Next week’s 2000AD – Prog 2450, featuring a stunning cover by Mark Sexton – is a “Jump On Board” issue to encourage new readers, and we have an exclusive excerpt of “Brass Sun” for you, right here on downthetubes!
Set in a giant mechanical solar system, “Brass Sun” is written by Ian Edginton (Hinterkind, Ampney Crucis Investigates) and I.N.J. Culbard (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Deadbeats). This unique fantasy adventure is the story of Wren, a young woman who realises that the bass sun that gives life to the dozens of worlds has started to slow, freezing the outer worlds and killing off the inhabitants.
Setting off from her homeworld of Hind Leg, Wren is given part of the secret of the lost key that has the power to restart the sun again. Charged with travelling across the various worlds to pick up other parts of the key which was broken up after The Great War, she alone possesses the power to save the galaxy from extinction!
In the new story, “Pavane“, starting this week opens after Wren’s companion on her mission, the conductor novice Septimus, has freed Wren from the clutches of the “Motherless Men”, and together they escaped. But not without consequence…
Click the images below for larger versions of this exclusive “Brass Sun” excerpt!
Wren’s journey to save worlds has been a long one – longer, in fact, than even the creative team realised! “Brass Sun” first appeared in 2000AD back in 2012, in Prog 1800, the idea for the series sprinting from Ian Edginton speculating about full-scale versions of orreries.
“The first run of ‘Brass Sun’ was a great success,” Ian Edginton said earlier this year. “People really took to it, so much so that I started to doubt that I could repeat it with the next run. It was genuinely a case of performance anxiety! I was worried that it wouldn’t measure up, so I kept putting it off and putting it off.”
“Eventually Ian (the other one) and I went on to do other things and ‘Brass Sun’ lay fallow for years. But about eighteen months ago, my teenage daughter read the whole thing and was annoyed that there wasn’t anymore, that I’d just left poor Wren hanging in limbo. I reread it myself and realised she was right and what’s more I wanted to finish telling Wren’s story, I owed it to her. I also realised that I needed to get over myself and just get on with it and so here we are!”
“Pavane” returns to Wren’s story now she’s a little older, and in her mid-twenties. After all her experiences she’s withdrawn herself from the world – but just as she tries to shut the rest of the world out, an old friend returns with a message: destiny isn’t done with her yet!
What can readers expect from the return of the critically-acclaimed steampunk series? Edginton has teased that this is a world where literally anything can happen – and clearly enjoys working with artist I.N.J. Culbard.
“It’s great to be working with Ian again,” he confirmed. “I’d forgotten how much of a laugh it was. We’d start off talking over the story and script and then end up debating whether you could build a submarine out of Tofu and could a spider ride a Moped? We’re a pair of unsupervised middle aged men with far too much time on our hands!”
“Brass Sun: Pavane” features in Prog 2450, on sale from Wednesday 17th September, alongside an all-new “Judge Dredd” tale, “And to the Sea Return“, the opening episode of “Anderson, Psi Division: Flowers of Evil” (continued in Judge Dredd Megazine 484, on sale the same day); “Thistlebone: The Voice in the Hollow“; “Void Runners: Book Two”; and “Rogue Trooper: Ghost Patrol”.
Plenty for fans of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic to enjoy – old and new!
• Available in print from: the 2000AD webshop, TG Jones, select supermarkets, Amazon, and comic book stores via Diamond | Available in digital from: 2000AD webshop, 2000AD app for Apple & Android
Our thanks to Rebellion for this exclusive preview!
• The Wheel of Worlds” appeared in 2000AD Progs 1800-1811 in 2012
• “The Diamond Age” appeared in 2000AD Progs 1850-1861 in 2013
• “Floating Worlds” appeared in 2000AD Progs 2000AD Progs 1888-1899 in 2014
• “Motor Head” appeared in 2000AD Progs 1950-1959 in 2015
• “Engine Summer” appeared in 2000AD Progs 2061-2072 in 2017 and 2018
• Brass Sun by Ian Edginton and INJ Culbard | ISBN 9781781082690 | 208 Pages | Available here from the 2000AD web shop | AmazonUK Affiliate Link
Collecting: “The Wheel of Worlds”, “The Diamond Age” and “Floating Worlds”
Praise Be To The Cog!
A large, gigantic mechanical solar system is dying. The brass sun that gives life to the dozens of worlds has started to slow, freezing the outer worlds and killing off the inhabitants.
On one such world, known as Hind Leg, a young girl named Wren is given part of the secret of the lost key that has the power to restart the sun again. Charged with travelling across the various worlds to pick up other parts of the key which was broken up after The Great War, this unlikely heroine alone possesses the power to save the galaxy from extinction!
- About the Author
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: 2000AD, British Comics, British Comics - Current British Publishers, Comic Previews, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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