Neil Gibson, David Court, and Forrest Helvie’s The Theory features art by Amrit Birdi, Atula Siriwardane, Cem Iroz, Davide Puppo, Jake Elphick, Jum Terry, Phil Buckenham, and V.V. Glass. The volume includes twelve loosely connected vignettes focusing on astro-archaeologists investigating dead civilizations for records as to how they died, the military that oversees spaceflight and wants to restrict genetic engineering, and a time traveler working to make subtle alterations to the past to prevent the end of human civilization. Gibson et al.’s work evokes the best of long-form storytelling and the full picture will likely be revealed in subsequent volumes, but this first work admirably sets up much of the world in which these characters operate while beginning to tease how it all connects. For comics fans, the only work I can compare it to is Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga, though that’s more in terms of tone than content. If you’re looking for something somewhat experimental in its storytelling with dynamic art styles for each vignette and a lot of big ideas, this is worth checking out. In the interest of full disclosure, I helped back the publication of The Theory on Kickstarter. ( )