Tellos

Cover art for Tellos Colossal HC (August 2007), by Wieringo.

Tellos is a comic-book fantasy series created by Todd DeZago and Mike Wieringo and published by Image Comics. Three issues at the end of the initial run were printed through Gorilla Comics, which was co-founded by Wieringo). After that company folded, the book returned to Image as a series of one-shots.

The series featured a young boy named Jarek and his half human, half tiger companion Koj. They encounter swashbuckling pirate Serra, a foxy thief, his companion in crime and many other mysterious entities. The group strives to unravel the mystery behind Jarek's origin and escape the attentions of a mad boy-wizard seemingly bent on his destruction.

Jarek has a powerful genie at his control, which is limited to defending him and him only. Jarek tends to throw himself between his friends and danger so the genie is forced to destroy it.

The series features shadow-hopping ninja frogs as enemy cannon fodder.

Publication

The ongoing series was preceded with the publication of the "prologue," "prelude" and "preview" one-shost through Image and Dynamic Forces. The original series lasted 10 issues from 1999 to 2000, starting at Image Comics and later moving to Gorilla Comics.

Three oversized one-shots: Maiden Voyage, The Last Heist and Sons and Moons, were released in 2001 through Image Comics. Each volume contained several stories written by Dezago and illustrated by various artists, some flashbacks and others taking place after the original series. The world and characters also appeared in an issue of The 10th Muse set during the original series.

A 3-issue miniseries, Tales of Tellos, followed in 2004.