Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá's blog

Where great men go to die


It's just amazing how good can an unknown comic book be. We expect nothing less from comics made by the big companies, mainly because there's a lot of money involved in making them, so they better be good, but when you have a comic book that is made by a small independent publishing company (so small it's practically a one man show) that has a cover that looks this good, you should really check this out, even if you never heard anything from the creators involved.

And so you can read something about the creators, here's the press release for this book:

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HORNS OF HATTIN

"O Death, thou comest when I had thee least in mind!"

So cries Everyman, the carefree protagonist of medieval literature's classic morality play, The Summoning of Everyman, when commanded by God to judgment. In a graphic adaptation, writer Shane L. Amaya
(Roland: Days of Wrath; Lord Takeyama) and artist Bruno D'Angelo (Prey; Lord Takeyama), set Everyman's tale in Jerusalem, in the late 12th century between the Second and Third Crusades, on the eve of a historical battle known as the Horns of Hattin. The armies of the King of Jerusalem stand arrayed against Saladin, medieval Islam's most famous Sultan, at whose hands the Latin army suffers a defeat that stuns Christendom.

In Horns of Hattin, Everyman is transformed from an allegory for the stage into a faithless Crusader who must reconcile his sins against his good deeds; prove the faith he has in friends, strength, kinsmen, and material things; and find salvation before his life's end, speared on the field of battle. The political intrigue, Everyman's role as a Crusader knight, his spiritual quest, and the disaster at Hattin combine to make a story that is at once medieval and contemporary.

Horns of Hattin is the third collaboration between Amaya and D'Angelo, and Amaya's second adaptation of a medieval classic. The action of the first, Roland: Days of Wrath, a retelling of the French epic poem,The Song of Roland, also centers on a historical defeat for Christians: the 778 A.D. battle in which Charlemagne's rear-guard was ambushed by Saracen brigands in the Pyrenees.

Horns of Hattin is published by Terra Major, established in 1999 as an independent publisher of historical fiction, and is the publisher's first original graphic novel (OGN). Horns of Hattin will debut in July, at San Diego Comic-Con International.

Horns of Hattin is a softcover OGN, 120 black-and-white pages in length, and will retail for $15 US. Intended for mature readers, it is currently listed in Diamond's Previews catalog (MAY04 2901; ISBN 0-9704149-1-9) for products shipping in July.