BOOM! Studios has announced another original graphic novel, but this time it’s a big first for the company as the Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass OGN is set to arrive in October.
Eisner Award-nominated writer Lilah Sturges (Jack of Fables, Justice Society of America) and rising-star artist polterink present an all-new story in Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s camp for Hardcore Lady-Types when Mal, Ripley, Molly, April & Jo become separated during an orienteering outing thanks to a mysterious compass. While Molly begins to feel more and more insecure about the effect of her relationship with Mal on the other girls, a lonely woman explorer is trying to steal the compass…with the help of some weirdly polite automaton butlers, of course.
Lumberjanes: The Infernal Compass is set to arrive in October 2018.
“I’ve been a huge fan of Lumberjanes since precisely April 8, 2017 — I know because that’s when I started tweeting about how great it is. It’s not just that it’s fun and funny and charming–and it is all those things–but it also represents queerness in a way that I think is enormously important. In the world of Lumberjanes being queer is simply accepted and unremarkable, and I respond deeply to that,” said writer Lilah Sturges. “The idea of giving young people models of healthy queer relationships is something that really matters to me, and something I could have used myself when I was young.The inspiration behind the story was a conversation with Lumberjanes editor Dafna Pleban about the relationship between Mal and Molly and what it must have been like for them getting together. First love is a fraught, tender thing, and we loved the idea of focusing on the fears and anxieties the come with starting a relationship in an existing friend group. The rest of it was coming up with the funnest, Lumberjane-iest possible means of expressing that conflict in a big way that also includes interesting artifacts and cool monsters and lots of friendship and yelling and feminist exclamations.”
While BOOM! Studios has kept rather quiet regarding the number of OGNs being released through the company, I firmly believe the publisher is testing the waters to make a massive shift from single issues to dealing mostly in OGNs.
