ImagineFx_-_December_2019

(Jacob Rumans) #1

Having previously
collaborated on the first-
person shooter The Signal
from Tölva, concept
artist Ian McQue and
game developer Jim Rossignol, of
Big Robot Ltd, are teaming up again
to create Mileships, a 164-page
illustrated fantasy book.
Since Tölva, the pair have been
knocking around ideas about how to
flesh out Ian’s visual universe, in which


huge, rusty vessels drift high in the
atmosphere, navigating around
islands and mountains that float up
there with them. “It’s going to be a
big, bold, colourful, widescreen
adventure, essentially hopeful in its
outlook, not dystopian in tone,”
explains Ian. “There’ll be blue skies
and tumbling white clouds as a
backdrop to the teeming rusty
bricolage of flying boats and floating
shipyards people who know my work

might be familiar with. It’s also a
chance to populate this world with a
cast of heroic airfarers and crusty
villains alongside the everyday blue-
collar folk who make this world work.”
While Ian paints his vistas, Jim is
writing about the stories, cultures,
characters and physics of
the Mileships world. “It
explores the vast,
skybound ships
themselves as well as
smaller vessels, fabulous locations and
the weightless geology and ecology in
which they serve,” says the writer.
Some of the details may change as
the project progresses, but a £35
Kickstarter package is being planned
for next year, with the potential for
lavish bindings, exclusive prints and
more. Fans are already calling for a
game based on Mileships, to which
Jim responds: “Let’s just say that this
book is the first step in a much
broader plan...”
Prepare yourself for Mileships by
exploring Ian’s art and previous books
at http://www.ianmcque.bigcartel.com.

Blue-sky thinking Artist Ian McQue and video games studio head Jim Rossignol


unveil their plans for Mileships, a new fantasy book that’s set to go on sale next year


Journey to the floating


world of Ian McQue


While there’s no single
storyline in Mileships,
the world’s history
and its peoples will
gradually be revealed.

Entire settlements defy
gravity as Ian McQue’s
fantasy milieu is
explored in Mileships.

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