Cosmic Roots Studios; crowdfunded

About 17 years ago, way before he ever dreamed up his highly enjoyable, crowdfunded Savage Sasquanaut, writer-color artist Wes Hartman teamed up with Gold Digger’s Fred Perry to unleash Sky Sharks. The five-issue adventure was told with a manga-ish flare in a dieselpunk style (like steampunk, but a different level of technology). For all its trappings, though, it was Hartman’s self-professed love letter to Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer.

For the most part, the series came and went without attracting much attention, and both creators moved onto other material. In the intervening decade and a half, Hartman became well known as a creator, particularly as a color artist (he even has a few Overstreet covers to his credit).

As he gained experience, though, the story never left Hartman, and how he’s tweaked, upgraded, and remastered the material into the first of three new editions.

In this first issue, the color was the prime recipient of the upgrades, but there are subtle tweaks throughout, and the longer page length really adds to the experience.

I’m looking forward to the next two issues!

 – J.C. Vaughn