact that her baby is a post-Rapture birth, and his mouth shows a mysterious mark that makes it obvious he isn't quite human.
Meanwhile, a shady figure with skeleton hands is cruising around in a chauffered car, looking for . . . something. And angels continue to murder people. The war for Earth, in other words, goes on. But Munroe never forgets that every war is a web of small stories that belong to ordinary people as well as the Big Bads.
Gerard's illustrations suit the mood of this new series perfectly. There's a kind of sweetness to her drawings of Ella and the anarchists, highlighted by the 1970s feeling to the drawings as well as her tiny, crumbling lettering. But when the darker characters' storylines emerge, the spareness of her drawing lends itself well to gooey shadows and skeletons.
If you love tales of the apocalypse but want something smarter and more character-driven than the upcoming movie Legion, you must read this comic.
Munroe will be posting new issues of the comic on a regular basis, and the first two issues are already available for just $1 each on his website.