THE BEST SUPERVILLAIN COMIC IN THE UNIVERSE

Image Comics Collects Smith & Villavert's Gladstone's School of World Conquerors

Berkeley, CA – 28 October 2011 – The most villainous clique of kids in all of comics will be graduating to a trade paperback volume of GLADSTONE'S SCHOOL FOR WORLD CONQUERORS from Image Comics this November. Originally solicited at a lower page count, once the first 6 issues of this critically acclaimed series were tallied up, the collection clocked in at nearly 200 pages!

Mark Andrew Smith, writer of AMAZING JOY BUZZARDS, the two-time Harvey nominated THE NEW BRIGHTON ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, and editor for the Eisner-winning POPGUN anthology, has devised a dastardly plot to make wicked children the stars of the show in GLADSTONE'S SCHOOL OF WORLD CONQUERORS. And with the help of Armand Villavert's artistic mastermind, the nefarious youths of this series are deftly brought to the page, larger than life and disarmingly adorable!

"I believe in giving kids a story they can really sink their teeth into and never talking down to them," said Smith. "We also don't believe in skimping on story, so this will be a good solid read for any comics fan, new or old!"

Welcome to Gladstone's School for World Conquerors, a top-secret academy for the children of the world's greatest super villains to learn the trade. Join us as Kid Nefarious, Mummy Girl, Martian Jones, Ghost Girl, and the infamous Skull brothers unearth the School's and their parents' hidden past!

Some of the praise critics have given Smith and Villavert's series of supervillainy included enthusiastic recommendations such as these:

"Smith is like the Pixar of comics. ...Kids will see peers, while the wisdom of age lets adults enjoy the book with a sense of nostalgia for the happy times and a pity for the less than happy moments." Robert T. Patey III, Ain't It Cool News

"GLADSTONE’s is a welcome spin to villain origin stories that anybody could enjoy." Dennis Baquedano, WatchPlayRead

"...very reminiscent of another hit Image title, INVINCIBLE, back when it first began. While INVINCIBLE was the birth of a great hero as well as a satire, GLADSTONE'S too offers up that slight satire element as the kids try and behave like adults do..." Matthew Meylikhov, Multiversity Comics

"I believe there are only two types of people in the world: those who enjoyed the series, and those who haven’t heard of it yet."  -Nicholas Yanes, SciFiPulse

"The kids of course, are the heart of this comic, and for would-be Doctor Dooms and Lex Luthors they are really cute and entertaining. There are very few comics about kids that really come across as actual kids..." Larry King, Major Spoilers

"World conquering has never been such a blast." Colin Bell, Newsarama

"...GLADSTONE's looks like a Saturday morning cartoon put on paper in storyboard format." Joey Esposito, IGN

"This is the closest I've seen a comic get to reaching that highly sought-after level of capturing a Pixar-esque balanced audience." Nick Boisson, Comics Bulletin

"GLADSTONE'S SCHOOL FOR WORLD CONQUERORS is one of those 'wish I’d thought of it' concepts!... I just can’t praise it highly enough." Edward Kaye, HyperGeek

"It's so rare to find an all-ages book that doesn't talk down to children, which is why Gladstone's is such a fantastic treat. ... It's hard to read Gladstone's without it putting a huge smile on your face." Miguel Perez, IGN

"GLADSTONE's represents a brilliant concept for the modern superhero comic. ...packs action, a fantastic premise, light, manga-inspired art, and more heart and humor than you can shake a stick at. It's a well-sculpted all-ages dream book..." Erik Lewis, DailyBlam

GLADSTONE'S SCHOOL FOR WORLD CONQUERORS, VOL. 1 TP (SEP110407, ISBN: 978-1-60706-115-1), a 192-page full-color all ages supervillain adventure comic book collection for $15.99, will be on sale in stores November 16.

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.