Feral Jundi

Thanks to David over at Kitup for getting the word out about this graphic novel. I have not had a chance to flip through this thing, but I wanted to get it out there as a very unique book for this industry to check out.

The authors and illustrator here have created not only a book and comic, but also the merchandise and FB role playing game to go with. That is smart business because all of it will help to promote the book. It will also help Hollywood and readers imagine the world that the author is describing, and that is what gives these types of books a lot of value.

I also thought it was interesting that if this ever was made into a movie, that the author had the actor Kurt Russell in mind as one of the leads. You never know?…..-Matt

Black Powder, Red Earth

By Jon Chang, Kane Smith, and Josh Taylor

2017. The nation of Iraq, mired in horrific civil war, splinters into three nations: Kurdistan, New Baghdad and Basran. Within 6 months Iranian religious, government and military proxies dominate Basran, host to over 60% of the former nation’s oil reserves.
Backed by Saudi petrodollars, the GCC(Gulf Cooperation Council) Protectorate contracts Cold Harbor, a private military corporation, to wage a war of ruthless intrigue and clandestine violence in the post-Iraq state using American special operations contractors.
2019. Now.

Check out their website here.
Buy the book at the Jundi Gear locker from Amazon here.

From an interview between John Chang, the creator of BPRE, and the blog Giant Robot.

MW: Where did the Black Powder \\ Red Earth story come from and why did you decide to turn into a game?

JC: Black Powder \\ Red Earth started out as a short story. As far back as 2002, I had begun interviewing a number of Special Operation Contractors who were rotating between CONUS (Continental U.S.) and Afghanistan (and later Iraq). These men had opened up a whole new world to me, where companies provided security, support, and operational services to a variety of U.S. government agencies. At the time, public awareness of such entities was very limited, so I began writing. This was the start of BPRE.
The story and characters went through many changes over the six years I worked on it. I tried to be ruthless with each draft, taking what worked and tossing the rest, crafting a tighter story, while, at the same time, working on a game experience set in the same universe.

Why games? I have been an avid gamer and creator for most of my life. Board games, pen-and-paper role-playing games, arcade games, card games, console games, computer games, etc.–I love the challenge of interacting with another world and then facing other people in it. To me games are more intimate than a book or movie, even though I love both those of mediums, because in a good game, it is your journey even when played through a protagonist….