EXCLUSIVE: Mark Sable and Paul Azaceta’s Graveyard of Empires

One of the strongest trends in comics is the true power of a long-term collaboration. The greats of Kirby/Lee and Claremont/Byrne became what they were by working together often, and getting better each time. It looks like that's turning out to be the case as well for writer Mark Sable and artist Paul Azaceta.

After workng together on the Image series Grounded and doing smaller projects here and there, they're reuniting for a new series about one of the most fabled warlands in Graveyard of Empires. Set for debut on June 15, this series is a ground-level view of a young Marine lietenant coming face-to-face with the horrors of the Afghanistan war — and a new threat when both friend and foe start coming back to life. Image has compared this to The Hurt Locker meets The Walking Dead, and the writer has spoken in numerous interviews about how this is a modern take on the fabled genre of war comics that have been out of the public eye — and comic shelves — for years.

As the book nears release, series artist Paul Azaceta gave us some exclusive preliminary sketches he worked up as he was getting started on the series. Enjoy!

Comments

  1. Well, I’m all over this.

  2. Is this an on-going? Loved Azaceta’s work in the Spider-Man run he did with Waid, so I’ll most definitely be picking this up.

  3. Oh sure, we’re there.

  4. Very very cool. I’m in!

  5. Mark Sable here, writer of GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES.  Glad you guys sound excited.  Really hope you will check it out.

    Richard – re:ongoing vs. limited – it’s somewhere in between.  We’d like to do it like Hellboy/Criminal…with different, self contained volumes that add up to a larger arc.  Volume one is three 32 page issues (for $2.99 each) that have a beginning middle and an end.

    This will allow Paul to take a break and do books like Spidey.  We already have plans for second arc.  It would be like the 2nd season of The Wire, where we focus on new characters but continue the stories of the survivors of Volume 1.  Assuming there ARE any survivors.

    A note about the characters – those were Paul’s early sketches, so while all of the above are there, some of their names may have changed.  Some were placeholders.  For example, FEO stands for Female Engagement Officer, while Pineapple is a nickname for the character because he favors a grenade launcher (grenads look like pineapples) and his face is pockmarked, like a pineapple.  I wouldn’t call him that to his face.

  6. I picked this up today, didn’t even know it was a zombie story (BONUS!) until the ‘reveal’.
    Really enjoyed it, can’t wait for more.