We are raising funds to publish a historical graphic novel about the Early Middle Ages, when emperors of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations ruled the territory of Central Europe. The surrounding duchies and kingdoms faced a stark choice: to serve the Emperor and live in peace, or to fight for independence.

We own the recipe (not as well-kept as Coca Cola’s) to defeat the boredom elicited by old history books:  

1. by finding the most interesting, albeit almost forgotten or even barely known historical events; battles, treason, regicide, massacre..

2. adding new aspects with imaginary, but trendy characters; Vikings (Varangian bodyguards), Alsatian assassins, cunning archbishops...

3. and finally shaking (but not stirring!) and then introducing them in an artistic graphic novel.  

Our contributors will receive a fancy looking book of 100 pages, with a hard cover, in full color, of 8.5 x 11 inches (280 x 216 mm) printed on quality paper. But of course this is the least we could do, isn’t it?  

But there is something even more fancy you can expect! Through a smartphone android application historical location (Ruprechtskirche in Vienna), interesting characters (German knights, Hungarian light horse archers) and additional contents can be viewed in Augmented Reality to give you a better feel for the story.

We are just a small – but very enthusiastic - Central European creative team behind this project, so we are looking for contributors who will help us to break into the international markets. Our book will make its official debut at the Vienna Comiccon, on 18-19th November, 2017, in Vienna, Austria.

1030 AD, somewhere in the accursed marshes along the River Danube, deep in the heart of Europe.  

The Emperor’s cavalry is completely bogged down in the mud. “Isn’t it better than snow?” they ask themselves, a perfect example of famous last words before disaster strikes.  

Our story starts with an invasion by the allied armies of Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor of the territory occupied by the “old enemy”, the increasingly troublesome, half-pagan and aggressively expansionist Kingdom of Hungary. The aging Hungarian king, Stephen I, sends his only remaining son, and heir to throne, to fight the invaders. Who will come out the victor? The well-trained, heavy cavalry of the Germans or the mixed battalions of fierce Hungarian horsemen, backed by fancy-looking, yet not the most reliable Italian cavaliers. The odds are against the Hungarians, but they are on their home turf. And this turf is muddy, swampy, and could be extremely dangerous for courageous though arrogant knights weighed down by their armour. 

Some of our characters will be familiar to the fans of knights’ tales and those who love European history: German emperors and princes, Austrian margraves, Czech princes, Hungarian warlords, and pagan tribesmen. But the most interesting characters are fictitious: an Alsatian mercenary hunting for the heir to the thrones, Viking bodyguards fighting alongside with mounted nomad horsemen, cunning highly placed priests always rebelling against their kings, etc.  

Did you know that in the 11th century employing a Viking (a so-called Varangian) bodyguard was a fashionable way of avoiding regicide? Assuming of course you were a hated king/prince or anything similar with more than enough enemies.

We invested a lot of time in researching our characters’ genealogies and even more time depicting them. SPOILER ALERT! Sean Bean isn’t among our characters, so please DO NOT EXPECT them all to be killed off at the end of part I. Of course, popular demand might make us reconsider and approach his agent. We are sure that our stories are sometimes as interesting as those in Game of Thrones, but in our case you don’t have to wait a week for the next episode. Our book includes some interesting facts such as:  

• what’s the difference between a Pecheneg and a Hiptschak (as if anybody cares…)

• what’s behind the common misbelief that a Hungarian heir to the throne would make a pledge to remain a virgin for life

• how to evade a storm of Hungarian arrows (Run, you fools!)

• how to behave with people coming from exotic Eastern countries in a constant state of civil war (this could be extremely useful if you accidentally find yourself on the other side of the wall... sorry, I mean: sword).

• and how to stop your friend saying stupid things in Old Norse (the language of the Vikings). Use the expression: Stadva! But please try it ONLY if you really know what you’re doing (see the bad example of Tupac Shakur)

In our graphic novel we quote or paraphrase a few famous lines from well-known personalities, such as US Presidents Mr.Bush and Mr.Trump, Hannibal, Cicero, Terry Pratchett and Tupac himself,  and from films like Star Wars, The Grey, The Lord of the Rings and of course, from the Game of Thrones. Levi, our chief artist, depicted some emblematic pictures from movies: A Knight’s Tale and Robin Hood (these are easy to find), and from Black Hawk Down (THIS IS THE TRICKY ONE!!) You might get a prize if you find them.   

Our team, artists and others.

We are a multi-cultural Central European (we sometimes call it Austro-Hungarian) team with professionals from various areas of the arts and other professions.

CHRISTIAN - The Austrian Publisher: Christian Fischer, an old-time collector and comics fan is our main supporter on international waters. He supports us in building up the historical background for our story, mainly from old Austrian and Bavarian  sources. Additionally, Christian helps us on the Austrian market. 

LEVI - The Artist: The lead artist behind the project is Levi, one of the well-known graphic designers in Central-Eastern Europe. Levi graduated from the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts. He used to be employed as an art director by multinational advertising agencies, but for many years he has been running his own graphic design company; Promotheos. It has become a recognized creative studio producing full design and organizing marketing for theatres, the largest cultural festivals in the region and international sports events (Fencing, Kayak-canoe, Gymnastics European and World Championships, Handball International tournaments).  He has won several awards for his work, including prizes from the Club of Hungarian Art Directors and the Graphic Designers Golden Pin Award. 

SINONIMO – The Writer: The story and the texts are the work of János Mészáros a.k.a Sinonimo. János started his career in the film and video business. He worked for Hungarian film distributing companies and operated multiplexes, where he was responsible for copywriting and marketing. After several exhausting years in the financial sector he swapped over to writing fiction (not including business plans any more...).

DÓRA KISTELEKI – The Painter: Dóra Kisteleki studied graphic art in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Kaposvár, Hungary. She is the illustrator of the West Plus literary magazine and has created cover graphics for various pop bands. Dóra has presented her works in pen, watercolour, ink and acrylic to the public several times with great success. Her pictures are always characterized by a hint of surrealism with a nice feminine touch. Several talented young painters and illustrators assisted Levi, such as BALÁZS PÁLFI, the Lakner sisters, Maja Németh, Nina Németh and last but not least the world famous TAMÁS GÁSPÁR, who  is a professional illustrator working in the publishing and entertainment industry for decades. His works range from cartoon and caricature style creations through to intricate and beautifully drawn illustrations for books, editorials, magazines and multi media projects. His most famous works include the Percy Jackson graphic novel series.

Still not convinced? If your answer is Yes, click below to read a 20-page preview of our graphic novel for free! www.kingsandcrosses.com/untoldstories

Perks

The Artbook pictures - selected by Levi

The Graphicum album - Includes the best Hungarian Graphic Designers' works (posters, logos, books, packaging and brochures) on 220 pages. Limited edition.

What the money is for     

The money being raised here will be used to cover the printing costs of the English language edition and some development costs for the Augmented Reality application.  

 Shipping

We have tried to get the best shipping rates for you. As we are in Europe, the shipping costs to the US could be really painfully high. But we set our shipping costs around USD 12-15. In case of special packages we are offering preferential fees .

Poster - The battlefield

For retailers  

We wholeheartedly support our retail partners. Please email kiralyokeskeresztek@gmail.com to discuss your wholesale order today. We look forward to hearing from you.  

If we raise more money... 

We have a whole nice array of plans lined up  to implement if we exceed the funding amount!

Firstly, we would like to make the app for IOS platform (iPad and Apple smartphones). 

Secondly, we are planning to include more characters and locations in the Augmented reality app.