Comic book writer Zack Kaplan joins the Capes and Tights Podcast for Episode 140 on November 29, 2023. To prepare for the conversation, we have compiled nine comics by Kaplan you should read right now.
Zack Kaplan is a break out science fiction comic writer and creator of such comics and graphic novels as Eclipse, Port of Earth, The Lost City Explorers, Join the Future, and more recently, Break Out, Metal Society, Mindset and Forever Forward. He has worked with publishers such as Image Comics/Top Cow, Dark Horse, Aftershock Comics, Vault Comics, Humanoids, Scout Comics and DC Comics.
His first three series were all optioned for TV adaptation, with Port of Earth being developed by Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment and Amazon TV Studios. Zack has taught screenwriting and storytelling at the International Academy of Film and TV, located in the Philippines.
Mindset (Vault)
When an introverted tech geek accidentally discovers mind control, he and his friends do something unexpected – they put the science into a meditation app to help users break their technology addiction. But as their Mindset app achieves a dangerous cult following, lies, conspiracies, and murder come to light. Are they helping people or controlling them? Free your mind.
Break Out (Dark Horse)
Mysterious and massive Cube spaceships from another dimension materialize over our cities around the globe. They routinely abduct teenagers to be held inside their floating prison ships. And the world accepts it as inevitable. But not Liam Watts. His younger brother has been taken. And Liam is tired of “thoughts and prayers”.
Now, in a “take back our future” anthem, Liam must assemble a skilled team of ordinary high school students and in just a few weeks, they must plan a heist to infiltrate the hi-tech spaceship a mile in the sky. But what they’ll find there will throw their plans into turmoil and challenge their resolve. How do you break out of a prison that’s not even from this world?
Port of Earth (Image)
Imagine if aliens came to Earth not in war or peace, but with a business deal: open up a spaceport here on Earth in exchange for advanced technology. But when our alien visitors break Port restrictions and wreak havoc in our cities, it falls to the newly formed Earth Security Agents to hunt down and safely deport the dangerous rogue aliens back to the Port of Earth.
Eclipse (Image)
Imagine if sunlight burned you alive. In the near future, a mysterious solar event has transformed the sun’s light into deadly immolating rays. The world’s few survivors now live in nocturnal cities. But a killer emerges who uses sunlight to burn his victims, and when he targets the daughter of a solar power mogul, it falls to a disillusioned solar engineer to protect her.
Forever Forward (Scout)
When a brilliant young scientist accidentally launches himself, his evergreen love and three friends into the future with his unproven time machine, they discover a mysterious message from their future selves: THE ONLY WAY BACK IS FORWARD. Now, as they jump 33 years at a time through the rise and fall of humanity, from post-apocalyptic, climate-collapsed landscapes to advanced robot-run empires, will they find the technology to return to the present… or are they doomed to hopelessly time travel forward… forever?
The Lost City Explorers (AfterShock)
Lost cities aren’t the stuff of myth! They exist right under our feet.
When her archaeologist father goes missing, teenager Hel Coates rallies her friends and brother to find him. They’ll have to dodge a shady corporation, mercenaries and speeding subway trains while they follow the trail deep into the tunnels under Manhattan-and what they find down there will change their lives forever.
Follow Hel and her friends on a coming-of-age journey through subterranean tunnels, and ultimately to the holy grail of lost cities: Atlantis!
Join The Future (AfterShock)
The Future. Ultra-modern megacities reward millions of their citizens with a completely funded life, with every need met, from food to housing and healthcare, in order to compete in an economic power struggle in which population is key.
But a few rural residents still cling to their independence in what last American small towns are left. When a nearby megacity pressures the people of a small town to join up or else, a young teenage girl named Clem will learn how far she’ll go to defend her principles.
Beyond Real (Vault)
An artist’s discovery. When struggling artist June is injured in a severe car accident that leaves her boyfriend in a coma, she begins to experience strange visual phenomena. Soon, she’s able to see that we are all actually living in a computer simulation. June must set out on a journey of possibility and peril into the metaphysical layers of the simulation to reach the world’s creator and save her true love from death.
Kill All Immortals (Dark Horse)
Succession meets John Wick…with immortal Vikings. A thousand years ago, Viking explorer Erik the Red and his four adult children discovered a mysterious source of immortality. Now, in our modern world, they are an enigmatic billionaire family with a powerful banking empire. But when Erik’s only daughter, Frey Asvald, seeks to finally be free from her family’s influence, she must be prepared to reveal their supernatural secrets and confront her well-trained siblings in a deadly and epic struggle for power. Get ready for a bloodthirsty immortal fight like no other!
