The Activity

They do their work in secret, the goals of their missions and the discipline, teamwork, and skills needed to carry them out well out of the sight of the American public. However, on May 2, 2010, an elite team of Navy SEALs carried out Operation Neptune Spear, killing Osama bin Laden and launching "Black Ops" into the American consciousness.

Among the imaginations captured by these elite forces was that of Nathan Edmondson, a writer (WHO IS JAKE ELLIS, DANCER) who was inspired to create THE ACTIVITY, a comic book series that follows the lives of members of the special operations group Intelligence Support Activity. Drawn by Mitch Gerads (with guest issues by Marc Laming), THE ACTIVITY depicts the training and covert missions of Team Omaha within the real-life organization with glimpses of the "regular" lives they live where no one knows about their real jobs.

The insight into the lives of special operatives, as well as the bleeding-edge technology they employ in their missions, is founded on Edmondson's desire to create a true-to-life depiction of life in Special Forces. A trip to Washington D.C., as well as extensive research and networking, yielded defense contractor contacts and sources within special ops.

"I flew to Washington, D.C. and interviewed colonels and captains and a general face-to-face, gleaning what info I could," Edmondson told MTV Geek at the time of THE ACTIVITY #1's publication. "I’ve had the scripts reviewed by individuals from the Pentagon and JSOC [Joint Special Operations Command]... Often it was a matter of those advisors directing me and us to specific reading material, or simply telling us, 'no, that doesn’t make sense.'"

Edmondson's commitment to accuracy won the aid of many of the book's advisors, including Major Rusty Bradley of the US Special Forces, who co-scripted issue six of THE ACTIVITY. Major Bradley is the hero responsible for leading the team that took Sperwan Ghar in the decisive battle in Afghanistan, as is accounted in his book, LIONS OF KANDAHAR. Bradley's co-writer, embedded Special Forces reporter Kevin Maurer, is an ongoing advisor to the book and wrote the foreword to the trade.

The first trade paperback collection of THE ACTIVITY, containing issues #1-5, will be for sale on June 6^th (ISBN 978-1-60706-561-6).

THE ACTIVITY #6, in stores now and drawn by Laming, shows events west of the Congo in the Civil Affairs career of Team Omaha's newest member, code name "Fiddler," that led her to being recruited by the Intelligence Support Activity

THE ACTIVITY #7 is the launch of a new story arc, "Goat Hunt," which sees members of Team Omaha being sent to Uzbekistan for their latest mission after incriminating evidence is discovered on a Chinese freighter. It was co-written by actual Navy SEALs whose identities cannot be revealed. It is available for pre-order now from the May issue of Previews and will be in stores on July 18^th.

© C Harris Lynn, 2012