Hinges Explores a Clockwork City


Image Comics is certainly no stranger to fantasy graphic novels, so it only makes sense that they're offering a brand new entrant in that realm with Hinges. Written and drawn by Meredith McClaren, the graphic novel introduces the nuts and bolts of a city called Cobble, where one girl new to the city, Orio, must depend on help wherever she can find it. Her assigned familiar, Bauble, has his own agenda however. As the two explore the walls of the city, they find they are not the only new arrivals. Visually, McClaren had thought about creating a world inhabited by dolls, puppets, and stuffed animals for a few years before a story was even attached to the idea.

“I also wanted to play with a world that had a lot of ambiguity," said McClaren. "When I look back at the stories I love—the ones that tend to have a more enduring presence—I always come back to the type of stories where the audience isn't given the full explanation but rather a great big sandbox of a world that they can also play with. It's been my observation that the stories people enjoy most are the ones in which they feel they can also participate. I wanted to give my audience that kind of experience. I love it when my audience starts to develop their own theories for why the world of Hinges is the way it is. And I would be ridiculously pleased should some of them find their own stories to tell there.”

Hinges Book One: Clockwork City will hit stores February 25 for $15.99 (ISBN: 978-1-63215-253-4). It can be pre-ordered by retailers from Diamond Book Distributors with Diamond Code DEC140649. Full press release below.
EXPLORE A CLOCKWORK CITY IN HINGES
A fantasy graphic novel that readers can get wound up over

New to Image Comics this February, comes Meredith McClaren’s enchanting fantasy HINGES.

Written and drawn by McClaren, the graphic novel introduces the nuts and bolts of a city called Cobble, where one girl new to the city, Orio, must depend on help wherever she can find it. Her assigned familiar, Bauble, has his own agenda however. As the two explore the walls of the city, they find they are not the only new arrivals.

Visually, McClaren had thought about creating a world inhabited by dolls, puppets, and stuffed animals for a few years before a story was even attached to the idea. “Later on I came to Orio, and her growth. The idea of working with dolls meant I could explore a person's development into an individual (from a completely blank slate to a fully realized person) on a much more expedient track then watching a character physically grow up.”

The world in HINGES acts as a character in and of itself in many ways. McClaren added: “I also wanted to play with a world that had a lot of ambiguity. When I look back at the stories I love—the ones that tend to have a more enduring presence—I always come back to the type of stories where the audience isn't given the full explanation but rather a great big sandbox of a world that they can also play with. It's been my observation that the stories people enjoy most are the ones in which they feel they can also participate. I wanted to give my audience that kind of experience. I love it when my audience starts to develop their own theories for why the world of Hinges is the way it is. And I would be ridiculously pleased should some of them find their own stories to tell there.”

HINGES BOOK ONE: CLOCKWORK CITY (ISBN: 978-1-63215-253-4) hits shelves on 2/25 and will be available for $15.99. It can be pre-ordered by retailers from Diamond Book Distributors with Diamond Code DEC140649.
ABOUT IMAGE COMICS
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit
 www.imagecomics.com.

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