Phenomena Book 2 Official Preview

April 23 is just around the corner

Hello from Castrum Lusitania, my fortress in northern Portugal. Welcome to another edition of our weekly newsletter.

After solving all the problems facing the American Comics industry last week, we turn our heads to Phenomena Book 2. The launch is getting nearer and nearer and this week Comics Beat run a nice, juicy preview.

Because you sign up to this newsletter and are all very nice people, I’m gonna post it here as well with my own comments on the matter. But before…

A week of records

This week I beat all my personal records in terms of production. I pencilled 20 pages for Phenomena Book 3, beating my weekly record. And 9 of them were drawn this Friday, beating my daily record by a mile. And I drew a complete cover, from pencils to inks and tones, plus thumbnails for 3 more. How? We’ll dive into it all next week, but it won’t happen regularly.

Now that preview!

Phenomena Book 2 Preview

With the April 23 launch just around the corner, I must remind you that you can preorder it right here directly from the good folks of Abrams.

Both me and Brian will do a nice round of podcasts and interviews in the following weeks, but first we had to share a tasty lettered preview of what’s coming. The official description for the book goes like this:

A young boy named Boldon, a mysterious girl named Matilde, and the warrior Spike—survivors of a phenomena that took over Earth years ago. Not an apocalypse . . . something far more interesting.

Following their adventure in The Golden City of Eyes, Matilde’s Quest brings our trio to Valentia Verona (formerly London, England)—one of the most fantastical places on the planet. There, with the help of Boldon and Spike, her newfound friends, Matilde is determined to confront the reason she was cast from her home to wander the land in the first place. But as they stop at each village Matilde has been protecting along the way, they begin to realize that rumors of their exploits are more widespread than they imagined. They are becoming legend and folklore. And with their mythology comes new threats. In a world where story is currency, they are becoming a powerful force to be reckoned with . . . and, at the same time, attracting attention from both bounty hunters and forces of darkness beyond their understanding.

So we’re basically setting up a good ol’ adventure in London and the beautiful English countryside. All of which have been heavily transformed by the Phenomena, as you can see by our cover right away:

Colors by Chris O’Haloran

The preview pages are the very first pages you’ll read in the book. We felt that they were perfect as a preview as well, since they recap Book 1 (with a caveat) and introduce the story of Book 2.

The previously mentioned caveat in this recap is clear to anyone who read Book 1: things went kinda like this, but not really like this. That’s because what our three heroes did in the first graphic novel has become sort of a legend. A legend that has been passed around and slightly changed and amped up. In the world of Phenomena, story is currency, story is power, story is everything. And we wanted to make that clear right from the start.

Naturally, our characters are not too fond of the way their story is being shared:

Despite young Boldon’s anger, they proceed on their planned journey and board a massive ship on their way to London, now know as Valentia Verona.

I have to say, drawing this ship was an absolute blast (even though keeping the details straight across the pages and different camera angles was a pain):

This is a lovely emotional bit with our young characters, trying to keep things straight in a pretty crazy world.

Obviously, you can’t go to far in the world of Phenomena without shit hitting the fan:

So we end the preview in the beginning of our first big action set piece (the first of many). I can’t spoil it, but following spread is one of my favorites from the entire book.

A few pages further into the story will take us to the first spread of Book 2 that I shared on Castrum Lusitania:

And all of this is just from the first 20 pages of the book.

I’ll leave you with these images this week. We worked incredibly hard on it and it’s very exciting to know that in just a few months people will actually have it in their hands. I can’t wait for people to start reading it!

Remember, you can get your preorder right here or in any other comic store, book shop or online retailer you prefer.

See you next week,

André