Overview

Aara: Healing Warrior is a young adult fantasy graphic novel, authorized for Author Assistance by the U.S. Coast Guard, aimed at ages 12–18. It is in full color, U.S. Standard comic book size (6.625 x 10.187 inches), and has approximately 130 pages. The project is suitable for all media.

AARA is set on a futuristic, polluted Earth. The inhabitants of what remains of Seattle have built an underground city that relies on AI technology for survival. When a famine hits, they evict their only companions, a race of wombats with human-like intelligence. Everything changes when the protagonist, an albino wombat named Aara, discovers her ability to summon magical meteorites with purifying powers to combat the planet’s pollution. With the help of the U.S. Coast Guard and some new friends, Aara must battle terrorists who would take the meteorites only for themselves. Aara embarks on a spectacular quest across the West Coast and Pacific Ocean to restore life on Earth.

  • Comparable titles include Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga and Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Like Saga and Nausicaä, a heroic female protagonist is caught between two different worlds and combines the two worlds to create solutions to big problems, with fantastical or sentient creatures and lots of action-adventure elements packed through the story.

    AARA tackles subjects such as climate change, technology, and albinism. The U.S. Coast Guard plays a crucial role in the story, helping the characters travel along the West Coast. Their officials have said they will use short excerpts from the book for historical, educational, and public outreach purposes. This will be an excellent promotion for AARA within and beyond the USCG community.

    The overall encouraging environmental narrative conveys the message of reverence for all life and cooperation among species. Because millennials and Generation Z are well-known for being eco-friendly, AARA will also speak significantly to this audience.

    I've done extensive research to ensure that AARA is a post-apocalyptic story that’s also inspired by reality. I worked with the U.S. Coast Guard and toured their vessels and facilities. I also traveled to Australia to learn about wombats from wildlife experts. Through the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation (NOAH) and the African Millennium Foundation, I've spoken directly to people with albinism and activists fighting for them. Please refer to the “Research” section of the website for details.

    AARA is a story of overcoming and healing, with people of various backgrounds coming together to make miracles happen on Earth. It is supported by concrete research and impactful writing to raise awareness of albinism and environmental issues, as the story unfolds in a unique and adventurous way.

    I greatly appreciate your time, and I hope that you will join me on this literary adventure to spread hope throughout our planet.

    Aurora Haan

Foreword by Denis O’Neill

The time is possibly not so far away - not the way we are treating earth these days. AARA is author/illustrator Aurora Haan’s magical and cautionary tale about the rebirth of our planet sometime in the future… after we have allowed it to suffocate from years of abuse and pollution. It is a quest story, not unlike “The Lord of The Rings,” with a central heroine, AARA, and two fellow travelers, determined to discover the magical curites (meteor fragments) which will allow RAPHA, the God of Nature, to return to earth and restore her once pristine glory. […]

AARA is a graphic novel, a quest saga on the order of classic adventures like Hercules, and Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Haan’s illustrations soar with color and exuberance. Her characters are singular, and singularly depicted.  AARA is a most worthy addition to the short list of quest adventures that have thrilled and entertained readers almost since the beginning of time.

—
Denis O’Neill is the screenwriter of “The River Wild” starring Meryl Streep, and “A Shot at Glory,” starring Robert Duvall. He is author of four books, “Whiplash: When the Vietnam War Rolled a Hand Grenade into the Animal House,” a Dartmouth College memoir, “The River Wild”, an expanded thriller based upon his original screenplay, “Pandemic Musings,” a series of essays about American life during COVID, and “Canis Dirus,” a Sierra high country thriller involving prehistoric dire wolves.

First 12 pages of art in chronological order

Additional page of art

SCENE #1:

Cutter Aurora and the AOC team search for Curite fragments(a.k.a. Keystones) on the ocean floor with equipment.