After working in film for over a decade, Brisbane director Damian S. Simankowicz set his sights on a solo endeavour: a sci-fi comic book about a tough, determined and cybernetically enhanced heroine.
“It's set in the year 3042,” Simankowicz says of Sage: Escape, which has quickly developed into a motion comic, complete with voice actors and a soundtrack featuring MC Kean, Chamberland and Trip Sinister. “Humanity has spread across the universe and Earth is finally at peace. But there are wars on the outer rim of where we've reached in space.
“Where the story picks up, an 18-year-old girl has recently survived a massacre on a part of the Earth called Natura, which we call Australia. The Earth in the future is split into two sides. You've got the jungle or natural side of the planet, which Natura is part of, and then you've got the other side of the planet, which is industrial. She's smuggled her way to the industrial side of the planet and subjected her body to experiments to become the prototype for a new military warrior. As soon as she's brought back 'online', she begins a mission to track down and eliminate the cause of the massacre on Natura.”
As you might have guessed from that synopsis, Simankowicz knows exactly who Sage: Escape is for. “This is completely for the Supanova crowd,” he laughs. “It's for me and my buddies, people who love Serenity and Terminator and Aliens, all the great stuff. It's old school cyberpunk with that action and sci-fi feel, but it's been updated for a modern story with themes of ecology and protecting the planet, finding a way for humans to live throughout the universe.”
MC Kean, Chamberland and Trip Sinister will play The Tempo Hotel on Friday November 16, with pages from the graphic novel projected on screen. Look for the Sage: Escape booth at Supanova, and follow the adventure at sageescape.com.
