This week’s Heavy Metal #306 includes the first chapter of Black Beacon, a new sci-fi serial from writer Ryan K. Lindsay, artist Sebastián Píriz, and letterer Jame. The story follows a space-farer who must fight for survival aboard an interstellar outpost. Today The Beat is pleased to present an exclusive preview of the first five pages of the first chapter of Black Beacon.
Here’s how Heavy Metal describes Black Beacon:
There’s an intergalactic space station out there bigger than our solar system inviting everyone across the galaxy to come and seek refuge. The beacon made it sound like a utopia, but what Niko finds upon her arrival is a lawless expanse where everyone is out for themselves, and she’s so late she doesn’t even have a seat at the table. A story of survival, truth, and experience lies in front of Niko, if she can figure out who to trust and what to do before the secret of her journey catches up with her.
The six-part Black Beacon story will run through Heavy Metal #312 (with a skip-month for the Halloween-themed #311) before seeing release as a six single-issue miniseries later in 2021, and eventual collection in a trade paperback in 2022.
Along with the exclusive preview, both Lindsay and Píriz talked to The Beat about working together on the series, and how the story came together. Said Lindsay:
“Co-creating the world of BLACK BEACON with Sebastián Piriz has been a career highlight because I get to work with an old friend, and I get to bask in the glow of someone so immensely smarter than me. The concepts and science and layers of this world continued to pour out of Seb’s head as we explored what a gigantic community built around a star on the other side of the universe would look like. I’ve then raced alongside him to make sure my scripts bring an emotional energy to our leading lady, Niko, and her journey of discovery as she encounters some really vibrant and exciting aspects of life throughout the universe. I think readers are going to get a feast for the eyes and the heart with this story.”
Píriz added:
“Working with Ryan is every artist’s dream. He writes the most insane stories with crazy characters that act like real people. Plus, he’s one of the nicest guys in comics. We started working on this in March 2020, right before the quarantine started, so it had its difficulties, but Heavy Metal has been very supportive. I cannot thank them enough. I hope readers enjoy reading this half as much as we’re enjoying creating it. Black Beacon is a one-way trip.”
Check out the exclusive five-page preview of Black Beacon chapter one below. The six-part story debuts in Heavy Metal #306, which is available in stores now.
