Famous Eisner-award-winning comic creator Mark Wheatley has just announced the long-awaited return of his personal fanzine, Nucleus, featuring work from Neil Gaiman!
The 10th issue of Nucleus, known as Nucleus X, will launch through a Kickstarter campaign from mid-August, and will be “a celebration of art, comics, stories, and an illustrated poem from Gaiman“.
Wheatley and Gaiman have both collaborated with Marc Hempel in the past, with Gaiman writing the introduction to Wheatley and Hempel’s Breathtaker graphic novel.
Wheatley, who’s also known for being a designed for the likes of Lady Gaga, the Black-Eye Peas, and television dramas, said: “I’m putting a lot into it.”
That’s putting it mildly. This exciting issue will consist of at least two volumes and span over 100 pages! It’ll come with its own special collector’s box, featuring portfolios of Wheatley’s illustrations for the works of Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs, along with some other very cool stuff.
Also within this apparent love letter to fans, will be illustrated reviews of books by Andre Norton and Robert A. Heinlein, and an exploration of some of the more significant movies to inspire Wheatley’s creative journey. He’s really holding nothing back!
Well, it looks fantastic! Check out the illustrated poem from Gaiman below:
Wheatley said: “Nucleus X transcends the boundaries of a mere book, offering an immersive experience that will captivate enthusiasts [of his work].”
Nucleus X will also come complete with a CD of theme songs Wheatley recorded to be used with his various comics and graphic novel throughout his career.
According to Wheatley:
In a different life, I might have had a career in music. Back in the day, I turned down recording contracts with Columbia and Capital simply because I was already contracted to create monthly comics.
Gaiman will feature over multiple pages, and is a work originally illustrated by Wheatley for another project – however, it’s been repainted exclusively for Nucleus. The piece is called And There Was Joy.
As for Gaiman’s contribution, Wheatley said:
Neil’s piece turned out to be sad, joyful, beautiful, terrifying, and gut-wrenchingly emotional. This is everything the world has come to expect from Neil’s work. When Neil agreed to allow me to use ‘And There Was Joy’ in NUCLEUS X, I had to extend the page size to fit the new format. And once I started painting around the edges, I ended up stripping everything back to my original roughs and research, resulting in essentially new paintings.
Another collaborator for Nucleus X is Gary Henry, who was actually one of Wheatley’s original assistant editors back in the early days of Nucleus. They worked together as teenagers, and has now contributed a new story, with Wheatley working on the illustrations.
Hempel is also returning to the fray, and is working with Wheatley on their introduction to the upcoming MARS comic.
Nucleus X will launch on Kickstarter in mid-August, will be published by Insight Studios, and will include some earlybird specials, according to the horse’s mouth! Wheatley has said he wants to reward his long-term fans.
What do you think? Measured observations are welcome and you can leave them in the comment section below.
