Recently, former Spider-Man and Impulse writer Todd Dezago revealed that he and dozens of contributing artists had been working on a not-for-profit, oversized pair of Tellos hardcovers that will celebrate the life and legacy of Dezago’s co-creator and late friend, Mike Wieringo.
The series centered on a young protagonist named Jarek, his genie, and his anthropomorphic tiger companion Koj. The heroes strive to unravel the mystery behind Jarek’s origin and escape the attentions of a mad boy-wizard named Malesur who is seemingly bent on Jarek’s destruction. Along the way, they hook up with the likes of a pirate named Serra, a fox thief named Rikk (many of the characters were anthropomorphic, not just Koj), a dragon named Brad, and many more colorful characters.
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In the last few years, Dezago hasn’t done much work in mainstream comics and insted has focused on writing for the stage and for radio plays — for which he suggested he could have some Tellos-geared ideas.
“I do have actually an outline for a Tellos radio show that I think would be a lot of fun, but it’s finances,” Dezago told ComicBook.com. “People having the money and being able to monetize all of this creativity. The arts don’t always get it, but it does take a lot of money to be able to produce a comic book or a radio show. You need to be able to have certain things in place, to be able to hire people to play the different roles and to have the tech wherever you produce it, and it takes knowledge to be able to do it. I think Tellos could be wonderful.”
Dezago wrote and performed in The Perhapanauts: Monsters Among Us, or, Chimaera Wanna Tellya Somethin’!, a radio play based on characters he co-created with Craig Rousseau, one of the contributors to the new Tellos.
Besides the original 10-issue run by Dezago and Wieringo, who died ten years ago at 44 years old, the world of Tellos existed in a three-issue miniseries and a number of one-shots, with art by Wieringo and a number of other artists. Not long before he passed away, Wieringo had talked about working on new Tellos, and the final entry on his sketch blog was in fact an image of Jarek.
The Mike Wieringo Tellos Tribute is on sale for one more week, exclusively through a website set up by Dezago, Wieringo’s brother Matt Wieringo, and Matt’s wife Suzanne.
