Now that we’re a couple weeks into the Year of the Dragon, Magma Comix has officially announced The Scale Trade, the new modern fantasy series by Steve Orlando and Megan Huang. Magma mentioned it last month when the publisher started unveiling their 2024 slate.
In any event, the new series sounds great — set in a modern world where dragons still exist but are high on the endangered species list, one man takes a stand against the poachers and corrupt governments that want their scales.
“The Scale Trade was absolutely influenced by the depravity of the illegal exotic meat trade, poaching, and specifically the street-level vigilance against the abuse of horses and sale of horse meat in a variety of parts of the country,” said Orlando. “We wanted to talk about these things, but also thrill and excite on an elevated scale (no pun intended). So we built a world where dragons were part of the animal kingdom, where THEY, these creatures that awe us, were also some of the most valuable commodities in the world. It’s a modern fantasy—not high fantasy or low sword and sorcery. At the end of the day it’s about the way we as a species interact with nature—concepts bigger and older than us—and how we tend to commodify life on this planet. At the core, The Scale Trade is about heroic animal rescue. A man and his dog… if his dog was a majestic flying lizard.”
Here’s how Magma describes the series:
In a modern-day world one step removed from our own, dragons are a highly respected—and highly endangered—species, but poaching is an existential threat. When a young idealist joins the federal agency tasked with managing dragon populations, he quickly discovers that the entire system is corrupt. After seeing firsthand the cruelty of the system, our newly radicalized dragon savior takes matters into his own hands!
“When Steve asked if I’d like to be a part of the project and said ‘Dragons’ I was in immediately,” Huang said. “Anything to draw a dragon story… and not just any dragon story, one with a modern twist! I think the How to Train your Dragon films specifically influenced me on this one, because to me, The Scale Trade feels like a mature, modern version of that.”
Here’s a look at the first issue’s variant cover by Max Dunbar and an incentive cover by Walt Simonson:
Look for the first issue to soar into stores on May 1.