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Test: Vol. 1
Bodyhacker and tech-addict Aleph Null is searching for Laurelwood, a town that offers to sell you the future. Laurelwood, as it happens, has been waiting Aleph. Because the two are tied together in ways neither can understand alone.
ORPHAN. HUMAN GUINEA PIG. BODYHACKER. FUTURE ADDICT. CORPORATE ASSET.
Aleph Null is a lot of things: An orphan, a human guinea pig undergoing medical tests for cash, a bodyhacker, a hardcore future junkie, and a corporate asset. But now, Aleph is on the run from their old life, in search of a mythical, Midwestern town named Laurelwood—where they’re test-marketing the future with tech that can’t possibly exist yet, and won’t for decades. From Eisner-nominated Chris Sebela (Crowded, High Crimes) and Jen Hickman (Moth & Whisper) comes the story of a town out of time, full of mysteries, and populated by guinea pigs in need of liberation by the misfit least likely to be their savior.
Collects the complete five issue series.
ORPHAN. HUMAN GUINEA PIG. BODYHACKER. FUTURE ADDICT. CORPORATE ASSET.
Aleph Null is a lot of things: An orphan, a human guinea pig undergoing medical tests for cash, a bodyhacker, a hardcore future junkie, and a corporate asset. But now, Aleph is on the run from their old life, in search of a mythical, Midwestern town named Laurelwood—where they’re test-marketing the future with tech that can’t possibly exist yet, and won’t for decades. From Eisner-nominated Chris Sebela (Crowded, High Crimes) and Jen Hickman (Moth & Whisper) comes the story of a town out of time, full of mysteries, and populated by guinea pigs in need of liberation by the misfit least likely to be their savior.
Collects the complete five issue series.
136 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2019
3 people are currently reading
79 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 13, 2021
A story about a human guinea pig addicted to upgrading himself. He heads to a town where the corporations have taken over, experimenting on the whole town. From there I'm not really sure how to explain the rest. I'm not sure Christopher Sebela could either. Although, he'd write an entire book trying to. This really should have been prose. There are so many words. Sebela drones on and on, saying the same thing over and over, "Corporations bad. Humans bad. Transhumanism could be good or bad?" He just kept going and going until any kind of message was ultimately lost. He went on for so long it actually affected the lettering. It would get really tiny in panels, the words squished together so it would all fit and not completely obscure Jen Hickman's art. I've seen this verbal diarrhea from Sebela before. He really needs to work with an editor or finally write that prose novel inside of him that's been struggling to come out.
May 25, 2020
God knows I have a great admiration for everyone who goes through the often grueling process of creating a comic book. But I also believe that you respect a book by being as honest as possible when writing your comments or review. Unfortunately, I didn’t like anything about this book, aside from the art, in general. I found the constant ramblings of the main character unbearably boring.
Mainly, though, I didn’t like the fact that in 5 issues there isn’t a real story (I read the volume that includes the first 5 issues), there isn’t anything to bite on.
There is sort of a main concept, but it never develops into a story. I found the book messy, repetitive, and, behind the look of great sophistication, I found that it has nothing much to say about our world or our life aside from “capitalism bad, corporations bad”. It’s empty.
Mainly, though, I didn’t like the fact that in 5 issues there isn’t a real story (I read the volume that includes the first 5 issues), there isn’t anything to bite on.
There is sort of a main concept, but it never develops into a story. I found the book messy, repetitive, and, behind the look of great sophistication, I found that it has nothing much to say about our world or our life aside from “capitalism bad, corporations bad”. It’s empty.
March 13, 2020
This could have been so good.
It had so many elements I absolutely love: identity, transhumanism, cyberpunk and science fiction, time loops, AIs and humans together, survivor's guilt, bisexual (I think?) nonbinary main character..... These are some of my favorite tropes/themes. And this story let me down so bad. It's way too rushed with little to no explanation. Nothing was satisfying.
I love the ideas, I love the art, but I just felt so...baffled by this. I could understand basically what happened but so much else was left unexplained or just eluded to vaguely.
So much of the narrative is spent on the main character saying the same few things over and over again in varying angsty poetic ways, to the point that Despite this, I still don't really understand any of the main character's motivations or wants in this. The references to them having no free will I guess apply here but it doesn't seem deep, it just seems like...a plot device.
I don't know. This just could have been so cool and enjoyable but instead I was left going "why?" over and over again.
It had so many elements I absolutely love: identity, transhumanism, cyberpunk and science fiction, time loops, AIs and humans together, survivor's guilt, bisexual (I think?) nonbinary main character..... These are some of my favorite tropes/themes. And this story let me down so bad. It's way too rushed with little to no explanation. Nothing was satisfying.
I love the ideas, I love the art, but I just felt so...baffled by this. I could understand basically what happened but so much else was left unexplained or just eluded to vaguely.
So much of the narrative is spent on the main character saying the same few things over and over again in varying angsty poetic ways, to the point that Despite this, I still don't really understand any of the main character's motivations or wants in this. The references to them having no free will I guess apply here but it doesn't seem deep, it just seems like...a plot device.
I don't know. This just could have been so cool and enjoyable but instead I was left going "why?" over and over again.
November 22, 2022
Since the advent of modern computing there has been a strain of though that equates technological development with biological evolution. This way of thinking looks ahead into a future where technology and biology merge into one entity, AKA a singularity. The central idea is that biological evolution has reached a dead end. Technology will enable humanity to push past biology and transcend to the next stage. This philosophy is usually called Transhumanism.
Transhumanism turns the Future into a kind of divinity. Change, the mechanism that produces the Future, becomes holy.
This graphic novel introduces addiction into the mix. The main character is a self-described junkie. They're searching for an escape from the past and present by modifying their body with drugs and technology. Aleph Null, the main character, has travelled across the country searching for a magic town that will "fix" them. Exactly how this will happen is never explained. The point is that Aleph will receive the change at this special place and then live in the Future. Aleph's addiction is a good thing- it drives their desire to change and unites them with the Future.
This is profoundly offensive to me on a couple of fronts:
1. My current line of work. I work at a 30 day alcohol and other drugs rehab. Every day I deal with the fact that addiction is death. The solution is found in recovery; accepting life on life's terms.
2. My old line of work. I served as a priest in the Episcopal Church for eleven years. Bad things happen when we make change holy and elevate the Future into a divinity. We begin changing the essential elements of who and what we are. We lose ourselves and each other. We objectify ourselves and others.
I am not saying that change is bad or that the future is evil. Rather, worshipping the future is bad, because the future is always an illusion. We're always looking towards it, but we never arrive there. Likewise, change can be good, but indiscriminately embracing *all* change is unhealthy and maladaptive.
I don't know if any of this is an accurate reflection of the plot of Test. As others have noted, the writing is a mess. The colors and fonts used are impossible to read in places, The art is enjoyable- I believe one of the artists worked on Transmetropolitan, one of my favorite comics from the 90s. At the very least, multiple visible nods are made to Spider Jerusalem.
Test made me think, but it also gave me a headache. Proceed at your own risk.
Transhumanism turns the Future into a kind of divinity. Change, the mechanism that produces the Future, becomes holy.
This graphic novel introduces addiction into the mix. The main character is a self-described junkie. They're searching for an escape from the past and present by modifying their body with drugs and technology. Aleph Null, the main character, has travelled across the country searching for a magic town that will "fix" them. Exactly how this will happen is never explained. The point is that Aleph will receive the change at this special place and then live in the Future. Aleph's addiction is a good thing- it drives their desire to change and unites them with the Future.
This is profoundly offensive to me on a couple of fronts:
1. My current line of work. I work at a 30 day alcohol and other drugs rehab. Every day I deal with the fact that addiction is death. The solution is found in recovery; accepting life on life's terms.
2. My old line of work. I served as a priest in the Episcopal Church for eleven years. Bad things happen when we make change holy and elevate the Future into a divinity. We begin changing the essential elements of who and what we are. We lose ourselves and each other. We objectify ourselves and others.
I am not saying that change is bad or that the future is evil. Rather, worshipping the future is bad, because the future is always an illusion. We're always looking towards it, but we never arrive there. Likewise, change can be good, but indiscriminately embracing *all* change is unhealthy and maladaptive.
I don't know if any of this is an accurate reflection of the plot of Test. As others have noted, the writing is a mess. The colors and fonts used are impossible to read in places, The art is enjoyable- I believe one of the artists worked on Transmetropolitan, one of my favorite comics from the 90s. At the very least, multiple visible nods are made to Spider Jerusalem.
Test made me think, but it also gave me a headache. Proceed at your own risk.
January 6, 2020
Well! I am not positive what exactly I just read but it was visually beautiful and really compelling.
This was disjointed and surreal for a lot of it - part cyberpunk adventure, part character study, part philosophical meditation, part transhumanist manifesto, part thought experiment. It's about who owns the future and what you're supposed to do with yourself in it when you don't feel like there's any place for you in this world and aren't positive there will be in the future either with the way the world is going, but the future is also the only place where someone like you might fit. It's also about weird dreamlike sequences behind mirrors and I think there's a lot of metaphors going on that I wasn't fully parsing. It was very cinematic. I was compelled by the ideas, the visuals, and the central character of Aleph themself trying to figure out what they actually want and who they actually want to be, running from the past and to the future, even if I couldn't necessarily follow what the heck was going on half the time and am not sure what the thematic conclusion is getting at.
This was disjointed and surreal for a lot of it - part cyberpunk adventure, part character study, part philosophical meditation, part transhumanist manifesto, part thought experiment. It's about who owns the future and what you're supposed to do with yourself in it when you don't feel like there's any place for you in this world and aren't positive there will be in the future either with the way the world is going, but the future is also the only place where someone like you might fit. It's also about weird dreamlike sequences behind mirrors and I think there's a lot of metaphors going on that I wasn't fully parsing. It was very cinematic. I was compelled by the ideas, the visuals, and the central character of Aleph themself trying to figure out what they actually want and who they actually want to be, running from the past and to the future, even if I couldn't necessarily follow what the heck was going on half the time and am not sure what the thematic conclusion is getting at.
February 10, 2020
Note: I read the monthly single issues, not the actual trade paperback collection of those issues. So I might be missing any additional back matter or other modifications.
I was drawn to Christopher Sebela's series Test thanks to two things. First was a recommendation by Warren Ellis in his weekly newsletter. Second was the Vault Vintage variant cover that is an homage to Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan, one of my favorite comics of all time. I even read and enjoyed one of Sebela's prior works, Shanghai Red . With that kind of introduction, this series had a lot to live up to in my mind. Sadly, it fell short of those expectations.
I loved the cyberpunk aspects of Test. It very much reminded me of titans like William Gibson and Warren Ellis along with newcomers like Tim Maughan. There's plenty of transhumanism and futurism to satisfy any Transmet fan.
The artwork is very nice. Jen Hickman handles all the abstract and dreamy aspects so it never becomes muddles or overwhelming. Each character is very unique. The main character, Aleph Null, is very eye catching in a very cyberpunk way.
Unfortunately, the actual story is a mess. There's likely some stuff buried under metaphor and symbolism that I just completely missed, but that doesn't mean it was any less incoherent to me. I like the idea of examining the future as a drug and how people can become addicted. That concept gets repeated a bit too often, though, while still managing to remain totally confounding.
There are far too many factions involved, so it's hard to tell who is who at points. Aleph gets shuttled from group to group with little explanation. The transitions are also difficult since it's hard to tell what is actually physically happening versus maybe just some projection or something. There's so much "future" in the town of Laurelwood the line gets blurred between reality and prognostication.
There's a twist akin to , but it isn't nearly as mind-blowing as that. Partially that's due to having the previous as reference, but it also just doesn't make much sense unless space/time works way differently in the world of Test.
I might revisit this series once I catch up with my pile of unread monthly single issues. There's a lot of text to process in Christopher Sebela's story so I'm probably missing some layers. Or maybe I'm just a junkie in search of an addiction, like Aleph Null.
I was drawn to Christopher Sebela's series Test thanks to two things. First was a recommendation by Warren Ellis in his weekly newsletter. Second was the Vault Vintage variant cover that is an homage to Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan, one of my favorite comics of all time. I even read and enjoyed one of Sebela's prior works, Shanghai Red . With that kind of introduction, this series had a lot to live up to in my mind. Sadly, it fell short of those expectations.
I loved the cyberpunk aspects of Test. It very much reminded me of titans like William Gibson and Warren Ellis along with newcomers like Tim Maughan. There's plenty of transhumanism and futurism to satisfy any Transmet fan.
The artwork is very nice. Jen Hickman handles all the abstract and dreamy aspects so it never becomes muddles or overwhelming. Each character is very unique. The main character, Aleph Null, is very eye catching in a very cyberpunk way.
Unfortunately, the actual story is a mess. There's likely some stuff buried under metaphor and symbolism that I just completely missed, but that doesn't mean it was any less incoherent to me. I like the idea of examining the future as a drug and how people can become addicted. That concept gets repeated a bit too often, though, while still managing to remain totally confounding.
There are far too many factions involved, so it's hard to tell who is who at points. Aleph gets shuttled from group to group with little explanation. The transitions are also difficult since it's hard to tell what is actually physically happening versus maybe just some projection or something. There's so much "future" in the town of Laurelwood the line gets blurred between reality and prognostication.
There's a twist akin to , but it isn't nearly as mind-blowing as that. Partially that's due to having the previous as reference, but it also just doesn't make much sense unless space/time works way differently in the world of Test.
I might revisit this series once I catch up with my pile of unread monthly single issues. There's a lot of text to process in Christopher Sebela's story so I'm probably missing some layers. Or maybe I'm just a junkie in search of an addiction, like Aleph Null.
June 24, 2022
One star for art, one for idea...execution is just plain confusing, unfortunately
August 10, 2022
Omnipotent Sentience, techno-organic humanity, addiction driven by loss, a repeated roadtrip all stirred together within an almost stream of consciousness script by Christopher Sebela held together by Jen Hickman's wiry (yes, pun-intended) artwork.
March 24, 2025
I did not get this. The themes and discussions went way over my head.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews