AfterShock Comics has announced a new series set at the twilight of the human race. Land of the Living Gods will debut in February 2022. The series is written by Isaac Mogajane, with art and colors by Santtos and lettering by Dave Sharpe.
Here’s how AfterShock describes Land of the Living Gods:
It is said that when the world dies, the spirits of the first people will return to witness the last days of humanity. Well, the spirits have arrived, and the end is here. But not everyone has given up hope.
Naledi, a teenage girl living in the deserted city once called Johannesburg, has always believed that there is a land, hidden away in time, where the gods still live. And where there are gods, there are miracles. Perhaps even miracles that are big enough to save our dying planet. And so, after a lifetime of isolation, Naledi will head out into the unknown with little to hold onto but her faith – and her magical pet plant, Buyo.
Land of the Living Gods is the first comics work for South African writer Isaac Mogajane, who is the co-founder and director of Johannesburg-based film production company Diprente. It’s the first AfterShock Comics work for Santtos, who has worked on series like Samurai Doggy and Blackout in his native Brazil.
In a statement announcing the new series, Mogajane described how Katsuhiro Otomo‘s Akira impacted his work on the story:
“One of my major influences is the manga and feature film, Akira. I loved how this film created a wholly believable future that was so deeply steeped in Japanese aesthetics and culture. Seeing it as a child made me want to do the same by telling genre stories that come from South Africa and feel wholly specific to here.”
Check out an unlettered four-page preview of the first issue, as well as an incentive variant cover by Andy Clarke and Jose Villarrubia, below. Land of the Living Gods #1 is set to arrive in stores and digitally on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022.
