Since the release of the album Enki, Ashmedi - the founder of Jerusalem-based metal icons Melechesh - has been engaged in a new adventure. This time, not as a producer, but as a protagonist of an epic, interactive graphic novel featuring Melechesh and the Sumerian myths.

Emerging comic book and graphic novel company Metal Depot - whose mission it is to envisage the lyrics, life, and music of the bands they love and turn them into exciting visual stories - have been tirelessly working alongside Ashmedi on the creation of this book since summer 2016. Now, the 130-page epic is ready to unleash the wrath of awoken gods, bringing mayhem on the land of mortals. The graphic novel, entitled Emissary Of The Anunnaki: The Tale Of The Fire King, will be released on July 1st. A video teaser is available for streaming below.

What makes Emissary Of The Anunnaki: The Tale Of The Fire King even more unique is its interactive online version, located at www.md-comics.com, that will allow readers to have a direct impact on the story and help the characters make choices in different situations. The online version will pose challenges to the reader - meaning certain pages will only be unlocked with the solving of said challenges. Certain pages will allow you to choose how characters progress, and some will even allow you to become that character and take part in battles!

An audio version of the book will also be available, where the readers can hear the dialogues - even featuring our protagonist himself, Ashmedi - the representatives of different generations of rock and metal musicians in Armenia, and professional actors as the secondary characters.

Subscription is open now for those who want to be informed as soon as the epic book is released. Pre-orders are available now through the official Emissary Of The Anunnaki: The Tale Of The Fire King Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign with early-bird rates and limited edition of special merchandise. Visit the Kickstarter page here.

In discussing the graphic novel, Ashmedi jokes that everything related to the Gods, mythology, and lyrics is a pure reality, and the daily life of the band is fiction. There might be some truth to that, though. Who knows, maybe last time you attended a Melechesh concert, Enki - the God of Water and Creation was there as well.

"We have spent a lot of time talking about stories of my life, my childhood. That, and my art, eventually blended together in the story, and it was the writer's call to choose which episodes to use to build the storyline. From my side, I spent a lot of time talking about technicality. For example, at one point there was a very well-drawn model of a guitar which got manufactured only recently. Those are very specific things to me. I even sent some photos of Jerusalem and my childhood," Ashmedi adds.

According to Ashmedi, it feels strange seeing himself as an artistic rendering. He compares it to hearing your own voice in a recording and not recognizing it at first. "To be drawn in a fictional graphic novel - in a different setting - the fantastical, mythological and mystical world of Sumerians, and the whole mythology that you hear in Melechesh songs, to be in it - it's quite fun! First time I saw it, I said 'This is really impressive," says Ashmedi.

Becoming a comic book hero might be impressive, but Metal Depot and the creators of Emissary Of The Anunnaki: The Tale Of The Fire King promise that Ashmedi and his band have to go through some badass adventures in the story while facing the very angry Sumerian Goddess of War and Passion - Ishtar.

Learn more via md-comics.com.