As you may have noticed, we’re starting to fill in the backstory of the world and the mythology of the comic. I will add more information in the weeks and months to come. I want to turn this world and website into a campaign resource for tabletop gamers, and the fine folks at Green Ronin Publishing have kindly allowed me to use their Super-Powered License to stat up the characters using Mutants & Masterminds. I’m totally stoked that I get to offer a webcomic in this fashion and I can’t wait to share the story with the rest of you. A major thank you also goes out to Chris Pramas, Nicole Lindroos, Steve Kenson, and Jon Leitheusser for this wonderful opportunity to share with you my two loves of superheroes and gaming.

I have two loves in life. Horror and superheroes. Well, I have more than two loves, but when it comes to writing, those top my list. I read comics as a kid, pretty much anything I could get my hands on in Saudi Arabia. That generally meant Spiderman, Superman, Green Lantern, or Archie (with Betty & Veronica blacked out with a marker when they wore swimsuits). When I’d visit family in Beirut or in Rome, I’d get my hands on bande dessinée like Asterix & Obelix, Tintin, Spirou, Lucky Luke, etc. Tintin was my favorite, especially with the creepy visuals and horror of mummified Incan king, Rascar Capac in The Seven Crystal Balls. That’s another discussion, though. I loved superheroes in the way most kids do, but my transition came when I was living in Houston, Texas in 1982 and I found that first issue of the Wolverine miniseries in the comic rack of a convenience store. I was already playing D&D, and finding that comic with an unmasked Wolverine, beckoning to me with a finger and a grin marked my first encounter with the more adult-themed comics and that approaching demarcation point that separated Bronze Age and Modern Age comics. That moment alone introduced me to the badass, the anti-hero, the outcast. I collected hard and furious to satiate my habits. I was a Marvel guy: X-Men, Avengers, Spiderman, Rom, Micronauts, Dr. Strange, the Defenders…. I broke the budget of small nations for my collections, and sadly, I stole money from my parents, marking one of the darkest points in my relationship with my mother and father. I rebuilt that trust eventually, and never broke it like that again. My love of comics continued, however, and remains with me to this day, though not with the same fever. I left comics when the annual summer events turned story into spectacle. I was seduced back by Mark Waid’s and Alex Ross’s Kingdom Come, and courted more serious titles and went beyond the spandex with Transmetropolitan, Sandman, Hellboy, Y the Last Man, The Walking Dead. I wept reading the Pride of Baghdad and I Kill Giants graphic novels. I played the MMO City of Heroes from nearly launch to the closing of the servers and continue to dream of flying in Paragon City’s skies. I love heroes and heroines. I love supers not because they are untouchable, but because they endure so much and survive. Heroes without Borders has been a project bouncing around in my head for the last several years, and it’s been born from my love of comics. It’s my take on a heroic universe, one where I avoid the tropes, or what I call: “What if Superman and Batman were: Evil, Lovers, Communists, Insane, etc.” I try to put a spin on heroes in a world much like ours, short of the governmental abuse of metahumans or the public’s hatred of them. There is no magic and no aliens in this world. This is entirely a genetic-fueled universe, and in the weeks and months to come, I hope to share more with you about the world and its heroes. Welcome to Heroes without Borders. I hope you enjoy your stay.   Lucien Soulban  

This project officially started a year ago when I returned from San Diego Comic Con, but it was something on Lucien’s mind for longer than that. I’ll let him tell the background at his convenience, but for my part, I wanted to see if we could get something mainstream started just for fun. Art is by Daniel Martins Oliveira, a talented Argentinian artist I met over the internet (ain’t the web a wonderful thing?). So without further ado, enjoy HwoB. Leave comments, we live for that stuff! Jean C.