BACK TO ABADDON: BLAYLOCK ON WARSTONE: ABADDON INVADES

[MattBrady]

by Ryan McLelland

Quick on the heels of their fantasy-themed Kore, Devil’s Due Productions is launching back into the worlds of elves, wizards, and dragons with April’s Warstone: Abaddon Invades. As the mystical creatures of the world Abaddon wonder what options they have left after depleting their entire world’s magic, an evil sorcerer looks to a world that is still ripe with magic: Earth.

The 48-page one-shot is the brainchild of Devil’s Due president and writer Joshua Blaylock. Teamed with penciller Matt Cossin, a tale is spun about an alliance of human mages and fantasy beings who need to find Dylan Forester, a half elf, half human, who is the only person capable of wielding the legendary Warstone.

Those familiar with Devil’s Due’s Kore series might recognize the world of Abaddon, but Blaylock quickly pointed out, “This story focuses more on the pure concept that Kore revolved around - a Middle Earth, Dungeons and Dragons kind of fantastical world where suddenly, magic ‘dried up,’ and the various races populating the lands were forced to live together just like us. With that comes wars, political shifts, and changes it would entail.

“These beings know of Earth,” Blaylock continued. “And rather than discuss alternative power sources for the now ‘magicless’ world, one leader, a decrepit Ogre named Asmodeus, decides it's much easier to simply conquer us. Our bodies aren't naturally attuned to use magic like Elves, Ogres, and Sprites. The ‘U.N.’ of Abaddon doesn't favor the invasion, but unless proof of a better alternative arises, they're not going to stop him.”

Blaylock continued on the plot, “Our hero, Dylan Forester, is a quiet guy who spent his childhood in orphanages. He had a knack for science, enjoying the order it brought to his chaotic life. Ironically, Dylan discovers that he's the long lost son of Briah Greenstone, a brilliant elvin scientist of magic, who almost found a way to solve the magical crisis on Abaddon, before he and his human wife were mysteriously killed. I guess you could say it's sort of a Jor-El Kryptonian plea to the council.”

Dylan finds out about his heritage when he finds himself under the attack of some hideous, alien creatures, which turn out to be ogres and goblins from Abaddon. He’s saved by a team of bizarre people with magical powers, who introduce him to Cerberus, a hi-tech secret task force that has been monitoring the rifts between Abaddon and Earth for centuries. As Dylan learns more about who he is and the magical powers he has inside, Dylan also finds out that he is the one who can wield the mighty Warstone. But what exactly is this legendary Warstone?

“The WarStone,” Blaylock explained. “Is a jewel comprised of Rift-Matter, the weird substance people sometimes track with them when crossing through the magical divide that separates our parallel dimensions. It's usually in smaller pieces, but this is the largest of its kind, and could theoretically be used to restore magic to Abaddon.”

So what exactly is the difference between Kore and WarStone if they share the same world? “Kore was always about Abaddon,” Blaylock said. “Alex Crane, who becomes this giant monster, was supposed to be the reader's eyes into this strange new world - but I don't think we delved into just how cool this concept was until a little too late because so much of the story focusing on Alex, his girlfriend, and the evil wizard, Archean.

”WarStone moves a lot faster than that,” Blaylock continued. “It throws you right into the deep end without a life jacket. The fact that we're introduced to a team who fights to keep our worlds from crossing over compels the story to deliver what this book should be all about. You'll find out that many myths throughout our world were directly linked to where the rifts fell on Earth. Europe had a nasty influx of dragons, for example, in the first millennium A.D. China had a much more pleasant experience, and the dragons they encountered were more intelligent creatures that lived among elves. Asian heritage is highly connected to Elvin culture in this series.”

Blaylock also noted that you didn’t have to read Kore to get what’s going in this one-shot, “WarStone is a fresh start for any reader. I don't want to burden potential new fans with the continuity of another series, but if you read Kore, you'll definitely get a couple of Easter eggs. If anything that's the focus of WarStone, introducing the world of Abaddon in a whole new way. I have plans for Kore down the line, but not just yet.”

A big fan of fantasy, Blaylock has decided to take the genre up a notch, trying to mesh the ways of the old with a bit of the modern day flair, “I've always liked fantasy, but the traditional stories have been done for decades, and by writers better than me. I'm really interested in twisting it around and seeing what happens if you give it a modern twist. Hi-tech CIA spooks who use slick looking oracle pools rather than video screens to spy on people; black-ops fairies that make the perfect spies; wizards who wear Armani and cruise NYC in limos rather than in tattered robes on a horse; that kind of stuff.”

While fantasy certainly works on the big screen fantasy-themed comics can sometimes be a hard sell, something Blaylock acknowledged, “Fantasy is definitely a hard sale. To pull it off you either need something that already has a large fan base, or something that shakes up the genre. This is to fantasy what Ultimates or Watchmen are to superheroes, at the risk of daring to compare it to those books. WarStone is post-modern fantasy with a super hero feel.”

Those interested in the backstory of Abaddon can check out the Kore trade paperback when it’s released in February, while WarStone: Abaddon Invades will wreck its havoc when it hits stores in April.

[FIG]

That second drawing, the one drawn in pencil, looks like somebody watched Blade 2 and simply put wings on one of the vampire commandos that invades Blades hideout. Aside from that, those are some stunning sequential pages by Matt Cossin who puts out some great work. I see some Joshua Middleton influence in there and am now looking forward to buying this futuristic fantasy book.

[Strike]

Read Kore. Liked it. Buying this.

[OcCaM]

Hmmm I've never gotten anything from Devil's Due before, but the concept sounds intriguing. Besides the story, the artwork is a nice cartoonyish European looking style to my eyes. Plus, I'm gearing away from comics for the most part and prestige type formats still stack well on the bookshelf. Hey, throw in the color and not the b/w that a lot of the Image prestige books seem to be doing and do it all for $4.95 for 48 pages and this cheapskate is sold!

See ya' in April!

[RotSman]

I'm a little bit fed up with DD right now...after buying (and enjoying) Kore #1, I decided to get #2. The next issue that came out had a different cover and wasn't clearly marked by issue number, so I grabbed it. It was a reprint of #1.

I've made that mistake in the past (albeit rarely, and during the multi-cover craze of the early-90s), so I shrugged it off. A few months later I saw another issue of Kore and bought it.

I now have three copies of Kore #1. It was okay, but not enough to buy three copies of! Therefore, I'm inclined to bypass any further Devil's Due products, since it seems there's a good chance that it will just be something I've already bought but with a slightly different and improperly labeled cover.

Matt
http://www.infiniteplayground.com

[Josh Blaylock]

I'm sorry to hear about your confusion, RotSman. It's rare that I reply to a post like this, but I want to make sure and clear things up, and hopefully you'll feel different.

We were actually prepared SO far in advance for that book, that retailers received copies 2 months before it came out as promotion - the same month they were ordering their June books. MANY of them simply put this up on the shelves - that was April.

So in JUNE, the book was finally released, with two covers, seen here. http://www.devilsdue.net/korecvrs/Kore.jpg


Then, the next month, right on schedule, came issue 2, seen here. http://www.devilsdue.net/korecvrs/Kore_02.jpg


Just FYI, issue one was the only one with two covers, and there are 5 in total.

Regardless, Abaddon is completely stand alone from Kore, and I hope a lot of fresh faces check it out.

[RotSman]

I appreciate the gesture, Mr. Blaylock. I don't have any problem with the quality of DD products. I have been collecting the Voltron books and I'm likely to start on Dragonlance as soon as I can get a copy.

I haven't boycotted any comic company since that whole "Heroes World" debacle in the 90s, and certainly not over a minor annoyance!

Matt
http://www.infiniteplayground.com

[AnadArt]

Warstone sounds just like the stories Chaos Punks and Fairhaven by writer Brian Babyok combined. He had his books for sale at comic conventions over a year or more ago.

I think you can pick them up at Strumhuas.com to see the similarities.

[Cmdr_Y]

I really dug the Kore series -- I was really hoping that was an on-going title, but the powers that be deemed otherwise I suppose...

Anyway, I'm really looking forward WarStone. The character sketch for the Black Ops Fairy is awesome. I like the original and creative treatment of fairies and other magical creatures we saw in Kore and will apparently see again in WarStone.

And... I don't know why I cap the S in WarStone, but it was just out of habit for some reason. I kind of like the way it looks - so I'm not correcting it! :P

Thanks Josh for the great books, and cheers to many more!