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Werewolves and Vampires and Ghosts, Oh My!

Published Sun, 01 Sep 2019 12:00:23 -0500

Dane Tyler writes,

Heed the call of Hiraethan's horn,

Down dark alleys and through forgotten doors.

Wander through the oldest woods till morn,

Then sail across strange seas,

To reach the distant shores.

Distant Shores is an anthology comic book series, written and published by yours truly, Dane Styler, and drawn by artists from around the world. Each issue travels to a new and distant world, some strange and others strangely familiar. I started off with this idea that if Black Mirror and Saga had a baby, and Steven King was the nanny, that could be Distant Shores.

Distant Shores is live on Kickstarter, campaigning for funds that will go to the artists and the production of the second issue. It is 32 gloriously-colored pages, featuring three terrifying tales of werewolves and vampires and ghosts, oh my! But these are not your ordinary nightmares and monsters. In the tradition of Black Mirror, Distant Shores takes narrative conventions and flips them on their heads, reimagining these classic monsters in a whole new light!

Journey 600 years into the past, when winter came to Greenland and never left. Vikings fight for their survival against an undead darkness. Then, in today's digital age of social media, face the horrifying consequences of hitting the block button. Finally, travel forward into a seemingly bright and shiny future w,hen a vengeful Nature comes knocking and howling, haunting the nightmares of one adolescent.

Once upon a time, a boy walked into a comic book store…

But wait? Isn't the anthology's first issue on ComiXology, featuring three stories of the superhero kind? Why the switch from superheroes to horror and the supernatural? Why are we not seeing more of those characters in the first issue? (I get this question a lot, and I promise that faithful readers WILL see more of their favorite characters in later issues of Distant Shores, as the book peels back a mythology that connects all the worlds and stories together).

To explain the change in genre, I need to tell you why I'm doing this comic book series in the first place, on my own, without any publisher, telling the stories I want to tell. It all began when I walked into a comic book store as a boy and read my first comic book…

It was The Flash #0, written by Mark Waid and brought to life by the pencils of the much-missed Mike Wieringo. The story was personal and introspective, full of crazy ideas and visuals that only a comic book can convey. And then it surprised me, elevating the narrative to that of the mythical. It was an emotional wish fulfillment that connected with me at the deepest level. I was hooked. That single-issue story convinced me that I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to tell stories like the book I held in my hands with awe. Many years later, that passion has led me here.

To be frank, it is difficult to get into the comics industry as a professional writer. Let alone to find a publisher that will let writers tell the stories they want to tell. The effort to get past the front door can and has been discouraging at times. And the truth is, editors just do not have the time in their busy days to take a chance on someone they've never read nor heard of. But like the rest of us, they do love to read comic books!

So I decided to make my own comics – to go ahead and tell my stories. I would write up a short eight-page story and then scour the internet for an artist. Then I would do it again. Short stories were easier, requiring less commitment from artists – and I could afford it! It was my writing mentor, a veteran of the comics industry, who later said I should put these stories together in a book. That is when the anthology series that has become Distant Shores began.

I have been extremely fortunate to find insanely talented artists who share the same passion for comics, and I hope those of you reading this will join us on what promises to be a crazy journey through worlds beyond imagination. We just want to tell great stories for you to read, and hopefully be changed by, just like I was all those years ago.

Please check out the Kickstarter campaign for Distant Shores, and if you can't support, please still tell your friends and family to check it out!

Something special for Bleeding Cool readers

As something special just for Bleeding Cool readers, everyone who backs the Kickstarter THIS WEEKEND ONLY will receive an exclusive director's cut PDF of the comic book featuring the script, the black and white line art, and the colored pages before lettering. If Donny Cates and the Venom team can do it, so can we! As a bonus, a surprise comics professional will illustrate a variant cover!

Thanks for reading, and see you in the comics!

Dane

Distant Shores #1 on ComiXology

Distant Shores #2 on Kickstarter

Distant Shores on Instagram

Dane Styler on Twitter

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