Starting August 25, writer John Zuur Platten and artist Atilio Rojo will launch St. Mercy – a four-issue series from Image Comics/Top Cow set across two distinct time periods. With parallel narratives set in the Incan Empire and the Old West, it will feature two women linked both by blood and by a common struggle.
The synopsis for St. Mercy is as follows:
A tale of vengeful retribution, St. Mercy pits the Incan Empire against the American West—and features two strong, determined young women who must defy authority and ultimately embrace their destiny. Mercedes Oro is one of the surviving descendants of the Incans who has been charged with protecting a cache of cursed gold used in their child sacrifice rituals.
But when an outlaw tries to steal the gold for his band of thieves, he unknowingly sets events in motion that will unleash an angry god who is willing to travel through the centuries to have what he desires.
Series writer John Zuur Platten says:
“I’ve always been fascinated by mythical stories of characters facing impossible odds, and in St. Mercy, I was able to explore this for two young heroines connected through time. Each must find the willpower to defy the evil and the powerful in the face of personal tragedy. And while St. Mercy has its roots in the tradition of classic westerns, things take a violent, bloody, and unexpected turn once the demonic children appear.”
Artist Atilio Rojo – whose early pages on St. Mercy look fantastic, we must say – weighs in a little:
“I’m really enjoying the series. It has a lot of elements that I enjoy drawing. This project demands a different aesthetic treatment, which is always refreshing for me!”
Platten comes from the videogame space. In 2006 he co-authered The Ultimate Guide to Video Game Writing and Design with Flint Dille. According to a (self-written) IMDB bio, he created 2000’s Fear Effect, and has “written and designed over sixty projects for every major publisher and studio, including: HAWx2, Apache Air Assault, Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Ghostbusters, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Escape from Butcher Bay and Dark Athena”. It appears this may be his first comics project.
Rojo was originally working on erotic comics before he shifted to working in American comics from his native Spain. He has IDW and Image/Top Cow cover and interior work on his resume including Transformers, G.I. Joe, and the 2018 Cyberforce reboot.
Check out the preview pages below.
