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Crowdfunding Spotlight: The Seven Sagas of Silverbeard

By John Freeman on August 2, 2019

The Seven Sagas of Silverbeard is a terrific-looking sword and sorcery book with a gorilla warrior hero, currently seeking crowdfunding on Kickstarter – and we like the cut of its gib!

In this new project from Catfood Comics, the Earth is dying and the Gods don’t care, they hoard the life-giving energies of the World Tree and the mortal realm below suffers. Over seven lifetimes, Silverbeard, a cursed gorilla warrior battles demons, monsters and the blighted land itself to overthrow the greedy deities that would turn the planet into a wasteland.

This new, 40-page oversized comic book contains two amazing adventures of the Gorilla Gladiator – “Hell-Bound” and “The Two-Headed Serpent” – from Pete Taylor and Mark Hughes, and pin ups from artists that include Jim Mahfood, Nick Brokenshire, Russell Mark Olson, Nick Prolix and Daisy Taylor.

Pete Taylor is a designer and illustrator who has worked for clients such as Legoland and Usborne Publishing. The artist on “Hell-Bound”, Pete also provides scripts, lettering and colours for both stories in this first issue of Silverbeard. An indie artist who has been making comics for over 20 years, Pete co-created Monster Kids, an all ages strip which appeared in volume 20 of Aces Weekly, contributed to the Irregulars anthology from Watercloset Press and self-published many books with the Swansea Comics Collective, which he co-founded.

Pete has also had his artwork used as rewards in Kickstarters by Russell Mark Olsen and Nick Prolix and regularly contributes to the Lakes International Comic Art Festival Podcast.

Work in progress on a page of The Seven Sagas of Silverbeard – Hell-Bound

The second story, “The Two-Headed Serpent” is pencilled and inked by Mark Hughes, a freelance digital illustrator from South Wales, who co-founded the Swansea Comics Collective with Pete. Mark has drawn Basketball Lawyers for Crowntaker Studios, Alpha for Arcane Comics and recently self-published Yr Wyddor, an illustrated Welsh alphabet book.

A page from the Silverbeard story “The Two-Headed Serpent”, scripted by Pete Taylor, art by Mark Hughes – which will be colour in the final edition if successfully funded

“Everybody loves a gorilla, especially comic artists so it’s already got a lot of traction with some of them,” Pete tells us. “We’ve got a pin-up from Jim Mahfood and Nick Brokenshire in the first issue – and possibly more to come.

This project looks like great fun to us – great stories, smashing art and more. Check it out here on Kicktarter!

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “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.