Rose City Roll Call: Team Amelia Cole (Knave, Kirkbride, Brokenshire) Sports a Table

Rose City Roll Call! Cambot! Gypsy! Tom Servo! Croooooow! Periscope! Dark Horse! Kurt Busiek! Ooooooooooonnnnni! It's another Panel Patter feature on creators and publishers who will be at Rose City Comic Con! You can find all our features for the show right here!

When Monkeybrain debuted as a publisher, one of its starting titles was Amelia Cole, a book about a young woman who shifted between the world we know and a world full of magic, helping out when she was able. But when she's challenged by the police for trying to do the right thing, Amelia finds herself transported into a third, hybrid world, where magic is limited.

Amelia's confused and hunted, but she fights on, ending up taking on the coveted role of Protector. But as she continues to try to do the right thing, it becomes clear her boss is not all he claims to be. The fallout from this revelation drives the current arc, which just finished up with digital issue 18.

At its heart, Amelia Cole is an urban fantasy playing a long game. What begins as a story you're pretty familiar with stretches and grows, becoming more intricate, something I predicted back when I reviewed the first trade for Newsarama. With the creative team really firing on all cylinders, this one keeps getting stronger.

Best of all, Amelia Cole has a lot of things going for it that make it stand out: For one, the protagonist is a young woman who is very human, and makes mistakes. She is incredibly powerful, is by far the central character, but she's not out to try and reverse all the negatives images of woman in comics. She wants to do good, like any hero. The second thing that's great is that while there are some darker themes, the series is solidly young adult in the same way that, say, Hunger Games is: You can give this to a 12 year old (or a mature 10 year old) and feel comfortable knowing the creators aren't going to pull something on you. At the same time, it's deep enough that if you're an adult, you'll want to read it, too.

Brokenshire's Daredevil

At Rose City, co-writers Adam P. Knave and D.J. Kirkbride will be joined by line artist Nick Brokenshire, to talk about Amelia Cole and sell you the first two trade paperbacks, which are published by IDW. They'll also have Amelia T-Shirts, temp tattoos while supplies last, and Brokenshire will be doing sketches during the show, as time permits. For those who want art of the series, Nick should have a few original pieces from the series and there will be prints for sale, too.

Knave and Kirkbride are a prolific pairing, and will also have copies of Never Ending, their series from Dark Horse about a man who has Superman-level powers but can't handle watching those around him age and die. Does great Guilt trump Great Responsibility?

And last but not least, anthology fans should pick up some copies of Popgun, the series Adam and D.J. co-edited from Image Comics. They'll be offering them for $20 each or $5 each if you buy two regularly priced books--like, say, both trades of Amelia Cole.

Wanna learn more about what it's like to collaborate on a book? You can find Team Amelia on the Monkeybrain Panel:

Monkeybrain Comics: The Collaborative Process (Panel Room 2, 1PM)

While some comics are the result of a single person writing and drawing their own work, many are the result of collaborations between writers and artists. But no two collaborations are the same. Join Monkeybrain Comics co-founder Chris Roberson and the creative teams behind some of Monkeybrain's most critically acclaimed titles, Christopher Sebela and Ibrahim Moustafa (High Crimes), Adam P. Knave, D.J. Kirkbride, Nick Brokenshire (Amelia Cole), David Walker, Carl Sciacchitano (Army of Dr. Moreau), and Paul Tobin, Colleen Coover (Bandette), for a discussion about how they work together.

Amelia Cole is a great series, made by great people, and I hope you'll stop by to see them at Rose City this year.

Can't make the show? You can find out more about Team Amelia on the web here.