Vault Comics has revealed Project Perseus, a monster-hunting, time travel series created by Nightlife Noir writer Jack Mulqueen and artist Edison Neo, with colorist Kike J. Díaz, letterer Buddy Beaudoin, and designer Tim Daniel. The action comedy follows Slug Stephens, a former cryptid hunter who stepped away from a group of fellow veterans because of a drinking problem, who’s forced to sober up and pursue “an all-too-familiar friend turned foe” after they steal a time machine.
Project Perseus #1 cover by Edison Neo
Mulqueen comments, “This story was born from a desire to tell a tale that could only be told in the medium of comics. At the time when the story was conceived, there was a lot of discourse regarding the medium of comics being used as an IP farm for other mediums, people using comics as spec-scripts and proof of concept, in hopes their work would get optioned to television or film. From the start, we knew we wanted to tell a story that would be so batshit insane, that it would be prohibitively expensive to recreate it in any other medium, and therefore, it would be a story that would belong singularly to comics.”
Neo adds, “Jack approached me with the idea for Project Perseus about four years ago. Hunting cryptids all over the world, even involving time travel to different eras? It was totally in my wheelhouse, I was completely sold. Since then, we have been putting every effort into fleshing out this idea into the biggest, craziest, most action-packed story we could ever imagine, and as the fantasy of the book coming to life became reality, we went even harder and went several notches higher. Beyond the bombastic nature of the story, however, it would be nothing if it were not centered around a cast of rich and nuanced characters.”
He continues, saying, “As an artist, I wanted to test my limits and see how far I could stretch my abilities. Fortunately, working with a wildly imaginative writer like Jack, that was the biggest thing on the menu. With exotic landscapes, unique creatures, and colorful characters put in all sorts of crazy situations, I had my work cut out for me. We drew a lot of inspiration from sci-fi movies and video games, but make no mistake, the biggest inspiration was from comics. Deliberations about double-page spreads, panel layouts, covers, even down to the onomatopoeia, we wanted to make sure that this was a comic book through and through, and we are looking forward to everyone being able to pick this off the stands.”
The series will debut with a 40-page first issue this September, that will have covers by Esad Ribic, Brett Bean, Jorge Corona, Garth Graham, and Pete Caroll. This will be revealed at a later date. In the meantime, check out a whopping, albeit unlettered, 14-page preview below.
