ETERNAL is coming back to comic shops in Ocotber, you can preorder a copy through your LCS now!
I love this OGN I created with Eric Zawadzki, and Dee Cunniffe on colours. It’s a haunting tale of a shieldmaiden, Vif, who kills a sorcerer and then a small magical hell breaks loose in her world. This is a squarebound OGN, with high quality paperstock, and a bunch of back matter included. It was originally released in 2018, and now it’s hitting the shelves again so people can get another look at it.
The work Eric put into the art on this book is next level/god tier stuff, and Dee is the perfect partner for every page and emotion we delivered.
If you’ve been enjoying my writing this year – EVERFROST with Sami Kivela or BLACK BEACON with Sebastian Piriz – then I implore you to check out this book as it’s got that same melding of emotion, violence, landscape, and a killer artist!
It was a huge honour to be rated on a whole stack of Best Comics of 2018 Lists – in fact, I’d almost forgotten ust how deeply loved this book was.
When we released in 2018, our sales were strong, but since then comic shops have continually told me what an evergreen title it’s been for them – they dip in for a few copies each month, they sell a few copies each month, repeat. Well, this is a chance for a surge.
If you slept on this book so far, let your LCS know you need a copy. If you are looking for the perfect holiday gift, well, this is a graphic novel for $7.99 – I cannot express the value you are getting for that.
If you need a little nudge, here are all of the reviews that loved us:
The second chapter to the sci fi comic miniseries from me and Sami Kivela lands in comic shops this Wednesday!
Love the colours on Sami’s cover!
EVERFROST #2 – Bootleg Fidelity
Artist: Sami Kivela
Colourist: Lauren Affe
Letterer: Jim Campbell
Editor: Dan Hill
Writer: Ryan K Lindsay
Publisher: Black Mask Studios
Van and Eight have stepped back into the bustle of the Precinct to discover her son is still alive, there’s an epic war between the Bloom and the Warlords bubbling over, and time has become a little fluid since she went out to live on the ice. She needs a whole mess of answers, so she goes to the one person she thinks might be able to help…her mother. Join us for a tale of echoes through time we could only call ‘Bootleg Fidelity’ as two key characters meet untimely deaths!
I’m really proud of this issue. The first one did a lot of heavy lifting and world building and brain stomping – so this one slows things down a little, we let van steep in this new world. I think you’ll dig it.
Hopefully you already asked your LCS to set you aside a copy, but if not, they should have some on the shelves so go in this week and get yourself the second issue to this series that’s been another hit for me and Sami!
“I am a huge fan of both Lindsay and Kivela; I love how neither are just settling as creators. Instead they continue to push their talent forward with stories that feel as diverse as any of the big indie publishers output. For a book that mixes scope of environment with the scope of human emotions, Everfrost, through Lindsay and Kivela, surely delivers.” – 10/10 Johnny Hughes @ Comic Crusaders
“EVERFROST #1 is a remarkably well executed debut issue that serves up a perfect blend of dystopian fantasy Sci-Fi with a heavy dollop of human drama threaded through it’s center laced in the tragedy of a world in turmoil and decline. Highly recommended to fans of esoteric Sci-Fi.” – 10/10 Ross Hutchinson @ Comic Watch
“Every page is a delicious treat that leaves one craving more.” – 9/10 Scott Redmond @ Comicon
Everfrost has been so long in the making, I’m now wildly excited to see it finally hit the shelves, and there are all kinds of emotions coming to the surface. The usual excitement mingled with fear is natural. Relief, pride, maybe even contentment. I’m really proud of this book, and it coming out heralds another new complete story I’ll have put into the world.
Getting the chance to tell a story is no small feat. I don’t want to brush over this, I never want to brush past this. Creating a full world, populating it, and finding some moments worth a damn that you want to share – that’s the alchemy of writing.
I really hope you like Everfrost, but honestly, I hope any of you get a chance to love it as much as I do.
Comic shops will have their copies this week – whatever day you head in, I hope you find a copy on the shelf [or you wisely preordered so they’d put one aside for you and you have no risk of missing out]. Buy it with a smile, tell your comic shop retail magus how excited you are to read it – I bet they love hearing that kind of thing. Comic shop peeps aren’t in it for the millions of dollars, either, they just love seeing stories connect from one human to another.
This sci fi heartbreak is full of passion and creativity and hope and lived experience and desire and energy and I could not have asked for a better team than Sami Kivela, Lauren Affe, Jim Campbell, Dan Hill, and Matt Pizzolo at Black Mask Studios to help bring it to the page.
Thus begins our 4 issue miniseries, each issue packed with fun back matter pages, and our whole walking hearts. Keep your eyes out for this cover, and if you get a chance let us know what you think.
This week has two very important things going down straight outta RKL HQ:
EVERFROST #1 – FOC is Monday!
The Final Order Cutoff is the date where retailers lock in any tweaks to their orders, so you still have a chance of securing your copy for June 02, when we land on shelves.
Please tell your comic shop you want this comic preordered and waiting for you because then you are guaranteed it, and won’t be subject to possible sell outs on the day. Retailers tend to order less indie comics than they do the latest X-Event [I know, insane business model] and every preorder tells the shop it’s a winner, so they’re more likely to order an extra 1-2 for the shelf. Every preorder actively helps to move our initial sales much higher than just your 1 order. Here’s what you can say, or email:
“Hey [INSERT SHOP NAME, or employee name if you’re really something special], can I please preorder a comic, it looks amazing. It’s called EVERFROST, from Black Mask Studios, the order code is APR211533 – I’d like all 4 issues set aside, please.”
Yes, in fact, tell your shop you want all 4 issues, because this is a 4 issue mini, and you don’t wanna get started and then get shorted on future installments of this, trust me. Here’s a look at the first 2 covers from Sami Kivela:
And also…
BLACK BEACON is in Heavy Metal #306 – THIS WEEK!
I have a shelf debut this week, my sci fi collaboration with Sebastian Piriz lands this week in the pages of Heavy Metal Magazine – pick up #306 when it lands from Wednesday and find the opening 22 page chapter of BLACK BEACON!
This is a huuuuuge sci fi story, and we’ll be in the next 5 issues of the magazine. Here’s a look at the first page:
You can pick up a copy this week, or tell your LCS to put it aside for you while you are talking to them about EVERFROST :] The cover looks like this:
Or, if you really wanna commit: BLACK BEACON is also getting a single issue release later in the year, and the first issue is up for preorder, so you can tell your comic shop to preorder BLACK BEACON #1 for you, it’s from Heavy Metal, with order code MAY211491 – here’s the cover:
It’s a lot to remember – maybe keep this newsletter open while you have the chat, if you need the support. I am, if nothing else, always here for you.
To summarise, here’s the date list rundown:
Here’s the rundown, because the list is bigger now:
May 12 – HEAVY METAL #306 – sees the start of BLACK BEACON with me and Sebastian Piriz
June 02 – EVERFROST #1 lands – this miniseries starts here from me and Sami Kivela
June – HEAVY METAL #307 – the second chapter of BLACK BEACON lands in this issue, I assume, at this date
July 14 – EVERFROST #2 lands
July [insert number here] – BLACK BEACON starts to get a solo single issue release here, so if you missed the magazine, you can get our first chapter, with some back matter, right here.
EVERFROST runs for 4 months, BLACK BEACON will run for 6. Really excited about both of these, so hope you find your copies, set aside time to read, and know that I appreciate your support an insane amount.
You can preorder this issue with your LCS – or just ask them to set aside all 4 issues as they come in – and I guarantee after everything we lay out in the first issue, you are going to be dying to come back to see where Van and Eight go off to.
Here’s the cover from Sami Kivela!
So. Gorgeous.
I could make comics in the snow with Sami all day long.
Here’s the official solicit info, just to wet your whistle – at this stage, I’m just having fun writing these things.
Van and Eight have stepped back into the bustle of the Precinct to discover her son is still alive, there’s an epic war between the Bloom and the Warlords bubbling over, and time has become a little fluid since she went out to live on the ice. She needs a whole mess of answers, so she goes to the one person she thinks might be able to help…her mother.
Join us for a tale of echoes through time we could only call ‘Bootleg Fidelity’ as two key characters meet untimely deaths!
Ryan K Lindsay, award-winning writer of ETERNAL and NEGATIVE SPACE, teams again with Sami Kivelä, the artistic juggernaut behind ABBOTT and UNDONE BY BLOOD, alongside Lauren Affe, the colourist of THE WITCHER, STRANGER THINGS, and FIVE GHOSTS, as they drop an absolute bomb of sci fi insanity and heartbreaking emotion in the grandest Black Mask tradition.
EVERFROST #2 hits shelves July 14 – you know what to do.
The start of an issue is the Opening Contract and it establishes everything the creative team is about to attempt across and throughout the story. We give character, the world, the tone, the style – it’s an indication of the ride you are in for, the way we wish to connect with you.
In these 5 pages, you will find awesome page layouts from Sami Kivela, beautiful world building colours from Lauren Affe, the balanced and thoughtful placement of lettering items from Jim Campbell, and a flow of prose and ideas from my writing.
If you dig what you read, then you’ll need the subsequent 21 pages when issue #1 lands on June 02 – talk to your comic shop about securing your preorder, they will finalise their orders on May 10.
For now, enjoy the free taste, have a great day, and we’ll see you on June 02 for more :]
Here’s the second page because I love it so much – Sami nails it, natch. The angle, the moon, this is Van Louise. Lauren Affe gives us this haunted feeling of cold and isolation. And look at those captions from Jim Campbell. Utterly perfect in alignment with the art and the tone.
Sami Kivela and I have a new comic coming out in June – EVERFROST is being published by Black Mask Studios – we think you’re going to dig it!
The last time Sami Kivela and I made a comic together, it was also through Black Mask Studios, and it was called BEAUTIFUL CANVAS.
This was a comic about a hitwoman who is contracted to kill a small child and in the same week finds out her girlfriend is pregnant. It’s an emotional tale soaked in blood and Sami and I loved making this comic with Triona Farrell, Ryan Ferrier, and Dan Hill.
We were given many amazingly thoughtful reviews, so I thought I’d pluck out a few key quotes that will prepare you for what you are in for now that Sami and I are back together again for a new comic – EVERFROST launches in June.
Here’s what they said about us last time in some reviews for BEAUTIFUL CANVAS #1
“Aiding and amplifying this is Sami Kivela’s artwork, which is nothing short of fantastic. It’s not just the great details and exquisite imagery. – While Lindsay definitely creates some relatable characters, it’s Kivela’s artwork that makes them real.”
“What really sets the art apart is the scenery in the scenes, the half splash panel of the ferris wheel with a half buried animatronic clown head look beautiful and reminiscent of something that was once vibrant”
“Sami Kivela shines on the art. He takes a scene I’ve seen hundreds of times and makes it sublime; I’m talking specifically about page 4, where Lon enters a house to carry out a hit and Kivela’s staging of the scene, page layout with the inset panels, and the discrete moments in time he captures on the page really emphasize the artistry involved in telling a comic story.”
“The first action sequence in which Lon encounters conflict and she has to make use if her gun is very short, but also very effective in showing you 1) Lon is good at her job and quick with her hands, and 2) artist Sami Kivelä masterfully pulled this short burst of action off using one entire page and it’s a testament to an artist who knows their way around some damn panels. Throughout the book, Kivelä is manipulating panels and cutaways to really maximize the action scenes and ensure the pacing is good enough for the scenes with more emotional weight. He also has a really solid art style that helps keeps the reader stay invested visually.”
“The issue is written by Ryan K. Lindsay and drawn by Sami Kivela, and both turn in excellent work. The script is smart and always one step ahead of us, and the art shows great design skill, with strong characters and vivid environments on display.”
“Sami Kivela, whose slick, expressive style sizzles alongside Lindsay’s story, creating an effortlessly cool aesthetic. A little bit David Aja, a little bit Tyler Boss, Kivela throws in some fantastically inventive panel layouts, including one particularly brilliant page where snorting drugs off a carrot leads seamlessly into a brutal ‘hit’ from Lon.”
And this is a big beautiful slab of love for Kivela!
“Sami Kivela delivers tasteful, sleek modern art that fits the issue’s tone perfectly. The first page, which may very well be the single best page in the issue, is a great example of the blend of normal and strange that is yet to occur in the book, and Kivela blends the two elements like they were simply meant to be. Kivela includes telling details in the background of the room – things that indicate a normal, modern household like small plants by the window, a bottle of vodka, star-patterned cushions and a desktop computer. Yet, at the focal point of the page, a body lies dead, with blood splattering from a bullet wound to the eye. Lon herself sits on the couch next to him, looking just as astounded as you, the reader, are at this visceral scene. It’s a perfect opener, giving readers the low down on what to expect from this book.
“Kivela draws refreshingly normal looking humans, like David Aja’s style if you read his seminal “Hawkeye” run a few years back. Lon displays a wide variety of emotions as she reacts to all the strange events during the issue. A scene occurs in which she talks to her lover Asia on the phone, and a panel depicting each person sit opposite each other. Each panel can only show one emotion, but are drawn with subtle detailing that make them feel more real than they are. The way Kivela draws Lon looking down her shoulder, the way her eyes look away in doubt, and her just-ajar mouth are more telling about her emotional state talking to Asia than the words themselves are. Contrasting to this, it’s almost funny how Kivela draws the bad guys with the fashion and looks of models and super-stars. Milla, the limb-gardening psychopath, is a slender blonde clad in makeup and a bold red dress. It’s a reversal of roles that makes the portrayal of these characters so engaging.
“Kivela’s sequential action is great when established. A sense of movement is always established when necessary, so that the flow of the comic is easy to follow. Right from the start, Kivela guides the reader’s eye around a boxing ring with multiple camera angles as Lon moves around it. It’s a small touch here, not noticeable only because it makes the reading too smooth to make it obvious. The first scene in which Kivela’s talent is immediately obvious is during the shootout with Julie, in which reading time is slowed down to having three seconds play out over three panels. Each big panel is intersected by smaller close-ups of each sudden movement – the carrot flinging, the gun firing, the collision of objects – it’s so wonderfully constructed that you can’t help but stop to take it all in.”
I took a few moments to record some commentary about the cover Sami Kivela crafted for EVERFROST – both for issue #1, but also as a launch image that’s beyond perfection.
This kind of video is a new kind of hype promo material for me – I filmed my screen using Screencastify, and dropped in some edits with its video editing software. I’m interested to see how else it could be used. Anyway, enjoy.
In EVERFROST, we’ve created a leading character in the mold we love. Van is battling herself inside, she’s looking backwards as much as inside as much as forwards. She’s driven and determined and absolutely destined to make some bad choices, but they’re the best choices she can make in any given moment. She’s never going to stop, and she’s going to fail, and the beat will march on.
I think you are going to love Van and what she does throughout all we put her through in this comic.
Going back a step, it’s important to think about why Sami’s characters are so good. His designs are always so visually engaging, they are well thought out. He puts emotion into every face and into every line.
We first put together the pitch for CHUM, and his clear understanding of who these characters were sat me down in my chair. This was a guy instantly as invested and intelligent about our story as I was. Looking back at his Summer Stanwyck, I still love how he nailed the pulp paperback femme fatale I was going for.
He rounded out the cast with the blood simple cop, and the shark cunning dealer, and the simple sad muscle.
Next up was DEER EDITOR, and his design of ol’ Bucky still sits behind my con table at every show. I wanted Robert Redford in the news pool with antlers and Sami nailed it. The book lived on that keen eye for detail.
When we made BEAUTIFUL CANVAS, I wanted someone I could understand within the layers of the complex lead. Lon Eisley is a hitwoman struggling to know if she’s creator or destroyer when she’s contracted to kill a small child in the same week she finds out her girlfriend is pregnant. Sami brought every facet of thought and life into her design.
Now, here we are, nearly a decade after making some pulp archetypes and I’ve asked for something different again.
Van is a brilliant mind. That intelligence comes with a cost: she sees the world for what it is. She’s lost all hope. But that hasn’t stopped her. Brutal determination is her food. Not giving up is the outcome. But she wasn’t always this way, so we hint at this past, right before it slams back into her.
After working in isolation for a long time, Van finally finds a way off planet. Success. With one task left to complete, she is distracted when she sees her son again. And she hasn’t seen him since he died in her arms as a child.
Things are going to get a lot worse before anything gets better, but the question is: what’s the worst that can happen?
Well, you’ll find out some of that on the final page of the first issue.
EVERFROST #1 is in Previews Magazine for a June 02 release – Order Code: APR211533
Talk to your LCS about preordering the comic, and ensuring you get a copy set aside for you when it hits the streets in June! This is our fifth book together, and we just keep getting better, that I can promise.
EVERFROST is a brand new sci fi miniseries from Sami Kivela and Ryan K Lindsay, the smash hit team behind BEAUTIFUL CANVAS, CHUM, and DEER EDITOR. And I gotta tell you, it’s great to have the band back together again. I’ve been making comics with Sami for nearly a decade, and it’s always exciting and makes me a better writer.
This futuristic story follows Van, a scientist who retired to the ice coast to die, who has finally figured out a way to escape from Earth. Here we will find her walking through the snow, and she’s carrying a big sword, and even bigger loss in her heart. But first she needs to work out how and why she just bumped into her son who she hasn’t seen since he died in her arms when he was a child.
Everfrost is a 4 issue miniseries published by Black Mask Studios
Artist: Sami Kivela [Abbott, Undone By Blood]
Writer: Ryan K Lindsay [Eternal, Negative Space]
Colourist: Lauren Affe [The Witcher, Stranger Things, Five Ghosts]
Letterer: Jim Campbell [Giant Days, Wasted Space]
Editor: Dan Hill [Beautiful Canvas, Metropo]
#1 is in Previews for a June 02 release – Order Code: APR211533
This comic is a mix of icy Frank Frazetta imagery over Blade Runner science and is a perfect fit for readers who love SAGA, ODY-C, BLACK SCIENCE and DESCENDER.
Everfrost has interstellar giant alien skull-whales, emotional flashbacks, sky fights, clones, and a giant fucking sword. It’s wild, it’s absolutely stunning, and it’s designed to also make you feel a little, too.
If you read ETERNAL or BEAUTIFUL CANVAS or NEGATIVE SPACE, then I think you know what I’m aiming to do with this one. Each of those comics sold well, gained stellar reviews, and got me to a place to write EVERFROST. I’m trying to marry the scenery of big epic genre pieces with the heart of weird smaller character studies, and hopefully find a sweet spot in between where your new favourite comic lives.
Talk to your LCS about preordering the comic, and ensuring you get a copy set aside for you when it hits the streets in June!
Without Fear 