What if you lost what was most precious to you? Would that drive you to take vengeance? That’s the question explored by new comic book series Extremity by writer/artist Daniel Warren Johnson at Skybound, an imprint of Image Comics.

Art by Daniel Warren Johnson. (Skybound/Image Comics)

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Protagonist Thea loves to draw, a peaceful hobby to have in a post-apocalyptic world that sees folk scavenging on the ground where monsters roam and others taking to the atmosphere with advanced machines. But her precious drawing skill is taken from her -- gruesomely chopped off, as you can see from the cover below -- when a rival tribe descends to her home on the ground to teach them a lesson of sorts. This kick-starts the adventure that sees her seek out revenge with her warrior father and meek brother along with the rest of their people.You can get your first taste of the world of Extremity with this comic book trailer:We talked to Johnson about creating this strange new world, the people that inhabit it, and the double meaning of the title.Johnson is best known for his work on Space Mullet. He’s joined on Extremity by colorist Mike Spicer and letterer Rus Wooton, which releases March 1, 2017.Hear what Johnson had to say, then let us know your thoughts in the comments.

There were so many little pieces of inspiration for Extremity, it's hard to pinpoint exactly. I remember trying to come up with a revenge story that avoided the traditional tropes of the genre, something deeper than a satisfying kill in the end.One of the first things that inspired this was when I heard about a Jewish woman, Eva Kor, who famously forgave her Nazi captors when she was a child during World War II. What struck me the most about this story was not that she forgave, but that she received backlash from the global Jewish community because she chose to forgive. That made me think about family dynamics during crisis, and what happens when paths begin to diverge between loved ones.I pitched these thoughts and ideas to my wife, who's also a very gifted storyteller and actor. She was intrigued, so I knew I was on the right track. That gave me the mental stamina to sit with the characters for over a year and a half, and begin to think out the story and what I was trying to say. During that entire time, while wracking my brain for story beats, I was sketching the characters and locations that got me excited about the possibility of drawing them in a comic someday. When I finally started writing the script, I was pouring over hundreds of pages of concept art. I was able to pick and choose from my sketches to begin to piece together an actual world. As the scripts got tighter, so did the character, vehicle, and location designs. The whole process was incredibly challenging, but so much fun.I knew from the beginning that I wanted a BIG sandbox to play in for this story. Because of that, I had to think through how these elements would all make sense together. I liked the idea of a community of people scavenging technology from a futuristic world (The Roto), and what that would look like. Things kind of work, but not well enough that they can be depended on. I also liked thinking about a clan (The Paznina) that looks down on scavenging, and believes in creating their own new industry, which means starting from scratch. This way, you had a culture that has broken futuristic technology versus a culture that can mass produce their own swords and spears. This makes the story visually interesting, and evens the playing field for the characters and cultures, which makes for more suspense and excitement when writing and drawing conflict between the two.I also knew I wanted a chaos element, which is where the monsters come in, something that is known as a normal reality by the characters, so it's not as jarring to the readers when they first see them. This made for some very joyous script writing sessions, and even more so when it was time to sit down and draw.When I was still thinking through the story, I knew there was an emotional element that was missing. Nothing was elevating the battles, the cool tech or the monsters. I tried to figure out what would drive Thea to such violent extremes. Then it became more personal. I had to ask myself "What would I do to a person who took away what is most precious to me?" That thing is my drawing hand. What extremes would I go to? Losing my hand is by far my greatest fear in life, and it's the only thing that worked to push the story forward, which is why Thea is an artist who has lost the thing that defines her as one.As far as the title goes, I wish I had thought of it, but a wonderfully talented comic artist friend, Ryan Lee, suggested it to me when we were workshopping it, and it fit perfectly with everything I've said in this answer. So thanks Ryan!Not too much! But let me put it this way: It was an interesting and very challenging experience to try and flesh out characters that have done so much evil. But that might not mean what you think it means. Sorry for being cryptic!I'm glad that you read into that! It's exactly what I was going for. From the beginning of the story, I wanted readers to sense tension between Rollo (Thea's brother), and his father, Jerome. Jerome has very set ideas about how the world should be and how men should act. So when Rollo would rather spend time creating or fixing old technology, Jerome begins to look to Thea as the "strong" one. This sets up character motivations and interesting arcs for the rest of the series. I hope people enjoy it!

Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN