Broken Frontier

May marks the public debut of the new CESA Universe, the unique fictional worlds of creator / writer / artist C. Edward Sellner. With the release of SoulStar #1 on the subscription website Astral Zone 4 on Friday May 13th, CESA went live!

“We’re very excited about the enthusiasm already shown from other professionals in the comics industry, and David Michaels, the head honcho over at AZ4.” Sellner said. “It’s even more exciting to know that two CESA related properties are already in active development with a top-notch comic studio, Kandora, and comic publisher, Speakeasy and these are just the beginning!”

So, just what is the CESA Universe? “Well, it’s a unique fictional and marketing experiment.” Sellner revealed.
In the tradition of prose ‘fictional worlds’ the CESA Universe is the singular vision of one man. “It’s not a hodge-podge of different writers piecing together a larger whole, but instead a guided tapestry of a fictional world.” But instead of focusing on one group of characters, or one time, the CESA Universe has major stories set over a period of time spanning some thirty billion years, dozens of worlds and starring hundreds of characters.
 “But, in the immortal words of a famous science fiction book…Don’t Panic!” Sellner laughs, “the CESA Universe is the world setting, but it’s the stories that are the substance.” Each story from CESA is designed to reward readers on multiple levels. “Our commitment is that if you only want to read a single CESA story, and NEVER touch anything else we do…you’ll get a complete and enjoyable story. You should, after all, every story should give satisfaction to the reader.” But, if once you get started, you find yourself wanting more…and we believe you will, there will be more indeed! “The reader that explores multiple stories, will very quickly see a pattern forming, growing increasingly rich and complex, adding layers of depth with each new chapter.” That depth won’t take the form of a forced continuity which somehow links everything together, but instead merely a sense of history, connection and organic continuity. “Characters we see young in one story, may show up in another story fifty years older, or their names may now be part of legends, or used in the name of a group centuries after they died” Sellner added. “Part of the intentionality of the CESA Universe is that when characters and settings are introduced, we’ve already set the overarching structure of their history. In other words, we know young Barbarian will grow into King Barbarian one day but that doesn’t rob the fun of reading his latest public exploits.” It is this approach which will add layers of depth to the larger picture. 

But CESA is not just a unique fictional creation, but also a unique marketing creation. “In deciding how we would launch, we wanted to keep in mind two very important groups of people: fans and retailers” Sellner said. “Often retailers may get a solid art preview of an upcoming comic series, but they don’t really know if the art carries a decent story or not. Likewise, fans, especially of a ‘universe’ may feel the need to shell out money on product they aren’t really interested in, in order to get the whole picture, or pre-order a book not really sure it’s going to be their ‘thing’. We wanted to try our best to help out both of these groups and think we’ve found a unique way.”

CESA has established a unique partnership with the subscription website Astral Zone 4. “For a very low subscription cost, really less than you would pay for your larger trade paperbacks or a single DVD, you can sign up for a full year.” Once signed up, you get unlimited access to all the CESA titles as they are posted. Free chapters of each serial arc, and series will also be available to ‘test’ before you even have to make that commitment, meaning every fan can get a feel for what CESA is all about before spending even a single penny! Then, for less than you would pay monthly for a single comic, you get access to the entire library of CESA content in development!  How much will that be? “Well, to begin with two new serial chapters will post every month, our first full novel will be up by Summer, and two more novellas by end of year, along with about a half dozen short stories. And in addition to us…there are a number of other stories on AZ4.”

CESA is targeting multi-media production on its library of properties, with the strongest focus on the comics and prose market. Each CESA story on AZ4 will be a prose storyline, featuring accompanying art. Properties that get picked up as comics will still have the prose versions published to the site. Obviously once prose market deals are made, certain properties may be pulled from the site, with the intent of not undermining sales of the novels, however, sample chapters will remain, or short stories spinning out of the longer story, so that fans can still test the property before investing in the purchase. For example, CESA’s Savage World and Monarch of Manhattan are already in active development as 4-issue mini-series, planning to ship this fall. Sample chapters of the prose novellas, based on the four issue series, will be promoted and debut on AZ4 this summer prior to the deadline to pre-order the first issues. They will be accompanied by art from the series for preview purposes. The goal being, fans can get a solid feel for the art, AND the story prior to committing to buying it, and in enough time to ensure they can pre-order it at their local comic shop.

Is there any concern this strategy could undercut sales? “Not really,” Sellner shared, “there is strong support that if someone likes a given story, they’re going to be curious and want to see it in different mediums. Just imagine if all the Lord of the Rings fans from the novels didn’t go see the movies, because they had already read the book. As a matter of fact, we hope the initial exposure will increase sales.” The philosophy being, if the story is posted on AZ4, it has had time to build a fan base, its already gotten exposure and media coverage, it has a track record. Fans will have the opportunity to voice their support for the story to make the leap into another medium. Then once it does, they will know exactly where to go in order to get it.

“We’re hoping retailers like this model as well” Sellner pointed out. With this approach, we can let retailers know how many fans have pledged to support the series, with special promotions we intend to do outside the comics’ community, we intend to draw in many new fans as well and send them to their local comic stores. “All that boils down to a much more solid idea for retailers to gauge just how to order CESA comics once they hit the stands.” Fans will have increased opportunity to place pre-orders and retailers can use the feedback to judge orders coming in.

“Overall we hope to keep fans happy by giving them all of the exposure to CESA they can handle at the best value on the market, retailers happy by giving them a better look at the product they will be receiving from us, and feedback from established fan bases for that product, in order to more accurately project their orders” Sellner added. “Not to mention even a better gauge for us to identify properties with a better sell-thru chance to prime for development.”

Upcoming Projects from CESA

SoulStar
Monthly Serial / Super-Hero Mixed Genre Series
Debuts May 13, 2005 on AZ4

He was a man, who became a warrior, who became a hero, and finally…became a legend. A Guardian of Creation, SoulStar is the epic time and space spanning adventures of a man who has been thrust into a position of awesome responsibilities and given powers beyond imagination, but at a cost hard to accept.
 
2050
Monthly Serial / Super-Hero Anthology Series
Debuts Late May 2005 on AZ4

It is said that on January 1, 2050, events were set in motion which would forever change the world as we know it. A world filled with heroes and heroines, powerful villains, mysterious races, startling aliens and many other secrets, 2050 is an anthology series which will unfold the CESA Universe as a fully realized fictional universe exploding with possibilities.
 
Books of Creation
Novel / 300+ Page Epic Cosmic Fantasy
Debuts Summer 2005
See the beginning of the CESA Universe! A modern re-imagining of the epic poem Paradise Lost. Journey back to the most Ancient of Days, in the Time Before Time and witness the first war. Lucifer, the Morningstar forms a rebellion of darkened Angels, whose mission is to destroy the Creator-Word-Spirit. A full novel that will bring to vivid life the world just beyond our senses!
 
Savage World
Comic & Novella Series / Apocalyptic Fantasy
Debuts this Fall from Kandora Publishing and Speakeasy Comics as a 4-Issue Full-Color Mini-Series
Preview it this Summer and read the entire Novella Series on AZ4 early 2006!
The day came that the earth as we know it ended. Ten thousand years later, it’s only gotten worse since. Torn asunder from the Space-Time Continuum, Earth is riddled with tears into nightmare realms beyond imagination. It’s also plagued by strange creatures who hunt in the night, and a race of living dead that threaten everything. In this world, humanity is dying out. One young man, by his destiny, will be either the savior of humanity…or the path to their ultimate doom.
 
Monarch of Manhattan
Novella Series / Modern-Day Sword and Sorcery Comedy
Debuts this Fall from Kandora Publishing and Speakeasy Comics as a 4-Issue Full-Color Mini-Series
Preview it this Summer and read the entire Novella Series on AZ4 early 2006!
From a time and place different then the here and now, Shakalla was destined to inherit the throne of the mightiest empire of his world and time. But that throne was stolen from him by the wizard Daemonn Thornne. Shakalla spent a lifetime fighting to regain that throne, then watched as his archenemy, on the verge of defeat, stepped through a mystic portal…and disappeared. Not to be denied, Shakalla leapt after him…and ended up in Central Park. Now, having lost everything else, there is one thing Shakalla will not be denied…he will be king!

More information on the Kandora / SpeakEasy comics series of Savage World and Monarch of Manhattan will be forthcoming soon. The series are tentatively slated for a July and August solicitation, respectively, to be released in October and November. Make sure you pre-order both at your local comics shop!

For more on the Kandora / SpeakEasy series, check their websites at www.speakeasycomics.com or www.kandorapublishing.com.

To check out Astral Zone 4, go to www.astralzone4.com and subscribe to get full access.