Boom! Studios Gets Swashbucklin' In GALVESTON
The nascent BOOM! Studios is set to release the cowboys-and-pirates comic fable Galveston, co-starring frontiersman Jim Bowie and privateer Jean Lafitte.
BOOM! Studios this week announced the swashbuckling epic Galveston, an historically-based, six-issue mini-series where cowboys and pirates collide, brought to you by comics writer Tom Peyer (The Flash) and Seattle Times columnist Mark Rahner with artist Greg Scott (The Godfather Chronicles).
Focusing on the early exploits of the famous privateer Jean Lafitte and his best friend, Texas icon Jim Bowie, Galveston is an over-the-top thriller of blood, guts and revenge. Utilizing an extensive knowledge of the time period, Peyer and Rahner take history and turn it into an action-packed adventure comic that fans are guaranteed to love.
"It's six-guns vs. cutlasses, heroic rescues and hair's-breadth escapes, seasoned with glimpses into the real personalities of these two legends and omens of their futures," said Peyer.
Lafitte wanted to be a respectable community leader, Peyer explained to Newarama's VANETA ROGERS, but the pirate went about it the wrong way. "He stole a mansion on Galveston Island and outfitted it like the Bat Cave, complete with rooftop cannons. He was greedy, obsessed with social standing and, in our version, loveable."
"Not a lot was written about--or by--Bowie," said Rahner of the co-protagonist. "Most people just know that there's a big-ass knife named after him and that he died at the Alamo. But he was unstoppable, excelled in battles where he was outnumbered, and wasn't at all above a shady deal."
But the creators of this genre-mashing saga are interested in writing neither history nor social commentary--only, as Peyer described it, "a fun ride seasoned with shocking violence."
"There will be no mistaking Galveston," said Rahner, "for one of those Johnny Depp movies."
"I was gobsmacked," series editor Mark Waid (Kingdom Come) said of learning the true story behind the book's central friendship. "First off, I honestly thought that Jean Lafitte was the pirate who fought Cap'n Crunch. Second, the notion of Galveston being a Deadwood-type town run by a mad pirate had me screaming, 'Put this on the schedule right away! Why am I not already reading this book?'"
You can starting reading Galveston this September.