Welsh cartoonist and filmmaker Josh Hicks (Glorious Wrestling Alliance) sends readers on a galactic adventure in his science-fiction graphic novel about a luxury hotel that also happens to be a robotic defense system and spacecraft.
Eighteen-year-old Anna Greene is experiencing her first taste of employment as an intern on the Hotelitor when she and several other entry-level colleagues are forced to fend off an attack from an 80-foot space alien without help from the absent bridge crew. The untrained heroes manage to eliminate the foe but accidentally send Hotelitor blasting into space. As the days (and weeks) pass, the people stranded aboard begin to divide up--the wealthy take over the best spaces and hoard food while the resort's four-armed, green-skinned musician, Klak, becomes a cult leader among the disenfranchised. Anna's supervisor, Graham Smough, explains it simply: "inside this giant robot hotel, we have our own little society. And a society simply cannot function if everyone is equal." Anna and her colleagues must figure out a way to get home, or the problems brewing inside the hotel could mean an unpleasant end for everyone.
On the surface Hotelier is a funny, futuristic caper that moves at warp speed. The deeper the reader goes, though, the more they will find: discussions of class, environment, technology, ambition, greed. The art evokes a clean, classic comic style with minimal detail and exaggerated features that work together to draw attention to the most vital elements in each frame. Hicks blends humor and culture with his art to create a thought-provoking, zany escapade through the outer reaches of space. --Jen Forbus, freelancer