Faith Erin Hicks Launching ‘The Nameless City’ Graphic Novel Trilogy In 2016 At First Second

Mark your calendars accordingly. A new trilogy of graphic novels by Faith Erin Hicks of The Adventures of Superhero Girl and Friends with Boys is going to kick off in 2016, and according to the far-in-advance press, it's going to be a grand, sweeping story.

The Nameless City will be in the vein of such works as Avatar: The Last Airbender, Bone, and Earthsea, according to publisher First Second Books. That's some big talk, but Hicks has the art to back it up.

Here's the basic plot according to a First Second press release:

An unlikely friendship forms between Nameless City native Rat, and Kai, whose country has recently conquered her city.  The two of them must find common ground between their cultures and foil a sinister conspiracy.  Hicks has created a beautiful and intricate world inspired by Central Asia and the Silk Road in which the besieged inhabitants of an ancient city are desperate to learn the secrets of the perished civilization which carved the city out of living rock.

Hicks added some info on her Tumblr, saying this story is (and will be) years in the making:

This will be a huge project for me. Probably the next 3-4 years of my life. It’s a little (A LOT!) scary, but I’m so excited. I’ve been wanting to do something long and challenging for a while, and I think I’m ready. I hope you will enjoy it.

Here's some of the art (some color, some black and white, some lettered, some not) Hicks included with her pitch. It's definitely a different direction for her work (she said she was getting tired of contemporary stories), and it looks great.