David Rondinelli: Well basically it’s been around since early 2012. I got my start volunteering at a gallery called the MoCCA museum, which is the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in NYC. And that allowed me to make a lot of great contacts and from there I met a group called Pronto Comics, which is an independent not for profit publisher and event planner. And basically from there I got a chance to foster a lot of my skills and talents. I started off doing small anthologies (about) 6 to 8 page stories that got put in some of their different titles. And from there I worked my way up to becoming a manager of some books, and then I became the head editor of some books. And I helped organize different teams, kept them together for another anthology I did, which was called Manganation, and that’s also gonna be here at NYCC 2013 and we’ll be promoting it. But basically I wanted to kind of see what it’s like to take the reins myself and do a project completely on my own. So I started Horizon Line Comics and the first title that I’m promoting is Node. And I’m very excited because our 4th issue is about to launch and so I’m here promoting it as my new big deal.

David Rondinelli: Basically on a philosophical level and a creator level it’s very much a metaphor for when I moved to the city. I was a young creator and I wanted to be a writer and get into something that was not corporate or not money-crunching. And when I came to the city it was very rough. So Node was a story that mimicked that. (However) it’s a story about a girl who had dreams about being a musician and she doesn’t realize that she’s a descendant of an ancient line of martial artists who use their zodiac signs as a battle art form. And what happens is as time goes on magical creatures, monsters, all those kinds of things, they enter the world and reveal themselves. But instead of being embraced they get chucked to large city prisons, which are kind of like internment camps. So she finds herself trapped in one of these and she meets a mystic who is also a scientist and a vigilante who basically says if you help me clean up the city I’ll get you your freedom. So right now the first 2 issues were one story arc, which was a lot of fun. Had a lot of great people working with me on that. The third issue has gotten 5 stars on DriveThruComics and it’s doing pretty well too. And I”m hoping that issue 4 will continue that success.

David Rondinelli: I’m gonna try to keep it alive as long as I can. I’m hoping to continue with the artist I currently have. Right now after issue 4 we kind of want to work on making a longer story arc so there’s a very plausible chance that there’s gonna be another 3 issue story arc that’s coming out soon. Node issue 4 is gonna be a larger issue. It’s gonna be 30 pages instead of 20. It’s gonna deal with an updated version of the Golden Fleece from Jason and the Argonauts, the myth. It’s also gonna have some themes of exorcism and possession. So if you like any of those things definitely check it out.

David Rondinelli: It’s not stated in the comics but basically what’s gonna happen is cities that were on the verge of collapse or in ruin, Detroit comes to mind, have been converted into these great dome cities that are like giant cages. So even though they’re cities these creatures aren’t allowed to go out into the real world and they’re not allowed to coexist with mortals. And I guess the metaphor for me is when I moved to NYC, everything felt very cloistered. It’s like you’re in this really big wonderful city that’s flashy and people seem magical on their own and everybody is so different and diverse. It can be very overwhelming but then there’s also a time when you can feel trapped in it. So that’s the correlation I was trying to make with the character but for the most part it can be a lot of fun. Yeah it’s a futuristic dystopian existence.