Wintermoot Graphic Novel Series

“Wintermoot” is part of the Łuk’ae Tse’ Tsass Shared Universe that sprang from a short story Shafer wrote called “Ravenade,” which is included in this book. “Łuk’ae Tse’ Tsass is the Ahtna term for ‘fish head soup,’” Shafer explains in his introduction. A collective of artists and writers has gathered under the name to build a series of Alaska comics by Alaskan creators that include and honor Alaska’s Native cultures. Last year saw the publication of “Chickaloonies” by Dimi Macheras and Casey Silver, the first book to emerge from the joint effort. “Wintermoot” is the second, although the issues it contains began appearing in 2019.

The concept loosely underlying the series is based on an idea floated in the 1960s of building domed cities in Alaska that would have their own controlled climates and help colonize the new state. In the shared universe, they were actually built, but climate change has rendered their construction methods obsolete. The stories, however, mostly transpire in magical realms. - Anchorage Daily News July 2, 2022