Rat Queens co-creator Kurtis J Wiebe has a new comic, Dryad, which will be published by Oni Press in March 2020.
Wiebe told press;
Dryad is a story that I’ve been working on in one form or another since I became a father five years ago. I wanted to tell a story about a couple whose lives were irrevocably changed by becoming parents, and I wanted to set it against a backdrop where I’d never really found a slice of life, family drama to be set: a fantasy world.”
The story begins in the sleepy forest settlement of Frostbrook where an elf and a human settle down together. Thirteen years later and their children, Griffon and Rana, discover a hidden door. It’s an encounter which changes everything.
While Dryad is a deep study of family, it’s primarily a story about what parents do to protect their children and what lengths they would go to keep them safe. Dryad is also equal parts mystery and action with a few sizable twists and turns to keep readers on their toes,”
Justin Osterling joins Wiebe on the project has illustrator. It will be their first published work.
When Kurtis came to me about Dryad, it was a breath of fresh air for me in terms of fantasy. There was a lot of research on my side, pulling from the art so many classic traditional fantasy illustrators but I also wanted to explore influences not traditionally associated with it like Hayao Miyazaki and Masamune Shirow; but also into First Nations and Latin symbology and architecture. While a lot of fantasy is set with European influences, we really wanted something that was reflected in the Americas and it’s many cultures.”
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