Anthony Tinaro, a studio art major at Providence College, and Owen Tienry, a film media and communications major from the University of Rhode Island, are collaborating on a fantasy comic.
The comic, titled “The Pirate Knight,” was written and illustrated by Tinaro, while Tierney focuses on the marketing and production aspects of the project.
The comic follows Tirose Pellio and her pirate crew as they embark on a mission to liberate all people. Their world, Mentallec, was once a huge continent that got torn apart by ancient wars.
Tinaro got the inspiration for his fantasy world from games of Dungeons and Dragons. He also points to authors Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock, who write in the fantasy genre.
“I tried to make it a very quintessential sword and sorcery tale,” Tinaro said.
Sword and sorcery is a subgenre of fantasy, which centers around a main hero and their adventures.
“In order to give it my own twist, I decided to introduce a pirate crew,” Tinaro said. “Usually in classic sword and sorcery, the often male hero defeats the villain, so I wanted to add a team aspect.”
Tinaro’s story also deviates from the traditional sword and sorcery subgenre with his female main character.
The project dates back to when Tinaro and Tierney were in high school together, and Tinaro had the idea to write a comic.
“I was finishing up my senior year, and thinking about what I wanted to do,” Tinaro said. “I’d been drawing comics ever since I was young, so I tried it out again and found I really liked it.”
Over that summer and during his first year of college, Tinaro produced the first manuscript of the book. With Tierney’s expertise in photoshop, the pair were on their way to a digital copy of Tinaro’s original work.
“I mastered the Issue One pages online,” Tierney said. “What that means is I go into photoshop, brighten up the whites and get rid of any unwanted marks that come with the scanned version.”
The pair are using Comix Well Spring to print their final copies, and have just finished reviewing the proofs before final printing. “The Pirate Knight” should be out in print format by mid-December.
The 51-page comic book will include the original comic, as well as a role playing game set in the world of the “Pirate Knight.”
This RPG is a game where players generate a character inspired by the comic, and play out scenarios within the world, according to Tinaro and Tierney. They hope for readers to engage with one another, and play the Pirate Knight RPG together.
“I think the most important thing about what we’re doing is we’re creating and facilitating community,” Tierney said.
In the future, Tinaro and Tierney hope to set up stands on the URI and PC campuses to sell their comic book and related materials. This project is completely self funded, and support from readers is greatly appreciated.
“The best way you can support us in putting our work out is to purchase the first issue of the comic book,” Tierney said.
Readers can find “The Pirate Knight ” in digital form on Kindle, and itch.io. They can also get updates about the project on Tinaro’s instagram @atinaroart.