Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Less secret all the time



One of the bigger mail- (or Internet-)order book clubs, the http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifScience Fiction Book Club, has been offering more and more comics lately. It's still primarily genre books, but we've gotten some good attention from them for books like 30 DAYS OF NIGHT and WORMWOOD, GENTLEMAN CORPSE. In the latest issue, the Early Holiday 2008 Catalog, my (well, the adaptation I did with Gabriel Rodriguez and Jay Fotos, so not really just "my") CLIVE BARKER'S THE GREAT AND SECRET SHOW, got better placement than any other book in that catalog, which is very gratifying to see.

Black Heart

Before writer/artist Rick Remender was Heep Big Cheese with all of his PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL/ATOM/FEAR AGENT/END LEAGUE/BLAH BLAH EVERY THIRD BOOK RELEASED, he and Kieron Dwyer (also the creators of our sold-out NIGHT MARY book, which is being re-released this month) put out a book called BLACK HEART BILLY. The book was only ever released in b&w, so we're happy to be able to put out a color version. Colorist Kevin Cross colored everything, five pages of which are shown below the solicits for the book. It's in stores tomorrow.

Black Heart Billy
Rick Remender (w) • Kieron Dwyer, Harper Jaten (a) • Dwyer (c)
Meet Billy Black, an ‘80s hardcore scene refugee who’s having a bit of trouble acclimating to modern life. While bludgeoning a band of Burning Man refugees with the skull of Jerry Garcia, Billy inadvertently becomes immersed in an evil Nazi conspiracy to turn the world into mindless hippie zombies in order to usher in the 4th Reich.
“Hitler in Jerry Garcia’s corpse—how can you say no?” — Warren Ellis
TPB • FC • 120 pages • 6.625” x 10.187” • $19.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60010-317-9






Monday, September 29, 2008

Scared Straight

The stacks of mail that come through this office every day are a thing to behold. Every day, I get a pile o' proposals, art samples, letters both complimentary (DICK TRACY and TERRY AND THE PIRATES fans are big letter-writers, and always very appreciative) and not (some TRANSFORMERS fans have particular demands), and random postcards.

I get through it all best I can. But every once in a while, something shows up that stops me from the other things I'm doing. Got one of those today, in the form of another reminder why it's best to stay on the up and up (like Ben Templesmith's WELCOME TO HOXFORD isn't cautionary tale enough of why to avoid incarceration). Seems that some of our comics just aren't allowed in prisons where murderers, rapists and other folks are locked up.

I figured it best to not include the actual name of the prison here, so pardon the redacted version. But let this be one more lesson to you that breaking the law and going to the clink is a bad idea...

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Come for the LOCKE & KEY, stay for the lights in the sky



The LOCKE & KEY hardcover comes out this week (it hit some stores last week, actually, but will be everywhere this Wednesday), and its creator, writer Joe Hill, will be doing a signing in Exeter, NH on October 1. But he and the bookstore are actually extending an offer to people who'd like to get him to sign some books but can't make it to that signing.

At Joe's blog, he's thrown this out there (click the link or the Title of this post for the entire piece at his blog):

...I had an idea I wanted to throw out there. I’m doing a signing at Water Street Books in Exeter on October 1st. They’ll have HEART-SHAPED BOX in soft and hardcover, 20TH CENTURY GHOSTS in soft and hardcover, and LOCKE & KEY in hardcover. If you’d like a signed book, call them between now and October 2nd, and place an advance order. You’ll only have to pay cover price, plus shipping and handling. And you’ll know it’s the real deal.


Hit the blog entry for all the information and rules. The store is located here:

Water Street Books

125 Water Street

Exeter, NH

603 778-9731


And if you do find yourself in Exeter for the signing, well, keep watching the sky because you never know what you might see there...

IDW's new releases for October 1


BLACK HEART BILLY TPB
THE COMPLETE CHESTER GOULD’S DICK TRACY, VOL. 5
DREAMLAND CHRONICLES #4
EVERYBODY’S DEAD TPB
GHOST WHISPERER: THE HAUNTING TPB
LOCKE & KEY HC (2nd shipment)
NIGHT MARY TPB (new printing)
SILENT HILL OMNIBUS
STAR TREK: NEW FRONTIER TPB
TRANSFORMERS: MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE, VOL. 1
TRANSFORMERS: SAGA OF THE ALLSPARK #4
TRANSFORMERS BEST OF THE UK: TIME WARS #3
ED’S TERRESTRIALS (Worthwhile Books)
VIGFUS THE VIKING (Worthwhile Books)

Friday, September 26, 2008

Nice Dreams

Today's random old reference comes to us courtesy of a Cheech and Chong movie that came out after people had stopped caring about Cheech and Chong movies. But it's also apropos to the image posted here. December sees the launch of Lora Innes' Civil War-era romance comic, THE DREAMER (guys, this one's a very good way to try to attract your girlfriend or wife to comics). The variant cover for issue from artist Jenny Frison just came in this morning and demanded to be shown:

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

G.I. JOE: the arrival

Advance copies of the #0 issue are here, and they look pretty damned great. The shine on the B cover in the photo is because we used a new laminate on that one, did some spot varnishing and embossing on the A cover, and a matte finish on the incentive covers. Can't wait to get them into peoples' hands on October 22.

Monday, September 22, 2008

That's a spicy meat-a-ball!

As mentioned below, this week we're releasing the first hardcover volume of SPAGHETTI BROS, a book written by Eduardo Risso's frequent partner-in-crime, Carlos Trillo (we released their CHICANOS books and they've also done BOY VAMPIRE, among other things). The book's solicits read like this, and below the text is the cover and a three-page preview of the 204-page book.

Spaghetti Bros, Vol. 1
Carlos Trillo (w) • Domingo Mandrafina (a & c)
This decades-spanning story of four young Italian immigrants starts in 1910 and follows them as they grow up to become a gangster, an actress, a Catholic priest, and a police officer. Volume One captures the first stories of love and hate of this Italian-American family. This thrilling story, presented in a deluxe hardcover edition and published in English for the first time, is like no other crime comic and will appeal to fans of the Godfather saga.





Sunday, September 21, 2008

IDW's new releases for Sept. 24


Big "book" week for us this week, with no actual monthly comics being released but a few different hardcovers and some TPBs. I'll run some scans of a couple of the covers soon, and a preview of the SPAGHETTI BROS. book (a foreign GODFATHER-esque edition) over the next day or two, too. For now, the full wraparound dustjacket for the latest edition of the Eisner-winning TERRY & THE PIRATES series.

LOCKE & KEY HC
SPAGHETTI BROS., VOL. 1 HC
STAR TREK ARCHIVES, VOL. 1: THE BEST OF PETER DAVID
COMPLETE TERRY & THE PIRATES, VOL. 4
TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED, VOL. 1 (2nd printing)
TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT, VOL. 1 (2nd printing)

Thursday, September 18, 2008

The Kirk/Pike grudge match

We're well into our five-part STAR TREK: MIRROR IMAGES miniseries (issue 3 came out on September 10), so as it barrels toward a great conclusion, here's a look at issue 5's cover by Joe Corroney (color assist by Brian Miller):

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Image isn't everything



(I know, that's a juvenile play on the tagline from that old Andre Agassi commercial, and isn't meant as any indicator about the company itself since I like the folks there and I like what they do, but I had to have a little fun with this. Besides, who knows how long it'll last?)

Anyway, from iCV2.com:

IDW Makes a Move

Hits #4 Market Share in Comic Stores


Powered by its Whedon (Angel, Spike), Transformers, Dr. Who, Star Trek, and other licensed titles (see “Top 300 Comics—August 2008”), IDW hit the #4 market share rank in comic stores in August, a new high for the company. IDW topped Image, which has generally held the #4 slot. Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse held their customary top three slots.

While one month does not a trend make, IDW has been steadily expanding both its roster of licenses and its in-house titles. At the very least, IDW appears to be ready to compete for a higher rank on an ongoing basis.

All Hail fan art



ALL HAIL MEGATRON #3 hits today, so it seems a good time to run a piece of Saul Bass-inspired poster art we just got from a fan named James Biggie. Which now makes me think we should do some sort of AHM design contest...

Lapham Nights



One bit of news that seemed to slide out without much fanfare during July's Comic-Con is the fact that celebrated creator David Lapham (STRAY BULLETS is maybe his best-known work but he recently did a fun Spider-Man miniseries with Tony Harris and his YOUNG LIARS book for Vertigo is a good read, too) is going to take a nicely bloody left turn into the 30 DAYS OF NIGHT world.

In December, we're launching 30 DAYS OF NIGHT: 30 DAYS TILL DEATH, a 4-issue miniseries written and drawn by Lapham. The description of the series is this:

David Lapham, the acclaimed Eisner Award-winning creator of Stray Bullets, brings his unique brand of graphic storytelling to 30 Days of Night and IDW. In 30 Days ‘til Death, the horrible events of the Barrow have rippled thoughout the world. A war has started in the secret society of vampires. A reaping. A death squad of elders has come to America to "thin the heard" of the troublesome new breed. Rufus doesn't give care about anything but his own survival and he's willing to do anything to ensure it, including getting a dog, and a girlfriend, pretending to like his neighbors, and going to extreme lengths to hide his insatiable craving for blood...


The lure of Lapham on the book was enough to get Ben Templesmith to offer up variant covers for the series, too, starting with this one for issue 1, being offered up in the issue of Previews that comes out next week:

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

All Hail Trevor

TRANSFORMERS: ALL HAIL MEGATRON #3 comes out tomorrow (hope our message board is ready). And since there's already a 5-page preview of the issue posted elsewhere on the 'net, let me instead show off variant cover artist Trevor Hutchison's latest in a series of amazing images, the cover for issue 7:

Monday, September 15, 2008

SWIPER, no swiping!

How about a little bonus today, since people have been asking for it for a while now. The final issue in Simon Furman's 4-part TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT: REVELATIONS run features SIDESWIPE, and in that one, artist E.J. Su is handling full pencils/inks/colors duties for the first time. And the results are, well, a revelation:

IDW's new releases for September 17



Diamond released the latest industry numbers today, and IDW was officially the fourth-largest publisher in the country now, surpassing Image. So that's a nice way to start the week. Out this week from IDW are these books:

STAR TREK: ASSIGNMENT EARTH #5
SPIKE: AFTER THE FALL #3
TRANSFORMERS: ALL HAIL MEGATRON #3
TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT, VOL. 3 TPB


*BEN TEMPLESMITH’S ART OF WORMWOOD SIGNED & NUMBERED SKETCH EDITION was delayed by one week. It was slated for this Wednesday but will now be in stores on September 24.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Byrne ward

Let's head into the weekend with a couple John Byrne pieces. The first is the cover of DANGER UNLIMITED, a team book from the '90s that's getting collected and re-presented. Tom Smith handled the colors there. And the second is the cover to next month's STAR TREK ROMULANS: THE HOLLOW CROWN #2 (issue 1 came out this week), colored by Len O'Grady.

Soon, I'll post some images and announce Byrne's next project for us; it's neither TREK- nor DANGER UNLIMITED-related (although he's also already broken ground on his next STAR TREK series for us, too).


Wednesday, September 10, 2008

QUEST Probe

I don't think I've shown enough of this one yet so let me try to rectify that a bit now. Here're four pages from GALAXY QUEST #3, coming soon. I think between Scott Lobdell just nailing the story and the feel of the movie, and Ilias Kyriazas' art striking a great cartoony balance, the book is exactly what I wanted it to be. Always nice when that happens. The comic works great as the sequel to the movie that we all want to see happen but never will.



Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Like a Blurr-gin


These puns that play off old '80s songs don't work at all any more, do they?

Well, anyway, something that does work nicely can be seen below: Trevor Hutchison's variant cover for the November-bound TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT: BLURR (written by Shane McCarthy, art by Casey Coller). Trev's our variant guy on ALL HAIL MEGATRON, and as you can see here, the great design sense that he employs on those covers remains intact here.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Ben Who?


Ben Templesmith, that's WHO. Cover for DOCTOR WHO: THE FORGOTTEN #6.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

IDW's rew releases for Sept. 10


Angel: First Night HC
Dead She Said #3
Doctor Who Classics #10
Epilogue #1
Igor: Movie Adaptation #4
Nightwings
Silent Hill: Sinner's Reward TPB
Star Trek: Romulans: The Hollow Crown #1
Star Trek: Mirror Images #3
Transformers Animated: The Arrival #2
Welcome to Hoxford #2

First!


As in, First Place, where the Dodgers now sit as I type this. Here's me and writer Robert Crais (whose recent novel, CHASING DARKNESS, hit the NY Times top 10 list, and who contributed the intro to the upcoming LOCKE & KEY hardcover) yesterday, watching them take over the top spot in a win against Arizona.

Friday, September 5, 2008

In-Apropos-priate

I think I'm just tangling myself up trying to be punny in the titles of these blog entries. But if ever a post called for a little pun, it's one that discusses our upcoming SIR APROPOS OF NOTHING miniseries.


The series is an all-new tale written by Peter David and based on his novel series. The first issue even features a funny DARK TOWER gag (Peter likes to gently and good-naturedly nibble at the other hand that feeds). The series launches in November and features Robin Riggs on full art and color chores. His first three pages from issue 1 are here. Covers will be provided by folks like Michael Kaulta, Joe Corroney, David Ross and others.


Thursday, September 4, 2008

Urru-le

Franco rules, eh? SPIKE: AFTER THE FALL #4 cover.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The robots came first...




...but as you can see here, there's more comin' at you soon enough.

Meantime, there's a final shipment of the ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS Bertie bots now in our office now if anyone still needs one, too.

Anyone remember Bob Larkin?

I definitely do, anyway. He painted some great covers, mostly for collected editions, back in the '70s and '80s. So when it came time to figure out a cover for... something ANGEL-related, it seemed like a fun thing to pay tribute to his work. And artist David Messina did a great job capturing Bob's image but still making it his own. Now if only I'd say what this image was for...


Monday, September 1, 2008

IDW's new releases for September 4


A day late this week due to the Labor Day holiday.

Angel: After the Fall #12
Complete Badger, Vol. 4 TPB
Dreamland Chronicles #3
Galaxy Quest #2
Igor Movie Adaptation #3
Rogue Angel: Teller of Tales TPB
Tank Girl: Visions of Booga #4
Transformers: Best of the UK: Time Wars #2
Transformers: Saga of the AllSpark #3