Stuart Moore and Fred Harper, the team behind Ahoy Comics’ recent The Wrong Earth: Purple one-shot, will re-team for Highball, a new miniseries about a “sozzled space pilot” who can only hit a target when he’s drunk.
They’re joined by colorist Lee Loughridge, and letterer Rob Steen for the science fiction/comedy series, which shockingly came to Moore while he was at a bar.
“I was out having a few beers with an AHOY Comics colleague when a funny thing happened,” said Moore. “The more my friend had to drink, the better he got at throwing darts. It was uncanny! And at that booze-soaked moment, the idea for Highball was born.”
Here’s how Ahoy describes the series:
Meet Highball, ace pilot of the Earth Space Corp. He’s the best shot in the galaxy, except for one big problem: he can only hit the target when he’s dead drunk.
In the far future, Earth’s finest pilot, call-sign Highball, finds himself caught between two alien races: the arrogant, cerebral Mentok and the fierce, birdlike Q’k’q’rr’kkk. In his one-man Byter ship, Highball must defuse an alien bomb and survive against a vicious enemy. But Highball has a deadly weakness: He can only hit the target when he’s stone drunk. In his quest to save the galaxy, Highball stumbles headfirst into obstacles such as nefarious space enemies, fellow pilots, the maddening bureaucracy of Space Corp—and, of course, his own shameful inadequacies!
“All work is political,” said Fred Harper. “That’s the line in issue 1 that really stood out to me because it’s so true right now. Highball is the story of a man who drinks to succeed. There’s some great gags about drinking in Highball, but in a lot of ways this is a story about the hangover of late stage capitalism.”
David Rubin provides the variant cover for the first issue:
“It’s not often that you get a funny, exciting space opera that’s also a cry for help,” said AHOY Comics’ Editor-in-Chief Tom Peyer. “I’ve seen the crowd Stuart runs with, and if, as he says, they were out for just ‘a few’ beers the night Highball was conceived, that would be the wildest sci-fi concept yet!”
The first issue arrives Sept. 7.