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NYCC '15: David Lafuente Goes Valiant Exclusive For New Archer & Armstrong Series In 2016

Published Thu, 08 Oct 2015 13:00:53 -0500

Just announced at New York Comic-Con, Valiant has revealed its latest exclusive hire: former Ultimate Spider-Man artist David Lafuente, who is joining the publisher for the launch on a new Archer & Armstrong ongoing series called A&A in 2016. Launching next March, the new A&A series will be written by relative newcomer Rafer Roberts – a writer/artist best known for his indie series Plastic Farm and his unofficial Thanos/Darkseid "Carpool Buddies of Doom" mini-comic with Justin Jordan – in his first mainstream ongoing series.

Valiant EIC Warren Simons promises big things from Roberts and Lafuente in 2016:

"Since he first made his Valiant debut with a short story in X-O MANOWAR #25, we've been huge fans of Rafer Roberts and, with A&A, he's tapped into a brilliant high concept that is quintessentially Archer & Armstrong. Make no mistake: Rafer will be a major up-and-coming creator to watch in 2016. Joining him is the always incredible David Lafuente – one of the most gifted artists in the industry and a phenomenal collaborator to launch A&A in a big, big way. Having David join Valiant exclusively is incredibly exciting and his work on A&A might just be his best to date."

A veteran of several prominent series for Marvel and DC, including the second volume of Ultimate Spider-Man with Brian Michael Bendis and recent issues of Batgirl and Batman Eternal, Lafuente is the latest high-profile addition to Valiant's growing stable of exclusive artists that also includes Raul Allen, Doug Braithwaite, Mico Suayan, and others.

The new series will follow Armstrong as he descends into the depths of his magically bottomless satchel to retrieve a lost bottle of whiskey, only to be captured by an enemy he imprisoned (and then promptly forgot about) long ago…leaving Archer to lead a rescue mission through his partner's labyrinth-like collection of lost treasures and historical oddities. Here's how Valiant sums up the first storyline, aptly entitled "In the Bag":

Meet Armstrong: Since the ancient city of Ur, this immortal adventurer has spent the last 7,000 years drinking and carousing his way through history alongside some of the greatest merrymakers the world has ever known.

Meet Archer: A sheltered teenage martial arts master and expert marksman that was raised for a single purpose – to kill the devil incarnate. Little did he know that this undying evil was actually Armstrong (he's actually a pretty good guy…once you get to know him) and, since hitting the road together, the two have become great friends and even better partners.

Now: Archer is about to set off on his most dangerous mission yet – a quest into the mystic reaches of Armstrong's bottomless satchel to liberate his friend and comrade from the clutches of the mad god Bacchus! (Okay, so, Armstrong went into the satchel himself to get a bottle of whiskey that he kinda misplaced and got stuck. It's like the Amazon warehouse of arcane treasures in there…and he doesn't exactly have a maid service.)

Imprisoned in Armstrong's satchel for centuries, Bacchus now commands a legion of monsters, goblins and golems bent on escaping back into the world of man and enacting revenge on their captor… Can Archer single-handedly combat the godly embodiment of intoxication himself – and rescue his best buddy – without becoming lost amongst Armstrong's endless repository of bizarre artifacts and historical oddities in the process?