Is this true? Are we hungry for genre comics?

Kandora Publishing is betting on it, and if the last gasp of CrossGen Comics proved anything, it's that yes, the market would like something other than superheroes. Pirates, while not monkeys or robots, certainly fills that bill. They're hot, and yet the market doesn't seem flooded with them.

While you wait for Disney to decide if it wants to do anything with El Cazador, Kandora Publishing will fill the void in your hearts with Barbarossa and the Lost Corsairs. They'll be following that up with a variety of projects with one apparent simple rule: no spandex.

We can live with that.

From Kandora:

Kandora Publishing is set to enter the comics market with four new monthly titles, the first of which will be on sale in March 2005 and available to order in the January issue of Diamond Comic Distributors’ Previews.

This first new series is titled Barbarossa and the Lost Corsairs and is written by industry veteran Brian Augustyn with art by H.S. Park, colors by Transparency Digital and letters by Dave Lanphear. Barbarossa and the Lost Corsairs is a pirate fantasy tale that begins on the high seas of Earth during the Middle Ages but winds up on a strange world in which the waterways are filled with giant, dangerous sea monsters. Barbarossa and his crew must figure out where they are, how they got there and how they can get home. But first, they’ll pillage and plunder as much as they can.

Kandora Publishing is entering the market at a time when genre stories are in demand. The company plans to release three additional monthly titles, each one beginning in subsequent months from the release of Barbarossa and the Lost Corsairs. The company’s initial releases are:

March 2005 – Barbarossa and the Lost Corsairs – High seas pirate fantasy adventure

April 2005 – Jade Fire – A mystical martial arts tale

May 2005 – Savage World – The saga of an apocalyptic, dark fantasy Earth

June 2005 – Monarch of Manhattan – Modern day urban sword and sorcery comedy

Each monthly Kandora Publishing issue will feature 32 pages of full color story and art for the cover price of $3.50. Kandora Publishing has recruited veteran writer Brian Augustyn and newcomer C. Edward Sellner plus some of the finest artistic talent in Asia who are combining the look of traditional American comics with Asian style drawings to offer the US market a unique product.

“With the unfortunate demise of CrossGen, there was an opening for a publisher to create genre stories and an audience that was looking for them,” said Kandora vice-president, Tom Lee. “Kandora wants to fill that need. And in doing so, we guarantee high-quality full color art, compelling stories, more pages on a monthly basis than any other publisher and all at a reasonable cover price. I think we’ll have something that everyone will want to read and I hope that the package will be attractive enough for readers to try.”

For more information, be sure to check out the Kandora Publishing web site at: www.kandorapublishing.com.

Derek McCaw