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Gears of War game designer Cliff Bleszinski is returning to the creative arts with a six-part comic book series dubbed Scrapper.
Scrapper is a sci-fi adventure (with dogs) which can be described as a mix between Brian K. Vaughan’s Pride of Baghdad and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner.
Over the course of a 26-year career, Bleszinski worked on a lot of big titles like Jazz Jackrabbit, Unreal, Gears of War, Bulletstorm, Fortnite, Lawbreakers and finally Radical Heights. But he retired from games in 2018 after shutting down Boss Key Productions.
He had left his longtime employer, Epic Games, in 2014 and started Boss Key Productions. But the company couldn’t quite get traction for the new games.
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After leaving games, Bleszinski made a foray into theater with works like Hadestown, a Tony Award winner. And now he is making his debut in comics writing with critically acclaimed co-writer Alex De Campi (Dracula, Motherf**Ker!, Parasocial) and up-and-coming artist Sandy Jarrell (Bombshells, Lynx) in the forthcoming Scrapper.
This sci-fi comic miniseries is set to launch this July from Image Comics.
“As a lifelong fan of comics it’s an honor to actually create one with Alex,” said Bleszinski, in a statement “Scrapper comes from the heart; first, the loss of my Aussie Teddy and then finding puppy love again with our Pomsky Lady. I truly hope everyone enjoys this deeply personal work.”
Sci-fi-style action mixes with big emotions as stray dog Scrapper and his buddy Tank fight for justice against the totalitarian forces of a post-apocalyptic domed city. But when the fight comes to his home, Scrapper will face losing what’s most important to him—and gain a terrifying truth in the process, Image Comics said.
“It’s been a joy to get back to full-bore, edge-of-your seat action writing in a monthly comic, even more so when I get to base it around such a wonderful cast of urban animals as we’ve created in Scrapper,” said De Campi, in a statement. “If you have pets you love, or you’ve ever just wanted to pet the dog in a video game, this is the book for you.”
Scrapper No. 1 will be available at comic book shops on July 19.
Scrapper will also be available across many digital platforms, including Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, and Google Play.
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a group of bestselling artists and has gone on to become the second largest comics publisher in the United States.
The company currently has six people on the board of directors: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri, Jim Valentino and Eric Stephenson.
Last year, Bleszinski wrote a memoir called Control Freak and is a successful restaurateur in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he resides.
Will Bleszinski take Scrapper and turn it into a video game? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
