Rocketship Entertainment, best known for bringing webcomics like Let’s Play to print in collected editions, is launching its first monthly comic series. The debut title is Empiria, a new epic fantasy from writer David K. Wilson, artist Jacque Solomon (Magic: The Gathering), letterer Scott O. Brown, and editor Lee Nordling. The series is described as “an allegorical fantasy epic exploring corruption, prejudice, and disparity.”
Happily ever after is over, but this story
–book is just beginning. In a world where elves rule over humans, gnomes, unicorns, dragons, and mermaids , corruption has taken the glint off this fairytale. In the province of dragons and unicorns, old wounds of apartheid are ripped open when a unicorn is assaulted by a gang of fascist dragons. A resentful human peasant joins an anti-elf church, spurred on by a blowhard demagogue. The greedy elven king urges his subjects to buy his magic crystals while he does nothing for his people, and his daughter is disgusted that she must act as the public face of his scheme while doing everything possible to set things right. And tensions that have been boiling over amongst these communities explode when the elven prince is abducted from his birthday party on live television.
“I’m excited to be working with Rocketship Entertainment on Empiria,” said creator David K. Wilson. “They have a strong track record of publishing compelling creator-owned content, and I believe they are the perfect partner to bring this story to life.”
The book will be distributed to the direct market through Lunar Distribution. Rocketship publisher Tom Akel described the move into periodical comics as “an important milestone for our company as we expand our reach into the print comics space.”
Rocketship has been making several moves recently. Last month, the company announced it would begin publishing Panick Entertainment’s line of horror comics. Meanwhile, ambitious Hollywood startup Red Sage revealed that a live-action Let’s Play film is in development, based on Leanne M. Krecik’s hugely popular webcomic, which has more than 7.5 million subscribers and over 700 million views. Both Krecik and Akel are executive producers on the project.
Let’s Play has also already been adapted into an anime on Crunchyroll—one of the rare original English-language (OEL) properties to receive that treatment.
