| "In this new venture, de Pierres has created something special, with a heroine that is already shaping up to be not just tough, but interesting on many levels. I look forward to following Virgin’s adventures in future issues.” |
| -- Tehani Wessely, Asif. |
ABOUT
PEACEMAKER:Peacemaker is the new scifi/fantasy series featuring protagonists Virgin Jackson and Nate Sixkiller. Peacemaker combines elements of the Western genre in an Urban Fantasy setting. It also features the clash of different law cultures – ranger vs cowboy.
Virgin Jackson is the senior ranger in Birrimun (Big) Park, a huge natural landscape reserve in the middle of a sprawling coastal megacity. The park has been created to preserve Australia’s changing natural habitat, and to bring tourism to an over-urbanised world. Though the landscape is Australian, the tone of the park is all American West, complete with the Western Quarter saloons on the edge of the Park precinct.
Virgin’s duties are to maintain public safety and order in the park, but Parks Southern have brought out a hotshot cowboy from the US to help her catch some drug runners who’re affecting tourism. Virgin senses her boss is holding something back from her, and isn’t keen on working with an outsider, especially one as laconic and old fashioned as Nate Sixkiller.
When she sees an imaginary animal (a wedge tail eagle she calls Aquila) that hasn’t been around since she was a troubled teenager, Virgin knows its re-appearance means one of two things: a breakdown (hers!) or a warning. Dead bodies start piling up around her and Nate, so she goes for the latter. Something terrible is about to happen in the park and it’s not altogether ‘earthly’.
Issue #1 available NOW.
Meet Virgin Jackson...
THE MAKING OF:
Marianne says:
I’m a late comer to reading comics. I was a country kid and there were never any in the local newsagent. My parents were very “book” people and so I simply never saw them. I only discovered graphic novels in my thirties and became besotted with X-Men colour editions. It’s only recently though (the last few years) that I started looking further afield for other comics I might like. To my dismay, I found that there were few decent female characters around, other than the work of Nicola Scott and Gail Simone. But while I loved Birds of Prey and Secret Six, I’m really not a huge superhero girl.
During 2010, I started work on an SF/Western novel and the character and the setting were so vivid in my mind that I suddenly started thinking of it as a comic. Once the idea got hold of me, I just couldn’t let it go. The birthing process took a while. I had to find the right artist and I had to write my first issue. I studied scripts and asked around about potential illustrators. Nicola Scott suggested that I talk to Brigitte Sutherland. Brigitte and I went back and forth for a while until we arrived at the character look for Virgin Jackson. Once we got that right, we were off and running.
This is very much a personal project, marrying my childhood passion for reading Westerns with my more adult tastes in science fiction and fantasy. Virgin first appeared as a character in a short story (which is available for download as an extra with the first issue) a few years ago. So she’d already been sitting in my hind brain for a while when I began the novel.
I knew I wanted to release the comic on my terms and not spend years trying to sell the idea to a comic publisher. For a start, I have no track record in comics, nor do I actually know the industry in the way I understand the book industry. Given that, I decided to release it in a PDF version, downloadable by anyone for a small cost. It is not a free webcomic; it’s a collectable that is designed to give pleasure in re-reading over time. The Australian landscape is central to everything about the story and Brigitte’s art makes it visually rich and entrancing.
Issue #1 has had a good response but the main pitfall we face is getting word out that Peacemaker exists. These things take time and a bit of luck. Meanwhile, Brigitte and I are having enormous fun, and I’m loving working with such a talented visual artist.
This is absolutely a project done for love. I hope readers will fell the same about it.
Meet Nate Sixkiller...
Brigitte says:
Marianne got in touch with me through my friend and fellow Australian, DC Comics artist Nicola Scott. I read the script for Peacemaker and some of the story and I was immediately inspired to draw some sample pages for her. It was a great opportunity to draw a strong female hero, which doesn't come up all that often in comics!
The setting appealed to me, too. I grew up in rural Australia and that's partly why I love Westerns. Juxtaposing that world with a future supercity is an interesting direction because those worlds are in conflict with each other. The city wants to dominate and nature is losing the battle. Without giving anything away, Marianne shows nature has a bit more up its sleeve.
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Marianne de Pierres and Brigitte Sutherland
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