and Jose Villarrubia
AfterShock have unveiled “Scout’s Honor,” a new post-apocalyptic series from writer David Pepose (“Spencer & Locke,” “Going to the Chapel”) and artist Luca Casalanguida (“James Bond,” “Lost Soldiers”). The pair will be joined by colorist Matt Milla and letterer Carlos M. Mangual for their story of a society rising from the ashes of a nuclear apocalypse, with an old Ranger Scout manual as their guide.
The series follows Kit, a young woman who has concealed her gender identity to pursue her calling as a Ranger Scout. After uncovering a terrible secret dating back to the conception of the Ranger Scouts, Kit must embark on a dangerous quest, struggling to survive both her fellow Scouts and the harsh, radioactive horrors of the Colorado Badlands.
“This isn’t just a post-apocalyptic action story — it’s a story about losing your religion, and about having to find your way back through the wilderness,” Pepose said. “It’s a story about the blindspots of history, and about confronting the ugly truths of our past that lurk beneath the shadows. And that’s not even touching upon the incredible artwork by Luca Casalanguida, Matt Milla and Carlos Mangual, who have made the Colorado Badlands a beautiful but harrowing place for even the toughest of Ranger Scouts.”
David Pepose made a name for himself with a number of high concept genre pastiches, including “Spencer & Locke,” a Ringo Award-nominated mash-up of “Calvin & Hobbes” and “Sin City;” “Going to the Chapel,” a rom-com crime story that features a cold-footed bride throwing in with her would-be kidnappers; and “The O.Z.,” a war-torn riff on The Wizard of Oz that smashed through its Kickstarter goal last month two hours after its launch. Pepose is channelling the lessons he picked up from those books into a story with a different emotional center.
“Books like ‘Spencer & Locke,’ ‘Going to the Chapel,’ and ‘The O.Z.’ have taught me that no matter how crazy your high-concepts are, it doesn’t matter one bit unless you’ve got a universal human core at the heart of your story, some emotional anchor that people can access to get invested in your story,” Pepose said. “Whereas much of my previous work follows characters digging themselves out of the wreckage of longstanding heartache, Kit’s journey in ‘Scout’s Honor’ is dealing with the immediate aftermath of trauma, and trying to make sense of it and move forward.”
Though Pepose drew inspiration from a number of post-apocalyptic pop culture mainstays — including Fallout, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Last of Us, and Horizon Zero Dawn — he drew from several additional real world and fictional inspirations in building the dystopia at the core of “Scout’s Honor.”
“TV shows and movies like The Path and The Hunger Games really spoke to this dystopian society, and the feeling of rediscovery when you learn your entire life might be a lie. And that’s not even including real-world inspirations, like the disillusionment felt by many after the sexual abuse stories coming from the Catholic Church, down to my own spiritual and political awakening as a Jewish writer originally raised in the conservative Midwest.”
“Scout’s Honor” #1 hits shelves on January 6, 2021. You can find a first look below at the art from Luca Casalanguida and colorist Matt Milla, as well as the cover by Andy Clarke and Jose Villarrubia.
