Yet one other comics shingle has simply been set out: The Lab Press. This one is launching with ESSENTIALS, a SF graphic novel written by novelist/actor Luke Arnold, who and Emmy-winner Chris “Doc” Wyatt (Rocket and Groot). The ebook will launch on Kickstarter.
The team behind The Lab Press contains founder and CEO Nicholas Kalikow, Editor-in-Chief Dagen Walker, Vice President of Business Development Diane Richey, and Chief Creative Officer and accomplice Mike Zagari. Who is Kalikow? According to his Insta, he likes to {photograph} fancy automobiles. He’s additionally a director (Concrete Blonds, Carter and June.)
Mike Zagari is a reputation higher identified within the comics world, which many credit to his identify, together with DC and most just lately, the short-lived AMC Publishing line, which included plans for work by Bill Sienkiewicz, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Kirk Hammett, and Stephen King amongst others.
On art, ESSENTIALS options many acquainted names together with DaNi (Sandman The Dreaming), Glenn Fabry (Preacher), Jason Howard (Transformers), Vince Locke (A History of Violence), Brendan McCarthy (Spider-Man: Fever), Andrea Mutti (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), M.Okay. Perker (Air) and a canopy by Bill Sienkiewicz (New Mutants). Rounding out the team: colorists Jordie Bellaire, Brad Simpson and Wesley Wong; letterer DC Hopkins of AndWorld Design; and design by Emma Price (Barnstormers).
These different artists will every seize one of many realities ESSENTIALS takes place in.
In the press launch, Walker guarantees The Lab Press will likely be the place creators may be “audacious with their wildest ideas, subversive stories and compelling art.”
The Beat was offered with additional insights from the team:
Walker: “The comics and literature that I secretly consumed as a child changed the course of my life so significantly that it seems almost karmic that I would now be in a position to shepherd powerful stories into existence as Editor-in-Chief.”
Richey: “What I love about comics is the partnership between creator and artist, I’m deeply passionate about creating the space that turns extraordinary ideas into reality.Our mission is to empower and uplift creators, we encourage them to fearlessly share their personal stories, it’s in their sincerity that the soul of great storytelling lives.”
Zagari: “I’m proud to collaborate with such amazing people, both on the talent and company side, to create thought-provoking original graphic novels. The Lab’s well established and up-and-coming writers and artists will be creating meaningful stories that need to be told!”
As for the debut venture:
In ESSENTIALS, the world you see round you shouldn’t be actual. It’s a fabrication created for you, by you; constructed from your fears, your hopes, your miseries and your reminiscences. This subjective actuality will quickly devour you utterly after which all humanity will likely be misplaced. But don’t surrender! Disgraced mathematician Harris Pax has teamed up with Buttons (an interdimensional being possessing his niece’s favourite toy) and they’re right here to set you free.
“ESSENTIALS was born out of impossible questions: what matters most in a well-lived life? Is joy more valuable than truth? Does mortality give meaning to our existence? At what point do our perceptions become our reality?” says Arnold, who apart from enjoying a pirate on TV has additionally written the novel The Last Smile in Sunder City, and the continued collection The Fetch Phillips Archives. “We’ve managed to assemble a staggeringly talented group of artists to explore these ideas with us, creating a story that traverses a post-apocalyptic reality, multiple subjective projections, an interdimensional collective consciousness, and the kaleidoscopic labyrinth of our own minds. We wanted to tell a story that could only be fully realized in this medium, and this incredible team has taken it beyond our wildest dreams.”
Co-writer Chris “Doc” Wyatt produced the cult hit comedy movie Napoleon Dynamite and has written all of your favourite cartoons on TV. Of the brand new enterprise he says, “We’re proud to be working with THE LAB PRESS, a company that has given us total creative freedom and total support, even when we say things like – ‘our vision is to switch between seven different artists on this book to do the different realities, and you have to coordinate everything. THE LAB PRESS is all in. They make it happen.”
They are making it occur with a team that additionally contains Editorial Assistant Lindsay Musil, and freelance assist together with Lillian Laserson, John J. Hill, Ryane Lynn Hill, Olivia Ngai, and David Hyde and Dustin Holland of Superfan Promotions.
And there you’ve got it, one other scrappy gang of upstarts (and seasoned professionals) trying to make their mark on this planet of comics. To observe the adventures of THE LAB PRESS and its first Kickstarter, go to them on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and X.
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