• Fang: Fang is a young fox girl in a world where there is a particular prejudice against foxes. She is also a demon hunter. She is a fun and funny character on the outside but carries deep guilt and sadness that drives her to anger on her quest for vengeance against demons. Full of bravado but not above ego and self-doubt. Despite her sunny disposition and noble intentions, she carries a darkness inside of her. Fang is often alone and lonely. She is wracked with guilt, as she believes she was responsible for the death of her father. Her mother trains her to use restraint to protect the innocent and kill all demons to repay the world for all she takes from it. Fang has a second sight for seeing demons and uses this to root out evil in neighboring villages. She is armed with a meteor hammer and claw blade, attached by a simple but magically long chain. On the outside, she is calm in the face of danger, inventive and savvy in using the environment around her to toy with people who mock her and are prejudiced against foxes. She’s become a bit hardened by the job and can be snarky and cynical because of it. In battle against a powerful demon, The Inquisitor, it is revealed that Fang is half fox/half demon. Even more reason that Fang carries such shame with her. The Inquisitor is intrigued by her – he asks her to join him and says she will never know peace until she accepts who she is. Fang instead defeats The Inquisitor. Through the journey she makes friends with the deer Wei Tzu and a strong but fair bear, Rong. More drama is ahead with a complicated mother/daughter relationship when we learn Fang’s mother has been lying to her about her own origins for her entire life. Fang will start the story wanting to rid the world of evil and as she journeys on her quest, she will need to come to accept herself and embrace who she is.
• Wei Tzu: a young buck in the deer clan. His mother Xiao Hong is worried he’s been possessed by a demon and disappeared. Fang initially thinks Wei Tzu has just wandered off to live a little. Fang finds him and discovers his mother was right – he has been captured by a demon! When we first meet him, he’s in bad shape – weak, clearly tortured, with one of his antlers sawed off. He’s being tortured by the Inquisitor, all part of an evil plan to pit the deer and bear clans against each other and start an all-out war. Wei Tzu and Fang, as well as Rong, become friends after Fang saves him. At the end of the first issue, Wei Tzu is freed but is scared to go back home so he decides to join Fang instead. Old habits and old animosities die hard so Wei Tzu and Rong, who have been on opposite sides until now will bicker and banter in humorous ways. Neither wants to admit they’re actually becoming friends. They prefer to talk around one another rather than to one another. Wei Tzu is reluctant to fight and has a more elegant fighting style than Rong, who’s a tank. We’ll learn in the second issue that Wei Tzu is actually a prince!
• Rong: a rough and tumble bear who has one of the stronger moral codes of his regiment. Armed with an impressive mace, he’s strategic and smarter than the other bears. When Fang comes to the Moonbear settlement looking for Wei Tzu, Rong doesn’t see her as a threat while other bears think she must be bad because she’s a fox. Rong is horrified to find that Wei Tzu is being tortured – they had captured him as part of the battle, but they don’t condone torture. He shows genuine and heartfelt remorse. Rong will have his eyes opened to the reality of war over the course of the first issue. He’s worried he’ll be seen as a traitor if he goes back to the Moonbear colony, so he joins Fang and Wei Tzu instead to initially help Fang get home.
• The Inquisitor: a sinister, conniving demon who has infected the bear clan’s makeshift castle. Tall, thin, elegant looking man in robes. Initially looks harmless, though the energy of demonsign is seeping off of him. He smiles in a creepy, evocative way and can be darkly comedic. He’s a loathsome and powerful being of great evil who has used Wei Tzu as bait to create a war between the deer and bear clans. When he learns Fang is half demon, he is fascinated by her and wants her to join him. After all, the mortals she’s protecting are exactly like them… except without the power. He says they could enslave every living thing in the valley if they worked together. Or does Fang like slaughtering her own kind just to delay her own inevitable demise? When The Inquisitor transforms into demon form, he becomes a scary mangled, organic tornado of sinew, skin, bones and teeth. Fang is able to defeat and kill him by calling upon all of her power.
• Poko: an aggressive, arrogant bear who wants to kill Fang because she’s a fox wandering around on their turf. He looks particularly straggly and unkempt. Doesn’t think before acting. He is easily swayed by the Inquisitor to join his agenda in creating a war between the deer and bear clans.
• Xiao Hong: A beautiful soft-spoken doe of the deer clan. Dressed in rags and clearly poor. She is Wei Tzu’s mother who hires Fang to help find her son who she believes is possessed by a demon. When Fang asks if she’s a good mother, she replies that no one tells you that you won’t know whether or not you were a good mother until it’s too late to make a difference. There is a moment in the story where we’ll see lush golden silk and jewelry poking out from beneath her peasant’s robes which we’ll later learn is because she is royalty.
• Bing: Fang’s mother. Rong and Wei Tzu are surprised to see she is a HUMAN woman. Weak, frail, but pretty. Pleasant, but passive aggressive towards Fang at all times. She makes sure that Fang constantly feels guilty. She is proud that her daughter is doing good in the world despite her “affliction.”
• The Demon Lord: the big bad which we only hear about in whispers. He is a monster who plans to devour the lands.        

FANG is an episodic fantasy adventure in a rustic world of magic where it’s normal for humans and anthropomorphic animals to interact, although there is a particular prejudice against foxes. Our lead, Fang is a young fox girl who is a demon hunter.

Fang is often alone and lonely. She is wracked with guilt, as she believes she was responsible for the death of her father. Her mother trains her to use restraint to protect the innocent and kill all demons to repay the world for all she takes from it. Fang has a second sight for seeing demons and uses this to root out evil in neighboring villages.

In a local village plagued with drought, some of the villagers believe an ugly man is actually a demon and is the one causing the drought. Jie, a demon hunter, uses a sword that starts to glow when it is brought near to the ugly man – this confirms to Jie that the man is a demon and must be killed. Fang steps in and stops Jie before he’s able to kill the villager. She says that his sword indicates there is a demon near but isn’t particularly accurate. You need mountain salt to expose the real demon – she throws the salt on an old woman nearby selling beads. The old woman transforms into demon form and the two fight. Fang defeats the demon who bursts into a geyser of water, hydrating the land again. Fang, who was treated poorly because she’s a fox, asks for the reward the town offered Jie and reparations for the ugly man before heading on her way.

Fang goes to camp in the forest and later is suddenly awoken by Xiao Hong’s presence – she is a doe who asks Fang for help in finding her son, Wei Tzu, who she believes has been possessed by a demon. Fang thinks he’s just wandered off in search of some fun, sowing his wild oats. Xiao Hong is offended and Fang relents by going to check out a nearby Moonbear settlement. She tries to walk through the main thoroughfare but is stopped by a few bears - Rong sees no threat from her but Poko says she’s a dirty fox and must be a spy.

Fang thinks of her mother’s lessons to use restraint, and never kill a living thing.

The bears led by Poko attack Fang and she’s able to incapacitate them without killing any of them. She notices fungi growing on the castle walls – there’s a sickness there. Fungi is a clear indication of demons. Fang makes her way into the dungeons of the castle where she finds Wei Tzu, obviously tortured and surrounded by fungi, pulsing its ethereal glow. Rong and the other bears catch up to her and are shocked to see the buck has been tortured. Yes, they captured him as they are at war but they don’t condone torture.

The Inquisitor arrives, a loathsome and powerful demon of great evil. Xiao Hong was right – her son was possessed by a demon! The Inquisitor flicks his wrist and all of the creatures are bound by the vines in the dungeon but Fang manages to dodge them. The Inquisitor explains his evil plan to create a war between the bear and deer clans to rise the tide of the war until everyone drowns in it, in decades of war and a river of bloodshed. He lures a few of the bears like Poko to his side, don’t they want the deer to die? The Inquisitor is now in full demon form and says that no one can stop him. Fang says she will – armed with her meteor hammer, whip and claw, Fang is revealed in her true form – she is half fox, half demon. Even more reason Fang carries so much guilt and shame with her.

The Inquisitor is intrigued by Fang and says she should join him, insisting she’ll never know peace until she accepts who she is. Fang, calling upon all of her power, instead defeats the Inquisitor. Having escaped the carnage, Wei Tzu and Rong offer to take Fang home as payment for saving their lives. But now that her great secret has been revealed, how will it affect her growing friendship with them? And where will their next adventure lead?

In Book 2, we’ll learn a bit about how demons are made – the energy is out there, in the world, waiting for a host. Then, when someone falls into sorrow, anger, greed…shame…the demon spirit begins its temptation and ultimately takes over the living thing.

Fang’s mother Bing says it’s time for Wei Tzu and Rong to leave after hosting them for a couple weeks. She gives Fang her next assignment. Fang asks if she can bring Wei Tzu and Rong on the journey and her mother says that depends on how much blood she wants on her soul. Fang, feeling guilty, goes it alone. She is attacked by a swarm of small demons. She fights back but they’re relentless. Suddenly the demons are scared off by the sound of chimes. Chimes!? A religious group of pilgrims arrives and says their god welcomes all and offer her safe passage. That is until they see she is a fox. The group struggles with foxes being a creature of duplicity but Fang did fight the demons. A voice vouches for her – Wei-Tzu and Rong have followed Fang! The Stag is a noble creature so they are all invited in. Fang is confused by the village as there are no signs of demons. As the team investigates further they will find the demons are a pair of religious zealots whose xenophobia and resentment at having to come to this part of the world opened them up to demons. The couple is 100% loyal to the cause of the Pilgrimage. They are sending out demons on purpose, allowing the Pilgrims to “scare them away with the power of their god,” which gives people reason to believe in their preaching. Fang destroys the demons. Wei Tzu and Rong keep Fang from taking things too far. As the group leaves the town they are ambushed by Xiao Hong and the Iron Antler soldiers – they are here for the prince. Wei Tzu is a prince!?

The story of FANG continues with a complicated mother/daughter relationship when we learn Fang’s mother has been lying to her about her own origins for her entire life. Fang & co will continue to take down demons all leading to a showdown with the big bad, The Demon Lord.       

• Coming of age story with a journey of self-acceptance wrapped up in an epic quest
• Fang, our lead character, is a savvy, bad ass demon hunter, ridding the world of evil
• Features an eclectic cast of characters – foxes, bears, deer, humans, oxen, pigs, donkeys (to name a few) – all across the animal kingdom in an elaborate world
• Rife with family drama and the guilt than can be carried from that. Explores what it means to live with guilt, especially when you discover that the weight you carry is not your own
• Looks at the roots of prejudice through a genre lens
• Mix of history and magic to create the unique world the story is set in
• Female driven narrative
• From Niko Henrichon, the acclaimed artist of The Metabarons: Second Cycle and Pride of Baghdad, and comics and animation star Joe Kelley (I Kill Giants, Big Hero 6, Ben 10).
• Ultimately the story is about learning to accept your past and flaws and those of the people around you to create a better future