This site is currently a work in progress. Martian Sun will launch soon with four titles, beginning with the mission statement “Profane Worship.”

Brought to life with stunning detail by artist Mano Ardal and moody color by Ichsan Ansori, this supernatural tale is inspired by an exchange of dialogue in the original Godzilla movie. The most difficult part (for me) was figuring out what to call it. The working title was “Village of the Damned,” which fit but was, of course, taken. Then it was “Last Sacrifice,” an accurate summary of the plot, but one that doesn’t sound too great.

“Profane Worship” is a story of few words, and the script came together quickly late last year. By contrast, the next story has been whittled down over the course of many years: “The Protocol.”

In the vein of Solaris or even Event Horizon, this is a “haunted spaceship” story, and in its original conception was a far longer saga. Cutting it down to seven pages was identifying the essentials, and it’s been rendered in a surreal style by Sérgio Juncom, with eye-popping colors by Giulia Pezzuoli.

Next, we have “My Devil,” illustrated in a frenzied, aggressive manga style by Sté Cavalcanti, who’s an amazing artist and collaborator. She let me in on every step of the process, showing me rough thumbnails and even character designs. On her Instagram, she mentioned that the look of the female character Hae-in was modeled after Bibi, and that’s so perfect I can’t believe I didn’t think of it.

The story is an homage to Korean revenge movies like Oldboy and I Saw the Devil. Not exactly science fiction, so “My Devil” is why it’s science fiction “and strange tales.” While Korean revenge may or may not be a real genre, its key titles share a few characteristics, including ultraviolence (not super represented here) and a bold visual style. I think the colorist, Karla Aguilar, really captures that look.

Finally, it’s “The Worldwife,” which is a title I did not want to open with because it’s a terrible hello. At the very least, I felt I needed “Profane Worship” to balance it out. Like “The Protocol,” this is another older story, one actually posted in prose in 2018. Having just looked over the first few paragraphs, it isn’t as embarrassing as I thought, but it’s just a more drawn-out version of what’s here.

And what’s here might appear to be some sort of autobiography, given the look of our “hero” — and, well, maybe that isn’t just a funny accident. Of, you know, asking the artist for a “Korean man with glasses” and getting one. I was a little worried about taking on creative collaborators for this weird story, but the artist Alex Guenther was totally professional. In fact, he returned a completed page every day, eight days in a row. I was stunned by the speed of the work, and the results — his throwback style was a great fit for the setting and themes, and Jarred Cramer’s color lends it all a significant texture.

I also warned the letterer, Leland Bjerg, like, “Hey, if this too weird of a story, just let me know,” but he said he liked weird, and even came up with a cool logo that I’ve been trying to use everywhere. I don’t know, maybe my reservations about this title are misplaced, but it is sensitive subject matter.

And I don’t want to talk about my own stories the way I might others’ on a movie blog, but I’d just like to make explicit that “The Worldwife” was written in response to a specific trope in genre storytelling. Take The Revenant, for example, that scene when a Native woman is being sexually assaulted by French fur traders and Leo is sneaking around nearby with a gun. You really, really want Leo to pop out with that gun — and that’s really cheap, man.

So, that’s our preview of what’s ahead! I sure hope you subscribe to the newsletter (when it’s up and running) or send some feedback through the contact form (when that works)!

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