RUCKA, ONI DRAFT ROLSTON FOR SECOND TOUR ON QUEEN & COUNTRY #25, AND SCRIPTBOOK
When Greg Rucka and Oni Press first launched QUEEN & COUNTRY in March of 2001, Steve Rolston (ONE BAD DAY, MEK) was there to help usher in a brave new era in independent comics. This June, Rucka and Oni prove that you can indeed go home again, as Rolston returns for the special double-sized twenty-fifth issue that sees British Agent Tara Chace coping with a homecoming of her own as she pays a visit to her estranged mother.
“QUEEN & COUNTRY always seems to play against type,” commented Oni Press editor James Lucas Jones. “Any other ‘espionage’ comic would have a special anniversary issue with some big secret mission or long drawn out gunfight. Instead, Rucka and Rolston are giving us what readers of the series have really been clamoring for-more information on just who Tara Chace is and how she became the person she is now.”
While Tara’s visit to see her mum gives fans the opportunity to glimpse at some of the character’s early development, Oni Press is also offering readers a chance to look at the series genesis as well with a new scriptbook collecting the first four scripts along with exclusive early material from both Rucka and Rolston.
“The parallels between these two projects are interesting,” added Oni publisher Joe Nozemack. “Tara and her mother have a complex relationship that hints at Tara’s life before she joined the service. Rucka’s scripts are both complex and riveting. Looking directly at the source, the same text that directed Steve for those first four issues, gives new insights into both that first story arc and how Greg approaches the series to this day.”
While the events of QUEEN & COUNTRY #25 stand-alone as a complete story, it sets the stage for the new status quo for issue 26 and beyond.
“Rolston was here for the introduction of Tara Chace so his return for this very character-oriented tale made perfect sense,” concluded Jones. “His collaboration with Greg on this issue grows Tara as character and prepares readers both new and old, as well as Tara herself for the big changes that are in the pipeline!”
QUEEN & COUNTRY #25 features 48 black-and-white pages and arrives in comic book stores with a cover price of $5.99. QUEEN & COUNTRY SCRIPTBOOK TPB has 160 pages of text, illustrations, and sketches and is priced at $15.95. Both books are scheduled to arrive in comic book stores on June 16th, 2004.
Queen & Country TM & © 2004 Greg Rucka. All rights reserved.
