Eric Shanower on His Return to Age of Bronze, Now in Color

Eric Shanower launched Age of Bronze 20 years ago. The series won Shanower Eisner Awards for Best Writer and Best Artist, once in 2001 and again in 2003. In its pages, he brings an archaeologist's eye to the Trojan War story. Drawn with painstaking attention to the most recent historical records of the region during that time period, Age of Bronze made even its most ardent fans learn patience, with 33 issues and one special appearing over a 15-year period until 2013. And then, nothing.

But after a five-year absence, Shanower is bringing his acclaimed, award-winning series back, and he’s adding a new wrinkle. The first trade paperback, A Thousand Ships (collecting issues 1-9), will be reissued in September from Image Comics -- and it will be in color for the first time. Shanower has also announced that the series will return, also in color, picking up with Issue #34 in January 2019.

“Several years ago, Age of Bronze was published in color as an iPad app,” said Shanower. “Cost for color printing and my limited time to actually do the coloring determined the original black-and-white format, but digital publishing doesn’t entail the same costs that print publishing does. The digital publisher found a colorist willing to work with my nitpicking specifications for the project. The Age of Bronze app only lasted four issues, but from the beginning of the app edition the colorist, John Dallaire, and I intended to eventually go to print with color. We continued working on coloring Age of Bronze after the digital issues stopped and the digital publisher folded.”

Shanower went on to say that the Age of Bronze black-and-white collections have done well over the years, but that colored comics are generally understood to be more appealing. Shanower said the art hasn't been changed dramatically for the color editions.

“I’ve done no retouching or changing of previous art specifically for the color," said Shanower. "There are a few artistic choices I originally made for black-and-white, but the colorist is working with them. The only intentional change I made was an addition: Color designs for the walls of Priam’s throne room. Those designs weren’t there in the black-and-white version. There are also several instances where John Dallaire, while coloring Age of Bronze, has noticed that I didn’t draw consistently from panel to panel, mostly in costume details -- for instance, a character’s wristbands might disappear for a panel or two. I have gone back to insert those details and keep the story world consistent.”

Although Shanower expressed enthusiasm to see his creation in color, he doesn’t feel that the change makes for a radically different series.

“I don’t feel that there’s any change to the material beyond the simple fact that what a reader used to see in black-and-white now is in color," said Shanower. "We’ve been careful not to let the color overwhelm the line art. The color isn’t added to perform tricks or be sensational -- it’s there to support and enhance.”

Shanower's famous attention to historical accuracy will definitely carry over to the coloring.

“My intention in Age of Bronze has always been to show to the best of my ability what the world of the Late Bronze Age Aegean would have looked like,” said Shanower.

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But new, color editions of the four existing trade paperbacks aren’t the only big news. New issues of Age of Bronze are on the way as well.

“Starting with Issue #34 in January 2019, Age of Bronze will be on a schedule of two issues a year,” said Shanower. “The issues will be full-color from now on and digital only. The graphic novel collections will continue in print and in color.”

Despite all the time that has passed since he started chronicling the Trojan War, Shanower feels he’s keeping a consistent tone throughout the story.

“My approach to Age of Bronze hasn’t consciously changed over the more than 25 years that I’ve been working on the project, starting with my earliest research in 1992,” he explained. “Certainly I’ve changed somewhat as a person in all that time, so I suppose Age of Bronze may reflect that change. I’m always trying to draw better and more clearly, so I hope my artwork has improved. Although sometimes I look at earlier work of mine and think that I used to draw better than I do now. One change that I can recognize is that the storytelling path was very clear for the first 19 issues. More recently, it’s not so clear. There are so many threads of the story that I’ve really had to be very disciplined in where it’s going. Particularly since the most recent issue published I’ve been setting a clear and concrete foundation for the rest of the Betrayal storyline.”

Juggling the massive cast doesn’t seem to be a challenge, as Shanower expressed enthusiasm for all the characters and their individual story arc.

“I like them all for different reasons," said Shanower. "The character I admire most is Hektor, because he's trying to do what's right for his people as a whole and his family in particular. I love drawing Achilles and Helen. I didn't like drawing Helen at first because I was intimidated by the idea that she's the most beautiful woman in the world. Fortunately, I decided that in the context of Age of Bronze that her reputation is overblown, although she's still supposed to be very attractive. I also realized that the standards of beauty in the 13th century BCE Late Bronze Age Aegean don't exactly match with the standards of beauty in 21st century western culture. So that made drawing Helen easier."

For readers with passing knowledge of the Trojan War story, Shanower offered a tease of both the first trade, A Thousand Ships, and Issue #34.

“A Thousand Ships, Volume 1 of Age of Bronze, begins in the mountains south of Troy with a cowherd named Paris, who doesn't yet realize he's a Trojan prince," said Shanower. "Soon, Paris heads off across the sea to recover the stolen Trojan princess Hesione, but instead he entices the beautiful Helen away from her husband Menelaus. Menelaus has a powerful brother, Agamemnon, High King of Mycenae. Menelaus and Agamemnon gather a huge army to go after Paris and recover Helen. Volume 1 ends with that army sailing off to attack Troy."

Age of Bronze #34 kicks off Betrayal: Part Three with the meeting of Helen and Achilles on the summit of Mount Ida. Shanower said the episode might be a new experience even for readers familiar with Homer's Iliad. Age of Bronze #34 won't be sold in stores. Instead, the series will be published digitally for the foreseeable future and will only be collected in color for subsequent graphic novels.

Age of Bronze Vol. 1: A Thousand Ships is now available in bookstores and comic shops everywhere.