Posted in: Comics, IDW | Tagged: Earthdivers, idw

Earthdivers Must Kill Columbus and Stop America at IDW in October

Published Mon, 20 Jun 2022 15:27:10 -0500

This October at IDW, Indigenous survivors of a climate apocalypse must save the world by traveling in time to kill Christopher Columbus and prevent America from ever existing. From author Stephen Graham Jones, artist Davide Gianfelice, colorist Joana Lafuente, and letterer Steve Wands, Earthdivers will feature variant covers by the likes of Rafael Albuquerque, Maria Wolf, Aaron Campbell, and Christian Ward." The book was announced back in April as part of a full slate of creator-owned books IDW hopes can replace the licenses they've been losing left and right lately, with just a short synopsis. Now, we have full details on Earthdivers and some preview art as well.

Cerebral horror visionary and New York Times best-selling author Stephen Graham Jones, writer of acclaimed genre favorites The Only Good Indians and My Heart Is a Chainsaw, ventures deep into the bloody terrain of American colonial history this October with the launch of his new ongoing comic book series Earthdivers from IDW. With art by Davide Gianfelice (Ghosted, Daredevil: Reborn), colors by Joana Lafuente, and lettering by Steve Wands, Earthdivers was announced in April as part of the upcoming slate of original titles from IDW set to launch throughout 2022 and beyond.

Set in a postapocalyptic near future, Earthdivers follows a small group of Indigenous survivors who time-travel to prevent the creation of America and retroactively save the world from destruction. In each arc, they will target a pivotal point in history, beginning with a mission to kill Christopher Columbus in 1492.

Jones had the following to say in the press release:

A lot of us here in America who have been forcibly dispossessed, had genocide attempted against us, then been continually erased from history books, we've got a bone to pick with one of the people instrumental in facilitating all that: Christopher Columbus.

If you could go back in time, deal with one of your bullies, really put them in their place, then…maybe you do that, right? For American Indians, there have been a lot of those bullies we'd like to go back and put in their place, and Columbus is first on that list.

We totally feel him on that. If we could, we'd go back in time and stop those bullies at Marvel from canceling our favorite comic book series, X-Men Forever.

Gianelice added:

What I like most about drawing Earthdivers is the depth of feeling of the protagonists. Often they face very difficult and extreme situations, and I wonder what I would do in their place. I'm not ashamed to say that sometimes a shiver runs down my spine thinking about it.

Earthdivers teaches us a very important thing. We must take care of the place where we live and the people who live there, and right now, we are slowly destroying both. We may not get any second chances, but we do still have time to prevent all this from happening.

About that topic, Jones also said:

Postapocalyptic stories are always cautionary tales. Stories give us devices like time travel as a way of dealing with poor choices and regret. History isn't written in stone. Or if it is? Then go back, scratch it out. Write something better.

The press release also featured a quote by editor Maggie Howell, but Bleeding Cool has a strict "no editors" policy, which is why they refuse to hire one to prufereed theez arcticlez, so while we'd like to publish it, we're simply not allowed. Then again, if we had a time machine, we could go back in time, kill the typos, and prevent Bleeding Cool from suffering a grammatical disaster. Earthdivers #1 will be in stores this October.