Essentials Vol. 1 (The Lab Portable Edition)

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.

Luke Arnold is a novelist, actor, and Emmy-nominated writer. He has played iconic roles such as Long John Silver in the Emmy-winning Black Sails, and has won awards for his role as Michael Hutchence in the INXS mini-series Never Tear Us Apart, and Martin Scarsden in Scrublands. His first novel, The Last Smile in Sunder City, was released in 2020, which led to the Fetch Phillips series, with a fourth title coming soon. He makes his graphic novel debut with ESSENTIALS.

Chris “Doc” Wyatt produced the cult hit comedy film Napoleon Dynamite, the multi-festival award-winning drama Coyote, and six other indie feature films. He shared an Emmy nomination for the animated project Marvel’s Rocket and Groot. He has worked on series including Ultimate Spider-Man, Legends of Vox Machina, Marvel’s Avengers Assembled, Star Wars: Resistance, Batman Unlimited, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers: Botbots, and Lego Ninjago: Dragons Rising.