Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: demon days, march 2021, marvel, mokoko-verse, peach momoko, x-men

Peach Momoko Begins Momoko-Verse, Writes And Draws X-Men: Demon Days

Published Fri, 18 Dec 2020 15:43:01 -0600

Last updated Fri, 18 Dec 2020 15:49:41 -0600

When Marvel announced Japanese cover artist Peach Momoko as one of a group of exclusive creators signing to Marvel, Bleeding Cool wondered if she would be telling stories as well as creating covers. In America, we have only seen that in much sought after issues of Heavy Metal Magazine edited by Grant Morrison. Now we know that it will be a new X-Men comic dubbed Demon Days: X-Men – which points to other Demon Days comics to follow. Though it may take some time.

Peach Momoko Writes & Draws Her First Marvel Comic, X-Men: Demon Days — Credit: Peach Momoko and Marvel.

It will be the start of a five-part prestige series focusing on characters like Wolverine, Psylocke, Venom, and more by Peach Momoko. Each issue of the series, released once every three months, will feature popular Marvel heroes, as part of n interlinked storyline.

The Demon Days Saga will kick off when a wandering swordswoman with a psychic blade arrives at village that's being targeted by demons. One demon is black and white with a terrifying red tongue and another may be the strongest demon there is! Ready your katana and enter a mysterious world of demons, monsters, mutants, and magic in a stunning premiere issue that will present readers with a revolutionary reimagination of the Marvel Universe that could only come from Peach Momoko.

And it has been a long time coming. Peach Momoko says "I was first contacted by C.B. [Cebulski] around August 2020 to do a mini-series for Demon Days that I actually created the concept art for and pitched to C.B. in December 2018 (at that time, the title was different). And then I finally pitched a 23-page short story around March 2019. I didn't know if this would actually be used at the time, but I wanted to show Marvel my drive and passion. And as you know, after that I have been busy with covers."

"During this hectic cover rush of mine, in August 2020, I got an email from C.B. about Demon Days. My brain couldn't process it for a while. A dream come true – not only did Marvel offer me [the chance] to do interiors but do everything myself and tell a Marvel story like no other. A "Momoko-verse" was born. So I had "brain-adrenaline" happening at that time. Then within a week, C.B. emailed me [to tell me] not only will we start the Demon Days project… that I was officially one of Marvel's Stormbreakers. My brain surpassed the adrenaline and went into "full-on inner brain ecstasy."

"Because I love yōkai stories, horror stories, Japanese folktales, classic samurai tales… I wanted to tackle as much as possible telling these concepts with the Marvel characters and make something Marvel fans can still appreciate [while bringing] in a fresh direction. Also, I had to know how much I can push Marvel's boundaries in character designing and storytelling."

"The entire series takes place in Japan. I will be introducing numerous Marvel characters in a brand-new format. So, I would like everyone to forget about what they are supposed to be in the real Marvel universe. My characters aren't Super Heroes. Some are samurai; some are oni and other yōkai, some are shamans, some are yojimbos… and many others. I have kept many of their special power but also tweaked a lot to give it a natural yōkai story power. Again, I pushed a lot of boundaries with all the characters. I hope everyone enjoys the different versions that I created. But I kept enough that I think everyone can still know who each are."

"A lot of inspirations came from many different Japanese folktales that I grew up with. Also, when I was working on Upperdeck's Marvel Flair cards in 2018, I had Scarlet Samurai in my characters to paint. I daydreamed her stories since not only is Scarlet Samurai Japanese, but she is a female character and a samurai and has yakuza background. It was a character I felt I had to create a story for."

"There will be many recognizable faces in DEMON DAY: X-MEN. A lot of changes for many characters, editing a lot of outfits to fit in the Japan atmosphere. But I kept a lot of small details that create the original Marvel Universe characters."

This is going to sell quite a lot, is it not?