From the creative team Shofela and Shobo Coker comes ‘Outcasts Of Jupiter.’ Alex Yarde is intrigued.
Outcasts of Jupiter is science fiction & fantasy comic book in the vein of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s John Carter and Conan The Barbarian epics, The titular Outcasts are a quartet of super powered vagabonds deemed persona non grata on most civilized worlds, bound by a common purpose – the promise of roaming the fringes of an untamed and wild galaxy, identifying unique, challenging assignments.
A thousand years into the future, Jupiter has replaced Earth as crown jewel of the Sol System, a hub of interstellar trade, commerce and the seat of politics. Catastrophic quakes and natural disasters have devastated our home world wreaking havoc on civilization. Our planet is now a harbor for outlaws, gangsters and vagrants. We meet Stein, Sulesh and Denarii in the middle of attempting a jailbreak. The reasons for Persio’s abduction become clearer over the course of the comic’s run, but it’s up to the team to get him out of the Burj, a mysterious tower located in the courtyard of a heavily fortified cliff top palace. The first issue focuses almost entirely on the rescue attempt and gives readers an idea of the tense and fragile political landscape of the City of Seven faces, a web of deception and intrigue in which the Outcasts find themselves entangled over the course of the rescue.
The talented creative team of siblings in some ways mirrors the eclectic group of intrepid space travelers themselves. Shobo is a Philippines based marketing consultant and freelance writer and illustrator. He writes the Outcasts of Jupiter comic book. Shofela is a California based artist for Benthos Studios, Activision and Sony Online Entertainment, with credits for work on Tony Hawk, Planet side and EverQuest game series. He’s handling all 2D & 3D artwork. Funlola is a sculptor and a metal smith, she’s not directly involved with the comic itself, but she’s making the ray gun pins you can see on the Kickstarter page as well as the awesome, one of a kind sculpted bust of Sulesh offered in the highest reward tier.
As Shobo relates: “We grew up with a lot of the same artistic and literary influences in Lagos, Nigeria (both our parents are also artists). It wasn’t uncommon to go without power for days back then, so we entertained each other and our parents by reading books aloud, acting them out and putting on voices. Now that we’re grown up and live in different parts of the world, we want to tell stories with a strong moral fiber and thematic resonance, stories full of wonder, with diverse characters and cultures. Nigeria and Africa in general get a bad wrap, you rarely hear anything good about the country and continent in the news, and from a really young age we’ve been on a personal mission to do something, no matter how small to help change that perception, and to give young African kids heroes and stories that they can be proud of. Outcasts is us coming together take a stab at that.”
I’m a huge supporter of indie comics. Fresh IP with great stories featuring a diverse cast is a no brainer! You can contribute to the Outcasts of Jupiter Kickstarter campaign here I am excited by this talented family of storytellers and look forward to issue one of Outcasts of Jupiter!
all art -cokercoop