Dept. H and Black Badge writer Matt Kindt is teaming up with Barbarian Lord creator Matt Smith for a new miniseries from BOOM! Studios. Folklords is about” a young man whose forbidden quest reveals the shocking truth about his world and turns everything he ever knew upside down.”
“Ideas usually sneak up on you. But this one came in a flash. As soon as my plucky editor, Eric, said the word ‘Folklords,’ I had an image of this teenage kid in a black suit and tie…walking through a small folk tale-style village full of gnomes, witches and trolls. It looked jarring, seeing that kid there. He was completely out of place. What’s this kid wearing a suit for? Is he living in a fairy tale? Why is he there?” Kindt said in a press release. “I’m not sure why the word triggered that image in my head but I didn’t question it. The question I did have? Who the heck are the Folklords? This kid…in this suit and tie…who doesn’t seem to belong? He’s going to find out.”
Here’s how BOOM! describes the series:
In a world of magic and monsters, Ansel is an outsider haunted by visions of well-pressed suits and modern technology. When it comes time for him to declare his Quest on his 16th birthday, Ansel decides to seek out a legend that is only spoken in hushed whispers—the Folklords—hoping they can explain his visions…but looking for the Folklords is expressly forbidden and going on a rogue quest is punishable by death. What will Ansel risk to find out about the world he has never truly belonged in?
Kindt and Smith previously worked together on a Planet of the Apes story for BOOM!.
“Getting to work with Matt Kindt again was something I couldn’t pass up. He brings a depth and thoughtfulness to the characters that makes me want to invest in them. That’s what I look for in a script. Well, that and a great story to put those characters in,” said artist Matt Smith. “Of course, it also doesn’t hurt that there are armored librarians, psychotic killers, angry gnomes, and a big ol’ troll, too. Ok, forget all that stuff about depth and whatever, it’s about the troll.”
The first issue will feature a main cover by Smith, as well as a variant cover by Duncan Fregredo:
“We’ve all had that sense that we just don’t fit in, that there’s some other world out there where we truly belong — and for Ansel, that might just be the case,” said Eric Harburn, Senior Editor, BOOM! Studios. “Matt Kindt and Matt Smith, along with colorist Chris O’Halloran and letterer Jim Campbell, are a powerhouse team with a brilliant new take on the epic fantasy quest, one that no reader will see coming.”
Check out some of Smith’s character concepts below. The first issue arrives in November.
