How do you cope with the fact that your world is doomed, especially if you’re just a kid, all alone except for your loyal, ever present canine companion?

For young Chuck, and his faithful dog Addie, they escape their bleak reality by imagining themselves as explorers in a beautifully vibrant, retro futuristic sci-fi world.

Yet sometimes, reality hits so hard that there’s no way of escaping it, which is exactly what happens in this second issue of Orphans of the Impact Winter.

Happening across a terrifyingly violent, harrowing situation, Chuck and Addie are chased by vicious scavengers, but discover that they aren’t so alone after all.

Just as in the first issue of this remarkable, if bleak, series, the clever premise allows us to see just how Chuck copes with surviving in his already post apocalyptic world, which is heading for further collapse.

The colourful, 50s style science fiction setting dreamed up by Chuck offers a beautiful contrast to the startlingly downbeat, dangerous world they are just trying to survive in, but it’s not without hope that things can, and may even, get better for our central duo.

This issue has, again just like the first issue, more strikingly impactful, devastating scenes, but it’s easier to be a bit more optimistic about Chuck and Addie’s chances for survival here too.

Writer Lee A. Carlisle, along with his brother, Ross Carlisle, on art duties, have once more crafted an utterly compelling, if at times harrowing, experience with Orphans of the Impact Winter #2.

I’m fully on board with Chuck and Addie’s story at this point, and I’m already eagerly awaiting the next issue to see where they head next.