Publisher AfterShock Comics boasts a pretty darned impressive roster of talent, and that trend is only continuing with AfterShock's latest new comic book series, Eleanor & The Egret. This new fantasy series pairs writer John Layman (Chew) with artist Sam Kieth (The Maxx ) as they craft a new universe full of steampunk technology, talking animals and art thieves.

Eleanor & the Egret #1 cover by Sam Kieth. (AfterShock Comics)

It's certainly a unique addition to AfterShock's growing lineup, and one that almost defies description. Luckily, we were able to talk with the creators via e-mail and get the full scoop on their new collaboration. Scroll down to find out what to expect when Eleanor & The Egret hits stores in April.It’s hard to believe, but the calendar does not lie, and though it does not seem like it, Sam and I have been friends for a long, looong time. I lettered some his WildStorm books, Zero Girl and Four Women and we worked together on another project that never saw the light of day, but kept us in close contact for a long time, which, I think is where the friendship started to truly develop. We kept in periodic contact over the years since, and then closer contact when we did the Aliens book. It led to conversations about other stuff, and we pitched, I think, a Batman/Swamp Thing book that never got off the ground. Around that time, Mike Marts, who’s been the editor I’ve worked with more than anybody else, had just come to AfterShock (and AfterShock had just come to be.) He suggested Sam and I do something original, and that kinda seems like a better idea than banging our heads on doors of editors who won’t respond, for character we don’t own. Eleanor is the result of this.When I would mention to friends that John and I were considering not only working together again it really peak people's curiosity. But this time - unlike Aliens, we were looking to create something *new*. We asked ourselves: what would the Chew guy, and the Maxx guy's universe look like if they came up with something original? Aliens sort of helped us ironed out the unusual way we have of working together, a way which John devised which gives me much more drawing freedom.I can see why you call it a fantasy, but I'm not sure what Eleanor fits genera wise. John might be able to describe it better. Was Sandman a Fantasy genre or a Horror book? Again, I can't speak for John, but for me, it probably feels more "surreal" ...instead of fantasy. John told me it wasn't the kind of story he would normally consider writing himself. In other words he was bending the surrealist elements to my artistic taste: Female protagonist, a magical egret, abstract art, psychological metaphors, and something suggestive of the early 1900s, yet it clearly exists in it's own goofy universe.As Sam said, I’m not sure this is a fantasy, or, at least, not any sort of fantasy in the conventional sense. It’s fantasy in the sense “s*** ain’t real,” but here’s a news flash… Spider-Man ain’t real either. I’d call Eleanor & the Egret of a surrealist fable, or even a surrealist romance. If anything, it’s my attempt to do a Miyazaki film. It’s weird, and coming up for concrete explanations for the weirdness is not a particular priority. But if you can accept this weird world, it should be an enjoyable ride, and it’s not so weird readers won’t understand what’s going on. But if your the sort of person who NEEDS to know how an pet bird can talk, or WHY it grows to enormous sizes when it is fed stolen art, I’m afraid you are sadly out of luck.I think Mike Marts was the primary factor. Working with a new company without much of a track record is a bit of a crapshoot, but Mike’s a guy I trust, and I know if he was coming on to steer AfterShock editorially, they would produce good stuff, and anything I did for AfterShock, at the very least I’d be in good company. And what I thought would be, has come to pass. In a very short time AfterShock has and is continuing to produce a lot of really great and unique books.It was a back and forth between Sam. Sam looks at story differently than most people I’ve worked with. He sees things in terms of imagery and metaphor, and going into a story, that’s what we’d talk about first. So we talked about that, and then what Sam wanted to draw, which in this case was birds and Art Nouveau architecture, and batted ideas back and forth, until we had a story.Art Nouveau? Totally. Steam-punk? Maybe. Eleanor is really suppose to be my humble tribute to how diverse European comics are. Without looking like any of them, it's a love letter to Moebius, Liberatore, Milo Manara, all of who effortlessly shifted between a charming simplicity vs. stark realism. I don't posses the illustration chops of any of those guys, but hopefully my own goofy design & cartooning skills and can sneak me under the fence.I also wanted to compliment our colorist Ronda Pattison. I've worked with her on the Maxx collections and John and I feel she's really outdone herself - really superb coloring job she's done on Eleanor. It's not easy to match my painted panels, but she's really made the book particularly eloquent.I don’t want to go into too much detail, because Eleanor’s struggle is really the crux of what the story is about. Loss. Renewal. Empowerment. Friendship. Trust. Romance. Maybe a bit of revenge.I'd like to thank John for his unending friendship and creative support, and also Mike Marts for giving us a shot. It's hard to imagine any comic books with a premise as weird as a woman who has trouble controlling her Egret, who's size keeps changing depending on how much art he gobbles up.Nothing offhand. We’re not trying to do Ocean’s Eleven or Thomas Crown affair with a woman and a talking bird. This is completely its own thing. I’m not above doing genre fiction, but if I’m going to work with a mind and talent like Sam Kieth, it's going to do something more suitable to both of our sensibilities… which in this case tends to be off-kilter subject matter.One and done. After doing 60+ issues of something else, I was aching to do something smaller in scope and scale. Again, this is my attempt at a Miyazaki movie. It’s also a creative-jam session with one of my favorite people in comics. It’s Sam and I having fun… strange fun.It was very difficult. The three-quarters of 2016 was very tough, as I tried to stick to Chew's landing, and see it out the door. Eleanor was conceived during the end-run of Chew, and I think for me is a bit of a psychological palette cleanser, no pun intended. I think Chew fans are already accustomed to a degree of… unconventionality… from me and my work. They’ll get that. But I don’t see it as Chew-like in many other ways, other than I’m a weird dude, with weird ideas and sensibilities.Look for Eleanor & The Egret #1 to be released on April 5, 2017.

Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter , or Kicksplode on MyIGN