Broken Frontier

In a fantasy world reminiscent of ancient China, three domains known as the “Shattered Kingdoms” have become deadlocked in their struggle for supremacy and entered into a war of espionage and dirty tricks. Standing in the way of each emperor’s ambitions, however, are the IMPERIAL DRAGONS, an elite order of martial artists left over from the old empire who work to keep the balance of power from tipping into any one emperor’s favor. Unfortunately, the Imperial Dragons have grown corrupt in recent generations, and many are on the payroll of one, two, or three emperors at any given time.

The story begins with an agent from the Northern Kingdom nicknamed “The Eternal” who is sent into the southern region to steal a sword that serves as the sacred symbol of the southern emperor’s power and authority. As the Eternal makes his return to the northern kingdom, however, he is stopped in a bordertown called Qi Akuto where the Imperial Dragons are searching for him. The Eternal learns that help is on the way from the north, but he cannot be sure who can be trusted in the meantime. Trapped in Qi Akuto, the Eternal has no choice but to lay low and search for a safe way out of the city so that he can complete his mission.

Here are some of our comments about the story, which you may use in the preview if you like:

Sean J. Jordan, the writer of the book, had the following to say: “IMPERIAL DRAGONS is a fierce work of imagination that was originally meant to be a different book entirely. Les and Ernst Dabel created the original story, but scrapped it and decided to offer the basic concept to me to develop. I was intrigued, though not so much at the pitch as I was at the idea that this was a story where any character could be killed at any time. Les and Ernst handed me about 20 character drawings, told me I was free to do whatever I liked with the characters so long as they appeared for at least one panel in the story, and set me lose. For some reason, the story struck me right, and I was inspired – so much so that I came back the next day with a complete story synopsis and went on to finish the first script in under a week.

“I like intelligent stories, I love cliffhangers, and I always enjoy fast-moving plots that take liberal twists and turns. I structured IMPERIAL DRAGONS to be the sort of story where you never know what will happen next … and while I’m sure that will be harder to keep up down the road, I think readers are going to love the first four-issue story arc. It’s got a little bit of everything for everyone, and anyone who enjoys comics, martial arts films or anime should appreciate this story.