Space Ghost #6: Jace, Jan, and the Space Vampires

Jace and Jan’s continued development in this Space Ghost run reaches its highest point yet in Space Ghost #6. Pepose sidelines Space Ghost for most of the issue, having a space vampire bite him and as a result turning the titular character into an antagonist. As a result, Jace and Jan act independently for almost the entire issue, tasked with both understanding and solving the problem at hand.

Pepose tailors the story to what he’s already established about the duo. Space Ghost #6 doesn’t see Jace and Jan suddenly turn into a pair of punch throwing, energy blasting commandos. Rather than trying to fight their way out of the situation, they look at it as a problem to be solved and reason their way out. Not only is this kind of consistency welcome, it’s a change of pace from most stories where Space Ghost does fight his way out of trouble.

Space Ghost #6’s biggest moment comes late in the issue where Pepose reinforces, in perhaps the strongest terms yet, the found family connection that has grown between Space Ghost, Jace, and Jan. This remains the most compelling character story in the series’ current run. Pepose does a good job tracking this character arc from issue to issue. It isn’t that the relationship is changing in each issue. Rather, Pepose continually finds ways to work the relationship into the stories in ways that make the ongoing relationship relevant to the plot.

Lau and Dalhouse do a good job emphasizing the horror elements implicit in a story about space vampires. Pepose doesn’t play up this potential aspect of the story, but the art team leans into it where possible. In particular is the design for the space vampire king. He is recognizable enough to fit in with vampire imagery, but just different enough to feel like an alien at home in a science fiction story. The thralls have more ordinary vampire design but with elements that emphasize they are not fully human anymore–fangs, narrow and angular eyes, and nearly distended jaws.

Dalhouse adds a gentle but persistent red tint to many panels during the two confrontations with the space vampires. It’s an effective color choice that wouldn’t necessarily be out of place in any action sequence but works especially well in this instance.

The red tinted coloring is made more menacing thanks to a rougher than usual shading technique employed by Lau. This works especially well on the changed Space Ghost and the vampire king, in each case emphasizing the size and power of the characters.

Esposito reverses the normal dialogue bubble style, using a white border, black fill, and white text. Even more effective is the font choice for the vampires’ dialogue. It ranges from standard text to scratchier and italicized to uneven and non-uniform in size. These differences sometimes happen in the same bubbles and even mid sentence. The vampire king and all his thralls, especially Space Ghost, come across as more monstrous as a result.