The Nameless City

The rise of Faith Erin Hicks and Jordie Bellaire in the last decade is easy to explain. Both women are insanely talented and ridiculously prolific. Bellaire's racked up hundreds of credits as a colorist alone since 2010. And since Hicks' webcomic Demonology 101 began in 1999, she's written and/or drawn everything from her own graphic novels like Friends With Boys and the Eisner-winning The Adventures of Superhero Girl to works by other writers like Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong (written by Prudence Shen) and an upcoming OGN with best-selling YA author Rainbow Rowell. Now two of the hardest-working creators in comics unite with The Nameless City, the first in a trilogy of original graphic novels from Hicks' longtime publisher, First Second, as part of its tenth anniversary slate of books. How lucky we are as readers to get this incredible story full of sweeping detail, beautiful artwork and endearing characters.

In interest of full disclosure: I am an unabashedly biased about Faith Erin Hicks, whose work I’ve loved for more than ten years now. Every since I found a mini-comic called Zombies Calling in the submissions when I was editor-in-chief at SLG (Slave Labor Graphics) Publishing, I knew she was a cartoonist who was going somewhere. I went on to edit the graphic novel, as well as Hicks’ second graphic novel The War at Ellsmere. Hicks’ newest graphic novel is The Nameless City, a young adult graphic novel set in a fictional world based on 14th-century China, and the first in a trilogy. A boy from the provinces eager to learn more about the mysterious city and a scrappy girl who grew up within its walls forge an unlikely friendship, despite the rift between their people.

Faith Erin Hicks is one of North American comics' most versatile talents, a writer/artist who's gained critical acclaim and commercial success, and raised her profile with each successive project she's released over her 15+ year career. This year's San Diego Comic-Con was particularly eventful for Hicks, as she announced her new graphic novel series from First Second books and won an Eisner Award for Dark Horse's collection of her The Adventures Of Superhero Girl webcomic. We caught up with her in San Diego the morning after the Eisner awards to talk about current projects.

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 Boo