Spike'd!

It's big announcement day around these parts. Check out Newsarama for details (just click the subject to take you there). Or simply enjoy the covers for the just-announced SPIKE: AFTER THE FALL miniseries coming in July, either way. Below are Franco Urru's two covers, as well as an image no one else has seen yet, a "grindhouse-like" incentive cover from Joe & Rob Sharp, with colors and effects by Charlie Kirchoff.

REVELATIONS revealed

As everyone will see when the Previews catalog with June comics hits later this month, the final TRANSFORMERS storyline in Simon Furman's "-tion" saga will begin this summer. With it, we're doing something a little different--we're doing "The Revelations Saga" in four chapters, each presented as a TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT. These four issues will feature a new character, folks like CYCLONUS, HARDHEAD and two others, and take place across the universe as the story Simon started in October 2005 has spread and grown into this huge epic.

E.J. Su will handle the covers for all four issues, and is slated to bookend the series, handling the first and last issue. Nick Roche will also provide covers for each issue, in a distinctive new style I'd show off right now if I had the images here at home. But maybe it's better to save those for a later reveal. For now, enjoy the sketch for E.J.'s four interlocking covers, as well as those of the first two issues. I joined the two together for you, too, since I'm nice like that.

Much more to come on this, as well as other upcoming TRANSFORMERS plans, but this is a good start to the week.

Reign-y Sunday

I haven't really shown off any of this book yet, which is curious since I'm really excited about it. Starting next month, we'll be releasing the *official* comic book sequel to last summer's TRANSFORMERS movie, in the form of TRANSFORMERS: THE REIGN OF STARSCREAM. The script is by Chris Mowry and myself (Mowry did most all the heavy lifting, for purposes of full disclosure. But if you love the comic and I think you will, I'll try to share in the praise...), with Alex Milne and Josh Perez, the same team as the Movie Adaptation comic, ably handling the art chores, as you can see here.

Since both Mowry and I are pop-culture idiots, whose conversations seem to be as much from old movies as from our own heads, look for various little quotes and references to movies, songs, and old Transformers Animated episodes, too.

Doing sequels to movies that nevertheless don't affect any coming sequel have a long tradition in comics (anyone else remember Han Solo's giant green bunny sidekick in Marvel's STAR WARS series?), and we've been having a lot of fun with this one. Expect to see some new faces, some familiar faces, some explanations for certain, shall we say, quirks in the movie's script, a return to Cybertron (and another planet, this one in our solar system), and much more in this series.

Weekend Wormwood

As I head out for the weekend, I'll leave off with a just-handed-to-me page of WORMWOOD: CALAMARI RISING #3, courtesy of new office mate and Aussie transplant (again) Ben Templesmith. This page is in honor of the similar way that some of you spend your weekends... and in case you were going to ask, yes, that IS Space-Elvis in the background.

Coupla upcoming SPARROW art books

Glenn Barr coming in July, the Biz book in the Fall. Both hardcovers, 6" x 6," 48 pages of art, like all the other SPARROW books (the first 5 of which, plus a double-sized new Ash Wood sketch book, will be offered in a slipcase around Comic-Con time, too).

Who new

Alright, after three issues and three artists, we've got ourselves our regular DOCTOR WHO artist. I really liked the different interpretations in the first three issues (by Nick Roche, Jose Maria Beroy, and Stefano Martino, respectively), but I do also like an artist fans can settle in with and get used to for a few issues. And we have there here in Mirco Pierfederici (we've run the European gamut on this book, first Ireland, then a Spaniards, and now our second Italian, this time brought to me by the great David Messina). To celebrate his arrival, and to thank Daniel W. for his patronage here at this blog, here are a few Mirco pages so you can see what he'll bring to the book starting in May. And as a nice bit of finishing to these pages, we've got Tom Smith, the gent who's colored George Perez for the past few years, handling all the color duties, too. Meanwhile, Charlie Kirchoff, the expert WHO colorist of issues 1-3, will still be doing diligence on the DOCTOR WHO CLASSIC books, including handling full duties on covers soon, too.

Just dropped on my desk...

In honor of today's release of ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS VS AMAZONS #3, here's a pic of the oversized, hardcover collected edition. Just got this advance copy this morning. Along with the first volume, it's the tallest book we've ever done...

Alive at 25

Next month, FALLEN ANGEL hits an anniversary of sorts for us: it's our first comic to ever reach issue number 25. We've had other series that have produced more total issues than that, namely CSI and TRANSFORMERS (and ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS, although so far that one, about 20 of those issues are still just locked in my head), but this is the first series that has run consecutively for over two full years. We'd already passed DC Comics' run with the title, so now that we hit issue 25, it felt like a good time to celebrate the book and what creator Peter David and artist J.K. Woodward have done with the title.

Woodward's contribution is very notable, in that, with very little break, he's done full art and colors on over 20 of those issues (thanks also to Kristian Donaldson, Joe Corroney, Charlie Kirchoff, Billy Tucci, and the others who've helped along the way). And he's done so on a monthly basis, which is even more impressive.

To celebrate their work, this issue features a full back-up section with special art and character bios and more, rather than house ads. And it features a wraparound cover, shown here in b&w form and also in color, so you can see J.K.'s great stuff before and after he applies the colors to the art. The issue's in stores on March 26, and if you've ever been a fan of the title or its characters, you might want to give it a look, since not all of the regular cast--or Bete Noire itself--are going to make it out unscathed from the current war raging in the book.

Coming this week from IDW

In honor of this week's new releases...

24: Cold Warriors

Angel: After the Fall #3 - 2nd Printing

CSI: Serial TPB (digest format)

Doctor Who Classics #4

Locke & Key #2

Speed Racer: Chronicles of the Racer #2

Speed Racer, Vol. 2 TPB

Star Trek: Year Four TPB

Swallow Book 4

Zombies vs Robots vs Amazons #3

Transformers Spotlight: Mirage

...how about a page from DOCTOR WHO CLASSICS #4, LOCKE & KEY #2, SPEED RACER #2, a special Steve Conley bookplate for the STAR TREK YEAR FOUR TPB, and a page from ZOMBIES VS ROBOTS VS AMAZONS #3, too.

Everybody's Dead is alive soon

Brian Lynch (writer of ANGEL: AFTER THE FALL and two other upcoming "somethings" that are going to make lots of people happy) and Dave Crosland's new zombie comicdy, EVERYBODY'S DEAD, launches later this month (and if you're in LA, it'll be launching with a special party at the great Meltdown Comics, details to come). And as a further tease for the book, here's the cover to June's issue 4, as colored by Len O'Grady.