Award-winning director, screenwriter and journalist Matthew Ross and legendary comics artist Joe Staton present part one of Junkman, a rocket-fuelled illustrated science fiction novella for fans of inventive, gritty hardboiled storytelling in the vein of Philip K. Dick and Frank Miller.

He was once NASA’s golden boy. Then came the accident, and the world falling apart.

Now, Jerome “Wex” Wexley, a brain-damaged shlub living in a shipping container somewhere in post-Apocalyptic New Jersey, spends these grey days demolishing dinosaur satellites so that the fat elite can colonize Mars and leave this dying planet to the dying human race. Which includes him.

And then he finds her. Lieutenant Darya Ward, a deep dark secret that will certainly get him killed if he doesn’t report her, lying comatose and pregnant in a rogue space pod that avoided detection. Telling the powers that be about Ward’s existence is what will keep Wex breathing. Helping her is what he must to do to stay alive. He chooses the latter. And what happens next just might save the world.


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all illustrations copyright (c) Joe Staton, 2022


MATTHEW ROSS is an award-winning director, screenwriter, and journalist from New York City. He made his feature-length debut as writer-director with Frank & Lola, a noir love story starring Michael Shannon, Imogen Poots, and Michael Nyqvist that premiered to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. Most recently, he’s directed for Hulu and Imagine's Wu-Tang: An American Saga. He was a story consultant for Curb Your Enthusiasm, wrote pivotal episodes of the hit ABC show Nashville and has sold pilots to several major networks and studios. Matthew’s other writing and directing work include the festival shorts Lola; Red Angel, Curtis and Clover; the 2010 viral video Inspired by Bret Easton Ellis; as well as more than 50 episodes of FIGHT! Life, an online documentary series about professional fighters.

JOE STATON decided he wanted to be a cartoonist at 3 years old when he began tracing DICK TRACY in the funnies. He has been drawing comics professionally since he started working for Charlton Comics in 1971, where he co-created E-Man and Michael Mauser. Though the bulk of his work has been for DC Comics, Staton has worked for at least 30 publishers and 100 different editors. Among his many comics credits are Action Comics, Green Lantern, The Legion, Classics Illustrated, various incarnations of Batman, and over 100 issues of Scooby Doo. With his writer-wife Hilarie, he produced medical comics such as Pete Learns All About Crohn’s and Colitis and Amy Goes Gluten-Free. He has received both the Eisner and Inkpot awards. From 2011 through 2021, Joe was the artist for the DICK TRACY newspaper strip partnering with writer Mike Curtis. DICK TRACY received Harvey Awards in 2013, 2014 and 2015 for Best Syndicated Strip or Feature.