A Distant Soil

On a world called Ovanan, an alien race of immortal and androgynous beings who possess psionic powers is ruled by a corrupt government unit called the Hierarchy. The Hierarchy uses their power to control the Avatar, a singular being who is able to amass all of the psionic power of the Ovanan people and wield that power as a weapon called The Collective. To cement their control over Ovanan and the Avatar, the Hierarchy also uses the Avatar to act as an angelic religious figure who stands in judgment of Ovanan children. The Avatar chooses who lives and dies, supposedly for religious purposes. In actuality, he selectively kills anyone who may mature into a threat to the Hierarchy's power base. Sometimes these undesirables are allowed to live as an Ovanan underclass, who are called Variants.

An Ovanan man, Aeren, who was raised in the Avatar's household, was secretly allowed to live, despite having an undesirable and dangerous ability: he is a Disruptor, the opposite of the Avatar. While the Avatar gathers and magnifies psionic energy, a Disruptor disrupts energy. This ability can be used in many ways: to stop a heart, cause electrical disruptions in machinery, or to open any lock.

Aeren was secretly involved with the Avatar Etan and his young heir Seren. However, after the suspicious death of the Etan, Aeren escaped to Earth, where he married a human woman and fathered five children, of which two survived: Liana and Jason, 15 and 17, who are born with powers they don't understand and can't control.

Incarcerated in a mental hospital where they are the subjects of study, Jason becomes suspicious of the Institute's motives, and urges Liana to run away. During their escape, they become separated.

Liana encounters a group of humans and an Ovanan man, and his companion, D'mer, also Rieken's lover, who hails from another planet called Kimar, which is under Hierarchy rule. Liana learns that she is an Avatar, and has the powers of the Ovanan godhead. However, her powers interfere with the ability of the Avatar, who currently sits on the Ovanan throne, to control the Collective, and if she is not eliminated, Ovanan is vulnerable as the Avatar is their greatest weapon.

Rieken and D'mer go on a quest to find more humans who will help them save Liana, and to prevent Ovanan from exercising power over Earth. In addition to drawing in several humans, they discover a beautiful Ovanan exile named Bast, who was once one of the Avatar's acolytes. Also, they encounter magical beings from Arthurian myth. The implication is that myth and legend is a kind of Earth Collective, a manifestation of human will that has taken a different form than the psionic energy of Ovanan.

Jason, meanwhile, is captured by the Hierarchy and tortured by the beautiful but evil Sere. Believing him to be dead, his captors dispose of his body, but he is actually in a drug-induced coma. He is rescued by the Resistance, which is working with Rieken to try to stage a coup and overthrow the Hierarchy.

Unknown to Jason and his companions, Rieken is really Seren, the Avatar in disguise, who has quietly been working behind the scenes to try to overthrow the shackles of the oppressive Hierarchy. With Liana on one side, and Jason on another, the two groups rush to a confrontation.

Work from A Distant Soil was originally published in several fanzines, and was scouted by The Donning Company's Starblaze Graphics editions before being contracted by WaRP Graphics. Doran left after nine issues due to an acrimonious dispute with WaRP, which was falsely accused of attempting to claim copyright and trademark on her work.[17][18][19] The WaRP version of the story has never been reprinted, despite its unusual all-pencil style, although in one collected volume of the new series Doran reprinted the short Distant Soil story "R & R" that appeared in a WaRP anthology.

After leaving WaRP, Doran discarded all 300 pages of work and redid the series from scratch, initially for Starblaze Graphics, the company which first approached Doran for publication rights when she was in high school.

Colleen Doran and twelve other creators, including science fiction artist David Cherry and New Age author Mary Summer Rain, sued Donning for copyright violation and fraud.[20][21] She chronicled the battle in Very Bad Publishers,[22] blog posts which earned praise from an array of comics industry notables such as Tom Spurgeon at The Comics Reporter and Frank Miller. Doran wrote that, once again, she retained all rights to her series, and received a non-disclosed settlement.

Doran's experiences established her as a prominent artist spokesperson, eventually landing her in Washington, DC, working as a lobbyist for creator rights.[23]

When parent corporation The Donning Company folded Starblaze Graphics, Doran self-published under the Aria Press imprint, reprinting earlier work and creating new work. The ending of the Cold War necessitated some minor revision to political references in early chapters. She fleshed out earlier scenes and added new ones, as well as a backstory series Seasons of Spring, the story of A Distant Soil's protagonists as children.

Doran was a core member of the fledgling self-publishing movement with Cerebus creator Dave Sim, Bone creator Jeff Smith, and Strangers in Paradise creator Terry Moore. They toured the US and Canada under the Spirits of Independence banner, pushing for greater recognition and rights for self publishers.[24]

In 1996, Doran continued the series at Image Comics, where it is now in multiple printings as a series of trade paperbacks. It is 42 out of 50 issues into its final storyline, as a 1000-page single, long-form story narrative. It has sold, collectively, more than 700,000 copies.[25]

A Distant Soil spawned trading cards, fanzines, pinup books, limited editions, prints and posters, a fan club, and its creator has appeared in numerous documentaries and interviews. It was also optioned for film and television, with interest from Energy Entertainment and David Uslan.[26]

The series was on hiatus from 2006 to 2013, after its printer lost the archives of the photographic negatives of the graphic novels. The series returned in 2013 from Image Comics, with the first digitally restored edition premiering in July 2013. Jim Valentino's Shadowline imprint took on the restored editions and redesign tasks.[27] Graphic artist Allan Harvey completed the majority of the restoration work.[28]

The series has been collected into a number of trade paperbacks:

At The Donning Company the volumes were:

• Volume 1: Immigrant Song (collects A Distant Soil #1–4, 68 pages, The Donning Company, April 1989, ISBN 0-89865-514-5)
• Volume 2: Knights of the Angel (collects A Distant Soil #5–9, 120 pages, The Donning Company, April 1989, ISBN 0-89865-557-9)

The Image Comics collections are:

• Volume 1: The Gathering (collects A Distant Soil #1–13, 240 pages, Image Comics, June 1999, ISBN 1-887279-51-2)
• Volume 2: The Ascendant (collects A Distant Soil #13–25, 240 pages, Image Comics, November 1998, ISBN 1-58240-018-0)
• Volume 3: The Aria (collects A Distant Soil #26–31, 164 pages, Image Comics, July 2001, ISBN 1-58240-201-9)
• Volume 4: The Coda (collects A Distant Soil #32–38, 184 pages, Image Comics, softcover, March 2006, ISBN 1-58240-478-X, hardcover, November 2005, ISBN 1-58240-525-5)

Digitally Restored editions:

• A Distant Soil: The Gathering TPB Volume I Image Comics/Shadowline (2013) digitally remastered compilation of issues 1–13 with new story content ISBN 978-1607067870
• A Distant Soil: The Ascendant TPB Volume II Image Comics/Shadowline (2014) digitally remastered compilation of issues 14–25 with new story content ISBN 978-1607068341

• Official website