Jai Sen’s acclaimed alternate history of Alexander the Great returns in December 2026, meticulously re-lettered and with fully restored artwork, with the long-awaited sequel, Jamshid’s Cup, planned for 2028
PORTLAND, Ore. — August 15, 2026 — Shoto Press today announced a 20th anniversary edition of The Golden Vine, Xeric Award–winning and Eisner-nominated graphic novelist Jai Sen’s full-color alternate history of Alexander the Great, arriving in print and digital editions in December 2026. The publisher also announced Jamshid’s Cup, the second book of The Golden Vine trilogy, currently planned for release in 2028.
The Golden Vine imagines a world in which Alexander the Great does not die at Babylon, but survives to unite his empire and name his companion Hephaestion co-ruler beside him. Alexander’s conquests reach beyond Persia and India toward the far edges of the known world. The story unfolds as it is told to Alexander’s son, Alexander IV, and is rendered in the distinct visual styles of three Japanese artists: Seijuro Mizu, Umeka Asayuki, and Shino Yotsumoto.
Praised on its original release for the depth of its research into the fragments of the historical record, the book was called “spectacular in scope and execution” by ComicBookNet E-mag, “moving and wonder-filled” by The Gay Comics List, and one of the most beautiful books published that year by Out Magazine.
“The Golden Vine is my life’s work,” said author Jai Sen. “I am so proud to bring it back in this carefully restored edition.”
A restored edition
Every page of the anniversary edition has been meticulously re-lettered, and the original artwork has been restored throughout using the most advanced imaging and printing techniques available, returning the book’s full-color pages to the clarity the artists intended. In keeping with the high production values and opulent materials Shoto Press is known for, the edition also enhances the use of gold ink that distinguished the original printing. Alongside it, The Golden Vine comes to digital format for the first time as an Apple Book.
Jamshid’s Cup, 2028
Jamshid’s Cup, the trilogy’s second volume, returns to the world built in The Golden Vine to explore the central problems of empire: what it costs to hold one together, and what it does to those who rule. The book goes deeper into the story of Alexander IV and his companion Eumenos, their backgrounds, and the cultures that formed them.
A renewed interest in Alexander
The 20th anniversary edition of The Golden Vine arrives amid a resurgence of interest in Alexander the Great. In March 2026, Netflix announced Alexander, a drama series from Heated Rivalry creator Jacob Tierney adapting Annabel Lyon’s novel The Golden Mean, with Jason Bateman and Michael Costigan executive producing.
Sen, a scholar of Greco-Roman history with a specialization in Alexander, has no involvement in that production, but welcomes the renewed focus on his treasured subject. “I’m delighted to see this resurgence of interest in Alexander,” he said, “and I’m looking forward to Jacob Tierney’s interpretation of an exquisite novel that I genuinely enjoyed.”
About Jai Sen
Jai Sen is the author of the Malay Mysteries, a series of graphic novellas drawn from the folklore, monster myths, and ghost stories of colonial-era Southeast Asia. Garlands of Moonlight, the first book, won a Xeric Award and received a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award nominations, comics’ highest honor, alongside works by Lynda Barry and David B., plus a Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer nomination. His work has also been nominated for a U.K. National Comics Award.
Beyond comics, Sen is a scholar of colonial history, folklore, and South and Southeast Asian culture, as well as Greco-Roman history with a specialization in Alexander the Great. He is one of the few Alexander experts to have attempted a psychological portrait or alternate history of the Macedonian conqueror that works to fill the gaps in the historical record around his lifelong companion, Hephaestion.
About Shoto Press
Shoto Press is a publisher of fine speculative fiction and graphic novels, known for the Xeric Award–winning, Eisner-nominated Malay Mysteries series and for Jai Sen’s The Golden Vine.
Also from Shoto Press in 2026
Shoto Press releases three additions to Jai Sen’s Malay Mysteries series this fall: Purnama, the sixth book in the series, illustrated by series artist M. Reza Aribuwana, in which herbalist Marsiti and schoolteacher Hidayat travel to Bali to investigate the mystery of a haunted painting; The Collected Malay Mysteries, gathering the series into a single volume; and updated digital editions of the collected volume and earlier books.
Book details
| Title | The Golden Vine, 20th Anniversary Edition |
| Author | Jai Sen |
| Illustrators | Seijuro Mizu, Umeka Asayuki, Shino Yotsumoto |
| Publisher | Shoto Press |
| On sale | December 2026 |
| Price | $32.99 |
| Pages | 304, full color |
| Trim size | 9" x 7" |
| ISBN (paperback) | 978-0-9840014-4-6 |
| ISBN (ebook) | 978-0-9840014-5-3 |
| Pre-order | shotopress.com |
Media contact
Review copies, interview requests, and high-resolution art: shotopress.com/contact
# # #