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DRAMATIC FANTASY FICTION FEATURING CHARACTERS OF COLOR FROM STRANGER COMICS
Top Cow Talent Hunt Winner Joins Publisher In Bold Initiative
LOS ANGELES — Bucking the tradition of fantasy storytelling as a world without color, Stranger Comics is set to release Dusu: Path of the Ancient, a comic focusing on a tribe of Galemren, black elves who inhabit the fantasy world of Asunda. Having recently finished the children’s book I Am Mixed with Haitian born actress Garcelle Beauvais (Flight, NYPD Blue). Stranger head Sebastian A. Jones, illustrator James C. Webster, and layout artist Darrell May prove the diversity of their talent with this beautifully brutal book. Co-written by Jones and newcomer Christopher Garner, the book explores themes of race and identity in a genre that typically avoids such topics. Meanwhile, Webster has rendered the violence in such stylized detail, anyone familiar with his children’s illustrations may be doubtful it is the same stylus behind each work. Webster is currently finishing issue three and will turn in four issues, in total, with the first installment available April 17th for FREE download via iBooks, Kindle, and Nook. Links to each will be available HERE
At the same time, Stranger is announcing a series of prose e-books collectively called The Asunda Grimoires that will be launched by two-time Eisner-winning journalist and Top Cow Talent Hunt Winner Hannibal Tabu. The books will be full length novels but with chapters released in serialized installments with the intention of eventual collection. Releases will be biweekly beginning July 28th with Tabu’s Waso: Will to Power which will focus on one of the characters from Dusu.
Three additional prose series are currently planned for release in the weeks after Tabu’s launch. Two will come from the mind of Jones, the creator of Asunda who introduced readers to his world with The Untamed, a dark tale of revenge which is currently being adapted by Watchmen and Hellboy producer Lloyd Levin. Jones will take on Niobe, a half Galemren character from The Untamed, in a tale set years after the events of that book. He will concurrently write the tale of Skarlok, Niobe’s ally and lover and also the most deadly assassin on the face of Asunda.
The fourth entry in the Grimoires will come from Stranger editor Joshua Cozine and will introduce readers to Essessa, a character rooted in the history of Asunda who will have a dramatic impact on the world’s present.
Several short stories and teasers of Asunda Grimoire content are already available on the COMPANY’S WEBSITE, including a teaser of Niobe and a short series written by Tabu on a character named Fichiki.
ABOUT THE BOOKS
Dusu: Path of the Ancient is a rousing pulp adventure in the vein of Edgar Rice Burroughs, positing an orphaned human adopted by a tribe Galemren living in the lush jungles of Asunda’s Ujoa region. Despite having skin as dark as his “brethren,” Dusu is an outcast who must discover what destiny has in store for him, because while he is not Galemren, neither is he entirely human. He is on the Path to something more.
Set in the same Ujoan jungles, Tabu’s Waso: Will To Power takes place after the events of Dusu. Waso, Dusu’s “brother,” inherits leadership of the tribe due to tragedy. He must keep the survivors of his people alive in a world increasingly hostile to their traditional ways. Far too young for the responsibility but with the brashness and arrogance of youth, Waso sets out to restore and surpass his tribe’s former glory.
Niobe: Dawn Light is the dramatic journey of a girl on a path to discover her heritage in the underbelly of her enemy’s kingdom. First seen in Jones and Peter Bergting’s The Untamed as a young orphan girl, she was raised by a killer on a path of vengeance. In Dawn Light, Niobe is older and in new company. But Buxton Stonebeard is just as deadly as the unnamed killer who raised her, and the dwarf is on the edge of losing his mind.
Following Dawn Light, Jones will weave another player into the saga of Niobe, but with his own brutal tale, Skarlok: Two Hearts. First introduced in the comic Silver Blood, Skarlok is a ruthless assassin and the bane of humankind. Skarlok, King of the Silver Elves, has arrived in Asarra Bay. His quest: to enter a prison that has long held his people in captivity and to free the one enemy he has come to love…
A dark and bloody trail is left wherever she walks. Essessa is one of the first and most deadly of the Vorkas, the devil’s undead disciples, and she is on the hunt for a traitor and the young half elven girl he protects. But she was not always this way. Once, many centuries ago, Essessa was a warrior pure of spirit and body. In Essessa: Blue Veins, we will see how falling in love led to a fall from grace at the cost of two immortal souls.
THE CREATORS SAY
“I’ve been a dungeon master and a role player, read Feist, Salvatore and Tolkien and a good few in between,” said Jones. “I am of mixed heritage, and in all my reading, aside from the Drow (who were, of course, almost entirely evil), I didn’t really feel that there was a strong representation of people, especially heroes, who looked like me, people who looked like my son or many of my friends. Part of my creative vision is a fantasy universe where that feeling doesn’t exist; a fantasy world that has the cultural diversity and authenticity of this world. Hopefully ALL readers will find something they can identify with in my world, but this isn’t a simple, feel good, one dimensional fairy tale of roses and airbrushed asses. It will remain honest, savage, beautiful and epic. It is – as we say – a vast and volatile world.”
Tabu agreed. “When I was playing text based MUD games in the 1990s, there was always so much surprise when other players would read my character description and realize that I was Black, like it was an oddity. I’ve worked with people like Stranger Comics, like Atlanta’s MV Media, and discovered not only other creative people who are interested in adventures and legendary tales involving people of color, but a good number of readers and fans too. I’m happy to have another opportunity to tell stories from my perspective, especially alongside talent like this.”
Cozine adds, “The world of Asunda and the people who inhabit it are indeed diverse and complex. I’ve been a part of the Asunda universe through games and comic development for six years, and I still feel like I’m discovering new parts of it and meeting new characters on almost a daily basis. But even a brutal and gritty world like Asunda needs one character that can strike fear into the hearts of its hardened inhabitants. And a complex hero like Niobe needs an equally complex adversary. Only Essessa could fill those needs. When killers whisper hushed tales around the fire, hers is the name they hesitate to speak. But as is often the case with such characters, there is a long descent from the light into the dark. I am very excited to bring her bloody flair to this visceral world, wrapped around the tragic story of her youth, a story that would forever change Asunda. It’s one that beckons to be heard, and I can’t wait for fans to sink their teeth into it.”
About Stranger Comics
Located in Los Angeles, Stranger Comics is an incubator and aggregator of content, developing and designing franchises for multi-media platforms. Its guiding philosophy is that of quality, and that the idea is king, and the story is sacred. From the vast and volatile fantasy world of Asunda to the literary climes of Lloyd Levin’s Foundry Comics and the wide-eyed whimsy of Stranger Kids, Stranger strives for excellence in production as well as presentation.
For more info or to connect with Stranger Comics, please visit:
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Image assets for Dusu: Path of the Ancient can be found at:
http://pinterest.com/strangercomics/dusu-path-of-the-ancient-1/
Image assets for The Asunda Grimoires can be found at:
http://pinterest.com/strangercomics/asunda-grimoires/
Image assets for I Am Mixed can be found at:
http://pinterest.com/strangercomics/the-i-am-series/
