Markosia has just released the first volume of April Gray, a new three-issue horror-adventure mini series from Luke Cooper, creator of Hollow Girl, AloneNotLonely and Pumpernickel.
Pitched as “a bloody head-on collision between Jason Bourne and Becky”, in April Gray, meet Suzy Sweet – a nice, normal girl – a real sweetheart, a true innocent. She soon realises there is more to her than even she knew, however, when she is caught up in a convenience store hold-up and suddenly finds a shotgun in her face. Everything goes black. When she comes to, she is covered in blood – and all the robbers are dead.
By the time Suzy has figured out what’s really going on, she’ll be on the run, a lot more people will be dead, and she will have uncovered a top-secret government project – a conspiracy to weaponise trauma – all leading to the greatest mystery of all: who is April Gray?
Wait, you heard about that secret government project to turn kids into weapons using mind control experiments? You have? Well, you shouldn’t have. You better come with us…
“April Gray is Becky meets The Bourne Identity, and Spy Kids, if Robert Rodriguez got confused and thought he was making Desperado,” says Luke. “If you prefer to use my previous work for context, it’s Hollow Girl crossed with Pumpernickel.
“This is the first issue of a three part series of graphic novels. And I don’t mean that in a pretentious way. The first book alone is over 150 pages.”
A British comic creator living in Slovakia, Luke Cooper is the creator of Hollow Girl and AloneNotLonely, as well as Figments and A Glimpse of Hell. He was also an artist on Jim Alexander’s Wolf Country and the award-winning GoodCopBadCop, his interpretation of the character helping inspire the novel. He also drew Burlap: Death Waits for No One, written by Jesse Baer. published through Covenant Comics, as well as numerous covers and pin-ups for various comic titles.
While his Hollow Girl project is, perhaps this indie talent’s best known book, he feels another series, AloneNotLonely, also published by Marlosia, is actually his favourite.
• April Gray by Luke Cooper is available now | ISBN: 978-1918052527 | AmazonUK Affiliate Link
• More about April Gray on the Markosia website
- 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: British Comics, British Comics - Current British Publishers, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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