Image Comics
(w) Simon Roy & Daniel Benson (a) Artyom Trakhanov (c) Jason Wordie
Protector takes place in the 33rd century of a post-apocalyptic North America. A continent ravaged by the effects of climate change and where the people have devolved into warring tribal societies. Technology seems to have all but vanished, leaving people to hunt and fight with knives, spears and muskets. The story follows a young enslaved priestess and how circumstances change when she accidentally awakens a “demon” in the occupied city of Shikka-Go. This captivating introductory issue will capture your imagination with an ending leaving you wondering what’s going to happen next.
Artyom Trakhanov’s drawing does the heavy lifting of describing this new, yet old feeling, world with his unique art style which depicts a mashup of the ancient Far East with Mayan and Incan cultures. While the two headed writing team of Simon Roy and Daniel M. Benson push the storyline and flush out the characters. This avoids the trap of bogging down the story in long explanations and backstory for the sake of world building. They do put in a map and index of all the tribes that live in this world at the end of the book for readers who want more detail, but it is not essential to understanding the story.
This book has an interesting international creative team starting off with two writers working together on the story. Simon Roy is a Canadian writer known for his work on Prophet with Image. While Daniel Benson is a novelist who wrote Junction and has won a Sideways award for his short story Treasure Fleet. Benson resides in Sofia, Bulgaria. Artyom Trakhanov is a Russian artist who has worked on 7 Deadly Sins for TKO and Undertow for Image among other books. Canadian colorist, Jason Wordie, who has worked on God Country. Along with letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou of Red Sonja fame. The amazing cover art was created by James Stokoe.
Protector #1 releases on January 29, 2020