Media Release -- High-flying aviatrix and swashbuckling adventurer Athena Voltaire crosses the globe dodging poisons, traps, and creatures, battling adversaries old and new! And now she'll be doing it in a brand-new ongoing series from creator Steve Bryant and Action Lab Entertainment!

After launching with a Kickstarter campaign, Athena Voltaire and the Sorcerer Pope—the first in the ongoing collection of mini-series-—will hit comic shops in fall 2017. The Kickstarter launched today and will run until May 5th, 2017, with a goal of $5,000.

"When Action Lab approached me about doing Athena Voltaire as a monthly ongoing, I was thrilled," Bryant said. "I have a huge over-arching storyline that I started building back when I wrote new material for the Athena Voltaire Compendium. Knowing that we have a brilliant artist like Ismael Canales on board makes it easier for me to relinquish some of the drawing duties."

Bryant will write the series and provide covers. Additionally, he'll be sharing art duties with Canales, who provides visuals for the first mini-series. "The idea is for me to draw some of the miniseries," Bryant said. "But I've gotten slower, so it makes sense to bring another artist on board to make sure we can get the book out on a regular schedule without compromising the quality of the art."

The series has garnered its fair share of support among comic professionals, as well.

"Athena Voltaire is just my kind of glorious pulp epic. A comic lover's comic book if there ever was one, full of everything that makes comic books worth loving." — Matt Fraction?

"Imagine if the likes of THE MUMMY and VAN HELSING were actually, you know, good." —Warren Ellis

"Athena Voltaire is a wonderful pulp throwback. A return to the heady days of the adventure comic. Swords, guns, airplanes, sand, jungles, dens of villainy, conspirators, cutthroats, treasure, and the most dangerous woman in the genre." —Tim Bradstreet

"Bryant resurrects the classic era of high adventure in Athena Voltaire. With stylish storytelling and gorgeous rendering, he makes a genre that has in recent years been relegated to the back shelves of entertainment fun and compelling again. I can't wait to see what Steve and Athena have in store for us."
— Mark Schultz

Athena Voltaire launched as part of the Modern Tales family of webcomics in 2002 and was nominated for a Best Digital Comic Eisner Award in 2005. The feature was included in St. Martin's The Year's Best Graphic Novels, Comics and Manga (2004 edition), and has subsequently garnered Manning and Harvey Award nominations, as well.

Athena Voltaire and the Sorcerer Pope will be the first four issue mini-series in the ongoing series, joining the 96-page trade paperback Athena Voltaire and the Volcano Goddess and the 224-page hardcover Athena Voltaire Compendium in the Action Lab library. Upcoming releases include a one-shot special and a prose collection, Athena Voltaire Pulp Tales, featuring some of the best writers in comics today. With its period setting, rapid-fire action, and strong female lead, the series is sure to appeal to fans of Indiana Jones, the Rocketeer, and Black Widow.

ABOUT ACTION LAB ENTERTAINMENT- Formed in 2010 with the purpose of pooling their collective talents into a single, powerful entity, the members of Action Lab Entertainment have countless years in multimedia publishing, design, and business. Their first release, Fracture, was successfully funded through Kickstarter and since then they have continued their mission to produce high quality, genre-spanning entertainment. Since its formation, the accolades for A.L.E continue to build on a daily basis. Among its more popular titles are all ages material like the Eisner, Glyph, Shel Dorf Award nominated series PRINCELESS, MIRACULOUS (based on the Nickelodeon Television series), Jamal Igle's MOLLY DANGER, Artist/ Writer Katie Cook's GRONK and Gayle Middleton's (My Little Pony, The Littlest Pet Shop) monstrously adorable VAMPLETS. Action Lab's Mature Readers imprint ACTION LAB DANGER ZONE continues to push the envelope of comics entertainment with titles as varied as Charles Band's PUPPET MASTER and Dan Mendoza's over the top horror-comedy ZOMBIE TRAMP, VAMPBLADE and ITTY BITTY BUNNIES IN RAINBOW PIXIE CANDY LAND, and socially relevant titles including SOUTHERN DOG, KINGDOM BUM and M Goodwin's TOMBOY.