Dark Horse Entertainment has picked up comic book writer and illustrator Dave McKean’s new ‘Raptor: A Sokol Graphic Novel.’ It follows several fan-favorites including DC Comics ‘Black Orchid,’ as well as covers for ‘Hellraiser’ and ‘The Sandman,’ but also illustrating the Batman story ‘ Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth,’ who he worked with writer Grant Morrison.
According to the official synopsis, “Raptor flickers between two worlds and two conflicted souls: Sokol wanders a feudal fantastical landscape hunting monsters for those that can pay, and Arthur, a writer of supernatural tales in 19th Century Wales, mourning the passing of his young wife and dabbling in the supernatural in the vain hope of seeing her again. They both exist in the twilight between truth and lies, life and death, reality and the imagination.”
Dave McKean recently sat down with Comics Beat to discuss ‘Raptor,’ and his process in writing it.
“It had a circuitous beginning,” he said describing coming up with the concept. “I was asked to do a short story for an established character, I thought immediately of a longer story, but though it was suitable, actually it was too personal an idea to hand over to someone else’s world, so I spent a frantic week reworking it, developing my own lead character, and placing it in a world that I felt much more at home with.”
McKean continued, “I wanted to do something that was inspired by the contemporary nature and travel literature I’ve been reading, something that would express my love of the natural world, and something that would live in this realm between reality and the imagination. My character is trapped between those two worlds, the state of human and bird, or reality and fantasy, of civilised life and raw animal instinct. I have several other GN projects in pieces in my notebooks, whichever one crystalizes into a solid story and script first ends up being the next one on my drawing board.”
The ‘Black Dog’ illustrator discussed why it follows two different narratives.
“I like this conversation across the line of creator and creation, artwork and audience,” McKean explained. “I think it’s a world and character with which I could explore many ideas. I wanted to plant a few seeds of who he is, what he is, where he’s come from and where he’s going, but leave a lot unsaid so I can maybe fill in pieces of the puzzle in future stories.”
Raptor: A Sokol Graphic Novel will be in comic shops on July 7, 2021 and in bookstores on July 20, 2021.
DAVE MCKEAN’S ‘RAPTOR’ TO BE PUBLISHED AT @DarkHorseComics! #comics https://t.co/Jjbj09vbKC pic.twitter.com/yKC2fVnC3p
— Comic Crusaders™️ (@ComicCrusaders) November 20, 2020
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