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Description: Presenting the very first original graphic novel from The Lab Press, now in The Lab Portable™ Edition! Adapted from the previously published premium hardcover slipcase edition, The Lab Portable™ Edition offers this complete, unabridged graphic novel in a smaller, paperback format—the same acclaimed story and artwork, now more accessible than ever. The Lab Press's debut publication, Essentials Vol. 1 won the IBPA's Bill Fisher Award for Best First Book, along with several other indie publishing honors. Printed Word Reviews called it "a mission statement for what high-tier independent comics can achieve," while Kirkus Reviews praised it as "a lively and richly entertaining adventure into alternate realities." In a world shaped by human minds, the greatest threat is what we refuse to face. Earth has collided with an alien dimension. Reality is no longer stable—it fractures, reshapes, and bends to the minds of the few survivors left behind. Essentials Vol. 1 follows scientist Harris Pax as he navigates a world where human thought creates entire realities, and survival depends on confronting the illusions people build to avoid the truth. With the help of two alien "guides"—Buttons, inhabiting a dead woman's body, and Cog, trapped in a toy robot—Harris races to find survivors before the same forces that shaped their worlds destroy them. Blending large-scale science fiction with psychological and philosophical stakes, Essentials explores what remains of identity, truth, and meaning when reality itself can no longer be trusted. Glenn Fabry, Jason Howard, Vince Locke, DaNi, Andrea Mutti, and M.K. Perker

Written by: Erica Schultz
Artist by: Various
Cover Artist by: Carlo Barberi