Back in the early Aughts, Chuck Austen kept the comics world abuzz with his runs on Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, and The Avengers, but then he stepped away for a while to work in animation (his portfolio includes She-Ra and the Princesses of Power) and, no kidding, write nudist retellings of the novels of Jane Austen. Now he’s returning to comics, partnering with old friend and sometime collaborator Patrick Olliffe on Edgeworlds, a rip-roaring tale set on a planet at the edge of the known universe. Here’s the executive summary:
“Edgeworld is the place people need to go in order to get somewhere else, but not to stay,” said Austen, “It’s a temporary rest stop, a place to blow off some steam on a long journey between the stars. But no one stays on Pala unless the rest of the universe is done with them. No one, that is except for the oppressed Palans and their lone supporter, Killian Jess.”
In Edgeworld, Killian Jess is the magistrate and a former United Authority soldier who knows the system, upholds the law, and delivers the verdict—with a vengeance. Alongside native Palan Cheela, Killian fights to protect the planet Pala, a backwater, frontier planet on the edge of known space located beneath a riftgate—the greatest and most valuable discovery in galactic history. Together, the duo must battle alien invasions, military forces, black market traders, otherworldly infestations, drug runners and the disastrous, ecological aftermath of a brutal, planet-wide war, in order to save the world they love.
Other members of the creative team include colorist Lee Loughridge, letterer Jodi Wynne, and editor Bis Stringer-Horne.
ComiXology will release Edgeworld as a five-issue series available without extra charge to Kindle Unlimited and ComiXology unlimited subscribers and Amazon Prime members, and for $2.99 per issue for the rest of the world; the first goes live on September 15 and it looks like the schedule will be monthly after that.
