$#!T GETS SURREAL

Joe Casey & Nathan Fox Take On Haunt At Issue #19

Berkeley, CA – 21 November 2011 -- When Joe Casey (BUTCHER BAKER, THE RIGHTEOUS MAKER and GODLAND) and Nathan Fox (BLUE ESTATE, Florescent Black, and Pigeons From Hell) threaten to shake things up, it turns out that they unleash a category 5 tornado of shockingly visceral, brutally unpredictable comics. While Todd McFarlane and Robert Kirkman's HAUNT series was never meant for the faint of heart, come issue #19, things get a whole lot nastier!

"It's time to scare the **** out of people," said Casey. "That's our mandate on HAUNT, and Nathan and I are taking full advantage. Trust me on this... when you read this book, have clean underwear on hand."

Casey's uniquely twisted storytelling voice and Fox's dark, gritty, and gestural brushwork are taking hold of the characters and world that Kirkman and McFarlane initially populated and fleshed out, and transforming them. The arrival of HAUNT #19 was pushed back a few weeks to give time for the preceding issues' release, but now the new team's debut issue is set to arrive in stores on November 30th, and their over-the-top new direction promises to be well worth the wait!

As the final release date for HAUNT #19 creeps closer, McFarlane, who is still involved in this unique multiple genre series in an editorial role, expects the response from comics and horror fans to be overwhelmingly positive.

"HAUNT is getting darker, more down and dirty," McFarlane explained. "If you've read some of Joe's previous work, I think you know just how far this guy will go. And I think people are in for a real treat with Nathan's art. It's very different from my own style, much looser, but it displays a great confidence in brush stroke that evokes just the right dark mood and emotions."

"We're doing some pretty insane **** and redefining a whole new direction in the series," added Fox. "I'm having a blast with Joe's scripts as we toss Daniel and Kurt off a cliff with no real life support, new foes, and new characters. No one can be trusted, and HAUNT has no idea what he's in for. The evolution of this thing is going to be pretty insane on a monthly basis. So stay tuned for the nightmare! It's well under way."

HAUNT began with a story of two brothers, one a priest and one a dangerous secret agent. When one brother is murdered, his spirit becomes bound to Earth. He continues to hover around his brother, speaking to him... haunting him. A sudden trauma leads the surviving brother to discover that he can temporarily join with his deceased brother's spirit to become something else... HAUNT.

There are two previously collected volumes of HAUNT, with more issues available monthly. HAUNT #19 (JUL110423), a 32-page full-color horror comic book for $2.99, will be on sale in stores on November 30.

ABOUT JOE CASEY

Joe Casey is a founding partner of Man of Action Studios, a creative development company formed in 2000 by graphic novelists Joe Casey, Joe Kelly, Duncan Rouleau and Steven T. Seagle. Based in Los Angeles and New York, Man Of Action Studios created the popular BEN 10 TV franchise as well as the new series Generator Rex. Currently they are supervising producers/story editors on the upcoming Ultimate Spider-Man animated series premiering in 2012 on Disney/XD. Man of Action wrote the X-Men and Superman comic book series and currently publish their original creations through Image Comics. They wrote the best-selling video games X-Men: Legends for Activision, and Darksiders: Wrath of War for THQ. For more information, visit www.manofaction.tv.

ABOUT NATHAN FOX

Nathan Fox was born in 1975 in Washington D.C.. Raised from the age of five on the suburban outskirts of Houston, an early addiction to Cartoons, Commercials and Video Games led to a lifelong exploration of Narrative Art and the over-stimulation associated with his generation.  In the hopes of making such an addiction his full time job, Nathan left Texas for Missouri where he attended the Kansas City Art Institute. What followed over the next four years can only be described as an eye opening experience compared to the somewhat quiet Southern upbringing. The discovery of Anime, Yoshitoshi's Yukiyo-e Prints, Sideshows and Comics would lead him down the happily twisted path he still follows today. After graduating from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1997, Nathan pursued Illustration from Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the next two years with little result. Frustrated with pursuing editorial illustration and working as an offset pressman, he and his wife moved to New York City in 2000 where Nathan attended The School of Visual Arts Illustration As Visual Essay Graduate Program. Those two years of graduate study would prove to be the most fruitful as Nathan has been freelancing full time as an illustrator and storyteller ever since. His work has appeared in The New York Times Newspaper and Magazine, Interview, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Wired, ESPN Magazine, Print, Entertainment Weekly, Mother Jones, Spin, Mad Magazine, MTV Store Windows and Tshirts, Burton US Open 2009, Instant Winner and REAL Skateboards, DC Comics, Vertigo, Dark Horse Comics, Marvel and many other publications and mediums. Future projects include pursuing Comics, Narrative Illustration and Gallery Work. For further information, updates and samples of Nathan's illustration work, Comics, Murals, Skate Decks and more, visit www.foxnathan.com on the World Wide Web.

ABOUT TODD MCFARLANE PRODUCTIONS

Todd McFarlane Productions is the company behind the monthly comic book Spawn. Created by Todd McFarlane, Spawn debuted in May 1992, selling 1.7 million copies, making it the bestselling independent comic book of all time. Spawn is published in nine languages and distributed in more than 32 countries. Currently, TMP releases the long-running Spawn monthly comic now in its 19th year. Other TMP titles include Haunt, Hellspawn, and Sam & Twitch. To find out more about product coming out of TMP, visit www.spawn.com.  

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.