In the Year of the Dragon, join the anti-poaching movement in THE SCALE TRADE!

Steve Orlando and Megan Huang team up for one man’s crusade to save endangered dragons in this all-new series from Magma Comix

At the hand of poaching, dragons are facing extinction, and there’s only one man who can stop it…

Magma Comix is proud to announce THE SCALE TRADE, the forthcoming adventure series from Eisner nominated writer, Steve Orlando (Wonder Woman, Spider-Man 2099), and beloved artist Megan Huang (Star Wars, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) for a fantasy-meets-reality story that is sure to make your heart race and tug on its strings, too!

In a modern-day world one step removed from our own, dragons are a highly respected—and highly endangered—species, but poaching is an existential threat. When a young idealist joins the federal agency tasked with managing dragon populations, he quickly discovers that the entire system is corrupt. After seeing firsthand the cruelty of the system, our newly radicalized dragon savior takes matters into his own hands!

“The Scale Trade was absolutely influenced by the depravity of the illegal exotic meat trade, poaching, and specifically the street-level vigilance against the abuse of horses and sale of horse meat in a variety of parts of the country,” said Steve Orlando. “We wanted to talk about these things, but also thrill and excite on an elevated scale (no pun intended). So we built a world where dragons were part of the animal kingdom, where THEY, these creatures that awe us, were also some of the most valuable commodities in the world. It’s a modern fantasy—not high fantasy or low sword and sorcery. At the end of the day it’s about the way we as a species interact with nature—concepts bigger and older than us—and how we tend to commodify life on this planet. At the core, The Scale Trade is about heroic animal rescue. A man and his dog… if his dog was a majestic flying lizard.”

“When Steve asked if I’d like to be a part of the project and said ‘Dragons’ I was in immediately,” said Megan Huang. “Anything to draw a dragon story… and not just any dragon story, one with a modern twist! I think the How to Train your Dragon films specifically influenced me on this one, because to me, The Scale Trade feels like a mature, modern version of that.”

For fans of Jurassic Park and Training Day, The Scale Trade #1 drops May 1st, with each issue featuring a variant cover by Max Dunbar (Dungeons & Dragons)! Issue #1 is available for preorder March 1st.

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Author Profile

Al Mega

I'm Al Mega the CEO of Comic Crusaders, CEO of the Undercover Capes Podcast Network, CEO of Geekery Magazine & Owner of Splintered Press (coming soon). I'm a fan of comics, cartoons and old school video games. Make sure to check out our podcasts/vidcasts and more!