Hey there!
What? I’m still alive?
Indeed I am. Believe me, there were certainly some points the last few years where that almost wasn’t the case. Life away from the keyboard as been… a lot. Which is why S17 went on hiatus. But we’re back! Sort of? Kind of. In the process. Yes, that’s it. We are working away on new things, and some old things, and some very different things. Not just comic books. (We’ll get to talking about that at some point but not today.)
So.
Oh, yes, why are we here again? Right! To talk about one of the aforementioned “new” things: Metal Monk: Heavy Metal Kung Fu. Or Metal Monk: Kung Fu Heavy Metal. We’re still debating the title. Ok, I’m debating the title but by the time it comes out, it’ll be we. Who is this we, you ask? (If not, I just did for you, you’re welcome!) That would be myself and Colin Work, the artist for this new comic book series.
What IS Metal Monk?
First off- what’s with all these questions? Secondly, it’s a script I wrote at lest 5 years ago and had, at one point, been going to produce in partnership with another comic book studio but life happened and they weren’t able to wrangle the artist that they’d hoped to bring in. That’s where Colin come in. I’ve known Colin for a few years now and have watched his talents develop both on his own series, Blackthorne (from Primal Studios) and Jeff Burton’s Auroraman series (which features art from Canadian Corps artists and an origin story co-written by yours truly) and after finding out about his passion for high action comics and heavy metal music… Well, it was the series I knew we had to work on together. Colin had very kindly offered to do whatever he could when S17/myself was on a hiatus and now that things are (fingers crossed) starting to turn around (in some respects) I’m more than happy to take my comics-making brother up on his offer to collaborate.
Metal Monk is what you get if you were to take the old Kung Fu tv series (or the Legend Continues…) and throw it in a post-apocalyptic fictional future China… but with heavy metal undertones. This first chapter (because that’s how this series is being done- in installments) is twelve pages and most likely the remaining chapters will all be around the same length. Colin has already done pencils & inks for a large portion of it and we decided that keeping it a greyshaded comic worked best with the material. While not “adult” it is more… “metal” than the rest of the S17 books.
Colin and I are both excited to get this out to you wonderful readers, sometime in 2021 (because everything seems on-pause these days). And more things are in the works, so stay tuned. Thanks again for taking the time to stop by. Stay safe and read comics!
Andrew