EXCOMMUNICATED #1 is out today. Kind of. ‘Kind of?’ you ask. Yep. There was a distribution-level issue with the standard cover by Flaviano Armentaro. This one:
But fear not! That cover will be available in stores next week (May 13)! And all the other cool variant covers are in stores this week. So, if you (wisely) pre-ordered any of those cool variants, you’ll get them today. Otherwise, you’ll need to wait a week. Sorry about that. Out of our control and Vault’s. Sometimes these shipping issues just happen.
While you’re waiting, let’s talk about how EXCOMMUNICATED came to be. By the time Jeremy Robinson started writing what would become this comic, artist Tiago Palma had already been working with us on a different series called ONE ZERO ZERO ONE SAVES THE WORLD (which for obvious reasons of brevity, I’ll refer to as ‘1001’). Tiago started art on 1001 way back in January of 2023. It was April of 2024 before he started work on Excomm for us, though. Ultimately, Vault decided they wanted Excomm released before 1001, which was probably a good idea. More on that as we get closer to 1001 in November.
But Tiago started on Excomm with gusto, wowing us with amazingly detailed artwork, innovative creature design, and some dynamic page layout thumbnails.
By that point, our amazing colorist for the series, Manuel J. Rodriguez, was still working on 1001. Mario Santoro was still wrapping up artwork on GROTESQUE (which will come out in 2027), and weirdly, Anna and Francesco were still a few months away from even starting their work on what would become our first hit series: NECTAR. And we had another project starting the following month. To say that I had my hands full as Editor, is not an exaggeration. (Plus, Jeremy was still writing novels as if his life depended on it—I was hip deep in edits for the third Good Boys novel and re-editing the first two novels in The Sentinel-The Complete Jane Harper Trilogy for its ultimate re-release in 2025!)
However, as swamped as I was…it was always a sheer pleasure working with Tiago, seeing the sparks coming off each page he turned in. I mean… Just take a look at this first inked page he gave us:
We knew this series was going to be fantastic! Each page more fun than the last, the story at times terrifying and hilarious. We initially hired a different color artist for Excomm, who unfortunately didn’t work out. But since Manuel and Tiago had worked so well together on 1001, it made perfect sense for us to bring him aboard when he finished his 1001 colors.
It was pretty late in the game when we brought the amazing Jim Campbell on to do lettering work, and since he’d done NECTAR for us (quickly, professionally, exceptionally well, and he’d also gone above and beyond in helping us resize some pages), he was an obvious choice. And just like we expected, he did a stellar job. For those who really pay attention to the masthead on comics, you’ll notice that we also have ‘AndWorld’ listed on Letters. That was because Jim had some medical issues he was dealing with, and AndWorld kindly stepped in to help us all out with last-minute lettering fixes and changes. We’ve been surrounded by amazing people on all our Breakneck projects, and we’re super grateful for them all! (And we’ll be bringing Jim back on more of our projects when he’s ready.)
EXCOMMUNICATED was all done by the autumn of last year. All we needed was a release slot, and finally, finally, it’s here! Be sure to let us know what you think of the book (and NECTAR). And rest assured, if you fall in love with these characters (‘If’!? When you fall in love with them), they will be returning. On my editorial plate right now is a sequel story that Jeremy knocked out last month! And it’s just as good as the first Exccomm series, if not even better!
Finally, here are some dates you shouldn’t miss:
- May 13: The third printing of NECTAR #1 in stores.
- May 13: The Flaviano cover of EXCOMMUNICATED #1 in stores.
- May 16: Jeremy will be signing Excomm at Jetpack Comics in Rochester, NH.
- May 18: Final Order Cutoff (FOC) for pre-ordering EXCOMMUNICATED #2.
- May 20: NECTAR # 3 in stores.
- May 25: FOC for pre-ordering NECTAR #4.
Oh, and if you’re new to the Robinsonverse, don’t forget Jeremy has a Facebook group called TRIBE. I’m there every day. Jeremy comments every day. Fun place, good people. No drama. We show artwork early, give readers review copies, and hold a weekly giveaway with sweet swag! Come join us!
—Kane Gilmour
From his Fortress in the Arctic