A Sci-FI Slice-of-Life Story Featuring AI Pirates, Cross-Species Friendships, and Meticulous Worldbuilding
Iron Circus — the premiere publisher of award-winning, critically-acclaimed graphic novels in the American Midwest, which has raised nearly 5 million dollars via crowdfunding — is proud to announce its latest campaign for RUNAWAY TO THE STARS, a hard sci-fi slice-of-life graphic novel from cartoonist Jay Eaton that will immerse readers in a universe at once intriguingly alien and painfully familiar. The main storyline follows Talita, a centaur aerospace engineer and cross-species foster kid, as she befriends a shipwrecked AI pirate named Bip who convinces Talita to help it escape the planet of Dirtball. Focused on communication, accommodation, and everyday life in co-species spaces, the intricate and meticulously built world of RUNAWAY TO THE STARS will travel to readers on this planet via Kickstarter this spring. Head to Kickstarter to support the the campaign.
“This book is the culmination of over a decade of chipping away at a science fiction setting and the interesting people living there, and I’m very excited to finally be able to share this labor of love with the world and introduce everyone to these characters,” said cartoonist Jay Eaton. “It continually delights me how many different people have seen their lives reflected in the fictional struggles and triumphs of Talita and her friends. Whether you’re a 3-meter tall alien woman, a GMO catgirl, a sapient quantum computer, or a human being, I think there is something to find of yourself in RUNAWAY TO THE STARS.”
Abandoned as an infant on the doorstep of the Nexus Jovia youth foster care facility in a cat carrier, centaur and aerospace engineer Talita has no idea where she came from. She’s spent the vast majority of her life around humans, has very little familiarity with her own species’ cultures, and has always had trouble connecting with anyone — other than sentient AI beings, that is. So when Talita discovers a damaged Centaur spaceship in the Ixion Recycling Plant’s salvage yard with a pirate AI onboard named Bip, she quickly becomes drawn into its plans to escape the planet of Dirtball. But her two human friends, Idrisah and Gillie, aren’t about to let her commit crimes on behalf of a shady AI… not without their help, of course! Because Bip, the pilot of the Runaway, is definitely not telling Talita everything about what happened to the ship’s now-deceased centaur crew, or what mission they might have been on. But despite Bip’s suspiciously shady past, the AI is a charmer and quickly gets the team on board to help. Now all they have to do is secretly repair the ship and get all the clearances needed to file a flight plan… Of course, they just can’t get caught doing it.
“This story is for everyone who’s ever felt displaced, othered, or unheard — and every reader that loves a good sci-fi story and is intrigued by what secrets a sentient pirate AI might be hiding,” said Iron Circus Publisher C. Spike Trotman. “One of the (many) things that makes RUNAWAY TO THE STARS so great is Jay’s attention to the complexities of communication. We have Gillie, a genetically-modified human who is Deaf, forced to deal with clunky and ineffective tech in her efforts to communicate; Idrisah, a professional xenolinguist who can communicate with double-larynxed alien Avians, but can’t fluently speak in either of her family’s languages; and Talita, whose social anxiety and fear of inconveniencing others gets her taken advantage of, despite her towering height and fearsome appearance. This singular graphic novel is a testament to the fact that our all-too-human faults and anxieties are universal concerns — no matter your point of origin!”
RUNAWAY TO THE STARS’ intricately-built primary story is supplemented with immersive appendices and overflowing with additional context. The campaign will also feature extras such as an exclusive bookplate and a discounted bundle of Iron Circus titles hand-picked by cartoonist Jay Eaton.
To support the campaign for RUNAWAY TO THE STARS, head to Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ironspike/runaway-to-the-stars?ref=afkj6x
About the publisher
C. Spike Trotman (she/her) was born in DC, raised in MD, and lives in IL. An artist and writer, she founded Iron Circus Comics in 2007, which has since grown to become the region’s largest comics publisher. Her notable work includes the webcomic “Templar, Arizona,” the Smut Peddler series of erotic comic anthologies, and Poorcraft, a graphic novel guide to frugal living. A Kickstarter early adopter, she pioneered the widely-adopted bonus model that’s since completely reshaped the pay system of the small press, jump-starting the current renaissance of alt-comics anthologies. Iron Circus is also the first comics publisher of note to fully incorporate crowdfunding into its business model, inventing one of the single most effective uses of new media in comics publishing today.
About the creator
Jay Eaton is an artist with a compulsive need to figure out how everything works and why. While their background is in horticulture and evolutionary biology, Jay is also fascinated by linguistics, speculative technology, and all the jobs behind the scenes of civilization that keep the lights on and the water running. Their worldbuilding projects focus on creating interesting characters who live ordinary lives within extraordinary settings.