Press Release
From the minds of writer John Raffo (Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story) and artist Nelson Blake II, Darby Pop Publishing’s The 7th Sword will make its debut this April!
“I’ve always loved the mid-century habit of retelling of Japanese Samurai stories as American westerns (and vice-versa). They were all simple tales of redemption and ambiguity cast in vastly different worlds. I wondered what would happen if you took that combination and refashioned it again with elements of fantasy and Science Fiction. I thought you might wind up with a modern and compellingly different hybrid…” said John Raffo, “but as I started hacking away I realized this was a story that had to be told visually. Darby Pop and their incredibly talented artists helped me develop this bit of oddball alchemy into what I think is a beautiful comic series.”
On a planet where explosive weaponry is unusable, Daniel Cray — a Samurai mercenary — stumbles upon the legendary city of ZenZion, a mysterious desert outpost currently under siege from a vicious warlord. The peace-loving citizenry beg Cray to help defend them… forcing Cray to reluctantly draw his deadly “Malathane” sword one last time to battle a relentless army of robots and their savage masters.
Science fiction meets samurai in this epic seven-issue adventure with covers by Andrew C. Robinson (The Fifth Beatle) and interior art by Nelson Blake II (Witchblade, The Darkness).
John Raffo is a screenwriter who over the last twenty years has worked on a variety of credited and uncredited projects including Dragon, The Bruce Lee Story, The Relic, and The Interpreter. His original screenplay Renko Vega and the Jennifer Nine appeared on the 2011 Black List.
About IDW Publishing
IDW is an award-winning publisher of comic books, graphic novels and trade paperbacks, based in San Diego, California. Renowned for its diverse catalog of licensed and independent titles, IDW publishes some of the most successful and popular titles in the industry, including: Hasbro’s The TRANSFORMERS, G.I. JOE and MY LITTLE PONY; Paramount’s Star Trek; Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; 2000AD’s Judge Dredd; The Rocketeer; Toho’s Godzilla; Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons; and the Eisner-Award winning Locke & Key series, created by best-selling author Joe Hill and artist Gabriel Rodriguez. IDW is also home to the Library of American Comics imprint, which publishes classic comic reprints, Yoe! Books, a partnership with Yoe! Studio, and the multiple award-winning Artist’s Edition imprint.
IDW’s critically- and fan-acclaimed series are continually moving into new mediums. Currently, Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Disney are creating a feature film based on World War Robot; Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Warner Brothers are producing a film based on Ashley Wood’s Lore; Michael Bay‘s Platinum Dunes and Sony are bringing Zombies vs. Robots to film, Kurtzman/Orci are producing a movie based on Locke & Key at Universal.
