The Beat is pleased to offer exclusive looks at full first chapters from manga publisher Saturday AM’s catalog of comics featuring diverse creators and characters. Today’s look is at Nigerien cartoonist Issaka Galadima‘s Clock Striker, a part of the publisher’s Saturday AM line, which follows a young Black girl in her quest to become an elite engineer warrior.
Here’s how Saturday AM describes Clock Striker:
Cast dreams of being a SMITH, and though she’s rather handy with her tools, no one in her small town ever realizes their dreams. Besides, these legendary warrior engineers haven’t been seen in years and were never known for having female members. Fortunately, Cast meets one surviving member named Ms. Philomena Clock, who agrees to take her on as her apprentice, or striker.
Now Cast is thrust into one deadly adventure after another! From cybernetic desperadoes to technology thieves and more, Cast has to use her mind and her remodeled robotics-lab prosthetic hand, which offers unfathomable offensive power in the form of scientific experiments. Need lightning? Cast can generate it from her hand! Cast’s mentor seeks to uncover an ominous mystery that explains what happened to the SMITHS and shines a light on a hidden power that may be within Cast herself.
Can Cast become a new member of the SMITHS? More importantly, can Cast survive the process to become a SMITH?
Clock Striker launched its serialization in the digital pages of Saturday AM #32. The first fourteen chapters of the series are now available in a softcover print collection, which released in February of this year.
Check out the full first chapter of Clock Striker below.
