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Posted on April 16, 2013
Image Comics/Shadowline Comic Book Series Comes to Life with Motion Comics from
Adjacent Productions and Quality Transmedia
Elijah Wood, Summer Glau, Ron Perlman, Dante Basco voice the series
Los Angeles, CA – April 16, 2013 - A heartfelt story of friendship and heart-pounding adventure, the Image Comics/Shadowline comic book series, PETER PANZERFAUST, has captured readers’ imaginations. With multiple sell-outs of issues, fans are eagerly anticipating the next stage for the World War II escapade inspired by the classic J.M. Barrie creation Peter Pan. Now the fantastic independent series by writer Kurtis J. Wiebe and artist Tyler Jenkins is set to engross an even larger audience, with Adjacent Productions' and Quality Transmedia’s fully animated motion comic adaptation, featuring the voice talents of Elijah Wood, Summer Glau, Ron Perlman, and Dante Basco.Wood and Glau voice the indomitable characters of Peter and Wendy, while Perlman brings to life Peter’s arch-nemesis, the Nazi officer Kapitan Haken, the series’ incarnation of Captain Hook. Basco, who played Rufio in the 1991 movie Hook, will return to the Neverland universe as the voice of Alain. The world premiere of a trailer for the motion comic will be shown at a panel at the Chicago entertainment convention C2E2. The session will feature PETER PANZERFAUST creators Wiebe and Jenkins and Jeff Krelitz of Quality Transmedia, and takes place on Saturday, April 27 at 3:15 PM CDT.
The motion comic isn’t all PETER PANZERFAUST fans have to look forward to. Adjacent Productions and Quality Transmedia have announced that a live-action series based on the comic is also in development, and in May, Image Comics/Shadowline will release the second trade paperback volume of the series. PETER PANZERFAUST: HOOKED (ISBN 978-1607067283) collects issues #6–10 of the series and features the introduction of Kapitan Haken, as well as the continued adventures of Peter, the Lost Boys, Wendy, and Tiger Lily in their fight against the Nazis as part of the French Resistance. It will be in stores on May 15 and is available to pre-order now. Peter’s adventures will continue in PETER PANZERFAUST #11 in July.
The project is executive produced by Adjacent Productions’ Senior Vice President of Scripted, Julie Gardner (Da Vinci’s Demons, Doctor Who, Torchwood), Dan Tischler (Gigi: Almost American; Torchwood: Web of Lies) and Quality Transmedia’s Jeff Krelitz.
About Adjacent Productions
Adjacent Productions is a label that sits within BBC Worldwide Productions, one of five core businesses under BBC Worldwide America, the U.S. division of BBC Worldwide, the main commercial arm and wholly-owned subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The Adjacent Productions label serves to identify new programming created by the Los Angeles-based production company, while BBC Worldwide Productions identifies BBC reformats that the team develops and produces for the U.S. market. The first scripted series under the Adjacent Productions label is Da Vinci’s Demons (Starz), set to premiere spring 2013. The second season of Breaking Pointe (The CW) will be one of the first unscripted series to broadcast under Adjacent Productions.
About Quality Transmedia
Quality Transmedia is multiplatform entertainment venture with projects in the film, television, and digital spaces. Founded in 2012 by Double Barrel Motion Labs CEO, Jeff Krelitz, QT focuses on branded entertainment it can incubate in the digital space and shift to broadcast and film. Since its founding in 2012, QT is creating online series for networks like IGN with their comedy show, “Red Rocket.” QT is currently developing animated adaptations of Fall Out Boy’s rock opera, “Fall Out Toyworks” and Dean Koontz’s “Nevermore and a motion picture adaptation of Image Comics’ new comic book series “Hoax Hunters.” As well, Krelitz is Co-Executive Producing a “Game of Thrones set in Oz” series with Warner Horizon entitled, “Red Brick Road.” Previous productions include work on other prominent properties including “Spartacus” with Starz, “Tron: Legacy” with Disney, and a “Doctor Who” motion comic for BBC America.
About Image Comics
Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.
###
Contact:
Christine Shaw
Adjacent Productions
310-228-1620
Christine.shaw@bbc.com
Jennifer de Guzman
Image Comics, Inc.
510-548-8094
jenniferdeguzman@imagecomics.com
Posted on April 15, 2013
Image Comics series is collected in first volume, "TRASHED”In
the hit new Image Comics series GREAT PACIFIC, the privileged heir to
an oil fortune declares his independence from family and business
obligations in an extreme way — by founding the Republic of New Texas on
the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an island of trash in the South
Pacific. But Chas Worthington soon discovers that it's one thing to take
land and another thing entirely to hold it.
In the first volume of GREAT PACIFIC, writer Joe Harris and artist Martín Morazzo create a treacherous land made of the cast-off trash of the entire planet, populated with mutant seagulls, one very angry giant octopus, a French explorer, pirates, and a group of islanders who got there first — and none of them want to share.
"What excites me most about writing Great Pacific isn't necessarily the environmental message or the chance to pile up some soapboxes to preach a cautionary tale. Rather, it's the story of one man mostly alone on this new, strange frontier that gets me going,” said creator and writer Harris. "It's a story about exploration, and survival, and persistence, and triumph against all odds. The science fiction serves that arc, and the greater environmental message, I'd hope, is enhanced as a result.”
Matching Harris's adventurous story is Morazzo's bold, vibrant art, bringing to life a land like the world has never seen before.
"Envisioning and drawing the garbage continent, with all its strange landscapes, is something wonderful,” said said Morazzo. "From large views to small details, 'The Pack' isn't just a setting, but a main character in the story.”
Collecting the first six issues, GREAT PACIFIC VOLUME ONE: TRASHED (ISBN 978-1-60706-733-7) encompasses a story arc that drew attention from comics readers and those interested in ecological issues alike. Harris and GREAT PACIFIC were profiled in Comic Book Resources, Gamma Squad, Comics Alliance, Multiversity Comics, and Deep Sea News.
GREAT PACIFIC will be in stores on May 1 and its second volume will begin with issue #7, out on June 5.
PRAISE FOR GREAT PACIFIC
"A terrifying, hard-to-believe-it's-true premise and a fantastic, smart thrill-ride of sci-fi and high adventure. Don't miss!"
- John Layman (creator/writer of CHEW)
"Fascinating and enjoyable."
- CHUD
"A perfect science fiction story…"
- Brigid Alverson, Robot 6
"This series deals with issues that we haven't really seen in comics before and that's what makes it so interesting: we get real life problems intertwined with a rather fascinating fictional story. The comic turns out to be well written, organized clearly and overall just really, really pretty.”
- Comic Vine
"The pacing is solid, plot twists come fast and furiously, and the the muted color scheme keeps the visuals constantly engaging.”
- Bloody Disgusting
"[GREAT PACIFIC] is very well-realized and beautifully rendered. Harris and Morazzo spend a lot of time and page space exploring the world and potential consequences of Chas Worthington's story by visiting a lot of different locations and considering different thematic elements.”
- The Outhousers
In the first volume of GREAT PACIFIC, writer Joe Harris and artist Martín Morazzo create a treacherous land made of the cast-off trash of the entire planet, populated with mutant seagulls, one very angry giant octopus, a French explorer, pirates, and a group of islanders who got there first — and none of them want to share.
"What excites me most about writing Great Pacific isn't necessarily the environmental message or the chance to pile up some soapboxes to preach a cautionary tale. Rather, it's the story of one man mostly alone on this new, strange frontier that gets me going,” said creator and writer Harris. "It's a story about exploration, and survival, and persistence, and triumph against all odds. The science fiction serves that arc, and the greater environmental message, I'd hope, is enhanced as a result.”
Matching Harris's adventurous story is Morazzo's bold, vibrant art, bringing to life a land like the world has never seen before.
"Envisioning and drawing the garbage continent, with all its strange landscapes, is something wonderful,” said said Morazzo. "From large views to small details, 'The Pack' isn't just a setting, but a main character in the story.”
Collecting the first six issues, GREAT PACIFIC VOLUME ONE: TRASHED (ISBN 978-1-60706-733-7) encompasses a story arc that drew attention from comics readers and those interested in ecological issues alike. Harris and GREAT PACIFIC were profiled in Comic Book Resources, Gamma Squad, Comics Alliance, Multiversity Comics, and Deep Sea News.
GREAT PACIFIC will be in stores on May 1 and its second volume will begin with issue #7, out on June 5.
PRAISE FOR GREAT PACIFIC
"A terrifying, hard-to-believe-it's-true premise and a fantastic, smart thrill-ride of sci-fi and high adventure. Don't miss!"
- John Layman (creator/writer of CHEW)
"Fascinating and enjoyable."
- CHUD
"A perfect science fiction story…"
- Brigid Alverson, Robot 6
"This series deals with issues that we haven't really seen in comics before and that's what makes it so interesting: we get real life problems intertwined with a rather fascinating fictional story. The comic turns out to be well written, organized clearly and overall just really, really pretty.”
- Comic Vine
"The pacing is solid, plot twists come fast and furiously, and the the muted color scheme keeps the visuals constantly engaging.”
- Bloody Disgusting
"[GREAT PACIFIC] is very well-realized and beautifully rendered. Harris and Morazzo spend a lot of time and page space exploring the world and potential consequences of Chas Worthington's story by visiting a lot of different locations and considering different thematic elements.”
- The Outhousers
Posted on April 12, 2013
The action continues with a second printing.
The hit book that has everyone talking, is causing headlines again. SEX #2, the second issue of the new Image Comics series by Joe Casey and Piotr Kowalski, has sold out of its initial printing at the distributor on the day of release. A second printing of SEX #2 is underway and will be available for sale on May 15, 2013.
SEX, the story of a former superhero who hangs up his cape to pursue the kind of life he had forbidden himself, has been positively received by fans and critics alike. SEX #1 sold out instantly and is already into a third printing. Seems like comic fans can't get enough of SEX!
Here's a sampling of what people are saying about SEX #2
"With a nod towards Moore and Gibbons, SEX's Casey and Kowalski have given us a modern superhero story with dash of retro, a splash of moral ambiguity, and a whole lot of naughty bits."
- Conor Kilpatrick, iFanboy
"Joe Casey's Sex continues to develop with a reserved yet highly enjoyable plot” - 9.2 out of 10
- Joshua Yehl, IGN
"You can expect sex inside these pages but read it through and you'll see it's a whole lot more ” - 5 stars
- Russel Johnson, Unleash The Fanboy
SEX #2's second printing is available to order now (Diamond code FEB138644), and the third issue will be in stores on May 22.
Posted on April 11, 2013
FATALE by Brubaker and Phillips now ongoing
The curse of the femme fatale has taken readers of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips' horror noir series FATALE from Medieval France to present day, with stops in the Wild West, post-World War II San Francisco, and 1970s Los Angeles. Now, in June, FATALE returns to the present in the pages of FATALE #15, as Nicholas Lash desperately tries to find out the truth behind the mysterious Jo, a beautiful woman who is seemingly immortal.
As the fourth arc gets underway, FATALE's third arc — a series of standalone stories about the history of the curse that makes Jo both irresistible and isolated — will be collected into the trade paperback FATALE VOLUME THREE: WEST OF HELL.
Launched in January 2012 and originally planned as a 12-issue maxiseries, FATALE's unique mixture of noir and supernatural horror, as well as its compelling heroine Jo, whose history continues to unfold, engaged readers and its creators alike, prompting Brubaker to continually expand the series.
"I kept saying how many issues the story would take to complete and then having more ideas I wanted to explore in Josephine's world," said Brubaker. "So the endpoint kept changing, and I realized this is something we do in comics a lot, decide ahead of time how long a story will take to tell. One of the advantages of publishing with Image is the total freedom we have to do it our way, so I decided the series just goes until it's over, and not to say exactly what issue that will be. To just let the story take as long as it needs to, like a good novel. And thanks to the support of our retailers and readers, we're able to do that."
FATALE VOLUME THREE (APR130422) and FATALE #15 (APR130421) will both be in stores on JUNE 12th and can be pre-ordered now from the April issue of Previews.
PRAISE FOR FATALE VOLUME ONE: DEATH CHASES ME:
"Graced with a suspenseful plot that has more twists and turns than an alpine road, and deliberately understated artwork, Fatale boasts both intrigue and an atmosphere that feels as densely bleak as a San Francisco mist at the tip of Fisherman's Wharf at dawn. Colorist Dave Stewart deserves special mention for his subtle, highly evocative use of neutral tones and earthy shades. This is a universe of darkness and gray shadows, and the palette perfectly fits the angst-ridden, desolate, catch-22 world of supernatural horror the protagonists must face-off against. Immortality may be a double-edged sword, but it's one the intoxicating Jo wields with a boundless grace in this addictive page-turner.”
– Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The top-notch team of Brubaker and Phillips (known for their collaborations on Criminal and Sleeper) launch[es] another series that gives familiar tropes an entertaining tweak... as the creators mix in magic, cults, human sacrifice, and the possibility of eternal life to create a potent cocktail with any number of twists. Brubaker doesn't write a word more than necessary, and Phillips' scenery has all the right angles, evoking a film-noir feel without slavish imitation. If the words 'last call' make you think of 'The Call of Cthulhu,' this is your kind of hard-boiled tale.”
– Booklist
"This collection is brilliantly done, but will leave you hungry for more. The brooding noir, the inscrutable femme fatale and the glimmers of horror merely begin to tell a story.”
– Crime Fiction Lover
PRAISE FOR FATALE VOLUME TWO: THE DEVIL'S BUSINESS:
"This collection hits just the right combination of horror and intrigue to keep readers turning the pages—though with no small amount of trepidation.... Brubaker and Phillips (Criminal, Incognito, Sleeper) do so many things right here, but perhaps most impressive are the subtle changes to the book's color schemes that can sometimes provide a brief respite from the horror without ever allowing the readers to forget just how dark the story is. As much as this book may disturb some readers, it ultimately belongs in any respectable horror-noir collection. Josephine, after all, would want it that way.”
– Publishers Weekly
Posted on April 11, 2013
Image Comics is proud to present the definitive edition tale of Sherlock Holmes' greatest nemesis with a deluxe edition hardcover edition of MORIARTY. Praised by both critics and fans during its 9-issue run, the mystery/adventure series from writer Daniel Corey, artist Anthony Diecidue (Stan Lee's TIME JUMPER) and featured guest artist Mike Vosburg (HBO Tales from the Crypt) is finally collected into one complete volume. MORIARTY: DELUXE EDITION HARDCOVER features both The Dark Chamber and The Lazarus Tree storylines, as well as plenty of exclusive bonus galleries and behind-the-scenes material.
It is the dawn of World War I, and Sherlock Holmes has been dead for 20 years. Professor James Moriarty is a lost man, but he's called back into the fray when MI5 blackmails him into finding Holmes' long-lost brother, Mycroft. What at first appears to be a routine case leads to a web of intrigue that involves a psychic box and its creator, a woman from Moriarty's past, and a new villain that threatens to be greater than Moriarty ever was.
Here is just a sample of the critical acclaim that MORIARTY has received:
"Daniel Corey fills me with rage! He's young, he's a gifted writer, and he came up with one of those awesome one-line ideas that I love: Moriarty after Holmes! Rage, I say!" – Scott Lobdell (Writer - Superman, Teen Titans)
"As a Holmes fan, I loved this fresh and atmospherically illustrated take on one of the great literary antagonists.” – Gabriel Hardman (Writer/Artist - Star Wars: Legacy, Planet of the Apes, Station to Station, Kinski, Hulk, Secret Avengers)
"Daniel Corey not only gives us a fresh and fascinating take on one of the most legendary villains in literary history, but he does it with such skill that you'll find yourself rooting for the 'bad guy.' An absolute 'must read!" – Jenna Busch (Entertainment Editor, Fanhattan.com; Host, Cocktails with Stan Lee)
"MORIARTY: THE DARK CHAMBER is irresistible. Professor James Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes' arch-nemesis, drawn from retirement and off on his own death-defying adventure? It's one of those simple, perfect ideas you kick yourself for not thinking of first, and Corey and Diecidue carry it off in fine style." -- Scott Tipton (Writer - Illyria: Haunted, Star Trek: Infestation)
"[MORIARTY] takes an intriguing look at that relationship between good and evil." – Brian Truitt (Writer - USA Today)
MORIARTY: DELUXE EDITION HARDCOVER, a 272-page, full-color collection, will be on sale in stores June 5th for $29.99 and is available to order in the April 2013 edition of Diamond Previews (APR130457, ISBN: 978-1-60706-685-9). For more information, please visit www.professorjamesmoriarty.com and www.facebook.com/daniel.corey.
Posted on April 5, 2013
$1 editions of six Image Comics first issues
Image Comics has announced the release of six new “Image Firsts” editions, printings of popular series’ first issues that only cost $1.00, to land in stores on May 1, just in time to coincide with Free Comic Book Day. The six new titles are BEDLAM #1 by Nick Spencer and Riley Rossmo, GREAT PACIFIC by Joe Harris and Martín Morazzo, MIND THE GAP #1 by Jim McCann and Rodin Esquejo, MORNING GLORIES by Nick Spencer and Joe Eisma, PETER PANZERFAUST #1 by Kurtis J. Wiebe and Tyler Jenkins, and SUPER DINOSAUR #1 by Robert Kirkman and Jason Howard.
BEDLAM, first published in October 2012, is a horror thriller about a former mass-murderer who is rehabilitated and puts his mind, formerly committed to atrocious acts of violence, to protecting the city he once terrorized. The collection of its first six issues will be released on May 1. Image Firsts edition Diamond code: FEB138575
In GREAT PACIFIC, which first hit shelves in November 2012, a wealthy young Texan takes on an unlikely frontier — a floating island of garbage in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Claiming it for himself as New Texas, Chas Worthington finds out that taking land is a very different thing from keeping it. GREAT PACIFIC #6 was in stores on April 3, and its first trade paperback, “TRASHED!”, collecting its first six issues, will be in stores on May 1. Image Firsts edition Diamond code: FEB138576
MIND THE GAP is a supernatural mystery that debuted in May 2012, following the ensuing events after Elle Peterssen, a beautiful and rich young woman, is attacked in the subway and left for dead. While her body lies comatose, Elle’s mind can observe what goes on around her. She alone holds the key to her attack, but she can’t even remember who she was. MIND THE GAP #10 will be in stores on May 1, and its second volume, collecting issues #6-10, “WISH YOU WERE HERE,” will be in stores on May 29. Image Firsts edition Diamond code: FEB138577
MORNING GLORIES, set in the elite boarding school Morning Glories Academy, has been a cult favorite since 2010. A complex and ever-unfolding mystery, MORNING GLORIES pits over-achieving teenagers against a baffling and dangerous curriculum — and against each other. Its fourth volume, TRUANTS, collecting issues #20-24, will be in stores on April 24. Image Firsts edition Diamond code: FEB13857
PETER PANZERFAUST, a re-imagining of the classic Peter Pan tale set in World War II France, has been steadily gaining popularity since its first issue landed in stores in February 2012. Its tenth issue was released in March and PETER PANZERFAUST VOLUME TWO: HOOKED!, collecting issues #6-10 will be in stores on May 15. Image Firsts edition Diamond code: FEB138579
SUPER DINOSAUR is an all-ages adventure story written by the creator of THE WALKING DEAD. Young Derek Dynamo and his best friend, who happens to be a Tyrannosaurus Rex with super-cool robotic enhancements, take on Earth’s — and Inner-Earth’s — baddest baddies. Its third trade paperback, collecting issues #12-17, was in stores in February and issue #20 will be in stores on April 24. Image Firsts edition Diamond code: FEB138580
The new Image Firsts issues will be in stores on May 1, joining thirty-one other Image Firsts editions, including some of Image’s most popular titles like THE WALKING DEAD, SAGA, FATALE, THE MANHATTAN PROJECTS, and INVINCIBLE. All are available for order now!
Posted on April 1, 2013
New sci-fi Image series from Rucka and Lark debuts in June
LAZARUS, the upcoming Image Comics series by the Eisner Award-winning creative team of Greg Rucka (Whiteout, Queen and Country, Gotham Central, Wonder Woman) and Michael Lark (Daredevil, Gotham Central, Scene of the Crime) is set in a dystopia where society has reverted to a feudal state — the elite Families who control the wealth control every aspect of the world, and those without are their vassals and serfs. Serving these powerful Families are individuals called their “Lazarus” — lethal protectors of their families’ interests. The Lazarus of the Carlyle Family, which controls the world’s genetic research and development, is a young woman called Forever. Her story starts the day she is killed.To writer Rucka, the dystopia he created for LAZARUS isn’t a far-fetched science fiction world; it’s a logical extrapolation of where our society is heading. After talking to a friend who works in finance and considering the Occupy Movement, Rucka asked himself, “What would the world look like if 99% became 99.99999%? What if the 1% became the .00001%? What happens when that much wealth and power becomes that concentrated?”
He continued, “That's how the world was born, this idea that wealth equals power, until such a point that the wealth becomes almost irrelevant to that power because everything is now owned, and power settles amongst a very select few, and everyone else is on the outside.”
Concentration of power leads to the powerful using all means to protect what they have — and that is where Forever comes in. Manipulated by her Family patriarch to believe she is his beloved daughter, Forever is willing to kill and die for him. But even though she lives in the elite world, she will never be part of it. Regarded variably as a tool, pet, and science project, Forever must break through her lifelong conditioning to find out what and who she really is in a world that sees her as something less — and more — than human.
“If you ask me what the series is about, yes, it's about this dark vision of the future, certainly,” said Rucka. “But it's about Forever, her journey, the questions of nature versus nurture, and of power, and of corruption.”
Lark’s art, on gorgeous display in the four-page “prelude” released after its unveiling at Emerald City Comicon in March, renders Forever’s world in deep shadow and is heightened with moody colors by Santi Arcas, perfectly capturing the fractured, violent world of LAZARUS as well as Forever’s vulnerability and naïveté, which her deadly exterior belies.
“I'm trying to demonstrate the contrast between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots,’” said artist Lark. “Because one side has, literally, EVERYTHING, and the other has NOTHING, the contrast is strong. In issue two we are really going to see that, with scenes in the homes of the Carlyles juxtaposed with scenes of the extreme poverty facing the rest of society. I realize that while we in the United States haven't seen this come to pass — yet — there are other parts of the world where it is already a stark reality.”
Lark agrees that his and Rucka’s main character is the key to LAZARUS’s story. “We are seeing this world through Forever's eyes, and her journey in this story is not going to be an easy one. The readers need to be able to feel her confusion and pain, as well as her toughness and strength.”
"LAZARUS is a book I've been looking forward to from the moment Greg shared the rough idea with me," said Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson. "Every step of the process leading up to this series' debut has just further fueled my anticipation: learning that Greg would be collaborating with the amazing Michael Lark, reading the first script, seeing Michael's initial pages, see the first colored work… This is truly inspired work by a pair of comics' absolute best, and I can't wait for everyone else to be able to love this book as much as I do."
LAZARUS #1 will be in stores on June 26 and is available for pre-order now (Diamond Comics code APR130420) from the April issue of Previews.
Posted on March 19, 2013
Graphic novel set in present-day Afghan conflictFrom Alexander the Great's Macedonian army to Genghis Khan's Mongol horde to the British Imperial machine of the nineteenth to the Soviet Union to the twenty-first century United States of America, no occupying force has ever been able to control Afghanistan — the very reason it's known as the Graveyard of Empires. Mark Sable and Paul Azaceta drew upon that history in their Image Comics series GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES, set in present-day Afghanistan, where American troops are caught in a seemingly unending conflict with the Taliban. That is, until a new enemy enters the field: the undead. The only way to defeat them is for the Americans and Taliban to unite forces, and as former enemies become uneasy allies, tension will rise on all sides.
All four issues of the critically acclaimed, controversial GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES will be collected into a new trade paperback, set to be in stores on May 1.
"Zombies are the perfect metaphor for modern insurgents," said writer Sable. "A seemingly endless foe with inscrutable motives that comes in unstoppable waves. In counter-insurgency theory, there's something we came across in our research called 'insurgent math.' It's the idea that by killing one terrorist, you can create ten more because you've inspired their friends and family. Similarly, in a world where the dead are coming back to life, anyone you kill can return to infect your comrades and turn them against you."
"It was a challenge to do the book because I wanted to get it right," said artist Azaceta. "Not just the uniforms and the guns but Afghan culture and its wonderful landscape. While digging around for reference the things that surprised me most was the beauty of the country."
The trade paperback will give a whole new set of readers the chance to read the comic book that Weekly Comic Book review called "a wonderfully crafted tale which was researched in incredible detail." Part of the research was aided by photojournalist Tim Hetherington, who co-directed the Academy Award-nominated documentary Restrepo and who was killed in a mortar attack in Mistrata in 2011 by Libyan government forces while covering the Libyan civil war. Sable and Azaceta dedicated GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES to his memory.
Meticulously detailed and boldly drawn, GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES can be pre-ordered now (Diamond Comics code MAR130502, ISBN 978-1-60706-739-9). A 128-page full-color graphic novel, its retail price $14.99. The first issue is available digitally for free from comiXology and the Image Comics iOS app.
Posted on March 12, 2013
Four-issue crossover encompasses ARTIFACTS, WITCHBLADE, and THE DARKNESSThe events of Top Cow's vanguard titles have been building to the climactic confrontation in a universe-changing four-issue crossover event: "Progeny." Jackie Estacado, wielder of the ancient power The Darkness, has remade the world according to his own wishes. His daughter with Witchblade bearer Sara Pezzini, Hope, sacrificed as a baby to save the universe from obliteration, is, in his new world, on the verge of adolescence, and Jackie's high school girlfriend who had died tragically, Jenny, is her mother — and alive.
Now, the hero of the series ARTIFACTS, Tom Judge, has unraveled the truth of what happened to the world. Ron Marz, Stjepan Sejic, and Marco Turini (ARTIFACTS), Tim Seeley and Diego Bernard (WITCHBLADE), and David Hine and Jeremy Haun (THE DARKNESS) unite to form an interlocking story as Judge gathers together his fellow Artifact bearers for a final clash with Estacado.
"My issue [WITCHBLADE #164] is about Sara facing Jackie for the first time since she became aware that something was 'wrong' in the universe," Seeley said in an interview with Comic Book Resources. "Sara has to deal with what she did to save the universe, and she may not be sure the sacrifice was worth it."
In another interview with CBR, Marz commented on the odds the heroes of Top Cow's titles face in their confrontation with the powerful Estacado: "He's got a bit of an overwhelming advantage, but, you know, if the heroes have an overwhelming advantage, that's not a very good story." Marz continued, "That's really the question: how are they actually going to defeat Jackie and by the time we get to the fourth part of this it's hopefully an answer that nobody really sees coming."
"Progeny" begins in ARTIFACTS #25, continues in WITCHBLADE #164 and THE DARKNESS #111, and will come to a dramatic conclusion in ARTIFACTS #26.
Posted on March 11, 2013
DARK SKULLKICKERS DARK #1 is dark, possibly grittyThis June, Image Comics beats a horse to death and you’re all invited to watch! It’s a new comic that’s not new at all... but it is dark. “How dark?” you ask? It’s so dark we had to use the word twice – DARK SKULLKICKERS DARK!
“This may be the worst thing we’ve ever done,” said Image PR and Marketing Director Jennifer de Guzman. “It’s a pale reflection of the industry’s need to spin rebooted series through endless hype, turning the crazed hamster wheel of entertainment promotion until it’s fallen apart. Good-bye, integrity.”
DARK SKULLKICKERS DARK #1, written by old industry pariah Jim Zub and drawn by young pencil jockey Edwin Huang, wraps up the fourth story arc of SKULLKICKERS, the series people keep saying they’ve heard about but haven’t had a chance to try yet but, dangit, they will at some point if they see the collections on sale or something.
“Fun comic books are a thing of days past,” said series creator Zub. “In order to grab a modern audience I’ve dipped into the darkness of my own heart and spilled my blood upon the pages of this sequential masterpiece. Oh yeah, there’s beer in it too.”
If you’re one of the few and proud collectors of SKULLKICKERS irritated that you won’t have a SKULLKICKERS #23 to add to your collection, fret thee not. In addition to the regular “Dark Dark” cover we’re offering a special “issue #23 variant” B cover to keep your collection copasetic. We’re looking out for you, baby.
We’ve dug as deep as we can go. We’ve entered the darkness. DARK SKULLKICKERS DARK #1 will be available in June wherever dark comics are sold. Pre-order it now from the April issue of Previews. Order the old trades too. They’re pretty good.
