I’m please to say that I have finally completed all of the issue art for ORCS! The Curse. That’s 200 pages written, laid out, inked, and colored since March. In addition to painting four issue covers. It was a lot of work in a short time. Unfortunately, it kept me away from posting issue previews like I did for Volume 1.

So, for the uninitiated, and everyone else wondering What the heck is ORCS!? I wanted to do a post with all if the issue summaries and a small preview. But first…

The Wilderlands, the region of the Known World where our story mainly takes place.

What the Heck is ORCS!?

ORCS! is a fantasy series I concieved back in 2016 and started to produce as a webcomic. I’m not really built for webcomic work, which made updates sporadic. However, I was able to produce 2 mini comics from the series that I sold at shows. Fast forward to 2018. I was working for Boom! on Adventure Time when my editor asked for a pitch. Not thinking anything would come from it, I pitched ORCS!. Along with the zines I had a whole series outlined, maps, world building notes – all the fun stuff. I organized all this info, did some heavy editing on the ancillary material (it’s never good to over share on a pitch) and sent it off.

And holy crap Boom! picked it up.

As for what the series as a whole is about, I’ll quote the pitch:

The ORCS! Are here and they’ve come for you! Follow the adventures of a wiley band of misfits as they adventure through the Known World. It’s all fun and games until an ancient evil grows more powerful is awakened. The Orcs must team up with former rivals and bitter enemies to save the Four Kingdoms from a a growing darkness that threatens all life on their world.

This basically sums up the concept of all three volumes (The Curse being the second of the three). I designed the story to expand out to include more of the world as the volumes progress, even though cameos of future players exist in the first two volumes. Essentially, stakes are risen as the plot moves forward. So, while the series remains all ages (no cursing, no nudity), and is billed as an “adventure comedy”, it does move thematically into some grim and treacherous territory that I am constantly balancing with its rating.

It is sometimes a difficult series to explain. Some have likened it to D&D, though I don’t play any tabletop games, so I’m not sure how they connect outside of the usual way all epic tales are structured. I’ve poured in all my knowledge of various folklore, love of psychedelic fantasy, interest in various forms of western mysticism, Tolkien nerdery (ORCS! began as a LotR spoof), and personal preferences regarding character design into this story, so it remains an amalgam of many influences.

While volume 1 (The Legend) focused most on our main gang of characters, The Curse introduces us to more of their tribe, a new group of allies, and a number of characters outside the tribe.

Issue 1

The tribe invokes the wrath of a Wizard, who uses his magic to darken their door with a monsterous creature designed to destroy them. Still, help comes from the most unlikely places.

Issue 2

Pez pulls a prank on Bog that goes horribly awry, setting off an unfortunate series of events that will change the Known World forever… (Colors on this issue were graciously provided by Gonçalo Lopes, because hoo boy my deadlines were hell. This preview includes some small adjustments I made for the trade.)