THE MERCENARY SEA sets sail to adventure

A new ongoing action series set in a world on the brink of war

Action and adventure await aboard The Venture! Set in 1938, Kel Symons (I LOVE TROUBLE) and Mathew Reynolds' (Marlow) new series THE MERCENARY SEA stars ex-bootlegger Captain Jack Harper and his crew of expats, mercenaries, and treasure hunters. They sail the South Seas at an uneasy time for the world, right when Japan has invaded China and War in Europe looks unavoidable.

The Venture’s crew is a unique group of characters all with checkered pasts. “There's definitely some conflict—perhaps mostly between Jack and Wulf, the venerable German sub captain who serves as his first officer,” said Symons. “But they're more or less a tight extended family. They're not pirates or ruffians—they're mercenaries, obviously out for a paycheck, but they have a strong moral compass guiding them.”

Inspiration for THE MERCENARY SEA came from various pop culture influences that Symons and Reynolds felt passionately about. “One of our guideposts for The Mercenary Sea was that we wanted to do a comic that was essentially like a lost Howard Hawks movie. A lot of Hawks' films deal with desperate men in far-flung places, away from any support or help, where they're forced to rely on themselves or fail: Only Angels Have Wings, The Thing from Another World, Rio Bravo, To Have and Have Not,” said Symons. “Howard Hawks was our spirit animal on this one.”

Battling pirates, headhunters, spies, and soldiers, the crew is always one step away from the greatest score of their lives. But it might not be that way for long...

THE MERCENARY SEA #1 is the first in a new ongoing action/adventure series which will be available in stores on February 12, 2014 for $2.99. Pre-orders can be placed using Diamond Code DEC130492.