There have been a few really solid comic anthologies recently. Sliced Quarterly is a really awesome book that deals with high concepts and bold experimental storytelling, 100% Biodegradable is a collection of sci-fi stories that run the gamut of style and content, and now writer José Hingá is bringing comic book fans King King, a graphic novel showcasing close to 30 different comic creators, all with their own distinct styles and some with incredibly prestigious backgrounds. Judging by what I’ve seen so far, this will be right up my alley; the press release features the following synopsis:
“Queen Karma has been kidnapped! King has been cursed! If they don’t touch each other again in the following 100 pages, the universe, as they know it disappears. With the fate of the universe on their shoulders, follow the mind-bending misadventures of King, Uniggorn and F46607 to the craziest and sickest corners of the galaxy on their way to save King’s love.”
One thing I love about King King is the fact that every four page chapter of the graphic novel features a different artist and their unique depiction of the story’s characters. A few of these artists have worked for companies such as Blizzard and Ubisoft; the visuals and even certain elements of the plot most definitely reflect their video game influence. King King is a book that I’ll be keeping an eye on with great interest. I really love the concept and the army of individual artists contributing their style and charm into one coherent story is a huge selling point for me. There’s also a backer reward for their Kickstarter campaign that offers contributors a “character design challenge” where backers will get the chance to design Alice, one of the book’s main characters.
As always, I like to take every opportunity I can to emphasize how important crowd-funding campaigns can be when creating an independent work of comic art and storytelling, especially a book like this where there’s such an ostensibly large collaboration. Please check out their Kickstarter campaign below.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1051473855/king-king-graphic-novel
Want a deeper look into King King? José Hingá has released a YouTube preview that gives a behind-the-scenes look at what’s been a two year process putting the book together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gcybBtW_go
This has the potential to be something very special and incredibly unique, so check it out and please consider backing this book!