About
The Geek Zodiac emerged one lazy weekend in late March 2011 when creator James Wright began musing on the shifts and cyclical nature of nerd culture, namely how in the 80s of his formative years the robot Transformers were supplanted by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The concept germinated from there, incorporating the various touchstones he and his childhood friends geeked out over in their youth: superheroes, pirates, daikaiju, zombies, etc. Narrowing these down to a manageable 12, the next steps required determining a system of years around which to base a simple zodiac chart, as well as the attributes associated with each of these new “signs.” Pleased with the admittedly crude format, he sent it out to friends for feedback and because he thought they would dig it…
Less than a week later, James’s good friend Josh Eckert sent him a revamped, redesigned, streamlined version of the Geek Zodiac, superior in every conceivable way to what came before. With James and Josh’s permission, their friend Elio passed it along to a few geek-themed websites they thought might get a kick out of it (e.g., GeekTyrant and Blastr), and to their surprise, they ran with it. However, because this version prominently featured copyrighted and trademarked imagery, Josh and James could not profit from it, and so they took steps to remake it from the ground up with original art from Josh. This newest version, lovingly dubbed the Geek Zodiac 3.0, in addition to being entirely their own, addressed minor issues such as typos and major issues such as the lack of discernible female representation in the earlier version. It also featured a subtle and witty color and design scheme courtesy of Josh. And it was from Josh’s new designs that a new idea began form, and from that idea came The Continuum.
The Continuum is a team of heroes (and anti-heroes) based on the 12 signs of the Geek Zodiac. It was only natural that James, a writer raised on superhero comics, and Josh, an animation student and comic book fan, would turn their zodiac into a comic. Over the following months, they began developing a story involving time and space travel, character names and personalities and histories, and an approach to what would prove to be a sizable undertaking. Rather than jump out of the gate with a 22-page comic, they opted to do a series of short, 4- to 5-page prologues introducing each member of The Continuum in the order their corresponding sign appears on the Geek Zodiac chart itself. Only then would they move on to the story proper, examining how 14 disparate individuals, thrown together across decades or centuries, can work together to stave off an encroaching evil force. Or die trying.
Brought from the past to save the future, this is the story of The Continuum.