Dustin Gebel
IDW announces G. Willow Wilson returns to fantasy comics with a new series, The Hunger and the Dusk. The writer will be joined by artist Chris Wildgoose for the ongoing series that kicks off this July. The book promises high fantasy adventuring, swashbuckling battles and plenty of rich worldbuilding. The announcement also makes clear pulse-pounding romance is in the fabric of this story, and the premise of hot orcs is more than enough to deliver.
“During the pandemic, I thought a lot about the many different times in history when the world has come to an end. I was also revisiting the science fiction and fantasy comfort food that I grew up with, and bit by bit, almost like a bedtime story, this saga—with orcs and humans banding together in a world that is slowly becoming uninhabitable, with enemies facing the choice to stand together or die separately—began to take shape,” says Wilson. “Ordinarily, high fantasy is not something I write a lot of, but coming out of the pandemic, I thought, ‘To hell with it. Death is coming for us all. Do what you love. Write the hot orc saga.’ And here we are!”
The series follows a dying world with the only survivors for now are humans and orcs vying for control of what remains. A new group, the ancient humanoid Vangol, appears from across the sea and the two societies will either need to learn how to cooperate or die at the hands of the invaders. Like any good fantasy adventure, a party of clashing personalities will be thrown together to face the oncoming threats, a political move to show human and orc commitment to the cause.
“My emotions are running high as The Hunger and the Dusk gets closer to finally being out into the wild,” says Wildgoose. “From the start, Willow handed me this lovely, detailed lore bible of the orc dynasties, their marriage ceremonies, what animals the different tribes hunt, bits of their folklore, where they migrate in the winter. Then we have the humans. Again, she gave me their history, details on some of the cities we may or may not even see in the first series. It was everything I’d hoped for as a starting point, and from there, Willow has let me work in my own high-fantasy tastes. It feels like a seamless union of two nerdy fantasy fans, and I’ve loved every second of the collaboration so far.”
Each issue of The Hunger and The Dusk will be available with multiple variant covers. Every issue’s Cover A will feature series artist Chris Wildgoose, while Cover B will be illustrated by Cliff Chiang. Rotating artists will provide each Cover C month to month, with InHyuk Lee, Nick Robles, and Jessica Fong assuming cover art duties for the first three issues respectively. The A and B Covers can be seen below, along with a detailed synopsis for the series:
In a dying world, only humans and orcs remain, mortal enemies battling for territory and political advantage. But when a group of fearsome ancient humanoids known as the Vangol arrive from across the sea, the two struggling civilizations are forced into a fragile alliance to protect what they have built.
As a gesture of his commitment to the cause, the most powerful orc overlord, Troth Icemane, sends his beloved cousin, Tara, a high-ranking young healer, to fight alongside brash human commander Callum Battlechild and his company of warriors. With a crisis looming, the success of this unlikely pair’s partnership and the survival of their peoples will depend on their ability to unlearn a lifetime of antagonistic instincts toward one another…and rise above the sting of heartbreak.