THE 'VOLIA' ALT-HISTORY STEAMPUNK COMICS BOOK, A FRESH LOOK ON THE NATIONAL HISTORY

Interestingly, that the announcement of new Ukrainian comics Volya attracted more attention in Russia than in Ukraine. In particular, it was mentioned by two big Kremlin's propagandist media resources as the First Channel and the Zvezda TV channel (which is a part of the media holding of the Ministry of Defense of Russia).  

The reason for such attention is "encroachment on the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation." On one of the pages of the comic book we can see a map of Ukrainian State, ruled by Hetman Skoropadsky, which territory includes itself the Crimea, the Krasnodar, the Kuban, Taganrog and a number of other territories that the Russian Federation considers as "originally Russian." But this is only the tip of the iceberg.

The Volya (the Will) comics book is a project of young Ukrainian UGAR Production creative association. The author of idea is Vyacheslav Bugaev.

"This is an epic steampunk fantasy on the topic of alternative history, namely of what would happen if the young Ukrainian Republic managed to keep its positions in 1918 and how it would change the course of world history," - writes the project website.

The comics creation process has been lasted for two years. As the author noted, the reason to start the project for him was lack of attention from Ukraine's media-market to this interesting period of the national history. 

"When me and my colleagues were digging in archival materials, we came across the photos of heavy bombers of the Ukrainian Republic: Zeppelin Staaken, navy, armored trains, Ansal aircraft of own production, armed forces, Skoropadsky's luxury cars, pompous banquets Ukrainian delegation in Berlin and Kiev, Ukrainian Republic air fleet of 400 aircraft, little known territories of Ukraine far in Asia, etc. Then we've realized that it is extremely important to convey all we have seen to people in a colorful, original and cool form." - Vyacheslav Bugaev tells.

In terms of genre it is a mixture of  a mix of stim-punk, fantasy, action, fantasy and even horror. In content, it tells us three separate stories, made in three author's art styles under a hard cover of 60 pages. We hope that the authors will not spot on Ukrainian Version of the comic book, and the world will see its version on different languages. 

The Volya english version in available for an order here - Amazon, New 2017. Ukraine Comics: STEAM-PUNK COMIC BOOK. VOLYA. ВОЛЯ. The WILL.

UGAR PRODUCTION