Broken Frontier

Debuting this May via Ape Entertainment is the Kill the Revisionist! graphic novel from the creative team of Chad Lambert and Chris Steininger. It stars a hero with a difference... despite having wanted to be a super-hero all his life, once he becomes one he discovers he really doesn't like it at all!

The central character of the book is the disillusioned, and borderline psychotic, Jon Davis (aka the titular Revisionist). As series writer Chad Lambert explained to Broken Frontier, Davis is a likeable guy who wants to do what’s right. By day he is an office data clerk, madly in love with Sara, one of his co-workers. Having totally lost his way as a vigilante, he decides to bring Sara into his situation in the hope that she can help him out.

Opposing the Revisionist is the criminal organization known as The Cross who Lambert describes as "a VERY powerful criminal organization who wear black masks with a crimson cross across their faces. They have become a very formidable terrorist organization in a very corrupt society." Their new leader poses a particular threat as not only has he been on Earth since the dawn of man, but he’s taken a definite interest in the Revisionist, "specifically, whether or not the Revisionist can actually be killed."

The Revisionist has something of a prior history having first appeared in a series of short stories in the pages of Digital Webbing Presents in 2003. As Lambert explains "At the time, I was trying to write something a little less "indie", yet the way I wanted to tell the stories gave them a different vibe. The character made five appearances in DWP in short story form, but every page of every story points to the graphic novel. I always wanted to write a stand-alone book that told of the rise and fall of a vigilante. This is most definitely it."

It was a desire to do something different with the character and the total control the publisher gave Lambert over the project that led to the Revisionist landing at Ape. "Kill the Revisionist! is a departure from the DWP material, so Ape was the right publisher at the right time."

"My decision had nothing at all to do with Digital Webbing as a publisher. Ed Dukeshire is like a brother to me. At the time, I was writing BloodRayne for Digital Webbing, so I wanted to keep the properties separate. I’ve been working with Ape for over 5 years, so they knew this project was something very special to me so they grabbed it before a page was ever drawn."

On the visuals for Kill the Revisionist! is artist Chris Steininger whom Lambert infectiously enthuses about as the book’s ‘secret weapon’. "Comic fans are going to go nuts over these pages!" he says. "He really caught the mood I was going for in the script and delivered some really groundbreaking artwork. I think we’re going to see a lot more of Chris in the future."

For Chad Lambert, Kill the Revisionist! is just one of a number of ongoing projects. Also coming from Ape this September is his Return to Point Pleasant graphic novel, a collection of his Mothman comic book material. He is also working on BloodRayne: Prime Cuts for Digital Webbing – an experience he describes as "a blast".

With more books than ever on the shelves competing for readers’ money, new titles can often get lost in the crush. However, Lambert believes there’s something very different to Kill the Revisionist! that will surprise and entertain comics fans. "This book is not what you think it is. It is a very deep story told with very familiar archetypes — the kind of archetypes that made us fans of the medium in the first place. While it certainly isn’t a parody or satire of the genre, Kill the Revisionist! is very aware of itself and has some fun with that. It has a very direct, old school approach to storytelling that you don’t see much these days. It was a refreshing change to write, and hopefully that translates to the reader."

Kill the Revisionist! is on sale this May from Ape Entertainment. Previews Order Code: MAR083429