Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Agent Unknown Returns

I’ve been living with these characters in my head for over 20 years. (Longer, if we include the time that I lived with them before they first hit print in ‘87.) But, yeah, it has been a long time in coming. My original concept was to write a story about a U.S. intelligence agency that was somewhere between the Ian Flemming/James Bond world of MI6, and the Jim Steranko world of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

What I came up with was The International Law-Enforcement Division (or I-LID). Its shadowy mission to protect American interests, and National Security. Lead by an elite cadre of agents, they would span a 30-year time frame (‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s) with the handsome, and debonair sibling duo of (Jefferson “deuces” David Seven, and his older brother Jefferson “Jacks” Jackson Seven (Codename: Deuces and Jacks) operating ala I Spy’s Kelly and Scott in the swinging ‘60s). The strong-willed, wildcat, Stacey Anne Duncan in the ‘70s, and the (never introduced) Israeli, ex-Mossad agent, Josiphiah ben-David in the ‘80s.

Unfortunately All I was only able to get out in those halcyon Renegade Press days was the first three issues before th B&W implosion occurred, and Deni Loubert (regretfully) had to cancel the book only three issues into its proposed six-issue run. Still, I wasn’t ready to toss in the towel. I wrote a fourth script for Stacey Anne, and (a couple of years later) a new script for a pair of new agents, Jason “Springload” Cowles A young, conservative, neo-redneck with a hair trigger, and Joseph “Renegade” Greyghost, a full-blooded Lakota Sioux American Indian.

These are two very dangerous guys. They are serious-minded, dedicated agents, and — although I conceived of them separately — somewhere along the way, I felt that it would be very cool for me to pair them up. I think that I made the right choice.



The first installment of the brand new stories with the all-new Agent Unknown characters Springload & Renegade appears in April, in CAG #7. I can hardly wait to see this stuff in print. Fortunately, I won’t have to wait much longer, as the art is all done, the pages are lettered, and CAG #7 is due out April. What could be cooler than that?

4 comments:

Tommy said...

"...Oh yeah, one more thing. All you clown-jobs have managed to do is is get on the bad side of...Springload and Renegade!"

XD

That's so awesome!

rjsodaro said...

Heh, so you like that stuff, eh? well, the script is chock-a-block full of that sort of stuff.

Rachel Kadushin said...

I'm glad you posted this because I didn't take a close enough look before to realize that you were writing about "real" brothers instead of just a buddy vibe. I am looking forward to checking this out.

rjsodaro said...

Actually, Rachel, the original series (from Renegade) is the one about the actual brothers (Deuces & Jacks), the current one that I’m doing with Chris, is a “buddy vibe” matchup.

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