Protean Masks, a Five Issue Comic Book Series in Search of a Publisher

Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: pitch, Protean Masks

Protean Masks, a five issue comic book series in search of a publisher by Joshua Spiller, Kishore Mohan and Tom Napolitano.

Article Summary

Protean Masks is a 5-issue comic series seeking a publisher at Thought Bubble festival.
Story combines Memento-style mystery with high fantasy and geopolitical intrigue.
Features two protagonists on a quest to cure a magic plague in a high-fantasy world.
Created by Joshua Spiller, Kishore Mohan, and Tom Napolitano, spanning three countries.

With Thought Bubble kicking off in Harrogate this weekend, there are a lot of new comic book projects bubbling to the surface looking for a home. One is Protean Masks, written by Joshua Spiller of Aces Weekly, with art by Kishore Mohan of The Indian Express and lettering by Tom Napolitano. They have put a pitch together and are looking for a publisher. And Bleeding Cool can exclusively share with you the finished comic pages made for that pitch – see below. It’s some impressive eye-candy…

“A proposed 5-issue miniseries – whose logo on the cover above is just a placeholder – the story concerns, “A Memento-esque identity mystery, but with this mystery applied to a whole high-fantasy society”.

“Blending high fantasy with the kind of geopolitical intrigue often found in real-world conspiracy thrillers, the story focuses on two protagonists – the intimidating and nomadic Yennesh, and the amnesiac Anu’u – as they try to discover the cure for a magic plague that has left Anu’u, and the rest of his society, with eyeless and noseless faces, and with no memory of who they are. Overnight, their cultural identity was obliterated.

“We’re trying to make a gripping, imaginative page-turner which is also thought-provoking, and has the kind of grand, larger-than-life canvas that fantasy can do so well,” Spiller says. Aimed at teenagers and above, the miniseries – if it appeared on Netflix – would probably be summarised by the three tags, Quest, High-Fantasy, and Mystery. As for the creative team, it’s an international one, with Spiller living in London, Mohan in India, and Napolitano in America.

“Obviously, things like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones have established a huge audience for fantasy, and hopefully this miniseries – just through its design and general vibe – will appeal to a lot of those people,” Spiller adds. “But it’s also definitely trying to be its own beast, and I at least have never experienced another story quite like it. We’ve been refining this pitch for some time, and along with the six pages of finished art, we’ve got a 1-page pitch, a detailed synopsis of the whole series, and the complete script for Issue 1. Now, it’s exciting to get this stuff out into the world and see what the response is.”

The recently completed pitch is looking for a publisher. For any interested parties, email [email protected]. Might want to move quickly though…

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