www.idwpublishing.com • $39.99

Geszel • Sp

inetta • M

iranda • d

e la Cru

z

In 2038, a NANO-VIRUS shortens the human lifespan to

TWENTY-ONE years. Civilization collapses. TWO HUNDRED

years later the remnants of humanity survive amidst the

junkyard ruins of the techno-industrial age. One day

everything changes for Sundog of the Sky Shadows tribe.

Is there new hope for longer life? Can the virus be “fixed”

with the help of an “Ancient” from a city under the sea?

“The widescreen enormity of Inaki ’s ar t pulls you in and pushes you forward. Effor tless line ar t and strong storytelling were evident to me the moment I saw his work . Can’t wait to see more.”

JOHN CASSADAY (Planetary, Astonishing X-Men)

“Tribes is like Mad Max by way of Disney. Inaki draws with a widescreen vision that jumps off the page.”

PAUL POPE (Batman: Year 100, Heavy Liquid, THB)

REN-PASTRENGTH COURAGE

NO-SUR-MEDEATH

PAPOWER

ROOSTRUTH

ROOS-ME-PALOVE

REN-NOWEAK

SKY SHADOWGOD

SURU-VALSURVIVAL-HEAVEN

NAN-VEEHELL-THE DEVIL

SURU-SOHEALING

VEE-LUE-SHASOLUTION, SAVIOR

IRONSMACHINES, METAL THINGS

CREATED BY MICHAEL GESZEL & INAKI MIRANDA

STORY & SCRIPT

Michael Geszel & Peter Spinetta

ART

Inaki Miranda

COLOR

Eva de la Cruz

LETTERS Comicraft´s Jimmy Betancourt

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Jeff Newelt

CREATIVE CONSULTANT Heavycat Multimedia

COVER ILLUSTRATIONInaki Miranda & Eva de la Cruz

LOGO DESIGN Inaki Miranda

COLLECTION EDITS BY Justin Eisinger & Alonzo SimonCOLLECTION DESIGN Gilberto Lazcano

PRODUCED BY SOULCRAFT MEDIA (SoulCraftComics.com)

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY PARENTS. –M. Gesze l

TRIBES: THE DOG YEARS. MAY 2014. FIRST PRINTING. © 2014 SoulCraft Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. All characters, their distinctive likenesses and related elements featured in this publication are also trademarks of SoulCraft Media LLC. The stories, characters and incidents featured in this publication are entirely fictional. “SoulCraft Media” logo is a trademark of SoulCraft Media LLC. © 2014 Idea and Design Works, LLC. IDW Publishing, a division of Idea and Design Works, LLC. Editorial offices: 5080 Santa Fe St., San Diego, CA 92109. The IDW logo is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. All Rights Reserved. Any similarities to persons living or dead are purely coincidental. With the exception of artwork used for review purposes, none of the contents of this publication may be reprinted without the permission of Idea and Design Works, LLC. Printed in Korea.

IDW Publishing does not read or accept unsolicited submissions of ideas, stories, or artwork.

ISBN: 978-1-61377-966-8 17 16 13 14 1 2 3 4

I get sent crap all the time.

When I say crap, I don’t mean it as a loose term for “stuff.” I don’t mean it literally either. Before I confuse you any further, let me explain: I’m a screenwriter. As a screenwriter, my agents, producers, studios, etc. submit material that they’d like me to consider adapting for feature films or television. Most of that material tends to be crap. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that people want to send me anything at all—there was a time when my name was crap. That time may come yet again, maybe by the end of this foreword. In the meantime, the truth is that the majority of stuff that gets sent to me and many other screenwriters tends to be not so great.

Which is why, when one day a producer came to me with some soon to be published graphic novel called Tribes my expectations were pretty low.

How pleasantly surprised I was.

From the opening couple of pages I saw how legit the artwork was and I wondered, aloud possibly, who the hell is Inaki Miranda and how do people not know who he is? (Since the publishing of Tribes this is no longer the case—check out his work in Fairest 2: The Hidden Kingdom and Coffin Hill. Like now.)

But to me, fine art in a comic is like a fine chick you see strutting down the strip. You’re drawn to the aesthetics but if there ain’t nuthin’ between the ears? You need substance to stick around, yo.

Tribes has that in spades. From the minds of Michael Geszel and Peter Spinetta, the story had me at buffalo decapitated with sharpened hubcap (which might be a cool name for a future character, what do you say Mike?). Tribes was flat out one of the most inventive graphic novels I had read in a long while. The problem now is that my expectations for the next chapters will be infinitely higher. Having gotten to know Michael a bit over the years, I feel confident he will exceed them.

Typically in introductions or forewords to graphic novels, we tend to be given descriptions and/or summarizations of the story you’re about to read, context is sometimes provided, all of which is fine. I’m not going to do that here though. Part of my experience with Tribes is that I knew very little about it and therefore was able to be surprised by it. I don’t get surprised very often anymore and so I cherish those moments when I get them. I want you, dear reader, to cherish those moments too, meaning I’m not saying anything more about Tribes.

So read this graphic novel already and go see the movie in the future. Considering that the first script for Watchmen was written when I was 13 years-old, I’m not sure how far in the future we’re talking about, but I hope not so far in the future that we arrive at the Earth that is depicted in Tribes which is cool to see in a print, but to live in? Not so much.

Enjoy. I certainly did.

Alex Tse October 8, 2013

The Ancients who lived in the sky towers made the IRONS that blackened

the s ky, made the forests brown and the rivers run backwards. This angered

the Sky Shad ow, wh o s aw how gre e dy and c ruel the Ancients were. When

the Ancients tried to steal more time for themselves, the Sky Shadow created

a great wind that tore the tops off their sky towers, destroyed the IRONS and

drove them back into the forests. Old and weak, they all soon starved.

Th e S k y S hadow s tarted ove r with the new children b ec a use t h ey know

t h e animals and live close to the earth. The sky became blue, the forests

green and the animals returned. But to make sure the new children do not

get greedy and selfish like the Ancients the Sky Shadow gave us only twenty-

one summers of life.

5

6

7

8

9