Kickstarting Comics: ‘WarFighter’ — “A Graphic Exploration Of Resilience, Performance And Augmentation In War”
by Richard Bruton
Laurence Alison combines with artists including David Hitchcock and Warwick Fraser Coombe to explore the history and myth of St George in WarFighter – raising funds on Kickstarter now –
Laurence Alison, writer of the excellent Hedrek, teams up with David Hitchcock again, plus Warwick Fraser Coombe, Steven Austin, Paul McCaffrey, and Luke Michael Copsey for a Kickstarter investigating the history of Saint George across three different tales that explore the complex origins and stories surrounding the myth of St George.
This is a patron saint that doesn’t, however much some on the far right would have you believe, belong just to the English. As Alison mentions:
“He is claimed by Armenia, Germany, Lithuania, Portugal, Malta, Antoci, Gena, and many others. He is identified with the Islamic hero Al Khidr. There is merit in the notion he was born in Turkey and others claim he was Palestinian or of Nubian ancestry… As such George isn’t the exclusive ownership of the English and the warrior Saint has many complex and multifarious facets. His sacrifice, torture and heroism is at the forefront of all these versions though and a deeper, more layered even pre Christian more pagan set of attributes also reside within the legend connected to the Green Man, mummer plays and ancient folklore that touches upon concepts such a nature, life and rebirth.”
Laurence Alison first got involved with Saint George, patron saint of England and elsewhere, when he was drawing and inking Faren Short’s Atomic Crusader strip in 1983 at the age of 14, and he drew three issues before the ‘fanzine’ that it appeared in, ‘Shokwave’, ceased.
Now, he returns to the myth and the legend and the complex history of Saint George in WarFighter in an updated version, honouring Faren’s memory; he passed away from cancer at a young age. Alison’s kept many of Faren’s original ideas, including time travel, human augmentation, and cybernetics to give us a very different look at St George.
After working with Faren at 14, Alison ended up in psychology, working with military personnel and working on topics as diverse as critical incident decision-making, stress, resilience, trauma recovery, human augmentation and AI – all themes touched upon in this new version of the St George legend.
In WarFighter, Laurence explores so many different concepts; the idea of an ‘evil’ St George, different brain lateralisation, and situations where two sacred values colliding can cause decision inertia, conflict and trauma.
The two St Georges provides Alison an opportunity to use allegory to present internal conflict, all of which, as he points out, is ‘consistent with the notion that there was another George (George of Cappadocia) who Edward Gibbon in ‘The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’ argued was an ‘evil man of dubious character’.’
He also uses the tale to explore the ways that the armed forces, particularly in Britain, are often ‘paradoxically portrayed and much misunderstood by the media and general public and in which the truth is far more complex, nuanced and ethically confusing.’
WarFighter consists of three stories – Beginning with the five-part The Divided Saint: The Legend of St. George, illustrated by David Hitchcock, Warwick Fraser Coombe, and Paul McCaffrey. After that, there are three tales illustrated by Steven Austin – War is Hell, Vitruvius, and The Warrior in the Garden, all specifically written for this project
The Divided Saint – The Legend of St. George: Chapter One – Illustrated by David Hitchcock
Chapters Two & Three – Illustrated by Warwick Fraser Coombe
Chapters Four & Five – Illustrated by Paul McCaffrey
War is Hell – Illustrated by Steve Austin
Vitruvius – Illustrated by Steve Austin
The Warrior in the Garden – Illustrated by Steve Austin
Rewards for the comic include two different covers, the standard cover edition by Warwick Fraser Coombe and the variant cover edition by Luke Michael Copsey (aka Luna). There’s a t-shirt on offer, A6 B&W commission by Steve Austin, A5 B&W sketch by Paul McCaffrey, A5 B&W commission by Warwick Fraser Coombe, and A4 colour artwork from Legend of St. George by David Hitchcock.
WarFighter is written by Laurence Alison and illustrated by Warwick Fraser Coombe, Steven Austin, David Hitchcock, Paul McCaffrey and Luke Michael Copsey.
