Comic book store-turned-publisher Floating World Comics announced this week that they will publish a collection of one of my favorite comics of last year, The Secret Voice, in the spring of 2019. Created by Study Group Comics editor Zack Soto, The Secret Voice is about a warrior monk named Doctor Galapagos and his battles with The Smog Emperor.
“The Secret Voice is my own personal version of an epic fantasy saga,” Soto said. “Because I’m me, it’s a trippy, sometimes meandering affair that’s just as focused on the sense of space and atmosphere as it is on the big picture plot stuff. This project is a place for me to pour all my love of adventure & fantasy narratives, artcomics, manga, and eurocomics into one misshapen container. It’s about a big old fashioned land war driven by the invasion of a despot; it’s about a bunch of weird psychic warrior monks; it’s about wild kung fu magic battles; it’s about monsters and supernatural beings.. But it’s also about someone over their head and not being honest with themselves or the people they love, and figuring out how to own their mistakes.”
In addition FWC announced that they will offer Study Group’s entire catalog on their website, including works by Sam Alden, Farel Dalrymple, Kinoko Evans, Aleks Sennwald, Benjamin Marra, Tyler Landry, Pete Toms, Francois Vigneault, and many more. Per the press release, Soto “will be hanging up his publishing hat” to focus on his own comics, including more Secret Voice and an upcoming Young Adult series titled Power Button.
“I’m super stoked to have Floating World publishing The Secret Voice,” Soto said. “I’ve been friends with Jason for many years, but we’ve been collaborating and tabling as members of the Press Gang publishing co-op for 5+ years now, and I’ve always been wildly impressed with his acumen, taste and steadfast ethics. The book is going to be in great hands, and it’s going to be the nicest possible object we can make.”
The Secret Voice Volume One, written and drawn by Zack Soto, features color assists by Jason Fisher and pin-ups from Farel Dalrymple, Michel Fiffe, Sammy Harkham, Simon Roy and François Vigneault.
