Artist Afua Richardson will dive into a new project at Image Comics this May — Aquarius: The Book of Mer, a quarterly series that will draw from mermaid myths and legends from all over the world.
“I like to look into the origins of things and find what is knowable of our history philosophy, and metaphors that may represent natural phenomena,” Richardson told ComicBook.com. “When looking into the origins of mermaids there seemed to be such a vast culture stretching everywhere I looked. Each land having a flood myth with common themes of half human half aquatic beings that pulled on the strings of nature and the emotions of humans. Where did it come from? What were their names and characteristics? It’s so easy to find what separates us these days. Leave it up to legend to reveal the rivers of our mythologies share a common source of inspiration.”
Here’s how Image describes the series: A visionary new comic, Aquarius: The Book of Mer is a modern retelling of mermaid myths and legends from all over the world. In 1983 Harlem, something surfaces from the haunted lake of Astara’s dreams. She’s plagued by visions of ancestors, monsters and Merfolk. What will she sacrifice to finally have peace?
Richardson ran a Kickstarter campaign for the first issue in January, raising almost $50,000. Each issue will be accompanied by music produced, performed and written by Richardson and some of her friends, including guitarist and songwriter Micheal Smith, producer Paul Ritchie , bass player John Ferrara, guitarist Kahil Ferraris and Darryl McDaniels of Run DMC. You can hear a demo of one of the songs here.
David Mack will provide a variant cover for the first issue:
And here’s some additional artwork:
