Well, C2E2 has come and gone. I had a blast, but honestly, if you can not have fun at C2E2 then there may be something wrong with you. Besides seeing many people I always enjoy seeing, I met many new (to me at least) writers and artists and picked up so many books that may not be readily available to me in my LCBS. Over the next couple weeks and I am going to go over the books that I thought were the best of the best.
I am going to start with a book called Liberty: Deception. This book premiered at C2E2 with it’s zero issue. When I walked by the table where they writer and his posse were set up, it was clear to see that they were very excited about their book. Yes, most writers and artists are excited about their books, it’s something they birthed out of themselves and are trying to share with the world. But all three days, all three people at the table (who were adorably always standing in order of height and did not even realize it until I pointed it out) were on their game, smiles on their faces.
One of the people manning the table was the writer and story creator, Travis Vengroff. He was kind enough to spare a few minutes to talk to me about his book, which is a post-apocalyptic tale about clans of people who live in the Fringe (the outskirts of society), oh, and are cannibals.
Before I get to what Travis and I talked about, let me tell you a little about the book. Zero issue follows a clan called the Conways. They are a group of people who make their money selling guns and ammo to other gangs. The head of the clan seems to be Claw, although I am not sure an actual head exists, he is probably just the one who is willing to take the most risks. The group (also consisting of Gust, Will, and Liv) are going over how they got screwed over on their last job and how they are going to get food and water. Claw decides they should do business with another gang, and while it is a risky venture, it’s better than nothing. The end of the book covers the encounter between the to gangs, which I am not going to give the ending away to, but I will say that you find out quickly who you would not want to mess with this this land/time.
Travis writes and intriguing story, and he found the perfect artist to visualize his tale. Casey Bailey, and artist out of New Zealand, has a clean style with amazing attention to detail. I am actually very surprised that I have never seen anything by Casey before, that is how good it is. The pane layout is interesting, with the use of large gutters and minimal panels per page. Many pages have art that exists outside panel, and bleeds on to the page to give the edges a painted effect. This style definitely helps draw your eye through the story. The coloring in this book is also on point, with nothing too bright (to give you that apocalyptic feel) and incredibly good at giving you a feel of the time of day. All in all, this book is definitely worth a read. It is a short read, but I would imagine that the zero issue was meant to be an appetizer to the full story that will be coming.
I asked Travis how he came up with the idea for this story and found out that the story is based on a campaign he created for a D&D game. After the game was over, he was still interested in what was happening in this world he created and wanted to keep taking it forward. Now, I have only delved in to the world of Dungeons and Dragons a handful of times, but I could definitely see how this story would make for a cool game.
One thing that I found very interesting about this book was that it has a scripted podcast that goes along with it. The podcast, which can be found at www.NerdyShow.com/Liberty , is released every other Tuesday and occurs before the events in the book. This means than you can get an insight in to the world, introduces characters that you will see in the book, and get a better understanding of the overall story. I love when art spans across mediums, and it shows how invested Travis is in the creation of this world.
There is currently a Kickstarter campaign in progress for Volume 1 of this book. You have until 4pm on April 24th to back this project. There are many rewards available based on your pledge level, including being drawn in to the comic or being involve in creating a character that gets at least one line of dialogue. I highly suggest you head over to Kickstarter and throw some money at this project.
You can find out more about the book at www.TheLibertyComic.com
Oh, and Travis suggests that you pair this book with your favorite whiskey. It will get you in the right frame of mind for the happenings of this book. I think it is because whiskey is probably good for washing the taste of people out of your mouth.
Cheers!
-Linz