PRE-ORDER: 'eJunky' #1 by Nicholas Tana and Kyle Faehnrich

Addiction To Other Peoples' Memories Leads To Conspiracy & Murder

In a society that has eliminated pain and suffering through emotional regulation devices, a former Alternative Reality Investigator, haunted by visions connecting him to a dangerous cult, tries to stop the cult from unleashing painful, cellular memory experiences capable of starting a revolution.

Synopsis:

In the year 2055, technology has reshaped humanity. Some people use Nerve Reading Devices (N.R.D.s) to share dreams. Others use Emo-Regs to filter and regulate emotions. Meanwhile, a growing group of addicts, called eJunkies, seek every kind of human experience by using drugs made up of other people’s memory cells. These eJunkies even go so far as to inject painful memories in the form of an alternative drug (ALT) known as Torch since pain and suffering have become commodities in a world that has made them virtually illegal.

When Hector Holmes, a disgraced investigator, and eJunky, nearly overdose on Torch, his previous partner from the Alternative Reality Investigation Squad (A.R.I.S.) requests his help. Their mission: stop The Guardians of Pain--a terrorist group distributing Torch to "wake" people to a painful past, almost completely purged from memory, in an effort to start a revolution. To do this, Hector enlists Astra, a dream celebrity whose television channel is hacked by the Guardians to promote their revolutionary message to her fans.

Astra’s celebrity status gives Hector access to every level of society, helping him get close to the cult group’s leader, a mysterious figure known as X. With Astra’s help, Hector scours the city and his own mind through Torch's visions in pursuit of the Guardians, hoping to find some clues in the memory experiences they sell on the black market. But dosing these experiences comes with a price. After trying several doses of Torch, Hector’s reality blurs, pulling people from his life into his Torch-induced visions. As Hector’s mind unravels, he must confront a forgotten, painful past to stop a horrific, impending future under the Guardians’ reign of terror.

eJUNKY

Creators:

Nicholas Tana - Creator/Writer

Creator of Hell’s Kitty, a successful graphic novel, web series, feature film, and musical Author of Forgotten Shadows, a supernatural horror story published in the Fall 2022 issue of The Horror Zine Author of Snow White and The Wishing Well, as featured in Disney's 5 Minute Easter Stories

Kyle Faehnrich - Artist

Goons & Goblins Art (goonsngoblinsart.com)

Andrea Molinari - Editor

Cal George - Editor

Gregory Blair - Editor

Cassie D’Agosta - Special Thanks

Michael J. Florio - Special Thanks

Summer Suleiman - Special Thanks

Creator Quotes

Nicholas Tana - Writer/Creator

Scout Comics takes a chance on creators new to the comic industry when many publishers prefer to focus on what we’ve already seen before, afraid to take risks. In a world of information overload, I believe originality is the only way to stand out and survive. Being published with Scout, you don’t feel like you’re part of a big corporate conglomerate, you feel like you’re part of an artistic movement and a family of creators like yourself.

eJunky was conceived after years of working as a biotech consultant and seeing how the effort to use technology to make life easier and even avoid pain and suffering can have its dire consequences. One need not look further than the opioid crisis with historical deaths in 2021 topping 100,000.

It is also inspired by the suffering I've had to deal with caring for a child with a life-threatening illness. As someone who has visited the hospital over a hundred times in the past few years, I've seen the benefits of science and medicine as well as its pitfalls. I've witnessed intimately how pain and suffering are inevitable parts of life.

By writing eJunky, I wanted to explore the value of pain in a way that gave it new meaning and purpose. As a society, we try everything possible to erase suffering from our lives. However, after embarking on a deep spiritual meditation practice to combat anxiety and depression, I've learned to confront pain, to transform it, to give my life new meaning.

eJunky is a sci-fi noir detective story about what may resemble our future. On another level, I hope it also serves as a warning for what our lives might become if we allow technology to replace the full range of the human experience.

Andrea Molinari, our editor at Scout, has gone above and beyond what one might expect from a publishing editor, offering so much passion, insight, and guidance throughout the development process. We're hoping that as we near promotion and publication, the rest of the team will continue to impress us with their extraordinary dedication and professionalism, all key ingredients to any successful, new comic book launch.

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