SCOUT’S HONOR Announcement

SCOUT’S HONOR #1 / $4.99 / 32 pages / Color / On sale 1.06.21

Writer: David Pepose

Artist: Luca Casalanguida

Colorist: Matt Milla

Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual

Cover: Andy Clarke w/ Jose Villarrubia

Incentive Cover: Brent Schoonover

Years after a nuclear apocalypse, a new society has risen from the ashes…and their bible is an old Ranger Scout manual.

A young Ranger Scout named Kit has endured the harsh survivalist upbringing needed to conquer the irradiated Colorado Badlands. But after discovering a terrible secret once lost to history, Kit must risk everything on a dangerous quest to uncover the truth behind the Ranger Scouts’ doctrine.

From multiple Ringo Award-nominated writer David Pepose (Spencer & Locke, Going to the Chapel, The O.Z.) and artist Luca Casalanguida (James Bond, Lost Soldiers) comes a post-apocalyptic coming-of-age tale that proves when all you know is a lie, a Scout’s Honor is the only way to move forward.

DAVID PEPOSE ON WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUT AND WHY HE’S EXCITED FOR IT TO COME OUT:

“Scout’s Honor is about a post-apocalyptic cult rising from the ashes of a nuclear war… and their bible is an old Boy Scout manual. Our series follows Kit, a promising young trainee with a big secret — in a harsh survivalist society that only allows men to serve, Kit has concealed her identity as a woman to pursue her calling as a Ranger Scout. But when she makes a shocking discovery dating back to the Ranger Scouts’ conception, Kit will be forced to reexamine everything she once believed, as she struggles to survive both her fellow Ranger Scouts and the radioactive horrors of the Colorado Badlands.

Having been working on this story for over a year now, I’m excited for the world to finally get to meet Kit, and to discover the world of Scout’s Honor. This isn’t just a post-apocalyptic action story — it’s a story about losing your religion, and about having to find your way back through the wilderness. It’s a story about the blindspots of history, and about confronting the ugly truths of our past that lurk beneath the shadows. And that’s not even touching upon the incredible artwork by Luca Casalanguida, Matt Milla and Carlos Mangual, who have made the Colorado Badlands a beautiful but harrowing place for even the toughest of Ranger Scouts. I truly believe that Kit is a heroine for our era, and I can’t wait for readers to follow her dangerous journey in the pages of Scout’s Honor.”

DAVID PEPOSE ON SOME OF HIS INSPIRATIONS BEHIND CREATING THE BOOK:

“The best way for me to describe Scout’s Honor is like Fallout meets Mulan meets The Handmaid’s Tale… but there are tons of other influences that found its way into the book, as well. Video games like The Last of Us and Horizon Zero Dawn were also crucial inspirations for fleshing out this dangerous post-apocalyptic world, while TV shows and movies like The Path and The Hunger Games really spoke to this dystopian society, and the feeling of rediscovery when you learn your entire life might be a lie. And that’s not even including real-world inspirations, like the disillusionment felt by many after the sexual abuse stories coming from the Catholic Church, down to my own spiritual and political awakening as a Jewish writer originally raised in the conservative Midwest.

But ultimately, my biggest inspiration behind the series was watching my two younger brothers serve as Boy Scouts — from their uniforms to their manuals to their bylaws, the Boy Scouts as an organization has this kind of pageantry and regulations that can often feel religious. The idea of history being like a game of telephone felt like some exciting narrative territory to explore, and the idea of the Boy Scout ethos mutating into this hypermasculine survivalist cult felt eerily plausible given the state of the world today. Whether it takes weeks or hundreds of years, eventually the truth will come out — and having to reorient yourself in the face of these startling revelations can be challenging and painful. Thankfully for Kit, the most important Ranger Scout law is to always be prepared…”

DAVID PEPOSE ON WHAT HIS EARLIER CREATOR-OWNED EXPERIENCES TOUGHT HIM THAT HE WAS ABLE TO APPLY TO THIS BOOK:

“Books like Spencer & Locke, Going to the Chapel, and The O.Z. have taught me that no matter how crazy your high-concepts are, it doesn’t matter one bit unless you’ve got a universal human core at the heart of your story, some emotional anchor that people can access to get invested in your story. If you boil it all down, I truly believe that storytelling is the art of making complete strangers give a damn — and I think in the case of Scout’s Honor, we can all relate to having the rug pulled out from under us, that we find ourselves believing in things that maybe aren’t as constant or enduring as we once thought.

Whereas much of my previous work follows characters digging themselves out of the wreckage of longstanding heartache, Kit’s journey in Scout’s Honor is dealing with the immediate aftermath of trauma, and trying to make sense of it and move forward. There’s a sense of catharsis that comes from exploring trauma that really resonates with readers, because we all have painful experiences that we’re looking to transcend and move past. In that regard, Scout’s Honor really fits in nicely with my previous work, while still being unique thanks to Kit’s distinctive struggles with her life in Ranger Scout society.”

DAVID PEPOSE ON IF HIS TIME AT DC COMICS HELPED HIM BECOME A SUCCESSFUL FREELANCE WRITER:

“Absolutely — it took me three years to get my internship at DC Comics, and it was worth every phone call. (Laughs) It’s easy as a reader to overlook the various elements that go into making a comic — people might know a writer or an artist’s names, but not many readers know who’s inking or coloring or lettering a book, let alone knowing who’s editing or working on production, let alone departments like marketing or publicity or creative services. My time at DC was an amazing experience because it really made me put a face to every aspect of the comics-making process. To be honest, it really was an eye-opening experience that made me truly realize that you could make comics as a career — and absolutely lit the fire under me to pursue that dream long-term.

I’m also lucky because DC was my first experience of interacting with comics editors, including Mike Marts, who would wind up becoming my terrific editor on Scout’s Honor alongside the equally incredible Christina Harrington. I learned so much about the editorial process, which was invaluable towards getting my own comics off the ground — everything from finding reference art, to learning how scripts are paced and formatted, to providing notes on thumbnails, colors, and lettering, I learned during my time at DC. It really was the perfect boot camp for my comics career.”

DAVID PEPOSE ON ADVICE HE HAS FOR FOLKS THAT WANT TO GET STARTED MAKING COMICS:

“Start small, and get your reps in. When I was first dipping my toes in the world of making comics, I wrote a short script every day for 90 days. But here’s the big secret — they don’t have to be good, let alone published. The most important thing is you will learn something from every script you finish. They say you have to write 100,000 terrible words in order to get to the gold, and I think aspiring creators owe it to themselves to train as hard as they can by themselves before trying to start the marathon of creating a miniseries.

The other critical piece of advice I like to remember? Dessert first — while a reader consumes your story in chronological order, that doesn’t mean you have to build it that way. Writing is supposed to be fun, so write the stuff that speaks to you first — the worst-case scenario is you’ll find out quickly you didn’t have much to work with, but I’ve always found that once you start to pick up momentum, the rest of the story will start to click together in fun and unexpected ways.

And lastly, the other thing I want people to know is that if you want to make a comic, you can make a comic — this is a process that anyone can pick up with enough time, patience, and self-discipline. As someone who grew up in an area with few creative role models, I can tell you firsthand that so many people deprive themselves of a creative career simply because they didn’t give themselves permission to think of themselves as creators. So if you have a dream to make comics, go for it — and start today. Take it from me — the only regret in my career is that I didn’t make the leap years ago.”