ComiXology Originals has announced their newest project new post-apocalyptic survival series Snow Angels from the creative team of Jeff Lemire (Descender, Essex County, Family Tree) and visionary British artist Jock (Wytches, Batman: The Black Mirror, The Batman Who Laughs) on Feb. 16, 2021.
Snow Angels is a limited series (10 issues) that tells the coming-of-age sci-fi saga of two young girls named Milliken and Mae who reside in the Trench, a vast settlement of people seeking to exist within the towering ice walls of an endless icy road gouged into the surface of a frozen wasteland.
In this world, the Trenchfolk survive in this savage world by following The Three Testaments of The Trench — golden rules repeated like a mantra from birth to death…
- YOU MUST NEVER LEAVE THE TRENCH.
- THE TRENCH PROVIDES.
- THE TRENCH IS ENDLESS.
On Milliken’s 12th birthday, their father takes the two girls on an overnight skate down the trench to instruct them on how to fish the frozen river, how to hunt beastly Trenchdogs that roam its frigid banks, and how to offer up thanks to their wintry Gods — The Colden Ones. It’s the outing of a lifetime until the sisters breach the borders of their humble world and awaken the Trench’s mysterious defender… The Snowman!
In an exclusive interview with SyFy Wire, Jeff Lemire explained more about Snow Angels, a series partly inspired by Lemire’s love of the Canadian winters and ice hockey is one of his older projects that he has had gestating for a long period of time and similar to his other books such as Gideon Falls and Black Hammer.
“I came up with Snow Angels in my sketchbooks way back in 2008, around the same time I came up with the initial Black Hammer characters,” Lemire says in the interview. “It was going to be a project I drew myself, but the timing never worked out. Then in 2014 I approached Jock about doing it together, as it seemed I would never have the time to draw it myself.”
Lemire continued, saying:
“I have always been a HUGE fan of Jock’s both as a person and a cartoonist and really wanted to work with him. It seemed like a perfect fit. Of course it’s taken us quite a while to get to this point where our schedules both lined up, but after all that I’m obviously pretty excited to see it published.
Snow Angels is all about family and community. These girls have lived in this isolated and tight knit community all their lives and as the story begins they literally do not know anything else. And then we follow them as they begin to travel further and further from home. The guiding light is their bond with one another and with their father.
“I know that I am a huge cliche, but so be it. I have spent a lot of time on frozen lakes and ponds skating and playing hockey and this really did spring out of that. Taking what I love about the stark winter landscape and also adding desolate and dangerous genre elements to it.”
When asked about working with his creative partner Jock for the very first time, Lemire said that Jock is just one of many magical elements of this provocative new sci-fi series, then adding:
“As I said, I love Jock’s art. His expressive, stark style is perfect for the world of Snow Angels. There is a minimalism to Snow Angels, and a lesser artist would use that as a shortcut but for Jock all that white and negative space become an important visual tool. And he really does bring a humanity to the characters that is vital.”
Snow Angels is a member of the comiXology Originals line of exclusive digital content only available on comiXology and Kindle. Beginning Feb. 16 it’s free as part of a comiXology Unlimited subscription, Kindle Unlimited, or Amazon Prime.