It's '80s-indie black-and-white space-opera action as you like it! Presenting Twelve Gems, a graphic novel in the making by cartoonist Lane Milburn of Baltimore's Closed Caption Comics collective. Milburn, a recipient of the Xeric Grant for his self-published action-horror collection Death Trap. calls it "a comedic sci-fi space epic starring three heroic characters enlisted to travel the galaxy in search of twelve magical gems." Judging from the very impressive preview pages -- filled with Heavy Metal hotness and crosshatched and black-spotted to within an inch of their lives -- Milburn's really going for the gusto here. Closed Caption Comics is best known for genre-influenced artcomics in the Fort Thunder/Paper Rodeo mode, but Twelve Gems seems to me to have more in common with the giddy throwback style of Benjamin Marra. I can't wait to see more.