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Help us illustrate — ink and color — our very first comic. We are looking for an artist for the cover and the inside pages of Midnight Rider. Every illustration on this page is a placeholder, and every one of them will be replaced by real illustrations by a real artist.
Know an artist — or are you one? Sign up for the newsletter below for more details, and help us bring this comic to life.
Sandy Heron Comics · Our First Comic · In Production
An epic crime noir of the 1800s
California gold country, 1852. Chico Fernandez is a working courier with three rules and a horse named Cristóbal — and one day's ride that breaks every rule he's got. A character never before seen in comic books, in a story about bad bargains, gold dust, and the long road home.
Sandy Heron Comics is an independent comic book company. Midnight Rider is our first book — written, and now searching for the artist who will draw it.
Who Rides
A courier in his early twenties working the gold-country roads around Columbia. He rides alone, keeps three rules, and has a strong opinion about how he gets paid.
* Artist? No portrait of Chico exists yet — yours could be the first.
Chico's horse — and the only partner he's got. Steady, stubborn, and he drinks first. Always.
* Artist? Cristóbal is waiting on his first real portrait, too.
California gold country, 1852 — where a day's ride can make a man or clean him out, and the road always collects.
* Artist? The country itself still needs drawing — roads, camps, and all.
The Comic
We're working on this comic book right now. Midnight Rider is an epic crime noir set in the 1800s — gold-rush California, where every ride has a price and every bargain has a catch — featuring a character never before seen in comic books: a working courier whose whole world is fares, miles, and a code he can't afford to break.
Chico's world is the merchants and the fares — storefronts, stables, and customers who need a package carried across dangerous country and will pay coin to see it done. It is a small world, and everybody in it keeps accounts.
A courier's life is arithmetic. Every ride has a price, every mile has a cost, and the difference between the two is supper. Chico does the sums the way other men say their prayers — daily, and without skipping.
Then there is a day like this one. Ride after ride pays less than promised, costs more than expected, or goes sideways outright. It is not a tragedy — it is worse than that. It is bookkeeping. By sundown, the day's ride has left him poorer than when he started — and the only way home is a night ride.
A note on the art: there is none yet — on purpose. Every image spot on this page is an empty placeholder, and all of them will be replaced by real illustrations by real artists. Please help us replace them: if you know an artist, send them this page, or sign up for the newsletter for more details.
The Working Code
Three rules, learned the hard way — they kept him fed, alive, and out of other men's trouble.
The Search
The story is written. What Midnight Rider doesn't have yet is an artist. We're looking for illustrators for the cover and the inside pages — and for ink and color. When the right artist is found, their work replaces every placeholder on this page.
The first thing anyone will ever see of this book — Chico and Cristóbal, the road, and the night coming down. One image that has to stop a stranger cold.
The inside pages of Issue No. 1 — a full day's ride through gold country, told in panels: merchants, fares, camps, and a road that keeps collecting.
Strong, confident ink work that can carry dust, lamplight, and midnight in the same book — the noir half of this crime noir lives in the blacks.
Color that knows the 1800s — sun-beaten days, red-sun evenings, and one long night ride. Gold country should feel like gold country.
Join the Sandy Heron newsletter — that's where the artist-search details go out: what we're looking for, and how to share your work with us.
When the letter lands, it carries the full brief for the cover and the inside pages — no guessing about what the book needs.
Every gray placeholder on this page is a spot reserved for the real thing. Help us bring this comic to life.