Eisner-Nominated Cartoonist Brings Original Digital Graphic Novel to Stela: Comics For Your Phone
Ethan Young’s ‘Pilgrim Finch’ exclusively debuts on Stela: Comics For Your Phone today.
Stela: Comics For Your Phone is pleased to announce the first chapter release of Eisner-nominated cartoonist Ethan Young’s Pilgrim Finch, a Stela-exclusive digital graphic novel.
When a malfunction during cryo-sleep sends his ship off course, interstellar explorer and animal collector Finch finds himself on a strange alien world called Zumeroc. His ship damaged beyond repair, he must learn to survive in the mysterious jungle filled with large monoliths depicting strange beasts–not to mention the spooky shadow dogging his steps. Finch will need to learn how to negotiate the native population while overcoming his own issues and will need to call upon all his resourcefulness and learning if he hopes to make it through the night.
“I wanted to commemorate my son’s birth, and had the idea of tackling his first few weeks of life as a sci-fi story,” Young said. “Pilgrim Finch wakes up in a strange world the same way a newborn enters existence: scared, hungry, anxious, bewildered, and we watch him develop into someone with realness and personality.”
Charming and insightful with Ethan Young’s signature style of storytelling, Pilgrim Finch is the latest in a run of critically acclaimed projects for the author—but this time, he’s working in a brand new format: Stela’s infinite vertical scroll.
“It’s very freeing in many ways, to break free from standard storytelling formats,” Young said. “But it also forces me to rethink storytelling crutches I’ve become accustomed to. It’s sort of like the first time you start drawing digitally, and you have to think in layers, step by step, versus a straight-to-pencil approach. The more challenging part is the silence. I miss exposition.”
“I, naturally, wanted to work more with Ethan, one of the most talented storytellers I’ve had the pleasure to edit, and thankfully he had an engaging, interesting, and thrilling story locked and loaded with Pilgrim Finch that felt like a natural fit for the vertical storytelling format of Stela,” said Stela: Comics For Your Phone senior editor Jim Gibbons. “Like the rest of Ethan’s exceptional work, it’s sure to be a modern classic!”
The first chapter of Pilgrim Finch is available today for free on the Stela: Comics For Your Phone app, and Ethan Young is available for interview.
Subscribe today, and get access to the entire Stela: Comics For Your Phone library, including future chapters of Pilgrim Finch.
About Stela: Comics For Your Phone
Featured on NPR Marketplace, Entertainment Weekly, Tech Times, and more, Stela: Comics For Your Phone is the newest way to enjoy original, premium content streamed directly to your smartphone. The app contains daily updates from dozens of award-winning writers and illustrators such as Evan Dorkin, Sarah Dyer, Joe Casey, Ronald Wimberly, Stuart Moore, Irene Koh, and many, many others.
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