Read the Awesome Adventure Comic ‘My Hero’ by ‘Mass Effect’ Concept Artist Matt Rhodes

The Anthology Project presently comprises two hardcover volumes of original comics created by an international assemblage of artists with backgrounds in comic books, animation and video games. I'm unfamiliar with most of the contributors, but it's obvious at a glance that The Anthology Project is a carefully curated enterprise, along the lines of similarly attractive anthologies like PopGun and Flight, and that fans of graphic storytelling and illustration will have a lot to chew on with these books.

One of the contributors is Matt Rhodes, whose work many of you do know, even you don't know that you know. He's a concept artist for games like the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises, and he created for The Anthology Project a story called "My Hero" that is one of the best adventure comics I've read. It's a romantic, exotic, swashbuckling epic that spans years in just a few panels and without a single word. Rhodes gave us permission to show it to you in full, so please check it out.Without spoiling anything, Rhodes told us a little about his contribution.

This comic was my entry for the Anthology Project. It was a great chance to cut loose and tell a story of our choosing. I don't want to explain too much about My Hero, as it is my hope that the story can stand alone without me. I'd prefer it if each reader took from it what they would without my commentary. A few people have asked about my choice to tell the story without dialogue, and honestly I just don't feel like I'm a good writer. I wanted to tell this story and I think my clumsy attempts at dialogue or exposition would just have gotten in the way.

Rhodes is certainly selling himself short in the writing department, but you cannot argue with the results. Read this and tell me it doesn't give you a thrill.

I told you. Thanks to cartoonist Dennis Culver for turning me on to this.

The Anthology Project is one of the many comic book success stories borne out of the Kickstarter fundraising platform. Indeed, the second volume raised more than twice its $7,000 goal. Rhodes' story appears in volume 1, but both volumes are available for sale now, and you can check out more preview pages at the Anthology Project website.