Lewis and Clark in 1804. And monsters. I’m with you. Manifest Destiny #1 Written by Chris Dingess Art by Matthew Roberts and Owen Gieni Skybound / Image November 2013 Alternative history is all the rage. Headless TV shows. Vampire hunting presidents. Witch fighting children’s characters. Zombified romance books. It’s fun. A lot of time it’s really cheesy too. But Manifest Deistiny from Skybound and Image looks to be a lot better. Chris Dingess starts our tale with our heroes, some soldiers and some convicts (expendables) on a mission from President Jefferson to travel Northwest. What else the mission is we have only hints in the opening issue. That it deals with finding “creatures” or “monsters” we know, but why and how and to what end we will have to find out. This first issue is compelling and fun and had my attention from the start. The art and colors are vibrant and suitably detailed for all the outdoor scenes and animals. Some really nice use of colors (consider the red, ala the Sixth Sense, in one page) accentuate the adventurous feel. But the art never strays too far from cartoony. No superbuff, serious characters here. A very promising start to the series. Check it out later this month.