Original title: Silver Sigma

Writer: Gastón N. Flores

Illustrator: Sergio Tarquini

Original Publication: Macana Comics

Format: 54 pages, color. 24 cm x 17 cm

Rights details: Publications rights availiable worldwide (except in English, German and French)

About the book:

Silver Sigma Plus

A graphic novel by Gastón N. Flores (script) and Sergio Tarquini (pencils, inks and colors)

The galaxy is a dangerous place, where thieves, pirates and other criminals sometimes go unpunished. Nur, Tiana and Q-Resh are a “recovery crew”: expert bounty hunters specialized in finding and returning stolen items and kidnapped people.

Original publication: Macana Comics (2021, Argentina)

Format: 54 pages, color. 24 cm x 17 cm.

Cover: Juan Manuel Frigeri

Rights details: Worldwide rights available (except in English, German and French languages. Macana Comics published the first two chapters in digital form)

Status: Silver Sigma is an ongoing series, divided in chapter 12 or 14 pages that can be published in anthologies or compiled as graphic novels, forming arcs of loose continuity.

This synopsis covers only the first arc (54 pages, four chapters). Macana Comics published the first two chapters. The third es complete and unpublished, while the artist is already coloring the fourth chapter.

We plan to continue the story with more story arcs, developing the characters, conflicts and the universe around them with new adventures.

Story line: two women and a robot travel the galaxy recovering stolen artifacts and rescueing people.

Synopsis

Chapter 1. Nur, Tiana y Q-Resh are a very peculiar recovery crew, that is learning to work together after the introduction of Q-resh, an advanced robot, to the group. On one particular mission, they follow a pirate ship into the territory of a very aggressive insectoid species, trying to recover a stolen archeological artifact. They found the ship almost destroyed; everybody is dead. While they're searching the artifact inside the pirate ship, the captain (the only survivor of the attack) ambushes them. Tiana tries to capture him and fails, but he drops the artifact so she is able to recover it. Nur and the pirate fight and he escapes, using several escape pods as decoys. Q is forced to destroy the pods, but two manages to get away, so the group believes that the pirate could have escaped uninjured.

Chapter 2. Some days later, Tiana is kidnapped by a bounty hunter, sent by the Pirate Guild as revenge. Her cell mates are a talorian family who where considered heretics by the government and decided to escape using an old ship. They know nothing about life outside Talor IV and want to live a very literal interpretation of the Prophet's words, believing in non violence and peaceful coexistance. Tiana confronts them with the reality of a violent universe, where anyone has to be able to defend themselves and their loved ones. Tamor, the father, is outraged about her new appearence and the news about the refugees questioning their beliefs.

As the bounty hunter travels to Talor IV to sell the prisioners to the government (who will execute them publicly), Tiana risks her life to incapacitate him and escape with the other talorians. She is forced by Tamors to let the bounty hunter alive and calls Nur for help.

Chapter 3. Meanwhile, her partner has other problemas. The Pirate Guild has also put a reward on her head and she is attacked by several pirates while investigating Tiana's kidnapping. She defeats them with a little help of Q, who insists in its non violent behaviour. They escape a pirate blockade after a short fight and recieve Tiana's message.

Chapter 4. Escaping with an obsolete ship, the talorians are being followed again by the bounty hunter, who now seeks revenge. Nur and Q cames to the rescue with the “Shadowstar”, which was damaged in the last fight with the pirates. The two groups try to came up with a strategy, but Tamors won't accept Tiana's proposal for fighting and killing the bounty hunter, and is also afraid that Nur and Tiana, both strong and independent women, can be a bad influence for his wife and two daughters, as talorian women have strong religious guidelines to follow. Tiana wants to protect the family anyway, so Nur uses her ship as a shield to protect the talorian transport while Tiana pilots the “Red Sting”, a small fighter-type ship that fits in the modified cargo bay of the “Shadowstar”. Coordinating the attack, Tiana destroys the enemy ship, killing the bounty hunter. This enfuriates Tamors, who forbids Tiana to return to his ship. The talorians and the recovery crew goes separate ways, but Tiana secretly keeps contact with Sula, Tamor's wife.

Characters

NUR SHADOWSTAR

The owner of the ship “Shadowstar”. Strong, determined and sometimes short-fused and impulsive, she only wants things to work.

Nur is a tall woman with short red hair. She is the daughter of a recovery man and a female soldier. She lost her parents on a misterious accident, but she recovered the ship, a Silver Sigma Class armed transport, and gave it a “power up”, the only one of its kind. This ship is faster, better armed and hides a little armed ship in the cargo bay, taking enemies by surprise.

She then continued the family tradition of recovering stolen goods, while trying to discover the fate of her parents. Eventually she met Tiana, they became friends and started working together. Recently they found Q-Resh in an abandoned facility.

Nur is a survivor, a self-made woman. She faced the apparent deaths of her parents by shutting down emotions and working hard, but secretly she misses them and tries to find them.

TIANA KREIO

A talorian woman that escaped from her home world. The talorians are an alien species oppressed by a totalitarian govenment that teaches a hateful an chauvinistic religion. That's why Talor IV is an isolated planet, with obsolete technology and almost no links with the rest of the galaxy. The situation is so unbearable to some people (specially women, who have no freedom) that many escape. In an effort to be accepted in other worlds, these refugies modifies their bodies to have a more acceptable appearance, removing their horns and implanting hair on their bald heads.

Tiana is one of these refugees. With long silver hair, medium height and a very femenine appearence, she is more diplomatic and subtle than Nur. Nonetheless, she hides a big secret. Despite religious dogmas than forbid women to be violent, she was trained as an spy and an assasin by her father, a very important member of Talor's ruling party. She was used as a ginea pig to test new kinds of training because she, as a woman, was expendable. Tiana tried to gain her father's afection but eventually she found out the truth and used her skills to escape and forge a new identity, modifying her body and passing as another refugee. Later she encounter Nur and started working with her, never telling her the truth.

Q-RESH

The prototype of an assasin droid. Q-Resh was developed by a small company that tried to sell the desing to certain governments and criminal organizations. After some years of work, the program was cancelled: the investigation was more and more expensive and the Galactic Council was suspicious. The punishment for creating this kind of robot was very harsh, and an accident sealed the fate of the program, when a fire destroid almost every prototypes.

Q-Resh was the only knowed survivor. Nur and Tiana found it and rescued it, not knowing its story. When they found out about it's advanced artificial intelligence, they gave it a seat in the cockpit of the ship, as they needed help with the bussines. When it told they about it's assasin programing, they tried to used it as a weapons expert. It refused, arguing it never wanted to use a weapon again. It claims to have killed many people and as a result, it's advanced robotic mind feels guilty. It fears that it could loose control if it starts shooting again, maybe even hurting Tiana and Nur. Meanwhile, the two women try to understand the robot, sometimes not really sure if it's mocking them or being serious.

Q-Resh is developing its personality as it is unique troughtout the galaxy. Genderless, incapable of expressing some feelings and questioning its place in the universe, it can be funny, annoying and sometimes even get philosophical and deeply reflexive in very inapropiate moments.