This was pretty good! This collects the six issues of 'The Great Divide' a post-apocalyptic comic series. It's really innovative and presents a ton of unusual ideas. I wish there were going to be more issues! If the plot sounds like something you would enjoy, I'd definitely recommend this.

Apocalyptic fiction sans zombies, oppressive government or lovey-dovey crap. So refreshing. #GraphicNovels #notouchies

An interesting take on the post-apocalyptic genre. The idea that people can't even touch one another lest they die a horrible and painful death is frightening. Look for the character who resembles Phantasm's Tall Man. Nothing good comes from him....

An apocalypse leaves the human race unable to touch each other and hearing the voices of those they killed, however accidentally. One survivor goes into a bar—it’s both a joke and it isn’t—and gets taken for a literal and figurative ride. From there it’s one survival test after another.
When I was halfway through I noted that I hadn’t found any point to this yet, as though the journey is the actual plot. I think the dog is the hero of this story, because the otherwise main character is best described here: “It’s hard to go more than a few hours without punching him in the face.”
The best line is “A big box of post-apocalypse puppies.” There’s a Star Wars reference that took me a moment to get. And I love that the biggest piece of currency is a Vampirella comic.
There’s also a dozen pages of exclusive digital content, starting with weblinks to music, coloring pages, an excerpt from a book written by one of the bad guys, and a collection of short stories. Then there’s variant covers and ads, especially for Army of Darkness, which was worth a good chuckle.

This was honestly much better than I was expecting it to be. Usually I avoid post-apocalyptic stuff like the plague but every so often I will try something like this out. The reason I enjoyed this series is because it's a new concept. At least 90% of post-apocalyptic stuff is zombies and I am absolutely sick to death of zombies, but this one had something different. It's set in a world where if people make skin to skin contact one of them will die and the surviving person gets the dead person's consciousness inside their own head. I thought this was used in a lot of really interesting ways - people can talk to the other people they've absorbed and even draw on skills and knowledge they had in life, some people can handle having absorbed multiple people and some people kind of lose themselves, and also everyone who has absorbed someone else becomes dyslexic so there is a whole new system of symbols to convey ideas since a lot of people can't read. Also there's a lot of commentary on how people deal with not being able to touch each other and specifically how they cope with not being able to have sex.

I thought all of this was fascinating but it kind of just sputters out at the end, and I'm assuming this IS the entire series because there's no volume 1 on it and there's even an epilogue. But even though they found out what caused the apocalypse there was no real resolution to it. They didn't try to find out how to fix it or anything like that. Still it was a cool concept with a great cast of characters [features and awesome lady scientist and two queer POC in the main group!]. I'd love it if there was a sequel.

I liked the way the story continuously expanded on itself--the concept is complex, and the writing did a good job of introducing it bit by bit. I never felt dumped on.
The file quality of the ARC I downloaded left a lot to be desired, and there were some speech bubbles and pages I had a hard time reading, but I'm sure this is specific to the netgalley file.
I'm fascinated by the mystery of it, and I would definitely recommend it to others who enjoy science-fiction/apocalyptic stories.

This is a bind-up of issues 1-6 of The Great Divide, set in a post-apocalyptic world where the slightest touch can remove someone's soul from their body and give it a new home in the mind of the person who touched them...following a gruesome and agonisingly-painful death. We follow the expanding cast of characters on their journey, as they attempt to find a cure for the world's affliction - something that not everyone wants to see happen.

It's an interesting concept, being responsible for someone's death and carrying them with you in a way that they can voice their opinions and share their memories, no matter whether or not you speak the same language! The philosophical undertones are quickly overshadowed by the viseral nature of the art the depiction of the level of violence that occurs within the narrative. I find this a shame, as this ethical and moral debate would, I believe, be a stronger topic to explore; rather than the well-trodden ground of increasing mental health issues that result from housing so many souls in one brain.

The colour palette is strong, bold and suprisingly varied and the art style is dramatic and inkeeping with the tone; despite it losing some detail in zoomed out scenes. Frequent close-up panels really do a great job of conveying characters' emotions to the reader and only sparce amounts of text is used, meaning that the resulting work is extremely readable and that it is a pleasant experience to do so. I must warn prospective readers, though: if you find graphic scenes of violence and copious amounts of nudity offputting, this may not be for you. However, if you like character-driven stories that challenge some tropes within the genre and are unconcerned by the former, give this a shot. It's unlikely you'll be disappointed.

I couldn't read as the text was very blurry - I've tried to download a couple of times but I get the same problem.

I love gritty, post-apocalyptic graphic novels. Glad to add this one to the list.