A Distant Soil
Colleen Doran's four-decade space opera — aristocrat Sair and slave D'mer torn between warring alien factions on the planet Coba. One of the longest-running self-published comics in American history, still serialized online.
📖 Aria Press / Image Comics • Started 1991
A Distant Soil is Colleen Doran’s sprawling space opera — a saga so long-running it’s become a landmark of American independent comics. Set on the planet Coba, it follows Sair, a gifted young aristocrat, and D’mer, a slave with empathic powers, as they are drawn into a vast galactic conflict between the elite Servants of the Kyrie and the brutal Avanterra empire. The series is an exquisite blend of science fiction, fantasy, and soap-operatic drama — what The Comics Journal once called “the broadest, most intense, handsomest SF soap opera since Star Wars was put on paper.” With its intricate inkwork and lush painted interiors, it’s the clearest showcase of the artistry that later earned Doran Eisner Awards for her Gaiman adaptations. Perfect for fans of Star Wars-era royalty intrigue, Dune, and Warchild.
Four Decades, One Vision
Doran conceived A Distant Soil as a twelve-year-old and has been building it ever since. The professional saga began with fanzine stories in 1979 and a 1983 serial with WaRP Graphics (Elfquest’s publisher), but when Doran reclaimed her copyright — refusing to let her story be altered — she relaunched it in 1991 under her own Aria Press imprint. In 1996 it moved to Image Comics, where it remained for two decades. Along the way Doran famously rejected Marvel when they offered her mainstream work — after they asked her to change an Asian character’s race — a decision that cemented her reputation as one of the most principled figures in the industry.
Still Going, Still Free
Today A Distant Soil stands as one of the longest-running self-published series in comics history, with over 700,000 copies sold across its various incarnations. The saga is now serialized entirely free online at adistantsoil.com, where the final chapter unfolds as a Patreon-supported webcomic. Every remastered print volume is available through her official book store. As Jeff Smith’s Boneville retrospective notes, Doran’s stubbornness made her a pioneer of the self-publishing movement — and readers can still watch that pioneer build her universe in real time.
