New one-shot “Station to Station” conjures The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits

Readers of the anthology series Dark Horse Presents will have already read it in serial form, but those who haven’t will be in for a sci-fi TV inspired treat with this week’s release of the one-shot Station to Station. Co-written by Gabriel Hardman and Corinna Sara Bechko with art by Hardman, this Outer Limits-inspired tale chronicles the aftermath of a laboratory experiment into parallel universes when the experiment goes incredibly wrong. Set in San Francisco Bay’s Treasure Island, Station to Station reads like a short story from a sci-fi compilation like Philip K. Dick’s Short Stories or Ray Bradbury’s Short Stories, only in graphic novel form. It begs the question: Why not take a bunch of sci-fi stories like these and make an ongoing monthly comic book series out of them?

As to genre, Station to Station fits in the mix of sci-fi that crosses over into horror, like many of the best tales from The Twilight Zone–the cool thrilling and chilling kind of horror as opposed to the goopy gory kind. Unlike a lot that comes out of Dark Horse Presents that have grown into ongoing series, Station to Station doesn’t need a series because it does what it needs in a single issue.

The writing is tightly written for the amount of action and plot that is packed into its brief 24 pages–glimpses of World War Z, Jurassic Park, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers pepper the book in nicely drawn imagery. Gabriel Hardman is known for his work on Hulk and Agents of Atlas for Marvel Comics and Heathentown for Image Comics. He also is a movie illustrator whose credits include Spider-Man 3, X2: X-Men United, Superman Returns, Tropic Thunder and Inception, which accounts for the cinematic feel in Station to Station. Corinna Sara Bechko has written several well-known comic book series, including Planet of the Apes and Star Wars Legacy, as well as Heathentown with Hardman.