Hannah Templer of Jem and the Holograms fame is creating her first graphic novel, Cosmoknights, which will be released first as a webcomic and then as a graphic novel by Top Shelf.
Top Shelf decribes it as “a thrilling galactic adventure set in a world where mech-suited warriors duel over the daughters of the aristocracy, and a fledgling resistance of lady knights aim to bring down the system from within.”
“I first came up with Cosmoknights back in 2016 while wrestling with issues in my own life around gender, sexuality, marriage and the culture I was raised in. So, as I was sketching characters and situations, they pretty naturally materialized into a story about queer women fighting tooth-and-nail for their independence,” Templer told The Hollywood Reporter. “Contending with homophobia and misogyny while navigating a supposedly modern world, I wanted to explore that tension with the neo-medieval setting of Cosmoknights, where technology is advanced but gender roles are bound by these archaic rituals of jousting and costumes and prizes … of ‘winning’ someone’s ‘hand’ in marriage. But despite the potentially challenging subject matter, it was important to me to steer clear of doom and gloom — it’s a fun sci-fi comic about friendship, romance and kicking ass.”
The webcomic launches in March, with the graphic novel following in the fall.