With the Essentials graphic novel campaign live on Kickstarter, the nice folks over at The Lab Press sent us these lovely pages from artist Jason Howard to share with our readers. The Essentials graphic novel is written by Luke Arnold and Doc Wyatt.
Luke Arnold — the novelist and actor of the Emmy-winning Black Sails — and Emmy-nominated writer Chris “Doc” Wyatt (Rocket and Groot) are co-writing an all-new graphic novel, ESSENTIALS. The ambitious 140-page sci-fi epic is the debut offering from THE LAB PRESS, a new graphic novel publisher helmed by founder and CEO Nicholas Kalikow, who is joined by Editor-in-Chief Dagen Walker, Vice President of Business Development Diane Richey, and Chief Creative Officer and partner Mike Zagari.
The original graphic novel features a stunning array of all-star comic artists: DaNi (Sandman The Dreaming), Glenn Fabry (Preacher), Jason Howard (Transformers), Vince Locke (A History of Violence), Brendan McCarthy (Spider-Man: Fever), Andrea Mutti (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), M.K. Perker (Air) and a cover by legendary artist Bill Sienkiewicz (New Mutants). ESSENTIALS features colors by Jordie Bellaire, Brad Simpson and Wesley Wong and lettered by DC Hopkins of AndWorld Design. The book’s design and logo were created by Emma Price (Barnstormers).
“Throughout ESSENTIALS, we travel into the subjective worlds of different characters. These are like mini-universes, born from the mind of people of have become disconnected from reality. It’s been really satisfying to craft each of the worlds in a different genre with its own unique artist and art style. From Vince Locke’s zombie apocalypse to Glen Fabry’s insatiable, world-eating monster, these disparate worlds are held together with Jason Howard’s objective – though still very weird – reality.”– Luke Arnold
“I first worked with Jason on a children’s animated TV series based on a comic book he did with Robert Kirkman called SUPER DINOSAUR, and fell in love with his stuff. He’s so adaptable, but always brings a unique sensibility. I love his stuff in Warren Ellis’ TREES and his own indie book BIG GIRLS, which is amazing.”– Doc Wyatt
In ESSENTIALS, mathematician Harris Pax predicted the end of the world but failed to prevent it. Now he’s living alone in a bunker and his niece’s favorite toys have started talking to him. The good news? He’s not the world’s sole survivor. The bad news? The other survivors are trapped in alternate realities — imprisoned in imagined worlds full of zombies, robots, mythical creatures, and chaos. And now Harris Pax and an unlikely ally must travel the country on a quest to restore reality, save humanity, and defeat his new interdimensional nemesis: Snuggles.
Feel free to check out Essentials on Kickstater.
LUKE ARNOLD began his creative career as an actor, playing iconic roles such as Long John Silver in the Emmy-winning Black Sails, his award-winning turn as Michael Hutchence in the INXS mini-series Never Tear Us Apart, and Martin Scarsden in Scrublands. His first novel The Last Smile in Sunder City was released in 2020, and this has become an ongoing series with the fourth installment of The Fetch Phillips Archives coming soon.
CHRIS “DOC” WYATT is a TV animation writer/producer who has worked on series including Ultimate Spider-Man, Legends of Vox Machina, Marvel’s Avengers Assemble, Star Wars: Resistance, Batman Unlimited, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers: Botbots, and Lego Ninjago: Dragons Rising, among many others. Wyatt produced the cult hit comedy film Napoleon Dynamite and the multi-festival award-winning drama Coyote, and six other indie feature films. He shared an Emmy nomination for the animated project Marvel’s Rocket and Groot.
BILL SIENKIEWICZ (pronounced sin-KEV-ich) is a multi-Eisner Award-winning and Emmy Award-nominated artist known for revamping the style of comic and graphic novel illustration—a feat earning him an international reputation across media industries, as well as entrée into the Eisner Hall of Fame. He is most noted for Marvel’s Elektra: Assassin, Moon Knight, and New Mutants—inspiring FX’s Legion and Disney’s New Mutants—and his acclaimed graphic novel Stray Toasters. He earned two Emmy nominations for his work on the animated series Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Sienkiewicz has also contributed on-set and promotional artwork for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Batman, Dune, Moon Knight series, 2018 Halloween remake, Logan, The Grinch, The Green Mile, and Unforgiven. His work has graced numerous album and book covers, U.S. Olympic campaigns, and museums and galleries across the US, Canada, Europe, and Brazil.
JASON HOWARD is an American comic book artist, best known for co-creating and illustrating the comic book series Trees and Cemetery Beach with writer Warren Ellis and Super Dinosaur and The Astounding Wolf-Man with writer Robert Kirkman. His most recent work is the Image Comics series Big Girls which he both wrote and illustrated.</span
