Transformers Spotlight on...?

In the couple years we've been doing TRANSFORMERS comics, the fans have been to be incredibly savvy, often knowing what we're going to do seemingly as soon as we figured it out ourselves. Well, it's time to put that to the test. The questions before you here are, based on these sketch pages, who is the focus of this upcoming (in June) SPOTLIGHT? And who is the artist? No answers coming from me right away, mind you, but I welcome any guesses you might have... and if anyone nails it, I just might award the first person a cool little gift, too.

Granada-bound

I'm going to be a special guest of the Salon Internacional del Comic de Granada at the end of this month, and the full guest roster (to this point; other names are still likely to be added) includes esteemed names like Brian Bolland, Brian Azzarello and Jill Thompson, Carlos Pacheco, Phil Jimenez, Will Dennis, IDW's own German Torres (Speed Racer) and Stefano Martino (Doctor Who) and many others. So if you happen to be in Spain at the end of this month, come by and say hey...

Zip it!

ZIPPER is easily our best-reviewed and most creatively sound of the Gene Simmons comics line. Tom Waltz and Casey Maloney just seem to improve every issue, as evidenced by this page of Casey's pencils from issue 5.

And don't just take my word for it--here are a couple good reviews of the latest issue, ZIPPER 3:
Broken Frontier ZIPPER 3 review

Comixtreme ZIPPER 3 review

Never mind those Super Bowl commercials

All Hail Nick Roche's art

This is for a promo for an as-yet unannounced (but some resourceful fans have already nailed down what it is) TRANSFORMERS book. Nice, da, comrades? Art by Nick, and "aging" and effects done by Trevor Hutchinson.

Swallow IV

Advance copies of the Ashley Wood-run SWALLOW art book arrived yesterday. This is the fourth such art book (a fifth is planned for June), and as with all the others, it's just gorgeous. Like the previous volumes, it's a thick (over 200 pages) 8-1/2 x 11 art book featuring multiple pieces of art by, in this case, Wood, Paul Pope, Brom, James Jean, Jim Mahfood, Andrew Hem, Shane Glines, Teddy Kristiansen, Toby Cypress, and others. This one features a poster from Pope, too. Here's a look at the book's two covers (one by Ash, one by Pope), as well as a couple images from many of the folks included. I'm not sure how Ash gets involvement from so many people at this level but I'm glad he does...

They're the last people on Earth who should be the last people on Earth...

Time for some EVERYBODY'S DEAD love. Because I do indeed love this book--it's hilarious, gruesome, clever, and just damned well-written. It's our zom-com coming in March. It's created and written by Brian Lynch (ANGEL: AFTER THE FALL) and drawn by Dave Crosland, with colors by Len O'Grady (the amazing duo behind SCARFACE: SCARRED FOR LIFE, among others).

Issue 1 has been solicited already, so I thought I'd jump ahead here and post the cover and a page from issue 2, once the zombie attack really kicks in.

Check out the MySpace page by clicking this post's subject for the book for more behind-the-scenes art and information. Dave Crosland has been blogging about his work on the book, offering lots of glimpses behind the curtain as he works--you can scope that here: http://www.hiredmeat.blogspot.com.

Gary Seven x 3

Here are the first three covers for John Byrne's STAR TREK: ASSIGNMENT EARTH series featuring the character Gary Seven. Tom Smith is coloring 'em now so expect to see some color images posted soon, but for now, enjoy John's fine linework. The series itself starts in May '08.

BDSM: The "S" stands for "Simmons"

Gene Simmons was looking for a subtle way to promote DOMINATRIX, one of the comics he's doing with us. As you can see from this picture, from a recent party he taped for air on the next season of his A&E show, he seemed to have found it. The sacrifices he makes to help shill for these comics...

Yesterday, he also sent over a long intro that detailed his love of comics that will run in the GENE SIMMONS HOUSE OF HORRORS trade paperback collection. So even while announcing a Kiss 2008 world tour yesterday, he's always multi-tasking.

Space... the New Frontier

Peter David's STAR TREK: NEW FRONTIER miniseries launches in March, which is great news for fans of his who've been asking for him to make a return to Trek. (So thanks, Marvel, for allowing him to work around his exclusive deal to do this book as well as FALLEN ANGEL with us). For issue #1, we're trying something a bit different with the incentive edition. We're offering a "quad cover," with four covers in one issue, sort of like Entertainment Weekly did recently with their Heroes cover. But since many people might not ever have a chance to see these images (since the incentives are limited), or since people who might be inclined to pick up this more rare edition might like to get a look at what the "quad-cover" edition is, here are the covers in question, painted and drawn by the interior artist, Stephen Thompson.

As an added bonus, here's a look at the second incentive cover, also by Stephen, showing a certain Starship Captain David surrounded by a couple of Captains and watched over by his guardian Angel, too. This marks the second time we've featured Peter on a cover here (we did so with CSI: DYING IN THE GUTTERS, too). But, you know, look at the size of the guy's name on his Writing for Comics with Peter David book cover, he obviously loves the glory.

(He knows I'm kidding about that, but I always like ribbing him for that cover font, anyway. It's maybe the biggest name an author's ever had on a book cover. Which I approve of, since I have a book coming out from the same publisher in Spring '09...)