Renegade Robots And A Dying Earth In ‘Signa’ — Live Now On Kickstarter
by Brendan M. Allen
Upstart indie publisher Pan-Universal Galactic Worldwide (PUG-W), founded by former Marvel Comics publisher John Nee and former IDW Editor-in-Chief John Barber, has launched the Kickstarter for Signa, an original post-apocalyptic survival tale. With two weeks left, the campaign is already 130% funded
A war with renegade mining robots transformed the sun into a red giant, dooming Earth. A hundred years later, the grandchildren of that war struggle to survive off the ashes of the past. That is, until a scavenger named Ketna Vora and her crew find SIGNA, an old war mech that thinks it might know how to save the solar system. But the real question is who they will save it for, because after a century… the machines have returned.
“I’ve always loved science fiction—I was the kid that liked anything with lasers and spaceships. And if you’ve followed my work before, you know I like robots, and I really like using them to tell big-scale stories with my friend and collaborator Andrew Lee Griffith. That comes together in SIGNA,” John Barber said in a statement. “We’re trying to pull in some of the energy of Star Wars, Transformers, and Mechwarrior and mix with old school SF writers like Heinlien and Haldeman with contemporary influences like The Expanse, Martha Wells, and Becky Chambers. Andrew and I like to push our characters to the limit and see what they’re really made out of, and that’s what we’re doing here.”
“To me the heart of the book is the friendship between our lead, Ketna Vora, and the SIGNA mech as they go on this adventure,” added Griffith. “Ketna’s got some baggage, and while capable and smart, tends to shoot from the hip and lacks the experience that a more seasoned adventurer or spacefarer might have. So, it will be interesting to see her character bounce off of this mech that is basically a new unique form of artificial life that has essentially just opened its eyes to the world and has a fresh-eyed and naive, perhaps even pragmatic way of looking at things.”
The book’s kickstarter campaign showcases a 48-page exclusive hardcover edition of the first chapter of the Signa Universe. Backer rewards kick in at the $15 level for a PDF of Signa #1. Physical copies kick in at the $35 level. Various bundles and covers are available at middle tiers. Script and portfolio reviews, original artwork, Zoom calls, and cameos in the book are available at the higher end. Check out the campaign at this link.
Shipping is not included in the pledges, so be sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the campaign page to see the shipping rates that will be tacked on after the campaign closes.
