Spine: A monthly comic epub from creator Cihan Sesen
Writer and artist Cihan Sesen sums things up this way: “It’s a
post-apocalyptic, dystopian future where Spine makes the best of it, and
by best of it I mean skydiving half-naked into submarines."
Sesen
imagines an alternate world, one in which humanity finds itself in the
midst of a new Dark Age. Nations, cultures, and norms have been
shattered after a cataclysmic event, replaced by clans who have
rewritten religions, reinvented borders, and fashioned new means of
warfare from the remnants of the previous world. Food and energy drive
two great, and very different powers. In what was once North America,
Saint-Romeo eliminates religion from his clan, and re-creates a Roman
calendar, restarting history from Day 1. Across the ocean, where Europe
used to be, the mighty Warlord Xoon forms a confederacy of many tribes,
with a mission to unite the world under one flag, and one nation.
Our
story begins in Year 56 of the New Roman Calendar, with a young woman
who will ultimately bring both leaders to their knees. Traveling around
the world, and jumping over political fences, Spine is a chameleon, a
mercenary without loyalty to any particular force. Born in Turkey, she
has somehow made her way to San Francisco, where she works for a shadowy
corporate entity called the Bakery. When she is given a new mission—to
locate and secure a mysterious energy source called the Sun Drive—
Spine must out-manuever, outfight and outthink the many forces hellbent
on destroying her. In doing so, she must confront a Born and raised in
Istanbul, Cihan Sesen barely spoke English when he came to America to
study art at Idyllwild Arts Academy. Idyllwild is a small town in the
mountains; at times you can hear your own heartbeat because it is so
quiet. You can also witness how a bunch of hippie-fallouts, religious
fanatics, enlightened artists, tourists and rednecks get along at 4000
feet. After graduating from high school as a visual arts major, Sesen
went on to study filmmaking at San Francisco Art Institute. He lives in
Los Angeles.