Writer Mark Russell has built a career on finding unexpected angles into big ideas. Whether tackling religion in Second Coming, technology in Not All Robots, or social media in Deadbox, Russell has consistently used comics to examine the systems people build around themselves.
His latest project, The Forgotten Divine, may be one of his most personal works yet.
Now available to back via Kickstarter (courtesy of Ahoy Comics), The Forgotten Divine is a 64-page satirical science fiction drama illustrated by Russ Braun. The story follows Rodney Coleman, an unhoused Afghanistan War veteran whose recurring visions of an alien world lead him to discover others experiencing the same phenomenon. What begins as a search for answers slowly evolves into something larger, stranger, and potentially dangerous.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
For Russell, the project began with a simple question: why do people stay in cults?
“My starting point was wanting to have somebody focusing on something that utterly changed their life and have a cult actually work out well for somebody, or at least give them a sense of direction and purpose that they didn’t have without it,” Russell said. “To sort of explain what the impulse is, like why people don’t leave, even as they begin to destroy their lives.”
Rather than approaching cults as a punchline or cautionary tale, Russell wanted to explore the emotional needs they fulfill. The result is a story that treats its characters with empathy while remaining clear-eyed about the consequences of obsession.
“I didn’t want to do something where it was just sort of dunking on these people or like, ‘Look at these idiots who got brought into a cult,'” Russell said. “This kind of speaks to why people don’t leave or what it takes for people to leave once they’ve kind of found this identity within a cult.”
Rodney’s journey begins with trauma. A former explosive ordnance disposal specialist, he returns from war carrying the psychological scars of his experiences. Divorced and homeless, he initially assumes the visions are the result of his trauma.
“He begins having these visions of this surreal alien world, which he imagines is a byproduct of the PTSD, until he starts running into other people who’ve had the same visions,” Russell said. “So they begin forming this group to figure out what it is they’re seeing.”
As the group grows, it eventually adopts the name The Forgotten Divine, giving the graphic novel its title. For Rodney, the community offers something he’d been lacking for quite some time.
“In a way, this is kind of what gives his life purpose and focus in a way he hasn’t had since he came back from the war,” Russell said.
What makes The Forgotten Divine especially intriguing is how the story evolved during its creation. While Russell began with an examination of cult psychology, the project gradually became a reflection on artistic ambition and the creative process itself.
“As I was writing, I realized it became more of a metaphor about what it’s like to live in the arts,” Russell said. “You have these visions inside your head you can never adequately explain to anyone else, but they are the thing for which you’re almost willing to sacrifice anything.”
Russell admitted that the finished story became “much more personal” than he originally anticipated.
“Eventually it became about my own sort of cult, my belief that I have something to say and I’m going to be a writer and say it,” Russell said.
Visually, Braun helps reinforce that contrast between ordinary life and transcendent possibility. Russell envisioned Rodney’s real-world surroundings as bleak and colorless, while the alien visions exploded with imagination.
“I wanted the real world to feel very gritty and almost colorless,” Russell said. “Whereas this reality that he’s imagining, this vision world that he has, this more purples and blues and greens and vibrant colors, surreal animals, and it’s almost drawn like this fantasy-like novel vision.”
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
The contrast, then, serves a much larger thematic purpose.
“If you had the option of living in this world, why wouldn’t you choose that?” Russell said. “It’s so much more interesting than the billboard and strip mall reality in which your body is living.”
The project also marks a first for Ahoy Comics as the publisher launches its debut Kickstarter campaign. The crowdfunding route proved to be a natural fit for a story that falls somewhere between a one-shot and a traditional miniseries. At 64 pages, Russell felt the graphic novel was too large for a standard one-shot while lacking the natural breakpoints of a serialized comic.
“It seemed like the best solution where we can just publish it all together in a way that people who want it can get it,” Russell said.
The format also aligns with Russell’s growing preference for complete stories.
Courtesy of AHOY Comics.
“I started with the ending and actually constructed the story backward from there,” Russell said. “To me, the ending is so important to these stories that I want to make sure they are, whenever possible, included in whatever people are buying.”
Fans of mystery-driven science fiction may find another point of reference in one of Russell’s favorite influences. While discussing the project’s central mystery, he compared the experience to a certain beloved television series.
“It’s almost like if they let me write an X-Files story,” Russell said.
Unlike some mysteries, however, readers won’t be left hanging.
“You do get clear answers by the end,” Russell said. “They’re sort of bread-crumbed as you go until there’s a big revelation at the end.”
With its blend of science fiction, social commentary, personal reflection, and mystery, The Forgotten Divine appears poised to deliver something especially distinct even by Russell’s standards. For a creator known for examining the beliefs people cling to, his latest work may be his most revealing exploration yet.
The Forgotten Divine is now available on Kickstarter.
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