Announced during New York Comic Con 2023, online personality JackSepticEye will be launching The Alterverse Project with publisher Bad Egg. The Alterverse Project kicks off with two releases, Void Silver written by Alejandro Arbona with art by Suzi Blake, and The Somewhat Incredible Jackie-Boy Man! written by James Asmus, prologue story art by Connie Daidone, and main series art by Megan Huang.

Void Silver- Featuring Marvin, an eldritch magician seeking the secrets of the world unseen.

Set in a modern-day London that mirrors the real world in every way…save for the fact that magic exists. Only certain trained people are able to use magic, but they operate throughout society—it is a job that garners different levels of celebrity and status for different people, but it is a job. Magic-users operate in high-powered leadership roles, as functionaries in bureaucratic organizations, as researchers and inventors and tinkerers, and as entertainers who perform at every level of fame, from filling arenas, to gigging at parties and small theatres, to busking on street corners.

We’ll come to learn that the diverse roles in the magic industry are regimented and overseen by an imperious Magic Circle, governing who can and can’t do magic, controlling access to spells and magic technologies, and guarding the secrets of magic history. Our surrogate on this journey will be the man whose risky, even careless path of self-discovery gets him kicked out of the Magic Circle, yet whose innate ability and intense curiosity spur him on to defy the Circle’s limitations and change the world.

In our first issue, Marvin is pulled into a mystery, investigating a murder with his higher-ups in the Magic Circle. Our prologue comic will set the stage for Marvin’s world, and propel the reader into the greater mystery of the ALTRVERSE.

The Somewhat Incredible Jackie-Boy Man!

Jackie is adrift in an 20-something’s Catch22: he’s living in a big city to be near cool stuff and people his age, but he has to work a never-ending stack of under-paying gig-work to afford even the crappiest apartment / life, so he never has time to actually do that stuff. :(  Add modern alienation: app-based gig work means no coworkers, available connections are more virtual, less personal.  He struggles with validation – uses levity and comedy to break awkward silence & avoid serious conversations. His father died when he was young, they didn’t have that close a bond – after the death Jackie worked to become a caretaker and be a better person than him, he makes sure others don’t suffer as he had suffered.

In our first issue, Jackie has to interrupt his delivery gig and hero up when he catches glimpse of a disaster — collapsed building! Burning cars! And ROBOTS in the middle of it all?!? — Jackie immediately jumps to conclusions about all the evil robot media he’s seen as a fan, and knows he needs to stop this fast. He makes quick work of the ‘bots and hurries to intervene in the disasters — busting open a hydrant to put out the fire and knock out a bot at the same time, heave-ho-ing debris from the collapse to rescue… a DUMMY? Jackie’s confusion gives him enough pause that dudes are able to rush in and make it clear — THIS WAS A CONTROLLED DEMONSTRATION!! And one that cost CYBER MASS. a crap-ton of money! Plus, we now see there were some press and several fancy investors there, who look unimpressed and vocally question the value of bots that can be massively outdone by a cosplay weirdo.  Embarrassed (but semi-justifying that they should probably put some ‘Warning: Demo” signs around if they don’t want people to think it’s real), when the tech bros start arguing / begging investors, Jackie takes the opportunity to slip away, lest he lose his own money from failing to finish his delivery in time…