by Toussaint Egan

It’s not difficult to guess that I’m a huge fan of independent, creator-owned projects. In a rapidly atrophying industry of creative monopolies, diminishing returns, and wave after frustrating wave of layoffs growing depressingly more frequent and inexplicable with every passing day, it fills my heart to see artists, animators, and designers striking out on their own and betting on themselves even when the odds seemed stacked against them in this decentralized media landscape. As far as independent creators go, there’s few names that have garnered as much cult-like recognition among artistic professionals and connoisseurs alike as Ashley Wood.

Born in Australia and currently based out of Hong Kong, Wood is a long-time veteran of the comic and entertainment industries, having created and illustrated for franchises and properties like Judge Dredd, the X-Men, Batman, and even Metal Gear Solid (IDW’s Metal Gear Solid comic series and 2010’s Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, to be more precise) while producing his own original comics such as Automatic Kafka, Popbot, and Lore.

Known for his erratic, painterly style of simplified silhouettes and expressions and his proclivity for combining sci-fi and supernatural subject matter with visual motifs evocative of mid-century pin-up art, Woods made what is likely the most significant leap in his career in 2008 when he partnered with Kim Fung Wong to found threeA, a Hong Kong-based production house dedicated to developing toys based on his original characters and stories. In the nearly two decades since, Woods’ figurines and statuettes have become highly-sought after collectibles and spawned several franchises including World War Robot, Tomorrow Kings, and more.

Earlier this year, Wood launched the Kickstarter for yet another project: An artbook/story bible/pitch book for Modern Gals, a new IP which began as a series of figurines first launched in 2022. Set in an apocalyptic future where irreversible climate change and a rupture in time and space has spawned a world rife with nightmarish creatures and violent gangs, the story focuses on six vigilante assassins, demon hunters, and secret agents who struggle to maintain their daily lives while striking against the forces that threaten humanity’s survival.

That’s the premise, but what is Modern Gals, really? To put it succinctly, it’s a multimedia project consisting of collectible figures, an animated short series, and now an artbook. It’s yet another one of Woods’ own original franchises, albeit more ambitious than any he’s attempted in the past. Spanning over 150 pages of original material, the book features dossiers on each of the six members of the Modern Gals, the competing factions vying for survival and control in this world, as well as highly detailed illustrations and concept art of the universe as a whole. The artbook is intended as the first step in a broader push to bring the Modern Gals to a larger audience, with Woods’ company Underverse having teamed up with writer Todd Cassy (Legend of Vox Machina Season 2) and producer Ken Duer (The Animatrix) to plan an original animated series.

Which brings me (finally) to what initially piqued my interest with the whole project: the animation. Produced by a Shanghai-based studio led by animator Somei Sun, the three-part short follows Ziya, one of the first members of the Modern Gals introduced, fighting against a supernatural creature in a subway station. The detail and editing are striking, calling to mind comparisons to Alberto Mielgo’s work for its visual fidelity and stylized action. If the proposed animated series is anything on par with this proof-of-concept, I think Wood and co. have a hit in the making on their hands.