As a testament to the continuing strength of the Mouse Guard brand and Archaia Entertainment’s commitment to its creators, the publisher announced today that after selling 80,000 copies of David Petersen’s Mouse Guard Vol. 1: Fall 1152 hardcover since its original release in 2007, the title is going back to press. Archaia’s third printing of 10,000 copies, which are scheduled to arrive in stores in March, was expected to last over a 12-month period, but a deluge of advanced ordering due to the announcement of more Mouse Guard volumes has prompted the possibility of a fourth printing to commence in the coming months.
Writer Jason Becker and artist Jon Rea are back with the second twisted issue of their series Killing Pickman. Slower paced and more convoluted than issue 1, this issue dives deeper into the origins of Dick Pickman’s monstrous deeds.
As Detective Zhu makes his way to Herbert West Memorial Hospital to finish the job he started in issue one, the act of killing Pickman, Mr. Pickman waxes insane to a hospital psychologist about his transformation into a malicious child killer. When Zhu arrives outside the door to Pickman’s room, gun in hand, he’s confronted by Detective Raimi. Flash forward two months and we find out that this case hasn’t been very kind to those involved with investigating and cleaning out the Pickman house. Detective Zhu is the only one who understands the literally monstrous nature of the case and he has a plan, but can he pull it off while also looking out for the best interests of his wife and their child?
In an era when comic books have the same relationship with zombies as ESPN has with football, it’s difficult to find something fresh about the living dead, no pun intended. However, Grim Crew’s Dead Future Issue 1 is an anthology comprised of three zombie apocalypse stories all of which offer an element of originality in this otherwise predictable comic book niche.
The first story, Real Monsters, written by Martin Brandt II and Illustrated by Paul Petyo is a tale of day-to-day urban survival in a world overrun by zombies. This segment has all the trappings of the archetypal zombie paradigm as well as a few unique wrinkles. One of these is that the living can go about their business among the living dead provided they don’t upset the zombies’ routines and that these excursions take place during the day time.
Go back to the turn of the 20th Century and read a tale of lost love, the depravity of man and powers beyond our understanding in the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft!
Salvador Gomes is a broken man. He has lost his beautiful wife and young daughter in a fire and now spends restless days and sleepless nights looking for solace. In desperation, he makes a bargain with “The Shadow God,” but every bargain has its price…
Flames Rising is pleased to offer our readers a five page preview of The Darkness: Shadows & Flame one-shot, which will arrive in stores this Wednesday, January 20.
VAMPIRE APOCALYPSE will be a 140-page full-color graphic novel based on the critically acclaimed Vampire Apocalypse book series written by Derek Gunn. New Baby Productions licensed the graphic novel rights to the novels.
This new graphic novel adaptation will be scripted by CJ Hurtt, an eclectic writer whose work has run the gamut from mainstream to horror to slipstream to political drama. Federico Combi, a visionary artist from Argentina with a comprehensive fine arts education, provides a realistic painted style that fits the dark tone of VAMPIRE APOCALYPSE perfectly.
New Baby Productions has launched a Kickstarter page to raise initial funds for marketing and pre-production costs for this graphic novel. Supporters of this project get access to behind-the-scene updates, previews and other exclusive materials.
I recently spoke with A.P. Fuchs of Coscom Entertainment about the mix of comics and fiction available for fans of zombies, super-heroes and other dark, twisted tales.
Call you tell us a little about Axiom-Man?
Again, this will have to be another “long story short.” Axiom-man–the concept, anyway–was a superhero I invented while delivering newspapers as a kid, something to keep my mind busy while I went door to door. I’d daydream adventures, create story arcs, etc. Then, I created the version you know in high school. In 2005, I was inspired by the surge of independent superhero fiction being published and in January of 2006 began work on the first installment in the series. Here we are, three years later and the character has four books and one comic to his credit with more to come.
Author Jason Becker and artist Jon Rea have collaborated to create Killing Pickman, a modern noire tale wrapped around serial child murder and Satanism. And honestly, it warms my heart, but please keep that between you and me.
Issue 1 starts with Detective Bill Zsu canvassing the neighborhood in which multiple children have disappeared. When he knocks on Dick Pickman’s door the hairs stand up on the back of his neck. After calling for back up a showdown ensues the results of which are six new holes in Pickman, the discovery of satanic hobbies undertaken by the aforementioned Mr. Pickman, and a tunnel in which more child victims are discovered alive. Pickman goes to the hospital and Detective Zsu goes a little crazy working the psychopath beat. Little does he know that he’s only scratched the surface of the depravity he’s just uncovered.
THE GAME’S AFOOT, WATSON. LET’S CRACK THESE ROTTERS IN THE SKULL! – SHERLOCK HOLMES!
“It’s the master detective like you’ve never seen him before, and anyone underestimating Watson will pay dearly for it. Don’t miss Warner Brother’s extraordinary new take on Sherlock Holmes on December 25th, and our Movie Mayhem sale all Christmas Weekend.
Combining Archaia’s longstanding commitment to producing high-quality hardcover graphic novels and Roddenberry’s goal to produce sophisticated, intelligent and entertaining science fiction in the tradition of Star Trek, the companies announced today they will publish a deluxe Days Missing hardcover that collects all five issues of the critically acclaimed mini-series plus a host of extra features, available in February 2010.
The Days Missing hardcover is available for pre-order now through comic retailers and online outlets like Amazon.com (ISBN 1-932386-84-X).
In celebration of the holidays DriveThruComics.com and our publishing partners are offering an additional 10% off on selected products from now until the New Year!
Heske Horror, creator of the critically acclaimed Cold Blooded Chillers indie horror series and award-winning Bone Chiller anthology, has released its anticipated apocalyptic anthology, 2012: Final Prayer.
What will go down on 12/21/12?
Extinction … Ecstasy … Or another Y2K non-event? Comic Creators from around the world share their creative interpretations!
Considering I’m a huge fan of Fear Agent (Dark Horse), it stands to reason I’d be on the look-out for other pulpy sci-fi adventure “with stones”. Now I should mention right away that Mr. Phelps Space Detective is not as awesome as Fear Agent. I’m not saying it’s bad, though; oh, no, far from it. In fact, if you are looking for an action SF ka-boom fix, this should do rather nicely.
Mr. Phelps is, as the title suggests, a space detective. He also has a ship called the DeForrest (great name) and a side-kick / love-interest named Kat… who’s a cat. Well, a cat-person. Yes, a bipedal cat… person. Anyway, it all seems to make sense in the comic, which is full of space-faring adventure, explosions and people screaming in vacuum, greedy dudes named Jorge, an attack by clones, an odd device called a “hitchhiker” and lots of made up words like “skunc”, “frik’n scumlick” and “quarb”. In other words: Very, very fun.
September 19th, 2008. The Large Hadron Super Collider in Cern, Switzerland is about to go operational. Humanity is poised to re-create the very same conditions that resulted in the Big Bang and the birth of the universe. Physicist and Cern team member Kate Prosper notices something in one of the tests, a temporal anomaly with no reasonable scientific explanation. Meanwhile, truck driver Alain Murais would do anything to save his dying son, who is suffering from leukemia. But he’s out of money, insurance and time. Kate and Alain’s paths will end up on a collision course not only with one another, but also the mysterious Steward. Before the Day is over, no one will ever be the same…
The Federal Trade Commission on Monday took steps to make product information and online reviews more accurate for consumers, regulating blogging for the first time and mandating that testimonials reflect typical results.
The FTC will require that writers on the Web clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products. The commission also said advertisers featuring testimonials that claim dramatic results cannot hide behind disclaimers that the results aren’t typical.
For almost thirty years, one man has dominated the British comic scene. He is judge, jury and executioner, a merciless, far-future lawman delivering justice with an iron fist on the mean streets of Mega-City One. He is Judge Dredd! Available now at DriveThruComics.com are Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 1, Judge Dredd: The Pit, and Judge Dredd vs. Aliens.
Cinemacomics brings us a new modern horror comic series called OF EVIL AND DARKNESS. To highlight their new horror comic, they put together a trailer that offers a sneak peek at the artwork and story designed by Jay Carvajal. OF EVIL AND DARKNESS is a mature-rated horror comic that deals with the paranormal.
Folks have been talking a bit here and there about the rumored, then confirmed efforts of DriveThruRPG.com to enter the Print-on-Demand field of retail for some time. Already the largest retailer of eBook versions of our favorite games (a some fiction, comics and magazines), with tons of great publishers big and small on board, DriveThruRPG offers a ton of new current titles and plenty of old out-of-print options for gamers to scoop up.
Not everyone is as big a fan of eBooks as I am, and some of the “collector market” prices on long out-of-print games are way, way too high. So, a lot of people have been looking forward to some information on the potential PoD efforts of DriveThruRPG. Well today we got some interesting news from Sean Patrick Fannon, Publisher Services Manager of DriveThruRPG:
In a world where those with special powers are looked down upon and hunted, a secret team is brought together to protect it from the machinations of fallen angels and their children. From a noble cyborg warrior to a jumpy raver girl with electrical powers, they are brought in by a mysterious stranger and have to save a world that wouldn’t save them.
The graphic novel is a collection of short stories, introducing a reader to the universe of Alpha Gods. It is a world of magic and mutants, with sinister demons lurking in the shadows and with human beings developing strange powers. Called Extra Humans or Ex-Hus for short, the world knows they exist and has a largely negative view of them. The Alpha Gods try to protect the innocent ones while they struggle against a sinister corporation known as Grigori Enterprises that is performing experiments that will aid their demonic masters, the Nephilim.
Of Evil and Darkness follows a film crew to a mysterious island, where they are trying to find out more about the island and the mysterious murders that took place there long ago. The story starts off with humor, as even by issue two the story helps even a casual reader get adjusted to each character and their individual quirks. Upon arriving at the island, the crew is filled with a sense of nervousness from the stories about the island, and as the story progresses each character starts to become afraid. Soon they find that the stories about the island are very real, as they experience the events that took place many years ago, as a nightmare is resurrected on the island and it begins to hunt the crew down and murder them.
The film crew have unique personalities to them. From Henrick, the medium who travels with the cast and seems to foreshadow the evil events that are about to happen by his strange predictions, to the light-hearted nature of Jimmy as he tries to use humor to deal with the horror and anxiety around him.
Bone Chiller, a comic anthology penned by R.M. Heske with illustrations by indie horror’s leading and emerging artists, received a Bronze medal at the 2009 Independent Publisher Book Awards in the Horror category. The 140-page trade paperback published by Heske Horror features spine-tingling tales from the critcally acclaimed series Cold Blooded Chillers: Tales of suburban murder and malice.
The Independent Publisher Book Awards (the “IPPY” awards) are conducted annually to honor the year’s best independently published titles. This year’s awards attracted 4,090 entries throughout the US and Canada, plus most English-speaking countries worldwide. Past IPPY award success stories include The Millionaire Next Door, a winner in the inaugural 1997 awards contest, which has sold more than 2.5 million copies and spawned off-shoots including The Millionaire Mind.
As a testament to the continuing strength of the Mouse Guard brand and Archaia Entertainment’s commitment to its creators, the publisher announced today that after selling 80,000 copies of David Petersen’s Mouse Guard Vol. 1: Fall 1152 hardcover since its original release in 2007, the title is going back to press. Archaia’s third printing of 10,000 copies, which are scheduled to arrive in stores in March, was expected to last over a 12-month period, but a deluge of advanced ordering due to the announcement of more Mouse Guard volumes has prompted the possibility of a fourth printing to commence in the coming months.
A Tale of The Darkness!
September 19th, 2008. The Large Hadron Super Collider in Cern, Switzerland is about to go operational. Humanity is poised to re-create the very same conditions that resulted in the Big Bang and the birth of the universe. Physicist and Cern team member Kate Prosper notices something in one of the tests, a temporal anomaly with no reasonable scientific explanation. Meanwhile, truck driver Alain Murais would do anything to save his dying son, who is suffering from leukemia. But he’s out of money, insurance and time. Kate and Alain’s paths will end up on a collision course not only with one another, but also the mysterious Steward. Before the Day is over, no one will ever be the same…
Folks have been talking a bit here and there about the rumored, then confirmed efforts of 
