Finally! It's published. Yesterday the long-awaited new issue of
Age of Bronze went on sale.
Age of Bronze issue #34 contains the episode of Achilles and Helen meeting on the highest peak of Mount Ida.
Here's the link to the issue.
In the original tradition, Helen was carried to Mount Ida by the goddess Aphrodite, so for
Age of Bronze, which eschews the supernatural, I had to do a lot of behind-the-scenes manipulation to get Helen out of Troy and to that mountain peak in a natural manner. I planted early seeds for the solution way back in issue #24, pulling threads from other Trojan War episodes and weaving them together with as few knots and puckers as possible.
Achilles was a little easier to place on Mount Ida, but even for him I had to design the route using bits of the Trojan War tradition that had never to my knowledge been strung together in the way I chose.
Issue #34 of
Age of Bronze also features the (I hope) unexpected return of a character unseen since issue #3. This won't be the last we see of that character, nor of the new character introduced in the same scene.
Also featured are short appearances by Troilus, Cressida, Hektor, Priam, Agamemnon, Odysseus, and Palamedes. One panel features a shot of most of the Trojan royal family. Keeping all those characters and their likenesses consistent is a painstaking but pleasant task. And now that
Age of Bronze is in full-color and John Dallaire,
Age of Bronze colorist, has assigned specific colors to all the characters in that scene, there's another level of consistency to maintain.
Click here to read Age of Bronze #34 on Comixology. Only $1.99!
Click here for a three page preview of Age of Bronze #34.
ADDENDUM - The Official Word on Age of Bronze Publication Formats
I'd assumed that anyone who follows this blog already knows that new
Age of Bronze single issues are going digital with this current issue. But clearly there are readers who haven't read previous posts. So for everyone's benefit, here's the skinny again:
All
Age of Bronze single issues will be published only in digital format for the foreseeable future.
The exception to that is a small number of print copies I'm privately printing for
Age of Bronze subscribers. No new subscriptions are being accepted. When all current subscriptions run out, I'll stop these small print runs. Don't contact me asking how to get a copy if you're not an
Age of Bronze subscriber.
Age of Bronze graphic novel collections will continue to be published in print form. So if you don't want to read electronic comics on a screen, all you have to do is wait for the graphic novel collection. As in the past, forthcoming
Age of Bronze graphic novels will collect all the story pages from several issues, along with extra material such as maps, pronunciation guide, and bibliography.
In addition to print,
Age of Bronze graphic novel collections will be published in digital form.
All new
Age of Bronze comics—that means digital comic books, print graphic novels, and digital graphic novels—will be in full color.
All old
Age of Bronze graphic novels are being reprinted in full color.
A Thousand Ships (book 1) was published last fall.
Sacrifice (book 2) will be published in 2019.
Copyright © 2019 Eric Shanower.
All rights reserved.
Age of Bronze and all character likenesses are trademarks of Eric Shanower.
