Hey everyone!
In case you missed it, BREATH OF SHADOWS was announced last week - I had meant to post here about it but it was also New York Comic Con, and getting ready for that took up way too much time!
So, what is it?
Breath of Shadows reunites me with Alex Cormack, and Justin Birch, who I did both Sea of Sorrows, and Road of Bones with. If you’re noticing similarities between all those titles, well, that’s on purpose!
It’s the next installment in our “historical horror” series, which for lack of a better term we tend to refer to as our “something of something” trilogy. While the settings and characters are all different, the threads that run between them tie them together into a sort of meditation on war, madness, horror, and human nature.
Breath of Shadows is set in the late 1960s, when an era of peace and love was coexisting with one of the most brutal wars of the century. In the middle of it all, is Jimmy Meadows, internationally acclaimed rock star, and lead singer of The Shades - a group that saw great success in the early 60s but is struggling to find relevance as tastes change.
Speaking of troubles, Jimmy is hopelessly addicted to heroin, and seems to be dedicated to driving his life right off a cliff. His one friend is his manager, Joe Dixon, who tells Jimmy of a rumored miracle cure in the jungles of Central America - discovered by Bill Tarrant, a brilliant novelist and poet of the 1950s, who the world thinks is dead.
With Joe’s help, Jimmy hooks up with an expedition into the jungle to find this miracle drug - but both he and the research team he’s working with are in for way more than they bargained for when they discover where old Bill’s trail really leads!
We’re kicking off issue 1 in Feburary, with a trio of amazing covers, by Alex Cormack, Bjorn Barends, and Francesco Francavilla, which you can see in all their glory right here:
Couldn’t be more excited about this book, and can’t wait to show you more artwork as the release approaches! For now, you can do us a huge favor by letting your comic store know that you’re excited about this series, and want to order a copy when it becomes available! Or just tweet and post about it, we’d love that too!
NYCC
I love going to New York Comic Con, and this year was really special for a lot of reasons. We had the announcement, sure, and I got to see a lot of wonderful people, including fans, friends, and industry folks. But the number one thing was, I felt like
I was “back.”
A lot of you know that I intended to be at this con last year, but on setup day, I wasn’t feeling well, and wound up going to the hospital to get checked out. It turned out that I was suffering from a heart arrythmia, which led to a several day long stay, and meant missing the con entirely. I’m really glad I did that, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling FOMO at the time, and twinges of it ever since.
When I brought all my stuff down last Wednesday, I was kind of nervous - would something happen again? Would I feel sick, or have another episode? I knew I was fine - feeling better than I was that day, and maybe even in years now that the issue had been dealt with. But still, I was anxious.
But I dropped my stuff off without incident, and the next morning, when I walked into Artist Alley to see so many familiar faces at their tables, I was able to walk to mine feeling really happy, and proud - I made it another year, turned my health around, and was ready for a great convention. And believe me, I had one.
I even got a chance to bring my boys down to the show, which was really special and awesome. We walked around AA, and the main floor, and they got a little taste of the crazy comics world I’m so happy to be a part of.
You’ll see the fruits of what went down, business-wise, at the con over the coming months as I announce work on new projects, but believe me, it was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.
October Surprise
It’s spooky season, and the next newsletter is going to have a surprise announcement of a really fun project I completed earlier in the year, to help usher in Halloween with some characters I absolutely adore! Keep your eyes peeled, folks.
Thanks so much for reading, and talk to you soon!
Rich
Love the update - the concept for "Breath of Shadows" is sick! The era everyone associates with peace and love is such a ripe time period for horror.