Anthony Zicari has been a long time friend of First Comics News. He has a new project at Ace Weekly and he stopped by to share the latest news about John Huner, Soldier of Fortune.
First Comics News: Who is John Hunter?
Anthony Zicari: John Hunter is a soldier of fortune, a pilot, a mercenary, a smuggler, a rogue, an adventurer, a jack of all trades, just trying his best to stay alive and make it through this crazy thing we call life, but at his core, he is a true hero. Putting others before himself.
1st: Who are the supporting cast members?
Anthony: There really is only one other main supporting cast member, Paco. Paco has quite a back story of his own as well and I am hopeful that we can delve into that in subsequent storylines. In regard to a little more about Paco, he is John’s best friend who just happens to be a wise-cracking, newsboy cap wearing, cigar-chomping ape. I shouldn’t say he is the only supporting character as there are other background supporting characters the ones that will appear specifically within each different story arc to help move the story along. If one proves well liked by the readers thought they just might make it to a series regular. This story includes Dr. Mitchell Richardson an Archaeologist and his daughter Estelle Richardson and then we have the bad guys/villains for this story but I don’t want to spoil anything by giving that away. Oh, and then there’s Goose, that’s the nickname John Hunter has for his pride and joy, his favorite Seaplane.
1st: When does John Hunter: Soldier of Fortune, take place?
Anthony: The world of John Hunter: Soldier of Fortune is set during the 1930s. This first story takes place in 1937 specifically.
1st: Where does John Hunter: Soldier of Fortune takes place?
Anthony: This story like all of John Hunter’s adventures are globetrotting extravaganzas. This one starts out in the Caribbean, then moves to the jungles and the ancient city of Teotihuacan, Mexico and finally culminates in the United States.
1st: What made Claudio Sepúlveda the right artist for this project?
Anthony: Well, besides the obvious which I will go into in a minute, Claudio and I go way back, we are close friends and I have the utmost respect for him as a person as well as an artist. We have worked together/collaborated on a large number of projects over the years and continue to do so. It’s just a really cool dynamic when it comes to us working together. It’s so easy. We work well together, we make a great team. There are never any egos involved. Most times we talk about a project, I send him a few sentences and he comes back with a design that looks like he reached into my head and pulled out exactly what I wanted bringing the characters/story to life. His artwork which you can see attached to this interview is filled with emotion, life and energy, and his style is unique and perfectly captures what I wanted to portray with this project. That old, scratchy, black and white movie serial look. He is truly an exceptionally talented and extremely gifted artist, but you don’t have to take my word for it, you can check his work out and make that determination for yourself by going to the following links at Instagram and Facebook. You’re welcome in advance and enjoy!
Instagram: Instagram.com/Claudio Sepúlveda
Facebook: Facebook.com/Claudio Sepúlveda
Facebook: Facebook.com/Death By Life
1st: When does the first issue come out?
Anthony: The first installment came out/was released on Monday, June 24th, 2019 in Volume #40 of Aces Weekly. Each following installment releases a week later on the following Monday until the complete volume has been released. We are currently about to start the third week of this volume on Monday, July 8th, 2019. The Publisher David Lloyd’s Aces Weekly is a weekly digital comic book anthology featuring some of the best talents in the industry. I felt this was the best way to release the project and the best Publisher to release the project through because the story is an homage to the old time golden age of Hollywood weekly movie serials that you would have to go back to the theater each week to see until you had watched the whole story and Aces Weekly being a weekly digital release lent itself perfectly to that model that I was trying to achieve with this project.
1st: How many chapters are there?
Anthony: For this first John Hunter: Soldier of Fortune story, which is subtitled “The Curse of the Aztecs” (all subsequent storylines will also carry a subtitled heading like the old movie serials such as Flash Gordon) there are seven weekly three page chapters. So, when this first adventure is complete it will be a total of a 21-page complete story. Following this first initial story I already have many other adventures for John Hunter and crew to embark on, so if you are enjoying the story please be sure to let David Lloyd and Aces Weekly know! Thanks in advance.
1st: What does it cost to subscribe?
Anthony: It cost just £1 per week in any currency to subscribe to Aces Weekly. You can check it out and find out more information by visiting the official web site here: AcesWeekly.co.uk