If you went to New York Comic Con last year and ventured into Artist Alley you were met with a huge booth belonging to one Sandstorm Comics. It quickly became the talk among comics people who wanted to know who they were and what their story was. They sponsored the Alley and were handing out samplers of their line of comics, hinting at a longer tenure at the space as both a sponsor and a new attention-worthy presence in the industry.
This year, Sandstorm returns as both sponsor and exhibitor, but with a more robust graphic novel offering that aims at cementing their place as a serious comics publisher. To promote their expanded list of books, they’ll also be hosting a panel on Saturday, October 11th, running from 3:15 to 4:15pm. It’ll take place in room 1C03 and it will go into detail on their year as a comics publisher from the Arab world and how their stories reflect that identity.
Their most popular books is called Solarblader, written and edited by Mo Abedin (the Editor-in-Chief of Sandstorm Comics) and illustrated by Ozgur Yildirim. It’s been promoted as a solarpunk story set in a future where underground groups host dangerous races and solar power is its own currency.
The book, which will be available at the Sandstorm booth, focuses on a young underground racer that discovers a new alien lifeform that’s being sought after by a mysterious organization. It features extensive worldbuilding and a fair investment in lore and backstory. It takes place in Abu Dhabi in the year 2587, a high tech cultural hub where aliens, robots, and other species coexist, making for an environment where hidden agendas and public policy clash on a daily basis.
It reminds somewhat of Blade Runner in this sense. Future Abu Dhabi is presented as a multilayered setting that is bursting at the seams with competing histories and communities. The action, though, takes more after movies like Tron and even sports anime. Races are hard-hitting and intense, all of them kinetic explosions of violence and color that look ready-made for animation. Artist Yildirim is at the top of his game here, giving each panel a sense of immediacy that always keeps the story moving forward.
Among the publisher’s other comics are Acro and the Cat and All Upon a Time, both manga-inspired and light-hearted. Created by Teko Mamaladze, Acro follows a professor of fear and phobia that loses his terror-inducing powers after inviting a stray cat into his home. All Upon a Time, written by Sara Al-Mutawa and illustrated by Lucjan Pakulski, is a riff on classic fairy tale tropes. A villain kidnaps the wrong royal subject and then lives to regret it as his prisoner is more trouble than he bargained for.
To get a peek at what the future holds for Sandstorm, make sure to plan a stop at their booth this coming NYCC. Some eleven books will be on sale there, with five launching at the con itself. Two Sandstorm titles have been reformatted into vertical scroll as well and will be releasing on the Wednesday of NYCC.
You won’t be able to miss Sandstorm Comics this year, the same way you couldn’t miss them last year. Their booth will be at the mouth of Artist Alley, and they’ll be going harder on pushing the stories out into the world. The arrival of new players is always exciting, so keep them on your radar. You never know where the next comic book classic will come from.
English (US) · 