The Dark, Freeman titles from Markosia

(Before any hardcore fans of this blog get hugely excited, we should point out that Freeman is the name of one of the books due soon from Markosia, not the name of one of its creators...)

March will see the introduction of two new original Graphic Novels from publisher AAM/Markosia, following hot on the heels of recent successes From the Pages of Bram Stoker’s Dracula: Harker, Serpent Wars and Kong: King of Skull Island.

The Dark, written and created by Chris Lynch with art by Rick Lundeen, is a super-hero sci-fi thriller that challenges the reader’s very perceptions of reality versus fiction. It's the story of Daniel Abbot, a brilliant young scientist on the fringes of the establishment and the creator of Memetech - a technology that encodes information and memories into a liquid form, allowing anyone to literally "drink" the encoded knowledge.

Terrified that his invention will be used for military purposes he decides to destroy his research, but not before he takes one last trip... with disastrous results.

Two years on and the genie is out of the bottle. Abbot, having perfected his own version of the technology, fights a one-man war against the spread of his own invention and the collapse of our information culture in the guise of ‘The Dark’.

“We've hidden lots of coded messages throughout the book,” explains Lynch, “Both in the dialogue and in the artwork. From the symbol on The Dark's chest to adverts in the background, everything is there for a reason. Hopefully people will get a kick out of trying to solve the mystery, or at least from looking back after they've read the book for the first time to find all the clues they missed.

"Either way, we wanted to create something with enough depth to bring people back to re-read the story time and again.”

Also shipping in the same month is Freeman of the Armed Services, written and drawn by industry veteran Huw-J. Freeman is a true archetypal British hero of old, a cross between James Bond, Doc Savage and Captain Britain without the spandex, from the artist perhaps best known for re-iventing Garth for the Mirror newspaper - to mixed reviews.

This new book is packed with action and adventure throughout as Freeman takes readers back to the good old days, where the spirit of adventure and good old-fashioned action reigned supreme. You join Captain Freeman in his search of a mysterious Viking treasure in the frozen north (a re-working of the Garth story published online by the Mirror) and battling an evil Chinese drug lord alongside Irish gangs in prohibitionist era New York, in a non-stop action-packed adventure akin to the old Saturday morning pulp shows.

“When I decided to take the successful Garth strip down from the Mirror website it was with both sadness and excitement,” explains Huw-J. "Re-branding the character as 'Freeman' was easy as I wanted the character to be 'a homage' to all the creators who went before me, so buckle up and enjoy the ride!”

• The Diamond order codes for both books are:


JAN10 0699 THE DARK Graphic Novel

Read an 18 page preview online here on Mysebook

JAN10 0698 FREEMAN OF THE ARMED SERVICES Graphic Novel

Read an 28pg preview online here on Myebook