One of the most popular Kickstarter comic series of all-time returns with Glarien: Short and Deadly, a prestige format, 11"x 7.25" oversized hardcover collecting eight adult fantasy stories starring Glarien, the most dangerous elf in the White Ash Universe.  Drawn by some of the best established and up and coming artists in the business, this collection follows Glarien from her early wild oat-sowing days in Alfheim to her latter years as a resident of White Ash, Pennsylvania. 

This 100 page volume includes several remastered, previously released digital short stories and three all-new ones seeing print for the first time. The hardcover also includes pin-ups from artists like Carla Cohen, Liana Kangas and Anna Morozova. With a Smyth Sewn casebound binding and silver foil embossed cover, we've set out to create the ultimate luxury reading experience for our Glarien fanbase.

If you’re returning to the White Ash Universe, THANK YOU so much. We owe everything to our Kickstarter community. Because of you, our previous Glarien campaigns have been two of the most backed, single-issue, comic book kickstarters of all time.

If you're new to White Ash Comics, WELCOME. Glarien: Short and Deadly is a stand alone anthology of stories that are a perfect introduction to our universe. So you don't have to be well-versed in White Ash lore to enjoy the ride. But, if you want to get caught up on all things White Ash and Glarien or even our other series like The Game and How I Slept My Way Through College and Other Tales from Freshman Year, we'll have tiers for that.

So, what's this book about?

Glarien: Short and Deadly inculdes eight, self-contained stories, that as a whole, follow the journey of a young elf warrior as she evolves over three thousand years. We see the brashness of her youthful escapades washed away as the pain of lovers lost starts to take its toll. This journey ultimately culminates in Glarien reaching a more emotionallly mature stage of life where she begins to think about the future and the legacy she wants to leave behind.  Oh, and expect carnage... lots and LOTS of carnage.

For those readers coming from White Ash, or new to Glarien entirely, we do want to reiterate, this is a MATURE book.  White Ash follows Aleck and Lillian, two PG-13 characters in an R-rated world.  Glarien is an R-Rated character... in an R-rated world.  And as such, to appropriately tell that story, there are themes that are intrinsic to her character that need to be explored. (Think Game of Thrones for a good comp on the age rating/ content) But perhaps the best way of showing you all you new to the world what these stories are like, is to jump right into an...

The first of our eight stories, Glarien: Tower of Death is drawn by Conor Hughes with colors by Fin Cramb. A tip of the cap to Robert E. Howard, this Glarien tale is a revealing peek at her early days as she infiltrates a dangerous cult in a quest to locate a village worth of missing infants.

Our second story, Glarien: Truth in the Shadows, illustrated by Rosi Kämpe and Fin Cramb, follows Glarien on a hunt for a monstrous demon -- a forgotten enemy from her blood-soaked past. 

Our third story, Glarien: Tavern Screams, is a tale old as time, unstoppable elf warrior grapples with her sanity, and casualties are taken. This one is drawn by Anna Monorova with colors by Fin Cramb).

Story four, Glarien: A Prince Among Men, sees Glarien tasked with overseeing the safety and education of a young prince. Drawn by Fran Delgado with colors by Raul Angulo.

Our fifth story, Glarien: One Last Drink, finds Glarien back in a bar, having to deal with a roomful of soon-to-be-dead assassins. Fully illustrated by Glarien: Origins artist Romina Moranelli. 

Story Six, Glarien: You Only Live Twice, takes us to what would become White Ash, Pennsylvania in the early 11th century. This story features beautiful artwork by the insanely talented YiShan Li.

Our seventh and penultimate story, Glarien:A Woman's Place, finds Glarien in one of the few places she can share a quiet cup of tea with a friend undisturbed --  a brothel in early 19th century White Ash. Shockingly, that cup never really gets finished. Stunningly depicted by Damien Torres with lush colorwork by Nick Caponi.

And our eighth and final story, Glarien: Night Swimming, takes place a couple of years later as Glarien and Thane have to deal with some rabble-rousers who just wont let the couple enjoy an evening dip in the lake. The final story is another amazing Conor Hughes & Fin Cramb collaboration. 

In addition to our main cover by Claudia Ianniciello, we have two incredible variant dust jacket options. The first playfully bloody cover comes from Glarien Co-Creator Conor Hughes.

The second variant option comes from Glarien: Origins artist Romina Moranelli. 

We know what it's like to open up a package and find a mangled Kickstarter comic inside. We pack our books with the care that we used in making the comic and the love that we have for our backers. Even though this is a HARDcover, that doesn't mean it's indestructible. The cover (unfortunately) is not made out of Vibranium. So we're going to pack it up right.

The hardcovers will be packed in a bubble wrap envelope and then mailed in a custom cut White Ash book box to make sure it arrives safely.  Made in White Ash means everything from the content, to the mailers we use, meets our standards of quality.

Will This Book Be Available Through Stores?

Yes!  But not for a while (likely 2024).  We LOVE the direct market and our relationship with shops across the country.  But we also have a very loyal audience here on Kickstarter that's been with us since the beginning.  And we want to honor that legacy by bringing new White Ash Comics content to you first.

Through limited-runs and exclusive-editions on this platform, we're able to put together the high quality content that our fans are used to, and make sure our collaborators are paid wages commensurate with their talent.  Simply put, without Kickstarter, we (and many other creators working today) couldn't afford to make these issues at the level of quality the story deserves.

Charlie Stickney is the former Co-Publisher of Scout Comics, and writer of comic books like White Ash, Glarien, The Game, The Adept and HISMWTC.  A twenty-year veteran of the non-comic Entertainment Industry, Charlie produced the award-winning documentary The Entertainers and helped create the animated series Horrible Histories and Cosmic Quantum Ray.

Charlie’s career in comics started with an internship in the editorial offices of Marvel.  After a prolonged dalliance creating stories with pictures that move, Stickney has happily returned to his favorite medium. Charlie lives in Los Angeles with his amazing wife and two (mostly) lovely children.

Conor Hughes likes to draw comics and his breakout work has been as the artist and Co-Creator of White Ash as well as the popular Kickstarter series, The Game. You can troll him on twitch at twitch.tv/conorhughes where he can often be found making comics as well as Hopewell NJ, with his amazing wife and giggle monster baby girls.

Fin loves all things comics and can usually be found happily working into the wee, small hours in his studio in Edinburgh, Scotland. In addition to Glarien, Fin pulls double duty as the colorist of White Ash.  In Fin's other previous credits include working on Savant (Dark Horse), Planet of the Apes (Madefire), Peter Pan the Graphic Novel (Birlinn) and the Johnny Cash Project.

Give Fin a shout on Twitter @Finsomniac.

Francine Delgado is a Costa Rican/Canadian Artist, she works both in the Film animation industry and as a comic book artist.  She has worked as an illustrator for MARVEL Upperdeck Legendary and as a cover artist for TMNT/IDW, Mad Cave, and others. She worked as an artist for several Graphic novels and on movies such as The Addams Family, Barbie It takes Two, and more.

She enjoys drawing in her spare time and engaging with the community on Instagram and Twitter.

Rosi Kämpe is a comic artist from Helsinki who has worked for Marvel, DC, Top Cow and many other publishers. She's probably best known for her work on DC's Wonder Woman Trial of the Amazons and Marvel's Ghost Spider.

Romina Moranelli is an Italian comic artist. First published in France by Editions Clair de Lune (the one-shot volume Jade), she then started working for US publishers as interior and cover artist. Romina has been a crucial part of the White Ash team for years, doing several variant covers and a short story for the White Ash one-shot Glarien. Charlie and Conor were excited to have her take on the Glarien mini-series and are thrilled with the depth she has brought to the character. Romina has also collaborated with PaperFilms, Aspen Comics, Disney, Space between Entertainment, Scout Comics and Action Lab.

Anna Morozova is a comics artist and illustrator currently working for 2000 AD and the Treasury of British Comics in the UK. Her published work includes Future Shocks, Terror Tales, Tales from the Black Museum, Judge Anderson, Viva Forever, Lowborn High, Rocky of the Rovers for Rebellion, Glarien one-shot for White Ash plus the creator owned Star-Nav written by Alan Hebden and published in the Pandora comic anthology.

Damien Torres is a New York-based artist who has worked on various art projects, from trading cards to comics. Before graduating from The Kubert School in 2014, he got his first professional art job working with Cryptozoic on the card set for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  Ever since, he’s worked with publishers like Dynamite, SomosArte, Aspen, and more. Damien also has credits on Netflix docuseries, The Family, and HBO Max docuseries, Generation Hustle. Damien is the current artist on The Winchester Mystery House for Source Point Press, and an artist for Atomic Mass Games’ Marvel Crisis Protocol.

YiShan Li is a professional UK/Chinese manga artist currently living in Shanghai. She has been working with publishers such as Top Cow, DC, Darkhorse, Random House, Titan Comics, Delcourt and Dargaud.​

Nick Caponi is a NJ based comic book colorist who has worked on titles for Dynamite (Bettie Page, Green Hornet), Pixie Trix Comix (Eerie Cuties, Infernica Sinn), Image Comics (Stray Dogs), Archie (The Archies), Ablaze Comics (Lovecraft- Unknown Kadath), Scout Comics/ Black Caravan (Canceled, Gods of Brutality) and more!

Nick has also recently colored The Outer Space Men for Apex Comics, written by Fabian Nicieza and illustrated by Chris Batista. He is the co-creator and interior artist for the Sinopa Publishing title "Rayne of Ages", as well as the main creator of the upcoming series "Purity".

Raul Angulo colorist Glarien: A Prince Among Men.

SHIPPING NOTE

Backers are responsible for any VAT, import duties, taxes or other fees and are not included in shipping. We recommend inquiring with your country's customs office to determine whether there will be additional fees. Sorry for any inconvenience that may cause you. 

CAMPAIGN CUTOFF

IMPORTANT: Please note that after one year from the completion of shipping, the campaign fulfillment will close. We are in constant communication with our backers about the status of our books and you will have plenty of notification about the surveys.  As much as we would like to hold your rewards forever, it costs us money to store extra issues and swag.   To that end, any backers who have not completed their survey by one year post-shipping, will lose their claim to their rewards, and their pledge will be seen as a donation to the campaign.

Thank you for understanding.