NEWS WATCH: A Blend Between Cyberpunk & Classic Film Noir, JUNCTION JONES AND THE CORDUROY CONSPIRACY Is Coming Soon From SCOUT COMICS!

By Matt Meyer

on January 16, 2023

Bio-engineered laborer Junction Jones and scruffy partner Mister Niblets stumble upon the remains of a rare Earth hobo landing them in the middle of an intergalactic conspiracy. From maniacal carnies to bloodthirsty bounty hunters, time-travel money laundering schemes to planet-sized gambling debts, the part-time private investigator and his alien pal (trapped in the body of a junkyard cat) will have to survive the worst the multi-dimensional slums of Junction City has to throw at them, if they are to unravel the train-hopping mystery (and avoid being recycled).

Junction Jones is a bio-engineered laborer manufactured with the sole purpose of being worked to death in the seedy underbelly of Junction City, the opulent vacation nexus between Time, Space, and Reality. Unfortunately, he was created with one fatal flaw: Sentience. To avoid being recycled or executed for the charge of lethargy, Jones scrapes out a living as a Private Investigator with his partner Mister Niblets, a 5th dimensional entity stuck in the wee body of a junkyard cat. Together, they illegally locate and salvage illicit organic matter that fall through gaps of reality and end up rotting in slummy alley ways. That is, until they are given an anonymous tip leading them to the decaying remains of a rare (?!) Earth hobo too hot to handle. To make matters worse, an army of undercover Junction Agents are there too – to cover up the dead body. Set-up, framed and on the run, they must solve the mystery before the law finds them first. Their only clues? A soiled business card and a telegram from Earth, circa 1938. Our part-time private investigator and his fuzzy friend will be forced to survive the worst the multi-dimensional slums of Junction City have to throw at them, if they are to unravel the train-hopping mystery and live to tell the tale.

In a press release from SCOUT COMICS TC Pescatore had the following to say about the book:

JUNCTION JONES AND THE CORDUROY CONSPIRACY began life as a surrealist pulp novella, a small exercise in understanding the great mythological history of an unknowable and lost America. Through the creation of tall tales and legends detailing the secret history of hobos I had hoped to grasp at and maybe find a piece of the wonder that comes from hearing the ghostly bellow of a distant freight train at night. After meeting Luciano all that changed. His vision, talent and intuitive understanding of the world of Junction propelled the project into new territories.
Together we built a meta-textual graphic experience, an absurdist hard Sci-fi noir that not only spans Hobo and labor history in 20th century America but in a way Time, Space and all of Reality itself. Pages filled not only with brilliant comic artwork but retro advertisements, journals, records, zines, pamphlets, blog posts, and more, all in service of creating a fully immersive and mysterious world to enjoy. I’m incredibly grateful that SCOUT COMICS put their trust in our strange little project and I just know we found the perfect home for the misadventures of JUNCTION JONES.

Locogonzales (Luciano Cruzado) added:

I had a blast drawing this story! I mean, Tom is a true madman! And then I had another blast knowing we were going to be par of the Scout comic’s INSANE catalog. So, what else can one ask? Oh yeah, read it!”

Creator Quotes:

Reviews

“If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if Mickey Spillane and HP Lovecraft got together with Phillip K Dick and ingested copious amounts of illicit substances, stayed up for a few weeks and came up with a hard-boiled, who-done-it murder mystery science fiction story, well, I’ve got good news for you! Junction Jones and The Corduroy Conspiracy has the answer you’ve been looking for! Part horror, part science fiction, part noir – think, Blade Runner meets LA Confidential meets Ghost in The Shell, with heavy doses of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York – drawing from innumerable things that have come before, and yet unlike quite anything you’ve ever read before, Junction Jones successfully does what so few other books can; it transports you to another world. A world, while not entirely unlike our own, is a twisted reflection fraught with untold dangers and corruption that goes to the very top. Join Jones, and his talking cat Nibs, as they attempt to unravel the Corduroy Conspiracy and don’t miss out on what’s sure to become an instant fan favorite with the new series coming from Scout Comics!”

~Uncle Jerk Roman Rathert, JerkComic on Youtube

“Weird and super gross!”

~Chris Burnham, Nameless, Batman Inc., CREEPSHOW, Die! Die! Die!