Artemis & The Assassin's Stephanie Phillips Welcomes You to the World of Time Travel, Spies, and Assassins

Among today's fantastic lineup of comics is a brand new series from AfterShock Comics titled [...]

Among today's fantastic lineup of comics is a brand new series from AfterShock Comics titled Artemis & Assassin, and if you've been looking for a book not quite like any other, this is most definitely your jam. The series centers around an assassin named Maya, who is part of an organization that has their agents travel through time and interfere in key moments that will change history. One such moment involves Virginia Hall, one of the biggest spies in World War II who was responsible for carrying plans about the invasion of Normandy to the Allied forces. Maya wants to see that she never succeeds, but Virginia isn't going down without a fight. The new series comes from writer Stephanie Phillips and artists Meghan Hetrick and Francesca Fantini, and we recently had a chance to talk to Phillips all about the new series.

We kicked things off with what inspired the premise of time travel and 1940s spy work. "I was inspired initially by old pulps and some of the best team-ups, like Doc Savage and The Shadow," Phillips said. "I love the idea of two unlikely partners coming together to save the day, overcoming their differences along the way. My goal with the series was to throw to unlikely characters into an impossible situation – a situation that is constantly changing location and time period – and watch them struggle together. Add to it that one character is hellbent on killing the other… seemed fun! Plus, Virginia Hall is legitimately one of the most badass characters in history. Period."

The series is not restricted to World War II though despite that being the kickoff point, so expect plenty of fish out of water scenarios throughout history.

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(Photo: AfterShock Comics)

"While Virginia Hall's starting point is WWII, the story actually spends very little time in that setting," Phillips said. "I was more interested in having a real-life spy from WWII interacting in unexpected time period, like the Wild West, or modern-day New York. Working on Artemis kind of gives me the best of every world. With time-traveling characters, I can change up the setting within a page, which also means the obstacles and situations are endless for Virginia and Maya."

Now, time travel can be amazing, but it can also be tricky to get right, bringing with it some inherent challenges.

"Trying to keep timelines straight is definitely a challenge," Phillips said. "And I really don't want to have to explain how time travel works. It's all wibbly wobbly… etc. etc. My two favorite time travel stories are Stephen King's 11/22/1963 and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. I love "fish out of water" stories where we watch characters struggle to adjust to an unexpected time period. We will see that happen a lot with Virginia, who really serves as the audience's guide to the universe of Artemis & the Assassin."

"My absolute favorite era to play with was sending Virginia and Maya to the Wild West," Phillips said. "I absolutely love Westerns and had a lot of fun watching a spy from 1944 and an assassin from the distant future struggle to understand this new time period. It was a really cool way for me to play with the Western genre in a new way."

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(Photo: AfterShock Comics)

Maya happens to be one of the deadliest assassins in the world, but she has a surprisingly lighthearted inspiration. "Maya has the weirdest inspiration ever – my cat," Phillips said. "She's snarky, aloof, and all-around prickly. She's tough to get close to, but the truth is that she just has some trust issues and it will take a special kind of person to be patient enough to earn that trust. My cat is also named Maya…"

"Beyond my cat, Maya has some slight inspiration taken from Indian mythology," Phillips said. "There are a lot of great myths about legendary archers, so I wanted to draw on those in the story. Maya was also created to be a balance to Virginia. Virginia is driven, motivated, and passionate about her cause. It's what made her stand out as a great choice for the comic series. She is literally one of the most decorated spies in American history, and she doesn't get enough attention. But, if we put Virginia in a room with someone struggling to find a cause and a purpose, it only strengthens Virginia's resolve and helps Maya find her path."

The art team of Meghan Hetrick and Francesca Fantini are a natural fit for the book's tone and story, and that story is something they've had a large impact on throughout the process of creating the series.

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(Photo: AfterShock Comics)

"Both Meghan and Francesca are wonderful and have both really contributed to the overall story direction," Phillips said. "What surprises me the most is literally every time I see new art I love it more than the last time I saw new art. It's also really fun to grow a story with Meghan and Francesca – as I learn more about both artists, I can really tailor more content and scenes to their styles. It's great when you really hit that groove together."

While Virginia is already one of my favorite comic characters of 2020 (trust me, she's awesome), Maya is the one that fans will have to unravel the most throughout the series.

"Definitely Maya. It's hard not to give too much away, but I really love Maya," Phillips said. "The snark is strong with that one. Maya offers the most mystery as readers get to unravel her backstory throughout the series. Maya's own backstory is closely linked to the assassination organization. Readers will start to unravel both as we move through the story, and both are steeped in mythology and history."

If that sounds great to you, you can check out Artemis & Assassin #1 right now, available in comic stores and on digital platforms.

Let me know what you thought of the issue in the comments or feel free to hit me up on Twitter @MattAguilarCB for all things comics!

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