Orphan of the Shadowy Moons is Live on Kickstarter!
He led Mankind on its first exodus to the stars when Atlantis fell 75,000 years ago, but who is the Ancient Warrior? Old beyond reckoning, his true identity has been forgotten by all, on Earth and in the Wild Stars—including himself!
While on the run from the fleet of Artomique Dreadnoughts, Daestar and Bully Bravo take the Ancient Warrior to one of the Extragalactic worlds where his memories can be unsealed. At last, the origins of the Ancient Warrior can be told!
Abandoned on a savage flooded planet as an infant to die of exposure, a young golden child is found and adopted by a powerful warlord and raised to be his heir. The orphan boy is given the name Strazis—same as the Shadowy Moon under which he was found.
Growing up in the household of the most powerful man on the planet, Strazis finds himself at the center of countless intrigues and machinations of both the Worldlord's biological children and a mysterious faction of assassins who are somehow connected to the strange appearance of abandoned golden children, including Phaedra: the most beautiful girl young Strazis has ever seen.
When Strazis narrowly escapes raiders who murder many of the Worldlord's other heirs, he must quickly grow and learn what it means not only to be the Worldlord's son but be a Worldlord himself.
Originally written in the 1970s but serialized in Cirsova Magazine for the first time in 2022, Michael Tierney's epic sword and planet adventure novel has been decades in the making.
Art of Orphan of the Shadowy Moons
Orphan of the Shadowy Moons was originally illustrated by Jesse White with cover art by Anton Oxenuk.
This edition features all new covers by Anton (softcover trade) and Michael Tierney (hardcover dust jacket), as well as the original magazine artwork on the reverse.
Each of these fantastic original illustrations is available for sale through this Kickstarter.
In addition, as bonus in the volume, we will be reprinting for the first time materials from the Across the Distance: The Multiversal Scribe Volume 2 art portfolio, including some of the earliest Wild Stars illustrations. [See the Short History of Wild Stars below!]
Catch Up on the Wild Stars!
All previous installments of Michael Tierney's epic Wild Stars saga are available through this Kickstarter!
Wild Stars 1: The Book of Circles - Earth is caught in a massive conflict when the Artomiques, fascist refugees from an alternate timeline, ally with the Brothan, a race of wolf-like aliens, and Carthage, a renegade Wild Star who seeks control of the cradle of humanity!
Wild Stars 2: Force Majeure - Seeking revenge for his defeat, Carthage kidnaps the First Marker's infant daughter and absconds with her through time! Erlik and Daestar aid Mark Mackavicka and Akara in their search through time for their missing daughter. Except to preserve the future and prevent a resurgence of the Brothan empire, they can't rescue Mark and Akara's daughter until she's already a grown woman!
Wild Stars 3: Time Warmageddon - While pursuing the mystery of the Wild Stars, President Bully Bravo and a group of unlikely companions become stranded on a terraformer colony world. They uncover a massive web of conspiracy, all while pursued by an evil pirate queen and a rogue time-traveler trying to create a god.
Wild Stars 4: Wild Star Rising - A sailor from earth's distant past must join with the Ancient Warrior's Wild Stars companions to help them navigate the great gulfs of space, free Phaedra from her black-hole prison!
Wild Stars 5: The Artomique Paradigm - Against the backdrop of the first formal galactic peace summit between Earth, the Wild Stars, and the unaligned worlds, a secret alliance between the Artomique Corporation and space pirates led by the notorious Red Queen threatens to turn the balance of power in the galaxy upside down!
Add-0ns
- The Multiversal Scribe - $10
- Wild Stars 1: The Book of Circles - $15
- Wild Stars 2: Force Majeure - $15
- Wild Stars 3: Time Warmageddon (Retail edition)- $15
- Wild Stars 3: Time Warmageddon - (1st Edition Tim Lim Softcover) LIMITED! ONLY 20 REMAINING - $30*
- Wild Stars 3: Time Warmageddon - (1st Edition Mark Wheatley Softcover) LIMITED! ONLY 20 REMAINING - $30*
- Wild Stars 3: Time Warmageddon - (1st Edition Mark Wheatley Hardcover) LIMITED! ONLY 20 REMAINING - $60*
- Wild Stars 4: Wild Star Rising - $15
- Wild Stars 5: The Artomique Paradigm (Softcover) - $20
- Wild Stars 5: The Artomique Paradigm (Virgin Softcover) LIMITED! ONLY 10 REMAINING - $50*
- Wild Stars 5: The Artomique Paradigm (Hardcover) - $35
- Wild Stars Complete Single-Issue Comic Bundle (Erlik, First Marker, Wild Stars 2001 #1-7, and Prairie Bay)- $40
- Wild Stars Omnibus (Hardcover collecting Wild Stars 1-4) - $80
- Wild Stars Softcover "Catch-up Pack" (Wild Stars 1-5 in Softcover) - $75
- Wild Stars Hardcover "Catch-up Pack" (Wild Stars Omnibus + The Artomique Paradigm Hardcover) - $100
- Original Art of the Worldlord finding Strazis - $300
- Original Art of Strazis Hunting in the Wild - $300
- Original Art of Phaedra in Captivity - $300
- Original Art of Strazis Slaying the Gatakmo - $300
*:This is Limited Stock that has been released by Michael Tierney from store inventory. These are NOT POD and will not be available for retail when the Kickstarter is over. When it's gone, it's gone!
Stretch Goals
$5500 - Additional Illustrations
If we hit this goal, we can have an additional 2 illustrations from Jesse White!
$7000 - Even More Illustrations
We'll get a total of 4 additional illustrations from Jesse White for the collected Orphan of the Shadowy Moons.
Short History of Wild Stars
One of the first publications to contain materials that would eventually form the Wild Stars was Michael Tierney's self-published 1977 zine, The Multiversal Scribe, which contained several pieces of his short fiction accompanied by his art and illustrations for them. One short story in this zine, The Boundaries of Decision, was recently reprinted as bonus material for The Artomique Paradigm and serves as a prelude to The Gold Exigency (being serialized now in Cirsova Magazine).
Michael followed this up in 1978 with a multiplate art portfolio entitled Across the Distance: The Multiversal Scribe Volume 2. This portfolio featured original artwork by both Michael Tierney and Bruce Conklin, including pieces illustrating scenes from the unpublished novels First Marker (which Michael later adapted into a comic) and Moonshadow (which eventually became Orphan of the Shadowy Moons).
One of the plates for Moonshadow was adapted by Anton Oxenuk for the cover of the Spring 2022 issue of Cirsova.
The Wild Stars debuted properly as a series of comic books created, written, rendered, sometimes illustrated, and once even printed by Michael Tierney, first published in 1984.
The complete comic book novel took 20 years to tell, and in 2004 all three volumes of the comic book series and the Wild Stars portfolio from 1985 were combined into the trade paperback, The Book of Circles.
In 2014, Michael Tierney published Force Majeure, an 83,000 word novel wrapping 38 pages of comics, including the 2002 Force Majeure: Prairie Bay one-shot comic.
In 2018, Michael teamed up with Cirsova Publishing, releasing the third major installment in the Wild Stars series, the prose novella Time Warmageddon.
From this point forward, Wild Stars kicked into high gear, with the 35th Anniversary Set and Omnibus in 2019, which included a 4th installment, Wild Star Rising.
In 2021, Cirsova Magazine serialized Wild Stars 5: The Artomique Paradigm and released a collected edition the following year.
At the time of this Kickstarter, Cirsova Magazine is serializing Wild Stars 7: The Gold Exigency and will be serializing Wild Stars 8: The Superior Griefs beginning in 2024 in Cirsova Volume 2 #18.
What People Are Saying About Wild Stars
"Wild Stars one of my favorites." - Fiannawolf
"Michael Tierney is a master of tone and intent and the sense of foreboding that lies
over this whole episode makes me want to read the next. Thrilling and heroic." - John Gradoville
"I mainly buy (Cirsova) for the Wild Stars series by Michael Tierney.
This amazing series gets better with each installment." - Charles Reed
"(Wild Stars) reads like Dune with the introspection on tyranny and freedom replaced with ... action." - Dave Higgins
"The seamless merger of sci-fi and fantasy... crackles,
and the adventures leap... with a relentless pace that's a joy to follow along." - Jon Mollison
Michael's Bio
Michael Tierney has been involved in comics and the publishing industry since the 70s. As owner and proprietor of both The Comic Book Store and Collector's Edition, Michael was a Finalist for both the Star*Reach Comics Retailer of the Year Award in 1985 and the Will Eisner Spirit of the Comics Retailer of the Year Award in 1999. Since COVID, Michael converted his brick-and-mortar stores to an eBay store and his subscription services to mail order, giving him more time to focus on his writing and work as a city councilman.
He has been an Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide Advisor since the 1990s, and is a staple of Central Arkansas' comic scene.
A former journeyman printer and printing division manager, he's written, published, and at times even penciled, inked, and printed his own comics. He does writing, lettering, and (for the first 100 strips) coloring for the Edgar Rice Burroughs® Beyond the Farthest StarTM weekly web strip.
His best-selling four volume Edgar Rice Burroughs 100 Year Art Chronology published by Chenault & Gray was released in 2018, and his follow-up Robert E. Howard Art Chronology was released in 2023, both to critical acclaim.
Michael has been a regular contributor to Cirsova Magazine which published "Young Tarzan and the Mysterious She," expanded from a previously "lost" fragment by Edgar Rice Burroughs, as well as several other original short stories and Wild Stars novels.
Risks and challenges
The book is written and mostly already in layout. Should we meet our stretch goals for additional artwork, we will be reliant upon Jesse White to complete and provide us with the illustrations, but in our experience working with him, he is a consummate professional. He has substantial experience as both an illustrator and a sequential artist.
