This week, publisher Clover Press launched a Kickstarter for Armored, a new five-issue supernatural series. The book comes from the creative team of writer Michael Schwartz, artist Ismael Hernandez, letterer Ferran Delgado, and editor Chris Stephens. Jae Lee provides the cover art for the first issue of the series, which follows a teenager who discovers a haunted suit of armor, with which he teams to uncover the mystery of his parents’ deaths. Today The Beat is pleased to present an exclusive excerpt from the first issue of the series.
Here’s how Clover Press describes Armored:
Meet orphaned teen Andy, whose parents mysteriously vanished years before he was adopted at the outset of our story. When Andy starts at a new school out in the countryside, he accidentally discovers a haunted suit of armor and its ghostly keeper, Sir William. When Andy is attacked by the same mysterious creature that killed his adoptive parents’ biological son, Sir William and the suit help Andy defeat the monster — but the monster was conjured by someone, and they’ll stop at nothing to gain control of the armor.
Sir William must train Andy to use the armor properly — not just to defeat the other creatures being summoned by the mysterious antagonist, but also to defeat an even more dangerous other-worldly being prophesied to return to Earth and take the suit of armor for its own kind. As he faces off against more and more horrifying monsters, Andy will need to learn to look within himself to find the strength to overcome his own demons in order to save the Earth. But this mystery may be bigger than just Andy and his suit…
Armored is the comics debut of writer Michael Schwartz, a screenwriter whose credits include Gnome Alone and R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town. In a statement announcing the project, Schwartz described his inspiration for making the leap into comics:
“A few years ago, my entire comic book collection was stolen. After that I started to re-collect and revisit the thousands of books I loved — from silver age classics to modern era epics — and realized the potential comic books offered me for telling this ambitious and personal tale. Working with Clover has been a real pleasure as they truly understood the scope of the story and how Ismael Hernandez and I wanted this narrative to unfold for the reader.”
Clover Press Publisher Hank Kanalz also talked about bringing Schwartz into the four-color fold:
“One of the more exciting aspects of publishing is finding and breaking new talent,” said Clover Press Publisher Hank Kanalz. “Michael is an accomplished screenplay writer, and this is his comic book debut. Chris has assembled a talented team of artists to bring this to visual life, and Michael brings all the thrills and chills of a great horror read. You can tell he loves the periodical art form, and this story doesn’t disappoint.”
Check out the five-page excerpt from Armored #1 (of 5) below. The Kickstarter to fund production of the five-issue miniseries is live now, and runs through Friday, September 15th.
