Fight for your right to Party - War Party

     Indie Comics Underground had the chance to sit down with Justin Murphy about his new project on IndieGogo - War Party.

First off, for anyone unfamiliar, can you give us a little of your background and how you got into comics?
    Superheroes thrived in the Jim Shooter days, and that’s when I was reading comics, but to be honest my favorite books were not superhero fare.  I loved The ‘Nam, Savage Sword of Conan and a little indie fantasy book called The Realm with art by Guy Davis. I published my first black and white series in 1992. It was distributed by Diamond and I continued self-publishing for five years. I returned to comics in 2008 with the Civil War Graphic Novel Cleburne and since have been in production with my animated feature film Dawgtown.  Channels like ComicArtistPro secrets and others got me back into comics when I saw what was happening with the industry and the possibilities of crowdfunding a book.

War Party is a fantasy/ adventure set in a real historical setting. What was the inspiration for the story?
   The Michael Mann film The Last of the Mohicans.  The French and Indian War was incredibly brutal and many frontier families and tribes suffered.  It was a wild and untamed land and seemed the perfect backdrop for a little werewolf action. Like Native American skinwalkers, Ancient Celts in Europe also wore the skins of beasts when they went into combat.  Often these warriors really believed they were transforming into an animal (after ingesting some potent liquids).  I got to thinking what if they really did? How cool would that be?  How would that give them an edge over their enemies? 

You even have a variant cover by the legendary Michael Golden! How did that come to pass?
   Timing. I happened to contact him when he was available. He found the project interesting and wanted to do it.  He illustrated the Eagle Cover which comes with the $50.00 Variant Perk. Preston Asevedo is also doing some sketch cards and a limited edition print that will be added to the campaign in the last two weeks.

War Party is being offered as a set of six floppy comics as opposed to collected in one trade. What was the idea behind that?
   Nostalgia. I always wanted to do a mini-series in the traditional comic book format. There's something about the saddle-stitched floppy that I find appealing; less formal and a little more fun. Backers will receive the entire set at once, so they won't have to wait to read the whole story, but they will have six different covers instead of just one.  All for just $25.00.

Do you have plans for future War Party comics beyond this six issue series?
   Yes.  Originally a stand-alone series was the plan, but as the story developed, my focus turned to the shaman character of Dyani.  Since one of her powers is cell regeneration, she ages very slowly(similar to Wolverine that way).  This opens up a lot of story possibilities in various time periods from the 1700s all the way to the present, and even beyond.  There is a hint of what’s to come in this story, but that’s all I will say about that.   I will probably follow up with Graphic Novel offshoots at around 64-100 pages, so this will be the only mini-series format.

BACK WAR PARTY ON INDIEGOGO

Follow War Party creator Justin Murphy on Twitter: @rampartpress