// June 19th, 2006 // // The Mark of Aeacus
I’ve been trying for ages to get going with a lot of my comics projects, and it seems as good a time as any to dive in. The Northwest Comics website will be the hub for all things comics and Zan, and I’m starting by posting some information about the new book I’m working on with Mark Brill, The Mark of Aeacus.
Mark, whose work you might be familiar with from his Wizards of the Coast work, or his furry book
Rocketship Rodents, is pulling out all the stops to illustrate this book in a fresh, new style, and the initial pages are wonderful. We both have high hopes that readers will find the book provocative, original and fun.
We’ve been working on the book for almost a year, after meeting at the Emerald City ComiCon last April. Aeacus was originally intended as a porn book, but Mark paid me a great compliment by telling me he didn’t want to make it explicit after reading the first issue script, because he thought it was too good to be “just porn.”
The book is rooted in ancient Greek myth, and tells the story of Jack, a young man who is given a mysterious tattoo which grants him extraordinary power. The power does not come without a price, however, and soon Jack finds himself caught in the middle of an age-old rivalry, starting to lose himself in the process.
Although it isn’t an explicit book, there is still an extremely sexual element to the story—think of it as Showtime movie, not a Spice Channel one. The comic dives into issues of sexual confidence and guilt, and is unabashedly, erotically gay (you’ll have to see for yourself how Jack gets the tattoo… Mark outdid himself). We’ve all read comics that draw the not-so-subtle line between a woman’s sexual freedom and how powerful (and dangerous) she becomes; I’m trying to play with that theme while also turning it on its ear. Fans of the X-Men and the Dark Phoenix saga will hopefully enjoy our take on the internal struggle that Jack goes through.
We contributed a preview of issue 1 to Prism Comics’ new anthology Unsafe for All Ages 2, which you can get from the Prism Comics online store.
