AfterShock Comics has announced Almost American, a new series based on the real-life story of husband-and-wife spies and their quest to leave that life behind. The series, based on the story of Janosh and Victorya Neumann, is written by Ron Marz, with art by Marco Castiello, color art by Flavio Dispenza, and letters by Rus Wooton. The first issue of the series will feature covers by Wooton and Juan Doe.
Here’s how AfterShock describes Almost American:
Spies…like us? In 2008, husband-and-wife Russian intelligence operatives walked into the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic in order to defect, making a deal to trade secrets for new lives. But instead of the American Dream, Janosh and Victorya Neumann found themselves caught up in red tape, bureaucracy and turf wars between the FBI and CIA — all while their past tries to kill them.
Almost American is the latest AfterShock work from Marz, who has also contributed to one of the publisher’s Shock anthologies, and the first for Castiello, as well as the writer and artist’s first collaboration. Marz worked in consultation with Jan Neumann on the series, and described in a statement what Neumann’s input added to his writing of the story:
“My first professional writing work was as a journalist at a daily newspaper, so in some ways this project was a combination of what I learned as a journalist and what I’ve learned writing comics. It’s filled with details and stories I learned from talking to Jan extensively, the kind of stuff you almost literally could not make up.”
Neumann, who has previously written Red Atlantis for AfterShock, also elaborated on why he believe the story of what he and his wife went through over a decade ago is more relevant now than ever:
“It’s sad, but we’re heading full throttle to The Cold War 2.0. I don’t see anything that can stop this clash between East and West. And that clash is playing out in the shadows, spy vs. spy. ALMOST AMERICAN is about those shadow wars and how this game shows no mercy for its players. Once you started to play this game, you can’t quit, and it’s only matter of time before you become yet another casualty.”
Check out some unlettered preview pages featuring Castiello and Dispenza’s artwork, as well as Doe’s variant cover for the first issue, below. Almost American #1 arrives in stores on Wednesday, September 1st.
