Paperback:162 pages

Publisher: Darkrose Studios; 1ST edition (2014)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0986207764

ISBN-13: 978-0986207761

Taking place in a dystopian future, Morgan Rosenblum with Nat Prinzi and Darkrose Studios brings the next installment of an action packed story featuring a team of super operatives battling threats. Originally conceived as a screen play it was adapted into a graphic novel with the help of a successful Kickstarter project.

After successfully extracting a stolen nuclear warhead from German dictator, General Heinz Kirklau, Treadwater discovers they have a stowaway, Kirklau’s second-in-command, Wolfgang Kulikov. Wolfgang agrees to divulge the location of a second warhead in exchange for the successful retrieval of his nephew Kostya. The General’s son. Having fulfilled their side of the bargain, Treadwater looks to collect on the information they were promised. Meanwhile, the Children of Chaos enlist the help of a notorious black-market arms dealer to acquire the remaining components for their biological weapon. Everything comes to a head when Kirklau unveils his master plan to invade decaying neighboring countries. With the political climate at a boiling point, Treadwater must deal with Kirklau once and for all.

The quick pace, ramps up the intensity as the plot thickens, but like the first volume the cliffhanger is jarring. Its number 2 of 5, so don't expect closure until the end. Morgan Rosenblum continues to craft a mature superhero story in a very possible near future reality. Mingchen Shen takes over artist duty on this volume, and his work looks very much like a painted storyboard.

Like Vol 1, TRDWTR Vol 2 is utterly addictive, with its damaged characters and breakneck paced storytelling.

TRDWTR Vol 2 is available now on Amazon

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Back in October we reviewed TRDWTR and loved it. You can see that review here. After leaving everyone totally devastated by having his best Walking Dead episode and dying, Chad L. Coleman went on the Talking Dead and made a pretty great announcement.

Today Dark Rose Studios put out a press release about Chad L. Coleman joining the Treadwater team. Check it out.

Actor Chad L. Coleman (Tyreese) from AMC’s The Walking Dead joins TREADWATER as an executive producer. 

New York. Chad Coleman is the actor who plays Tyreese in AMC’s TV drama The Walking Dead. His character’s death in the midseason premiere has been a significant occasion in many respects. Mr. Coleman used this opportunity to announce his next project.

“Go to trdwtr.com […] it’s something that I’m executive-producing,” said Coleman to Chris Hardwick on this week’s episode of the Talking Dead. TREADWATER is the next milestone of Chad Coleman’s career. It shares many similarities with its predecessor.

TREADWATER is a transmedia franchise that comprises 30 graphic novels, a TV series, an interactive web experience and a video game. The franchise has been in the works since 2012. Coleman joins the TREADWATER team at a unique point where most of the franchise has been developed, and is now awaiting public release.

The story of TREADWATER takes place 15 years into the future, where the crash of the Euro has led to a resurgence of authoritarian regimes on the European continent. The graphic novel series tells the stories of 6 uniquely desperate people who have been recruited by a private organization to maintain what little peace there is left.

Similarly to The Walking Dead, TREADWATER is marked by a mature and realistic tone. No character is given preferential treatment so that he or she could be seen as the main protagonist. Instead, each character is presented with complex moral choices, blurring the lines between the ‘heroes’ and the ‘villains’ of the series.

The first graphic novel of the 30-part series came out in October 2014 via Amazon. It is expected to hit stores nationwide in March or April of this year. The novel has been written and created by Morgan Rosenblum, founder of Darkrose Studios, and illustrated by Ray Dillon, best known for his work on Borderlands 2 and Game of Thrones.

Those wishing to dive right into the rich world of TREADWATER can already do so at http://treadwater.tv/. The page provides a uniquely interactive experience, which serves as a central hub for all components of the transmedia franchise.

The website challenges its visitors to take an entrance exam to become TREADWATER operatives and complete various real-world missions. As a reward for completing these missions the players can unlock troves of unreleased content, including: video cutscenes, concept art, an original score, as well as large portions of the graphic novel. As TREADWATER executive producer Chad Coleman says, “There is an operative inside all of us.”

Quick Facts:

Darkrose Studios: Launched in 2012, DRS are a rising star of the comic book world. Quietly but surely DRS have built up a social media fanbase consisting of over 150 thousand followers.

TREADWATER: A transmedia franchise based on a series of 30 graphic novels. The first graphic novel has been released via Amazon in October 2014. The franchise also comprises a TV-Series and a video game.

treadwater.tv: The official site of the franchise allows those unfamiliar with TREADWATER to unlock large portions of the graphic novel free of charge. It also provides troves of bonus content, which allow fans to engage deeper with the TREADWATER universe.

TV-Series: A live action series based on the graphic novel has entered pre-production as of April 2014. Portions of it will become available via http://treadwater.tv/. A teaser trailer can already be seen there.

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Paperback: 130 pages

Publisher: Darkrose Studios; 1ST edition (2014)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0989898288

ISBN-13: 978-0989898287

Taking place in a dystopian future, Morgan Rosenblum and Darkrose Studios brings an action packed story featuring a team of super operatives battling threats. Originally conceived as a screen play it was adapted into a graphic novel with the help of a successful Kickstarter project.

The world sits on the brink of chaos, and while many nations focus on securing their borders, others make a show of strength with preemptive measures. Germany takes the more aggressive stance, by striking first, and seizing weaponry from a weaker nation. Lead by the erratic General Kirklau, Germany swings the balance of power. Governments and world organizations can do little more than watch, each fearing to make the move that pushes the world into world war. Treadwater is the only organization taking a proactive stance to keep the world afloat, while others helplessly do just that – tread water.

Treadwater, referenced by the acronym TRDWTR (Technological Research and Development Working Toward a Resolution), is the product of a brilliant medical researcher named Allen Downs. Downs has hand-picked each member of the TRDWTR team by bartering something uniquely important to them in exchange for working as one of his super operatives. While General Kirklau and Germany are perceived to be the biggest threat by the rest of the world, another, much bigger THREAT grows stronger – the Children of Chaos. TRDWTR knows that it’s only a matter of time before the world sees true destruction and devastation at their hands.

The action keeps up from start to finish, which only makes the end more painful, as this is only the first book of the series and it’ll be a little bit of a wait before the next one is delivered. Morgan Rosenblum really delivered on his promise of a mature take on the superhero genre, set in a plausible geopolitical future. The back stories for all of the characters are so well conceived and detailed. Ray Dillon’s artwork leaps off the pages, so it’s no surprise that plans for the series to jump into other mediums is already in place. The contrasts and colors are beautifully crafted. TRDWTR is utterly addictive, with its damaged characters and breakneck paced storytelling.

TRDWTR is available now on Amazon 

Below is the 7 minute motion comic, which was created from the paintings in the first 24 pages of the graphic novel.



Want more? Check out the 40 second montage that introduces the actors that play the TRDWTR operatives.

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