CHRISTOPHER E. LONG ON BLACKFOOT BRAVES SOCIETY

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

Komikwerk’s line of illustrated novels is set to debut this month with Dan Mishkin and Tom Mandrake’s The Forest King, and Adam Beechen and Dan Hipp’s What I Did On My Hypergalactic Interstellar Summer Vacation.

However, the line keeps on expanding and in September, writer Christopher E. Long (Easy Way, X-Men Unlimited and artist Michael Geiger (artist for video game shops such as EIDOS, Ubisoft and Sony) present Blackfoot Braves Society: Spirit Totems. According to Long, it is “a story about Jackson Brady, a young boy who has lived a very privileged life as the son of a wealthy businessman. In an attempt to shed the confines of his elite upbringing, he talks his father into allowing him to spend his vacation at the Blackfoot Braves Society summer camp, which is located at the base of Granite Mountain in Montana. Once there, he quickly befriends two other outcasts, Austin and Mazzy, and they soon discover that they’ve gotten more than they bargained for with their summer vacation. Seeking shelter from a storm in a cave, they encounter a Ghost Shaman who teaches them to unleash their own animal spirit. It’s a good thing, too, because they’ll need those powers to fight a monstrous force that thirsts for revenge against humanity.”

Long has written a handful of short stories in the past. “[b]ut I’ve tended to shy away from writing prose,” he said. “I stumbled across a man wearing a cowboy hat at the Komikwerks’ booth and struck up a conversation with him. This turned out to none other than [Komikwerks’ co-founder] Shannon Denton. In a shrewd deal, I gave him a copy of the first issue of my, at the time, recently released comic Easy Way in exchange for a copy of his recently released Komikwerks Presents: Thrills & Chills. Apparently Shannon enjoyed my book, because I got a call from him a short time later asking if I’d like to write a children’s novel for Actionopolis.

“When Shannon [Denton] and Patrick [Coyle] offered me the opportunity to work on this project, I wasn’t about to say no. Blackfoot Braves Society is something that I would’ve enjoyed reading when I was a child. While in elementary school, I was always a below-average reader because I hated reading. But I soon discovered fun and imaginative books by writers like Jim Kjelgaard, Walter Farley and Donald J. Sobol, and that made all the difference.

“This is the kind of book I would’ve devoured when I was younger, and I’m hoping it will be something that will encourage children to read,” he stressed again. “I have a 14-month-old son, and, when he learns how to read, I would like to be able to give him something I’ve written and not have to wait until he’s 18. I have fond memories of my father reading stories to me as a child before going to bed, and I truly hope that I’ve written a book that will become a staple of bedtime stories,” he said, adding once again that he set out to “write something that might get a child who hates to read to sit down and read this book.

“As a comic reader myself, I’m pretty finicky about all aspects of a story – characterization, conflict, dialogue, etc. And, assuming I’ve done my job, Blackfoot Braves Society will give the reader a well-packaged story – an underdog character you’ll want to root for, an ancient evil hell-bent on destroying humanity – and Michael brings it all together with fantastic illustrations!”

Blackfoot Braves Society: Spirit Totems is now available for pre-order in the July Diamond Previews catalog (listed under Komikwerks) and will be hitting stores in September.

For more information and to read a preview chapter of the book, click here.

Related articles:
REED ON SPIRIT OF THE SAMURAI

ROB WORLEY & MIKE DUBISCH ON HEIR TO FIRE

ADAM BEECHEN ON HIS HYPERGALACTIC INTERSTELLAR SUMMER VACATION

DAN MISHKIN ON THE FOREST KING

[NightRiver]

Wow. Looks really cool, that preview chapter was good, im gonna have to pick this up.