It’s time for the newest issue of Quantum! The ninth issue of the bimonthly British sci-fi anthology features the excellent WesterNoir on the cover; the current WesterNoir story reaching its conclusion in this issue.

Issue 9 also sees the belated return of the alt-reality, Egyptian political thriller Memphis, which takes a deeper dive into its more mythological elements here.

The aforementioned WesterNoir concludes in suitably bloody, thrilling fashion, and The Very Strange Reappearance of Peter Thomson takes an unusually animal-focused turn, and has some genuinely thought provoking moments.

The Clockwork Cavalier begins a new adventure here, in all his clockpunk glory (and yes, clockpunk really is a thing!).

Now here’s a rare thing for me when it comes to Quantum: something that doesn’t sit quite right for me. It’s been brewing since last issue, and it reaches a bit of a nadir here, but the usually campy Major Rakhana, which admittedly hasn’t been without its darker moments, is currently struggling with its tone a little. The issue is the grim torture scenes, which really do clash with the beautifully colourful and still campy violence in the rest of the story. It just feels like it’s gone a little too dark for my liking, though I’ll reserve overall judgement until the story is fully complete.

Still, that complaint aside, this is another really strong issue of Quantum, which also features a few bonus humour strips dotted throughout too.

Though I’ve been picking up my copy of Quantum every other month from an actual newsagent, if you’re struggling to find it yourself, you can pick it up by becoming a subscriber via the Quantum Patreon. There’s a few pledge levels, one of which gives you just the comic itself and another that adds in some extra, sometimes exclusive goodies too. As you’ve probably gathered from my reviews, it’s a comic I can highly recommend picking up regularly!