More Small Gods

Here's some more on the very excellent Small Gods, courtesy of Newsarama:

RAND & FERREYRA'S SMALL GODS
by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

Do people with psychic abilities exist among us?
For decades, we have been told that psychics only exist in movies… or comics. Jean Grey and co. get more company come June.

In Jason Rand and Juan E. Ferreyra’s ongoing Image series Small Gods, an estimated 1% of the world’s population possess psychic powers. However, these people are not your X-Men or your usual costumed superheroes. These psychics are just ordinary people, living ordinary lives. People with families, careers and dreams. They eat, sleep, live - and as with all living, breathing individuals – die.

“Small Gods is a lot of things, which I think is part of the appeal. At least, I hope so,” series writer Jason Rand told Newsarama. “At its heart it's a character-driven story, but the kind of story varies, as do the characters. For instance, I'd describe the first arc [“Killing Grin”] as a cop/crime/drama story, centering on Owen Young, a precognitive detective. That means he sees the future - but as he himself says in the second issue, that's not always a good thing. The arc revolves around a secret Owen's been keeping for years. When that secret is uncovered, Owen and his friends have to scramble to prevent it being publicly revealed. Owen also has to decide just how far he's prepared to go to preserve the secret.

“His partner is John Meyer. John's not a psi - he's just a very good detective with a strong dislike for criminals.

“Daniela de Angelis - Dani - is Owen's girlfriend. She's a resident at the DHMC - that's the Denver Health Medical Centre. “Jodi Asamori-Lane is another homicide detective, and a good friend of both Owen and John.

“Then there's Jerry Farrell. I'm not going to say much about him, because we won't really meet him until the second issue - but he's important to the story.

“On the other side of the coin, the main players in Small Gods are Juan E. Ferreyra, our artist, who does marvellous things with pens, inks and greyscales; Kristen Simon, our editor and mother hen (oh, she's going to kill me for that one); and our most recent addition, Jim Keplinger, our lettering guru. And me, of course.

”Image seems to be churning out one-shots and/or original graphic novels of late. However, as previously mentioned, Small Gods is an ongoing series. Future story arcs will revolve around different characters and will encompass different genres. “For instance, the second arc is a crazy mishmash of crime/action and a buddy/chase movie. The protagonist is a "tel-emp" (telepath-empath - someone who can read minds and sense and influence emotions) con artist. “The third arc is a spy/psychological thriller centered around two characters - a telepathic CIA handler and an insane empathic assassin. Some of the characters will be recurring, some will only appear for a single arc. The good thing is that each arc will be mostly independent of the others, Rand said. “There'll be some loose links between them which regular readers may enjoy spotting, but for the most part you'll be able to pick up at the start of any arc and read it without needing to know anything that's gone before.

“There is a thematic link between all the stories, though, which is where the title for the project came from. No matter how exceptional a person is, at the most basic level everyone is still only human. That's the theme at the core of Small Gods - even the extraordinary are subject to the same flaws, problems, sorrows and joys as the rest of us. As you've probably guessed, in the world of Small Gods, psychic abilities are real, and they go far beyond the abilities psychics in our world claim to possess. That's the "Gods" part. But that focus on human problems brings those exceptional people back to the rest of us. That's why they're "Small". After all, even a psychic needs a job to earn a living.”

Check out more at: http://comicbooks.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php%3Fs=%26threadid=11943

Sorry for the long link, still not great at the HTML stuff. But do check it out, and buy this book. If you don't like it I'll send you your money back. It's that damn good.

-L