New comics publisher Pan-Universal Galactic Worldwide (PUG-W), founded by former IDW editor-in-chief John Barber, former IDW business manager Nate Murray, and former Marvel Comics publisher John Nee, has announced its debut graphic novel series: Signa, which launched on Kickstarter on Wednesday, April 3.
Written by Barber and illustrated by longtime collaborator Andrew Lee Griffith, Signa also features colors by Ronda Pattison, letters by Chris Mowry, and edits by Mason Rabinowitz. The first installment is a 48-page hardcover with five variant covers by Griffith, Chrissie Zullo, Tom Sciolli, Alex Milne, and Josh Perez—including an exclusive 3-D cover—seen below.
The story follows a scavenger named Ketna Vora and her crew, who stumble upon an old war mech called Signa a century after war with renegade mining robots turned the sun into a destructive red giant. Ketna, her crew, and other “grandchildren” of that war struggle to survive on whatever’s left of Earth… which isn’t much. Signa could help them save the solar system, but there’s a problem. The machines are back, so whatever Ketna and her crew do to save themselves might backfire and save the robots instead.
“I’ve always loved science fiction—I was the kid that liked anything with lasers and spaceships. And if you’ve followed my work before, you know I like robots, and I really like using them to tell big-scale stories with my friend and collaborator Andrew Lee Griffith. That comes together in Signa,” Barber said in a statement.
“We’re trying to pull in some of the energy of Star Wars, Transformers, and Mechwarrior and mix with old school SF writers like Heinlien and Haldeman with contemporary influences like The Expanse, Martha Wells, and Becky Chambers. Andrew and I like to push our characters to the limit and see what they’re really made out of, and that’s what we’re doing here,” Barber continued.
Below is a preview of Griffith’s interior art from Signa.
“To me the heart of the book is the friendship between our lead, Ketna Vora, and the Signa mech,” said Griffith. “Ketna’s got some baggage, and while capable and smart, tends to shoot from the hip and lacks the experience that a more seasoned adventurer or spacefarer might have. So it will be interesting to see her character bounce off of this mech that is basically a new unique form of artificial life that has essentially just opened its eyes to the world and has a fresh-eyed and naive, perhaps even pragmatic way of looking at things.”
The Signa Kickstarter is live now and PUG-W encourages backers to stay tuned for mid-campaign news.
