Kickstarting Comics: Return To The Golden Age Of Superheroes And Hollywood With All-New ‘Alter Ego’ Graphic Novel

Alter Ego is a new graphic novel juts launched on Kickstarter by writer Nate Cosby (Cow Boy), artist Jacob Edgar, (James Bond) colourist Kike J. Diaz (Red Sonja), and letterer Rus Wooton (The Walking Dead). Set during the Golden Age of Hollywood and introducing super hero Whiz-Bang, who also patrols the night in a second superhero guise as Black Dog, here’s the full synopsis which you can find on the campaign page here:

“Hush-hush and on the QT, we present to you, dear reader, the Golden Age of Hollywood. Los Angeles is ripe with beautiful beaches and gorgeous movie stars, and there’s opportunity as far as the eye can wander. There is also, unfortunately, a supervillain problem, with rogues running rampant everywhere. During the day, the city is attacked by atomic robots, robbers that run football formations, and circus acts with a death wish! And by night? There’s an onslaught of gangsters with magic wands, feral beasts out for blood, and seedy criminal organizations conducting cosmic-powered turf wars. Welcome to the world of ALTER EGO, an action-packed, 100-page all-new, original graphic novel by Eisner-nominated writer Nate Cosby (Cow Boy), artist Jacob Edgar (James Bond), colorist Kike J. Diaz (Red Sonja), and letterer Rus Wooton (The Walking Dead).

In ALTER EGO, LA’s scandalous crime wave inspires two strikingly different heroes to spring into action. By day, the streets are protected by Whiz-Bang, a grinning, gregarious defender of goodness. By night, the City of Angels is defended by an entirely different kind of hero: The Black Dog appears in a cloud of smoke, a mysterious vigilante determined to strike fear in cowardly criminals. And unbeknownst to the mayor, the police force, the entire city…these radically different heroes share an incredible secret: They are the same man.

Ace Adams is a cocky stuntman who can throw himself off 20-story buildings, or scrap with a legion of thugs. Ace is the kind of guy that has a motor that won’t quit. He thinks he’s got the world on a string; all he has to do is keep pulling. This superhero thing is a gas, and it allows him to perform, in ways that he’s not able to in movies, now that his acting career is stalled. Who knows…if he saves enough people, maybe they’ll make a movie about him, and maybe he’ll star in it.”

Nate Cosby expands even further on the rather detailed synposis:

“When our story begins, Ace Adams has been successfully fighting crime by day as Whiz-Bang for a year. Whiz-Bang and his can-do attitude are beloved by everybody. He’s on posters and lunch boxes. He stars in comic books, and even has his own breakfast cereal! But when Ace chooses to also defend the night as The Black Dog, the balance begins to shift and what was once a blast for Ace becomes a deadly tightrope act. He’ll be faced with impossible choices, forced to compromise his moral code, and begin to question the entire purpose of his quest to always be there and save everyone.

“ALTER EGO is all about what it means to be a hero. Can you do more good if you’re a role model to kids and the community? Or is justice best dished out by a mysterious vigilante operating in the shadows? And when one man tries to be three people…who is he, really?”

Jacob Edgar added:

“In a lot of ways, ALTER EGO is exactly the kind of project I got into comics for. I’m an unabashed superhero fan, particularly superheroes flavored with the kind of swashbuckling adventure tone that we’re going for. I love bringing this elevated, fantasy version 40s/50s Hollywood to life and I think readers will be really excited by the characters and world Nate and I are creating. We’re jumping from bombastic superheroics, to noir, to Old West movie sets and so much more.  I think there’s an energy we’re putting into the book that I hope will leap off the page when people get ahold of it.”

As well as the regular cover by Jacob Edgar there will be variant covers by Wilfredo Torres (BANG!; Superman ’78), Phil Hester (Green Arrow, Justice League), Declan Shalvey (All-Star Batman, Moon Knight), Chris Eliopoulos (Ordinary People Change The World), and Sozomakia (Catwoman).

Pledges, as always, range from the moderate ($20 will get you a digital copy of the graphic novel) to the more luxurious pledges that include all kinds of add-ons, such as the $500 pledge which gets you a cameo in the book itself. You can check them all out here.