Official Press Release
Some ideas are just too good to let die. Which is why
artist and idea man Mario Ruiz decided he couldn't
stay away from the drawing board for very long. The
founder and former driving force behind Metron Press,
publisher of the critically acclaimed Samson: Judge of
Israel and Testament, had found himself without a
creative home after editorial differences with his
former company forced him to rethink his situation.
His vision for telling important and entertaining
stories just wouldn't die. Which is why he decided to
form his own publishing company, Valor Comics.
"I took some time to regroup and gather my thoughts. I
even distracted myself for a while with fishing and
playing semi-pro football, the latter not being the
safest thing to do." the artist stated recently in an
interview at his home in Upstate New York, "I had
created in my head and heart a set of stories that
just had to get told. I created Valor Comics as a
place where I could let these stories out." So Ruiz
put pencil to paper and began sketching what would
become the Jesus Christ: Son of Man trilogy. Using the
Bible as his inspiration, the artist created a unique
world, a place where the Roman Empire had never
fallen, where Jesus had not yet been born. "I was
looking for a way to tell these stories with
a modern, relevant edge to them. In the case of the
Jesus Christ: Son of Man trilogy, I decided to do it
by showing readers what it would be like if the events
of 2000 years ago never happened. Basically, I wanted
to take the greatest stories ever told and present
them in a way that would make them exciting and real
to people today, to people who might not otherwise
give God, the bible or history a second
thought."
With his ideas and designs in hand, Ruiz then went
looking for a writer who could help him bring his
stories to life. Fortunately, Jerry A. Novick, his
storytelling partner on Samson: Judge of Israel, was
available. "I remember that when we were working on
Samson, Jerry said he wanted to do something that was
different than the things he had worked on before,
that were more than just comic book superhero
stories," Ruiz recalls." When Mario told me he was
putting his efforts into a new publishing house, I
knew I wanted to get on board," Novick said. "And when
he told me his ideas for the Jesus Christ: Son of Man
trilogy, I knew it was something different, a type of
story that nobody else had tried to tell before."
Currently Ruiz and Novick are fleshing out the art and
script for all three books in the series-Magdalene,
Jesus Christ: Son of Man, and The Revelation of John
Devine. Each will be presented in graphic novel format
with full color art. The first, Magdalene, tells the
story of a young woman whose
desperate circumstances lead her down a dark path.
Jesus Christ: Son of Man, the centerpiece of the
trilogy, relates the coming of a charismatic preacher
who turns the life of a Roman general on its head. And
in The Revelation of John Devine, Ruiz and Novick
follow a detective as he tries to hunt down a brutal
killer who is bent on unleashing Hell on earth.
Look for all three books starting in the summer of
2005 at comic book shops and specialty bookstores. For
more information visit www.valorcomics.com