Science Fiction Bounty Hunter Returns; she and her creator have a long journey ahead
Ron Randall presented “TREKKER: The Sci-Fi Retrofuture is here.” at the Northwest Comic Fest on August 14, 2015. TREKKER is Randall’s labor of love, and he has returned to it and to the lead Mercy St. Clair with “Train to Avalon” after a 12-year gap.
“The series is really about the long journey,” says Randall, “that she doesn’t know she is on.” When Darkhorse approached Randall about doing a comic book in the 1980s, the company said that he would be able to do anything he wanted. Randall decided to call their bluff and pitch a science fiction comic about a female bounty hunter. Trekker was approved. Randall had a moment of hesitation but decided to move forward with the comic because he would probably never get an opportunity to create the story he wanted again. “It’s a great passion,” says Randall. “It was important to make it as believable as I could.” While today’s atmosphere for science fiction and strong female leads has improved, that wasn’t necessarily the case in the ‘80s. A female lead brought a different energy to the comic book than a male lead would have, and science fiction provided flexibility in setting and feel. “You can sort of cheat it into almost any genre,” says Randall. The TREKKER Omnibus, which Randall made as exhaustive as possible with all of the old stories and updated with some color pages, and “Train to Avalon” are available on Amazon.com. Read What is the most important part of comic book creation? Read more about Northwest Comic Fest 2015 |
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