IDW Publishing Announces The 7th Sword

IDW Publishing has announced The 7th Sword, the third series coming from their Darby Pop imprint. The series comes from John Raffo, screenwriter for Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, and artist Nelson Blake II.

On a planet where explosive weaponry is unusable, Daniel Cray — a Samurai mercenary — stumbles upon the legendary city of ZenZion, a mysterious desert outpost currently under siege from a vicious warlord. The peace-loving citizenry beg Cray to help defend them… forcing Cray to reluctantly draw his deadly "Malathane" sword one last time to battle a relentless army of robots and their savage masters.

"I've always loved the mid-century habit of retelling of Japanese Samurai stories as American westerns (and vice-versa). They were all simple tales of redemption and ambiguity cast in vastly different worlds. I wondered what would happen if you took that combination and refashioned it again with elements of fantasy and Science Fiction. I thought you might wind up with a modern and compellingly different hybrid..." said John Raffo, "but as I started hacking away I realized this was a story that had to be told visually. Darby Pop and their incredibly talented artists helped me develop this bit of oddball alchemy into what I think is a beautiful comic series." The series will run for seven issues, with cover from Blake and The Fifth Beetle artist, Andrew C. Robinson. The 7th Sword is set to debut in April, 2014.