The Greatest Aviation Mystery Of All Time, Solved – Elsewhere Volume 1 From Image

COPPERHEAD writer JAY FAERBER teams with rising star SUMEYYE KESGIN to unveil ELSEWHERE: the fantastic story of what really happened to Amelia Earhart. Mysteriously transported to a strange new world filled with flying beasts and alien civilizations, Amelia desperately struggles to return home. Along the way, she forges alliances and makes enemies as she goes from aviator to freedom fighter in a rebellion against a merciless warlord! 

Amelia Earhart’s disappearance on 02 July 1937 remains one of the biggest mysteries in aviation history. Many theories have been proffered over the last eighty years, without a shred of definitive evidence having ever been uncovered. Earhart, her navigator Fred Noonan, and her Lockheed Electra 10E have never been found, and at this point probably never will be.

According to Jay Faerber, that’s because we’ve been looking in all the wrong places. Howland Island, the Phoenix Islands, Christmas Island, Fanning Island and the Gilbert Islands have all been torn apart. In Elsewhere, Faerber suggests we should have been looking at an alien planet called Horvath, where Earhart found herself after falling through an interdimensional portal.

In the opening sequences of chapter one, we’re introduced to two hairy native humanoids, Cort and Tavel, chained together and on the lam from the mysterious Lord Kragen. The pair stumbles across Earhart hung up in her risers from a tree. After freeing the aviatrix, they quickly attempt to catch her up on where she is, what exactly is happening, and why she should shut up already and run like hell.

Jay Faerber has clearly done extensive research into Earhart’s quirks and tendencies. Lady Lindy was a trailblazing feminist before that was even a thing. She was stubborn and cocky, and controversially progressive, especially for the turn of the century. The whole reason she and her plane have never been found? Earhart couldn’t be bothered to allow her crew to install a trailing antenna on the Lockheed. Emergency radio? What’s that? Who would even need such a thing?

 

Women must pay for everything. They do get more glory than men for comparable feats. But, also women get more notoriety when they crash. –Amelia Earhart

Sumeyye Kesgin’s linework is a brilliant fit to the script: heavy and clean imagery filled with fantasy elements, like dragons and hairy blue rebels, but grounded enough in reality to keep the reader invested. Ron Riley’s colors compliment the artwork nicely. Cool blues and purples dominate the night scenes. Angry reds and oranges in the evil throne room. Everything comes together for a story that is easily relatable and comfortable, while simultaneously keeping the reader slightly off balance.
Elsewhere is a fun book to look at, and a gripping read. Here’s an inventive piece with a  strong, historically based female lead dumped on an alien landscape with strange beasts and a tyrannical dictator. Revisionist history, anachronism, dragons, plot twists and betrayals…There’s a little something here for everyone.

Elsewhere TPB Volume 01, collecting Elsewhere #1-4, published by Image Comics, releases on 03 January 2018. Written by Jay Faerber, art by Sumeyye Kesgin, color by Ron Riley.