Mission: Comics and Art, 2250 Mission Street in San Francisco, will celebrate Free Comic Book Day by hosting a signing with Chris Koehler and Sam Sattin. Koehler and Sattin have created the most recent entry into the dystopian, animist genre of comics: Legend. In an interview with Comics Alliance, Sattin described Legend as “What if a biological terror agent wiped out most of humanity, and our domesticated animals were left in charge? How would our dogs and cats set about ruling and rebuilding the world? Legend is the story of animals uniting to fight mutant creatures and attempting to restore the world their masters destroyed.”
Living in the Bay Area under the ever-looming threat of The Big One I often ponder the question “How would our dogs and cats set about ruling and rebuilding the world?” When I’m crushed to death during my commute through the Transbay Tube how will my dog and two cats survive? Will they overlook the differences between species and unite to rebuild the Bay Area as a canine/feline utopia? Would such a utopia be a dystopia for songbirds? Will my cats meet other dogs and finally realize my dog isn’t just a weird looking, spazzy cat?
I try not to think about being at home during the Earthquake apocalypse. I’ve heard too many reports on NPR about how much it screws up dogs when they’re forced to eat their dead owners so they don’t starve to death. And by too many reports I mean one. One NPR report about dogs eating owners was more than enough. Why did I read listen? And what’s the deal with cats apparently not showing any signs of psychological trauma after they eat their owners? (we all know the answer: the cats own us). I’m sorry I brought it up. Let’s get back to the main topic…
The Comics Alliance interview is a great read for insight into this series which drops on May 4. Sattin talks about being influenced by Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake and Richard Adams’ Watership Down.
Koehler says his influences are a combination of “the heavy shadows of film noir, the lyrical movement of Miyazaki.” Both of those influences come out strongly in the Comics Alliance preview pages.
Mission will be open from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. on May 7. Mission is combining Free Comic Book Day with a fundraiser for 826 Valencia. 826 Valencia “is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting under-resourced students ages six to eighteen with their creative and expository writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.”