BEQUEST #1 / $4.99 / 32 Pages / Color / On Sale 3.17.2021
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Freddie E. Williams II
Colorist: Jeremy Colwell
Letterer: Marshall Dillon
Cover: Freddie E. Williams II w/ Jeremy Colwell
Incentive cover: Tyler Walpole
Welcome to the high fantasy world of Tangea! A land where wizards and warriors battle dragons in dark dank dungeons! Where thieves pillage ancient ruins and priests answer the audible words of their great gods!
Welcome to Chicago, Illinois! Where the magical items from Tangea are being traded on the black market and are messing everything up.
Now, a group of Tangea adventurers must go undercover in our modern world to stop artifacts and monsters from falling into the wrong hands. But how will they fare in a world without wizards and warriors? A world without heroes?
From Tim Seeley (DARK RED, BRILLIANT TRASH) and Freddie E. Williams II (HeMan/Thundercats, Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) comes BEQUEST, a real-world fantasy tale.
Each issue of BEQUEST has 24 pages of story and art and cardboard stock covers!
TIM SEELEY ON WHAT THE STORY IS ABOUT AND WHY HE IS EXCITED FOR IT TO COME OUT:
“The short answer is, it’s the story of a band of adventures from a “Dungeons & Dragons” style fantasy world who have been stationed on our world to do a very specific job–stop the black market trade of magic items for technology. I love fantasy (I spent a good portion of my career drawing The Dark Elf adaptations by R.A. Salvatore), and I wanted to smash together the tropes of that genre with the world we live in today. Our ‘heroes’ are essentially thieves, as they steal treasure. How does a character like that play in modern America, a place teetering between ‘woke” liberalism and ignorant conservatism? Also, I get to work with Freddie and Jeremy whose work I loved on my INJUSTICE v. MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE comic from DC.”
TIM SEELEY ON WHAT HIS INSPIRATION BEHIND CREATING THE BOOK:
“A childhood spent playing Dungeons & Dragons, reading the novels, and collecting the art books. And, the political situation in the US in the last 5 years. I wanted to see our world through characters who have very different perceptions of good, evil, racism, technology and what it means to be a good guy.”
TIM SEELEY ON (3) REASONS WHY READERS SHOULD PICK THIS BOOK UP:
“1). It looks amazing.
2). Wizard, Warriors, and monsters in modern America. So cool.
3). Everything is terrible and this is a great escape.”
FREDDIE E. WILLIAMS II ON HIS APPROACH TO THE ART:
“For the last several years I’ve worked almost exclusively in an Ink Wash style (using diluted India ink, to create shades of gray).
This is my first series returning to a Pen & Ink line art style in over 5 years (using hatching and crosshatch to create varying values.
And it’s fun getting to draw fantasy mixed with modern day subject matters! Also I’m taking a more aggressive approach to characterization (drawing a wider variety of face and body shapes, than my previous work- I love this kind of experimentation, that makes the Comic Book medium perfect for these kind of stories!”
FREDDIE E. WILLIAMS II ON HOW IT HAS BEEN WORKING WITH THE CREATIVE TEAM SO FAR:
“Tim Seeley and I really clicked when we worked together on Injustice VS Masters of the Universe, so, even during that project I started asking him if he had some creator ideas that we might be able to flesh out together, and that’s how things got started! Jeremy Colwell and I have worked together for the last several years, he’s an expert at coloring Ink Wash and now, on Bequest, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at what he’s brought coloring my Pen & Ink work! It’s cool when you’re working with somebody for years and then they continue to surprise you with the variety of skills! And Mike Marts is an Editor I worked with at both DC and Marvel, and it’s awesome working with him again!
The whole creative team at AfterShock is a close knit group and I can see myself working with them on multiple projects.”
FREDDIE E. WILLIAMS II ON IF HE HAS A FAVORITE PANEL OR PAGE IN THE FIRST ISSUE:
“Absolutely! Craev – which is our main bad guy in the series: he’s actually my favorite character… wait, I guess he’s tied with Relic! But with Craev, in issue 1 – we have a double page spread that explains Craev’s history and motivations and I I’m really happy with it! Tim created a complex villain, the type I would have loved to role-play in DnD, back in Highschool.
That Double-Page Spread has three distinctly different art styles and a unique color approach! A difficult and challenging spread to pull off, but with Tim and Mike’s encouragement, we worked it out!”
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