KINETIC CARNIVAL: A new style of WARRIORS back in Coney

This time; young, stylish, jolting, edgy and in your face. If don’t watch your step you could lose an eye! Luckily, gangs are a thing of the past for good ole’ Coney and much of the city which suffered enough through its period of disarray and decadence in the 70’s.

With a revisit, last week, from pretend gangs in Coney for a showing of “Warriors” as part of NetFlix’s Rolling Roadshow we’re hoping youngsters are not getting a taste in their boots for a comeback with a posse of hooligans to romp through Coney right at the cusp of it’s promised renaissance.

Fortunately the only bands of rebels in sight are coming to you in colorful two dimensional fiction.
They are the Pirates….'The Pirates of Coney Island'.

'Pirates' author spoke with CBR News about the series and explained it's unique premise

A riotous, teenage, romp through young love, car jacking and gang violence," said the author. "The Pirates are a gang of runaways that steal cars and generally terrorize Coney Island. Their rivals are the Cherries, a girl gang that is trying to move in on the Pirates territory. In the first issue we arrive in Coney Island with a runaway who’s soon to be called Patch. Patch gets jumped by the Cherries and gets his eye sliced out by Trish, their wicked bad leader. Across town, Sal, a pizza selling bookie, meets a nasty end delivered by a monstrous shadow with a shotgun and a big black Cadillac.

In issue 2 we finally meet the pirates when the cops bust Patch pick-pocketing on the boardwalk and the Pirates sail to his rescue in their bad mother Pirate van! The cops give a good chase but they're no match for Knievel’s 3 gears of reverse -- oh, yeah! Then it’s free food at a hot dog eating contest until the barfing starts. Can comics really be this awesome? Yep."

While some writers of pirate stories have found the Caribbean to be their venue of choice, Rick Spears' (of the indie hit Teenagers From Mars) and hot international artist Vasilis Lolos' choice of Coney Island certainly sets this story apart from the rest. "Coney Island is like this magical place off on the edge of the world where wild and amazing things are possible or at least so it seems," says Spears of why he chose the locale. "It’s a weird example of the American dream, filled with fun and hope but also dark, dangerous, neglected and now fallen into disrepair

As you can see from the art, "The Pirates Of Coney Island" has a unique style, both on the penciling and coloring side. The inspiration for the look came from both Spears and Lolos. "With ‘The Pirates’ I always wanted something fun and edgy in the art," explained the writer. "Something that captured the sort of dizzying, cotton candy, funnel cake fueled, color and noise of Coney Island midway. I had been working on the script for a while and as Vasilis and I started working on Valentine, I started to see just how truly awesome his work was and then I knew he was the guy for ‘The Pirates.’ Then once we got started, Vasilis just ran with it, from characters to the cars to Coney Island itself, Vasilis has made it all his own. We even got him to New York for a bit. Vasilis and Becky went to Coney Island to soak in the vibe and take a bunch of reference pics.
“You mentioned the color and if you’ve seen the pages you’ve seen his wild palette. He showed me the first 10 pages and they were all done in purple and pinks. It was crazy, brilliant and perfect Coney Island."