We always love an indie success story as it’s a fantastic reminder that plugging away at this self-publishing malarkey can actually lead somewhere. A great example of this is Planet Jimbot’s cult indie hit Savant, which is set to be serialised from March onwards in no less a title than Dark Horse Presents – which you have to reckon is a fantastic achievement from Jim Alexander, Will Pickering and co.

For those who might be new to the world of Savant, here’s a brief summary:

“Introducing Lode from the planet Savant, having gone walkabout around the universe, she chooses to chronicle the lives of the dying. As a result seeks out war zones.  She is not a harbinger of death; but it is death nevertheless that draws her like a moth to a flame. 

Her travels bring her to Hubris, a planet ripped apart by war. There, she is recruited by local government forces to help hunt down a war criminal.It is a journey that will take her to the mouth of madness. The End of Days itself.”

Writer Jim Alexander (Metal Hurlant Chronicles), artist Will Pickering (Burke and Hare) and colourist Fin Cramb (Mono) may all by Scottish, but they met at the 2012 Kapow comic convention in London where they came together for the first time. They added Jim Campbell (Scottish name, English by birth) as letterer and the Planet Jimbot team was complete.

Savant was launched at Plan B in Glasgow on October 2013 and in no time at all garnered some notable small-press reviews.Big Comic Page said, ‘Yes, it’s a small-press comic, but this is a title that would more than hold its own – excel, even – in any line-up of comic books from any publisher in the world.” while Geek Pride said, “I haven’t felt this gripped by a sci-fi story since the first time I read William Gibson.”

Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson contacted them in 2014 to express an interest in acquiring the strip as a creator-owned series for his company’s flagship book and a six-part series was agreed. Consisting of 48 pages in total, this new version adapts the first 24, as appeared in the Planet Jimbot book, plus 24 all-new pages to finish the story.

The series is scheduled for Dark Horse Presents#32-37, March thru August 2017 and the guys are hopeful of more stories in the future, but for now are just looking forward to see Savant in print. In the meantime they are going strong with award-nominated Wolf Country,  written by Jim Alexander, art by Will Pickering, with covers by Luke Cooper.

Issue 7 of Wolf Country is due out soon and you can find out more about their books via the Planet JImbot online shop