Neal Stephenson’s Cimarronin: A Samurai in New Spain is out on Amazon today

Amazon’s Jet CIty Comics imprint has been chugging along with a series of comics based on predominantly SF authors. including Hugh Howey, George RR MArtin and now Neal Stephenson, whose Cimarronin: A Samurai in New Spain just came out today. It’s based in the Foreworld shared universe that Stephenson and others have been developing. Illustrated by Robert Sammelin, this is Stephenson’s first actual comics, written by him and co-suthors Charles C. Mann, Mark Teppo and Ellis Amdur. The first issue is available as a Kindle Serial and on Comixology. Future issues will come out every three weeks, with the whole story eventually collected for both print and digital.

Foreworld itself—a shared world co-created by Stephenson and Teppo—is set in a world where a European martial arts tradition has evolved, resulting in a kind of Westernized Shaolin monks wandering the world.

Cimarronin follows in that milieu, with a tale set in the early 1600’s centering on Kitazume, a disgraced outcast samurai who teams up with a roue Jesuit priest in Manila to help deliver a Chinese princess to  Mexico. Throw in silver mines, scheming folks on both the Spanish and Chinese sides and escaped alves known as  the cimarrónes and you have globe trotting adventure 17th century style. Amazon has released the cover and some process art for a look at the series.