In this review of Innards #1, Roy’s taken on a dangerous new job, and meets some interesting coworkers.
Innards #1
Writer: Rob Guillory
Art and Main Cover: Sam Lotfi
Variant Covers: Rob Guillory, Mike Huddleston
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: May 13, 2026
This review contains spoilers
After Roy learns that his wife is having a girl, he takes a moment to process. It’s during that time that we get a bit of this world’s history: nukes had come down, oil reserves were wiped out, and Onis had been established to mine for alternative energy.
During his first jump, he’s warned that it can get weird. But also, Roy recalls having had a lifelong fear of the dark. Once in the mines, he’s starting to wonder about one of his coworkers, Boo, who’d lost a partner down there, and seems rather at home in the mines.
The darkness sends Roy into a panic attack and he rushes off, nearly falls, and is saved by Boo.
It seems Boo knows a bit about these mines, finding a stash of the Lucifium they’ve been searching for fairly quickly, putting a ring around the empty hole…
Roy’s uncertain about the job, still, but the payments to Maddie have been getting through. He tells her that some of his coworkers are fairly normal, his boss is rather passionate, but Boo…that guy confuses him.
Another day on the job, Boo finds his old partner Jordie, who’d been stated earlier to be dead…
So this time, we’re dealing with a post-nuclear event that’s wiped out the Earth’s oil reserves. On the one hand, that might raise questions about using solar or wind power…but on the other, the fact that there were actual nukes involved may make anything else unviable. Bombing oil refineries can utterly ruin the area’s environment, so mining for another resource makes sense.
The mining job itself is described multiple times as a rough gig, the sort of thing where the money and perks need to be as good as they are to have even a snowball’s chance in Hell of getting any applicants whatsoever. And even then, they don’t tend to get a lot of them. The job may be worth a lot…but it takes even more than it pays.
I’m especially enjoying the character art in this story so far. The facial expressions in particular are so full of life. It helps to really push home Roy’s utter fear of the darkness, or his girlfriend’s absolute joy when it comes to their future.
The whole vibe of Innards #1 reminds me of a late-90s sci-fi/horror movie. You know things are going to get weird and horrifying, but at the same time, there’re those little moments of humor that come up. It’s a natural sort of thing, as well, just stemming from the characters themselves.
Like here, we witness the teleportation process to get to the mines. Teleportation in sci-fi can always have strange effects, like with Etta’s traveling mole and it can mess with someone’s stomach. “Someone”, here, being Buck. The jumps make him sick each time, without fail. It’s a frequent enough occurrence that not only is there a bucket on hand for him, but it’s personalized.
Boo is an intriguing character, to say the least. It’s curious just how much he knows about the mines themselves. He can find the Lucifium without issue, leaves rings of Lucy dust around the empty holes, and feels at home there. But looking back at the cold open, he seemed quite intent on not letting Jordie leave the mines. Jordie had been so excited about leaving the job after that jump, so that vacancy would have been there, anyway. But Boo ensured he wouldn’t leave. And he’d gone with the official story of “fell in a hole”.
Is Boo human, or is he some variety of subterranian humanoid? What draws him to the Lucifium?
And speaking of the “is he human?” question…did Jordie somehow survive? Or is he some kind of reanimated corpse due to something in the mines?
Final Thoughts
Expressive artwork and a classic sci-fi feel make Innards #1 an entertaining ride. It’s a strong debut, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the mines (and Boo) are hiding.
