“Mark my words,” vows Johannes at the end of Issue #4. “We’re all going to remember this as the beginning of the end for The Salesman.” Our hero would not have made it very far as a Resynchronizer if his hunches weren’t generally reliable. But this prediction will go down in history with Y2K, the Mayan Calendar’s forecast of 2012 as the end of the world, and Decca Music’s opinion that guitar music was going out of style when they refused to sign The Beatles in 1962.
Johannes had already smelled a rat. He suspected that his bitter rival, 1780s militiaman Captain Eli Parsons (whom I have always imagined as having been a middling participant in Shay’s Rebellion), was going to set the good guys up. But Johannes failed to see the other rat coming. And now he and his team are going to have to pay the price.
An early draft of Issue #5 was composed of a single battle sequence. Wiser inclinations prevailed in the end, however, and a decent amount of that material was hacked out.
Now you’ll find room among the 24 pages for Mary Fran McBride to react to her chickens coming home to roost. And her hypocrisy will be exposed to the one person who will be surprised the most — but can probably do the least — about it. I’m also excited to give you another peep behind the curtain of The New Now. This moment arrives when Garrison Evers goes hat in hand to someone we only will know for the time being as “professor.” Why does a ranking member of The Trustees feel like he has to suck up to a mute and evidently Alzheimer’s-stricken old man?
“Time” will “tell.”
As The Resynchronizers’ intended raid on Dr. Tomorrow’s field hospital tumbles into disaster, Johannes is forced to roll the dice and try to turn the table on the enemy that has ambushed his itinerant force of Resychronizers and Safety Committee fighters.
I would like to thank a good friend, decorated U.S. Marine Corps veteran Grant Goodrich, for his help modeling the combat situation dramatized in this issue. Grant helped coordinate U.S. Special Forces counterterrorism operations in Africa and also served in Anbar Province during Operation Iraqi Freedom. My depiction of this scenario is much sharper and better informed thanks to him.
Art by Shane Davis. And these covers from Dave Johnson! I wish I could sign up for a permanent subscription. Color art by Morry Hollowell and Letters by Patrick Brosseau.
Epochalypse #5’s release date is April 08, 2015.
[Updated: March 23, 2015]
Get digital editions of Epochalypse online at Comixology.com or find the real thing in meatspace at a comic book retailer near you.
