This full-color graphic novel is based on legendary accounts about an abandoned U.S. military base (sometimes referred to as Area 51 East) located off the eastern end of Long Island, New York, and the strange events that allegedly took place there. Four senior high school friends, including two smart kick-ass young women, wander onto the decommissioned military base and are soon drawn to mysterious shield-like alien objects hidden in one of the base's underground tunnels. The strange objects transform the friends into the incarnations of powerful warriors that once protected another world in another dimension. And just in time-As all hell is about to be unleashed on Earth ... and they must deal with the consequences of accepting unexamined things into their lives!
ShieldMaster: The Phoenix Project (Vol 1), follows the bande dessinée style (connected story strips), and reads like a sci-fi animated adventure as it introduces ShieldMaster and the ShieldMaster team's new world of humans with sudden alien powers -- A mash-up, send-off homage of retro comic book iconography and story that flashes like a blinding lightsaber among sci-fi, adventure, fantasy, superheroes, teen angst, alien power transfer, and the legendary Montauk Project/Conspiracy ... ShieldMaster: The Phoenix Project is a dead-on scatter-shot homage blast in part inspired by Joe Simon, creator, with Jack Kirby, of the iconic comic book and blockbuster movie superhero, Captain America!
Author Biography:
Jim Simon is a professional writer. He has written novels, comics, picture books, television/film, and has authored nonfiction books about comics and their creators, including a book on pulp art. His writings on comic book history have been published in books for Marvel Entertainment, DC Entertainment, Titan Publishing, Abrams ComicArts, and elsewhere. Jim has been interviewed in newspapers, on radio, and appeared in the 2016 television movie/documentary, Marvel's Captain America: 75 Heroic Years. His father, Joe Simon, with Jack Kirby, created the blockbuster movie and comic book icon, Captain America, among other legendary comic book creations. Joe Simon contributed some of his last art to ShieldMaster. A legendary figure in comics, he was a renowned comic book writer, artist, inker, designer, editor and publisher who created or co-created many important characters in comic books, and who served as the first editor of Timely Comics, the company that would evolve into Marvel Comics. With Jack Kirby, Joe Simon co-created Captain America, one of comics' most enduring superheroes, and the team worked extensively on such features as DC's Sandman, co-created the Newsboy Legion, the Boy Commandos, and Manhunter. Simon & Kirby creations for other publishers include Fighting American. In the late 1940s, Simon and Kirby created the field of romance comics, and were among the earliest pioneers of horror comics. Joe Simon also created Adventures of The Fly, and his Joe Simon Studio produced other comics and media until he passed away in December, 2011.
