After an extremely trying week for Alterna Comics’ founder and publisher Peter Simeti announced a brand new title, Gods and Gears. Simeti faced vile attacks from a former Comics Alliance writer for simply thanking his fans. He was also the subject of a hit piece from CBR and was widely criticized for his social media policy for Alterna Comics.
On his live stream where he announced Gods and Gears, Simeti also revealed he received five death threats and that people declared him a Nazi.
https://youtu.be/sYfKSfZ1Rk4
Gods and Gears will be written by Ryan Winn with art by Dean Kotz.
Winn released a mock up for the book:
Since @petersimeti mentioned it on yesterday’s stream I wanted to share the news. @ALTERNACOMICS will be publishing GODS AND GEARS 2019. Written by me with art by the amazing @deankotz! Here is a mock up for some promos we are working on. Straight up adventure. #TeamComics pic.twitter.com/ha2m7Qy60z
— Ryan Winn- adventures in inking (@ryanwinn) September 5, 2018
Peter followed it up with how excited he was to announce the new project.
So excited and honored to announce this new series, GODS AND GEARS, coming in 2019 to @ALTERNACOMICS — courtesy of @ryanwinn and @deankotz! https://t.co/0rb2VzI9Vi
— peter simeti loves comics (@petersimeti) September 6, 2018
We reached out to Ryan Winn to get some details on what this new comic is all about!
Winn told us the story will be a “classic call to adventure story.” He elaborated, ” Two boys crossing the jungles of South America to discover the truth about the god like aliens that brought their science and magic here millions of years ago. Along the way they are forced to learn the value of friendship and family.”
He specifically mentioned the story will revolve “around friendship and family. We want to appeal to your eyes and your heart.”
Gods and Gears will be a 30 page, four issue miniseries that has a clear ending. However, Winn told us they do have set-ups for at least three other miniseries.
Winn also explained to us why he choose to work with Alterna Comics for this project:
I was originally going to self publish this myself under my own label, Knovelty Comics, a tiny label I set up to house projects my friends and I do for fun. We started with my series [easyazon_link identifier=”B00LLGB8U8″ locale=”US” tag=”boundingintocomics-20″]Death Betty[/easyazon_link] (issues 0-2 are available on Comixology for $1) and GODS AND GEARS was up next. But after seeing the success of Alterna’s newsprint line, and enjoying it so much myself I started to rethink.
I’ve been aware of Alterna for quite a few years having read their anthologies and random series on Comixology. But really over the last year I have had the opportunity to get to know Peter as I helped spread the word about Alterna. We jammed on some art pieces on our YouTube channels, and shared info on indie marketing and sales.
The more I got to know him, and saw how big his heart was and how bold his ideas were I couldn’t help but think this was the place for us. Our artist, Dean Kotz and I had some good discussions and the pros beat the cons by a landslide so we pitched it to Peter. Another time I’ll tell the story of that, because while his heart is big, we still had to prove ourselves to him.
There’s also a possibility that an IndieGoGo may be launched for the project. However, Winn was firm that he is “starting a Patreon to help raise funds to give Dean a better page rate.”
We also spoke with Alterna Comics founder and publisher Peter Simeti about the new series. Peter was excited about the new series telling us, “It’s fun and has a lot of heart. It’s an exciting adventure story but it also has coming-of-age moments that I think many will be able to relate to.”
For fans of Alterna Comics’ newsprint comics, Peter told us Gods and Gears will be available in newsprint and it will be distributed “through comic shops and eventually newsstands.”
As for when you can expect to get your hands on Gods and Gears it might be a bit of wait. Peter told us it will be available sometime in “Late 2019.”