Grey Area: A Long Way Home

Following on from This Island Earth released January 2018, Grey Area: A Long Way Home is a second volume of continuing but relatively standalone sci-fi action stories from the pen of comics legend Dan Abnett.

North America, 2045. The Global Exo Segregation Zone (aka the ‘Grey Area’) is a huge holding area in Arizona housing aliens hoping to visit earth: a melting pot for disputes, crime and inter-species misunderstandings. The only thing standing in the way of chaos is the Exo Transfer Control squads: heavily-armed immigration cops that keep the peace and make sure everyone has their papers in order.

E.T.C. Captain Adam Bulliet has a lot on his plate: The Arakshu want revenge on humanity for their dead ambassador; increasing numbers of aliens are having rapturous visions; and his fraternisation with Officer Birdy isn’t nearly as discrete as he thought. Not to mention a dizzyingly colossal god star is descending on Earth, and Bulliet’s team are the ones suiting up to meet ‘n’ greet the second coming. But they might end up going further than they expect…

Here’s a quick summary of the modern classic from 2000AD’s very own Michael Molcher:

Originally serialised across various issues of the legendary anthology sci-fi / fantasy comic 2000 AD between 2014 and 2017 Grey Area: A Long Way Home features artist Mark Harrison on visuals, who has since very much become synonymous with the strip after Karl Richardson, Lee Carter and Patrick Goddard shared art duties on the first couple of years’ stories, as featured in This Island Earth.

The stories featured in Grey Area: A Long Way Home are “Visitation”, “I.D., Please”, “Nearer My God To Thee”, “Another Day On The Job”, “Just Routine Questions”, “Locked In”, “Talk Down”, “Contact”, “First Bite”, “Feeding Frenzy”, “Deadline”, “Endgame”, “Big Day”, “Until Death”, “Last Call”, “Congruence”, “A Long Way Home”, “Back In Black”, “Batch Recall”, “Man Flu”, “Life On Earth”, “Border Ops”, “Lutwot Holiday”, “Signal Six-Twenty-Four” and “Homeland Security”, originally appearing in progs 1872-1873, 1884-1888, 1924-1931, 1945-1948, 1982-1987, 2035-2044 and 2050-2053.

Grey Area: A Long Way Home will be published by Rebellion on September 5th 2019, available from Amazon.co.uk and other leading retailers.

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