Chris Schweizer Crafts A Tale Of Swords And Swashbuckling With ‘Outlaw’s Apprentice’
by Anton Kromoff
Welcome to the table,
Chris Schweizer is one of those people. He somehow manages to be so profoundly talented, kind, and well-learned that he is destined to live on in stories around campfires and card tables for generations to come. His latest project, Outlaw’s Apprentice: Broken Blade, is launching on Kickstarter very soon.
One of Schweizer’s passions is swashbuckling fantasy, deeply influenced by true historical moments, and the culture of greater Appalachia. Schweizer has spent the grand majority of his life crafting, creating, educating, and exploring in the Allegheny Mountains.
Right now, Outlaw’s Apprentice is being serialized on Webtoon for free, and shows no signs of leaving that platform any time soon. However, when you are trying to get these captivating stories into print, there comes a time when you have to find the funds for a print run. In this case, Kickstarter is where Schweizer has decided to go to make things happen.
For those not dialed in to this historical story of hammers and heroes, Outlaw’s Apprentice follows the tale of Otis, a teenage artist-in-training. He learns how to fight and survive under the tutelage of Erska, the former mercenary to whom he was apprenticed before the vile actions of those with to much power and not enough mind to use it justly, force them to have to go on the run.
There is always an ease and fluidity to Schweizer’s work. Much like any time I have spent with the man himself, you are bound to learn a thing or two as you travel through the paneled pages. There is such care and attention to the historical accuracy in Outlaw’s Apprentice that it’s hard not to feel improved without the weight of homework and the heavy-handed approach of pop quizzes weighing over your head.
Outlaw’s Apprentice: Broken Blade will be published in both a digital PDF and a high-quality mass market paperback-sized graphic novel. There will be upper-level tiers for the Kickstarter that will have original art for the book, a sketchbook full of character and environmental designs, an oversized “Drawing Desk” edition which reproduces the original art at size as well as roughs and pencils for 75 of the pages, and even a hand-made replica of the eponymous sword itself.
We can expect this to launch on June 30th, so be sure to head over to this link and make sure you are signed up for notifications as it goes live.
Until next time, if anyone can make really amazing art objects, you can trust it’s going to be Chris Schweizer, so I, for one, can’t wait to see what the replica looks like.
