Wednesday, January 28, 2015

ANOTHER RUSSIAN SPY UNCOVERED IN
RED ONE
The all-new suspense series launches in March

Xavier Dorison (Long John Silver, The Third Testament) and Terry and Rachel Dodson (Star Wars: Princess Leia, Uncanny X-Men) launch a sexy and funky new superhero story, straight out of a Quentin Tarantino film, in RED ONE.

In RED ONE, it's 1977—the height of the Cold War between the USSR and the US—and the Kremlin has a plan to win the war against Uncle Sam: propaganda!

Vera Yelnikov is an elite agent in the Soviet Army during the Cold War—she IS the atomic bomb. Vera is sent to Los Angeles by her bosses at the Kremlin. Her mission? Become a true "American superhero." She must spearhead a propaganda operation of communist values from within the United States and fight against the "Carpenter"—a fascist serial killer who blames America's ills on liberals.

In her cover identity "Alabama Jones," Vera must find a day job that conceals her true mission—to do the Kremlin's bidding when the USSR needs her... as RED ONE!

The exciting series poses a chilling question, one rife with political overtones: What happens when America's Greatest Hero... is actually a Russian Spy? It hits stores on March 18 and can be pre-ordered with Diamond Code JAN150575.

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, fantasy, 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.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

DANGER CLUB RETURNS
These concluding issues to the teen superhero series
will shock fans

New York Times bestselling writer Landry Walker (Red Lanterns, Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures), artist Eric Jones (Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures), and colorist Rusty Drake team up for DANGER CLUB #6, #7, and #8 this 2015 for the jaw-dropping conclusion to the shocking issue #5.

Faced with the deadliest peril the universe had ever known, the world's greatest heroes left the Earth to battle a nightmarish evil... and they never came back. DANGER CLUB follows the teenage sidekicks that stayed behind and are the last hope in protecting a vulnerable Earth. Will the Danger Club unite against this unknown cosmic menace, or will their struggle for dominance destroy them?

DANGER CLUB #6 picks up where #5 left off—when Jack Fearless paid the price for his crimes. Now all of reality has collapsed and Kid Vigilante must scour the land of the dead in search of salvation.

DANGER CLUB #6 (Diamond Code SEP120496) hits stores tomorrow, January 28th. DANGER CLUB #7 (Diamond Code JAN130579) will land on February 25th. DANGER CLUB #8 (Diamond Code JAN150604) will release on March 25th.

Punk Rock Lives On in
Ryan Ferrier's 'Curb Stomp'

Curb Stomp #1 Main Cover by Tula Lotay

Curb Stomp #1 10 Years Incentive

Curb Stomp #1 10 Years Incentive Cover by Trevor Hairsine (full wraparound shown)

Curb Stomp #1 Incentive Cover

Curb Stomp #1 Incentive Cover by Marie Bergeron

January 27, 2015 (Los Angeles, Calif.) - Three gangs. Five girls. No way out. This February, award-winning publisher BOOM! Studios is pleased to announce the debut of Curb Stomp, a no-holds-barred, visceral look at the lengths one woman will go to protect her home—perfect for fans of Rat Queens and the seminal ‘70s cult-favorite film, The Warriors. Rising star Ryan Ferrier (D4VE) teams up with newcomer artist Devaki Neogi to create the unflinching story of Machete Betty and the girls of The Fever, a gang fiercely committed to protecting their home of Old Beach.

“Turf wars, fierce ladies, teeth-rattling action—Ryan and Devaki are going to be keeping readers on the edge of their seats with this series,” said BOOM! Studios Editor-in-Chief Matt Gagnon. “It’s got everything we love about punk rock, and it’s got everything we love about a good story. There’s a lot of heart in this one. It’s just studded with spikes.”

Machete Betty leads a small gang of women under the self-appointed task of protecting their home of Old Beach, one of three boroughs surrounding a rich metropolitan city. When Betty takes the life of a rival gang member in an act of self-defense, she sets off a chain reaction of retaliation, gang warfare, and unlikely allies. It’s up to the The Fever—Machete Betty, Derby Girl, Bloody Mary, Daisy Chain, and Violet Volt—to defend their turf at all costs.

Curb Stomp #1 arrives in comic shops on February 25th from BOOM! Studios with a main cover by Tula Lotay (Supreme Blue Rose) for the price of $3.99 under Diamond order code DEC141182. Also available in limited quantities is a 10 Years Anniversary incentive cover by Trevor Hairsine (Ultimate Six), and a retailer incentive cover by Marie Bergeron. The Final Order Cutoff deadline for retailers is February 2nd. Not sure where to find your nearest comic retailer? Use comicshoplocator.com or findacomicshop.com to find one! It’s also available for order directly from boom-studios.com.

ABOUT BOOM! STUDIOS

Founded by Ross Richie in 2005, Diamond Gem Award-winning “Best Publisher” BOOM! Studios (boom-studios.com) generates a constellation of best-selling Eisner and Harvey Award-winning original and licensed comic books and graphic novels with the industry’s top talent. BOOM! Studios is comprised of four distinct imprints. The original Studios imprint is home to Mike Carey's Suicide Risk; James Tynion IV's The Woods; Mark Waid's Irredeemable; Sons of Anarchy; and Big Trouble in Little China. Steven Grant’s graphic novel 2 Guns was released as a feature film from Universal Pictures, starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg. BOOM!’s all-ages imprint KaBOOM! publishes Charles Schulz’ Peanuts; Jim Davis’ Garfield; Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time, Regular Show, The Amazing World of Gumball, and Steven Universe; Mike Kunkel’s Herobear and the Kid; and Natasha Allegri's Bee and PuppyCat. BOOM!'s experimental imprint BOOM! Box publishes The Midas Flesh and Lumberjanes. In June 2013, BOOM! acquired Archaia Entertainment (archaia.com). Archaia is the Eisner and Harvey Award-winning graphic novel publisher of Mouse Guard, Cow Boy, Gunnerkrigg Court, Rust, and Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand. In October 2013, BOOM! Studios entered into a unique first-look relationship with 20th Century Fox, giving the studio access to its library of titles and giving the publisher access to Fox's vast catalog of films. In August 2014, BOOM! Studios began a similar first-look relationship with 20th Century Fox TV to develop properties for the small screen.

BRANDON GRAHAM ADDS TO
THE WICKED + THE DIVINE FESTIVITIES
WITH VARIANT COVER
Issue #8 will be an extended 40-page long release

The New York Times bestselling series THE WICKED + THE DIVINE will expand to 40-pages for issue #8 for the regular cover price of $3.50. This special issue will feature a Brandon Graham variant cover full of party-hopping punch.

Now that the eleventh god is here, it's time to party in THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #8. You're invited. Everyone's invited. We can sleep when we're dead—but when you'll be dead within two years, you may as well turn up in your pyjamas. After seven issues of egomaniacs, it's time for an issue where the crowd is the star.

THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #8 will be available for $3.50 on February 25 with Diamond Code DEC140772. Cover B (Graham) will be available with Diamond Code DEC148276.

Monday, January 26, 2015

BOOM! Studios Highlights Its Top 10 Moments to Celebrate 10 Years of Publishing Comics

January 26, 2015 (Los Angeles, Calif.) - In 2015, BOOM! Studios celebrates 10 years of publishing great comics, and to commemorate this milestone, the publisher has assembled what it considers to be its top 10 moments of the past decade—all highlights that contributed significantly to the company’s founding, rise, and continued growth.

“While our 10 Year celebration will be firmly focused on the future, we couldn’t get where we are today without some pretty key moments,” said BOOM! Studios President of Publishing and Marketing Filip Sablik. “We are ecstatic to be celebrating 10 years as a publisher and couldn’t resist taking this one moment to celebrate what we’ve accomplished with all of our partners in our first decade!”

In chronological order, here are BOOM! Studios' top 10 moments in its history:

December 2004: Comics writer Keith Giffen, in Los Angeles for a comic book convention, has a beer on a Saturday night with Ross Richie and pushes Richie to start his own comic book publishing company.
June 2005: The first BOOM! Studios book, Zombie Tales #1, ships (6/29/2005), showcasing work from Mark Waid (Daredevil), Keith Giffen (Future’s End), and Dave Johnson (100 Bullets). BOOM!'s focus on original content over the next decade spawns bestsellers like Irredeemable, The Woods, and Lumberjanes as it launches the careers of next-generation talent like Rafael Albuquerque (The Savage Brothers, American Vampire), Emma Rios (Hexed, Pretty Deadly), Aaron Kuder (Key of Z, Green Lantern: New Guardians), Jordie Bellaire (Malignant Man, Captain Marvel), and Russell Dauterman (Supurbia, Thor), among many others.
December 2006: BOOM! Studios publishes its first licensed comic book, Warhammer: Damnation Crusade #1. BOOM! goes on to work with some of the biggest brands in the world, including 20th Century Fox, Disney, Cartoon Network, MGM, Peanuts Worldwide, Paws, and The Jim Henson Company.
July 2007: Mark Waid is named Editor-in-Chief and goes on to become the company’s Chief Creative Officer, contributing numerous original titles to the company’s lineup before returning to freelance writing in December 2010.
March 2009: The first KaBOOM! (previously BOOM! Kids) comics, Incredibles: Family Matters #1 and The Muppet Show Comic Book #1, ship (3/25/2009). BOOM! Studios is the first Disney licensee to be granted the ability to generate new canon material for any Pixar property.
January 2010: Voted on by comic shop retailers, BOOM! Studios wins its first “Best Publisher Under 4%” Diamond Gem Award for 2009. It is awarded this honor four more times since, earning the award five out of the last six years. The publisher wins its first Harvey Award for Roger Langridge’s work on The Muppet Show Comic Book (8/28/10) that same year and its first Eisner Award for Shannon Wheeler’s I Thought You Would Be Funnier a year later (7/22/11).
June 2013: BOOM! Studios announces its acquisition of Archaia (6/24/13) (publisher of titles like Mouse Guard, Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand, and The Killer), adding the company as a wholly-owned imprint alongside its other imprints, KaBOOM! and BOOM! Box, and expands the range of diverse content Archaia publishes.
August 2013: “2 Guns” opens in theaters (8/2/13) starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg. The film is based on the BOOM! Studios five-issue series created by Steven Grant and illustrated by Mateus Santoluoco.
October 2013: BOOM! enters into a first-look deal with 20th Century Fox for feature films (10/2/2013) and then signs a first-look deal with Fox for television the following year (8/20/2014).
February 2014: Former DC Comics President & Publisher Paul Levitz joins BOOM! as a consultant and a member of the Board of Directors. Levitz categorized his role as the voice of experience that says, “Well, we tried to attack that problem this way [at DC Comics]; it didn't work that way. Maybe times have changed, but let's think about what the issues were and try to find a way around what the dilemmas were."

ABOUT BOOM! STUDIOS

VIZ MEDIA’S PERFECT SQUARE IMPRINT ANNOUNCES RETURN OF THE LEGEND OF ZELDA™: A LINK TO THE PAST™ GRAPHIC NOVEL BY SHOTARO ISHINOMORI

Long Out-Of-Print Famed Comic Based On The Nintendo Video Game Returns This May

San Francisco, CA, January 26, 2015 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), the largest publisher, distributor and licensor of manga, graphic novels and anime in North America, is proud to announce the return of THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK TO THE PAST for the first time in more than two decades. The celebrated full-color graphic novel adaptation of the classic Nintendo game returns in a special single-volume edition scheduled for May release under the company’s Perfect Square imprint.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK TO THE PAST is a unique adaptation of the internationally bestselling video game originally released for Nintendo’s Super Nintendo Entertainment System™. This comic book version by manga and anime legend Shotaro Ishinomori (Cyborg 009, Kamen Rider) was first serialized in Nintendo Power™ magazine and later collected into a graphic novel in 1993. Long out of print, this stunning, full-color graphic novel is now available once again for the first time in more than twenty years!

“THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK TO THE PAST is such a rare book, showcasing world-famous manga creator Shotaro Ishinomori’s incredible art with the classic Nintendo story of Link and his quest to save Princess Zelda against all odds. We are honored and excited to make the publication available once again to North American readers from the Perfect Square library,” says Beth Kawasaki, Senior Editorial Director, Perfect Square. “Many older fans recall eagerly awaiting each new issue of Nintendo Power magazine back in the ‘90s for a new monthly chapter of A LINK TO THE PAST. While it followed the overall story arc of the original Super Entertainment System game, creator Ishinomori also added new plot twists and characters that made this a stand-alone favorite among multiple generations of fans. Readers of all ages will be captivated by this timeless story and we can’t wait for everyone to enjoy this long-out-of-print book!”

Shotaro Ishinomori was one of Japan’s most prolific and revered comic book creators. Among his most popular works are Cyborg 009, Kamen Rider and Hotel. In 2008, Guinness World Records named Ishinomori the world record holder for the “most comics published by one author” for creating more than 770 stories collected in a total of 500 volumes of manga. The Ishinomori Manga Museum in Japan is dedicated to his works and legacy.

Also available from VIZ Media is THE LEGEND OF ZELDA Manga Box Set (rated ‘A’ for All Ages), which collects a separate manga (graphic novel) series created by Akira Himekawa. The set collects ten manga adventures featuring Link and the popular video game world of THE LEGEND OF ZELDA, including Ocarina of Time, Oracle of Seasons and FOUR SWORDS.

VIZ Media’s Perfect Square imprint focuses on delivering original comics, manga (graphic novels), pop culture and children’s books with an emphasis on strong storytelling, eye-popping graphics, empowering themes, and a dash of irreverence, that captures the imagination of a whole new generation.

Additional information on titles published by Perfect Square is available at www.PerfectSquare.com.

For more information on other manga titles from VIZ Media, please visit www.VIZ.com.

About VIZ Media, LLC

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, VIZ Media distributes, markets and licenses the best anime and manga titles direct from Japan. Owned by three of Japan's largest manga and animation companies, Shueisha Inc., Shogakukan Inc., and Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, Co., Ltd., VIZ Media has the most extensive library of anime and manga for English speaking audiences in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. With its popular digital manga anthology WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP and blockbuster properties like NARUTO, BLEACH and INUYASHA, VIZ Media offers cutting-edge action, romance and family friendly properties for anime, manga, science fiction and fantasy fans of all ages. VIZ Media properties are available as graphic novels, DVDs, animated television series, feature films, downloadable and streaming video and a variety of consumer products. Learn more about VIZ Media, anime and manga at www.VIZ.com.

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The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
TM & © 2015 Nintendo
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: A LINK TO THE PAST © 1993 ISHIMORI PRO/SHOGAKUKAN

APE BIKER GANG ROARS INTO TOWN IN MARCH’S
THE HUMANS

‘70s counterculture with a twist in new $9.99 trade paperback from Image Comics

Bakersfield, California, 1970: The Humans (who happen to be apes) are the baddest biker gang of all. They deal out beatings, cook drugs, party endlessly, and struggle to keep their turf and status amongst the numerous outlaws, rival gangs, and bonafide killers — all of whom are trying to take their spot at the top of the heap. And then a member of the gang long thought dead returns… haunted by memories of hell on earth. Johnny is back in the fold in THE HUMANS, VOLUME 1 from Image Comics in March — but is his head where it needs to be to ride with The Humans again?

Writer Keenan Marshall Keller (Galactic Breakdown) and artist Tom Neely (Henry and Glenn Forever) team up on a high-octane, no-holds-barred, ape-biker-gang chopper ride into ‘70s exploitation genre bliss as Bobby, Johnny, and all the Humans fly down the road to oblivion on a ride filled with chains, sex, leather, denim, hair, blood, bananas, and chrome.

“I just love me some biker flicks and exploitation/genre in all forms,” said Keller in an interview with Comicosity. “It wasn’t like I was trying to do an ape project and settled on them being bikers… The Humans were bikers from the start. It’s my love affair with the fringe, with outlaws and no-good-doer’s and made me focus on biker culture.”

Neely, whose art captures the energy and abandon of The Humans’ life on the road, has relished the chance to draw full-time. “I get up and draw monkeys and motorcycles all day and it’s the best,” he said. “It’s also really great collaborating with another artist – Kristina Collantes is doing the coloring and I love to see how she transforms my pages. I love my black and white drawings for this book, but they really don’t come to life to feel like a real comic book until Kristina’s colors complete the picture.”

THE HUMANS, VOLUME 1 will be in comic book stores on March 11 and in bookstores on March 25. It is specially priced at just $9.99 and is available for pre-order now.

THE HUMANS, VOLUME 1 by Keenan Marshall Keller and Tom Neely (colors by Kristina Collantes)

ISBN 978-1-63215-259-6
Diamond Comic order code JAN150630
144 pages, paperback, full color
$9.99
Collects THE HUMANS #0-4
Rated Mature
In comic book stores March 11, bookstores March 24

Praise for THE HUMANS:

“The Humans is absolutely unlike anything you’ll have read recently. Reading it is like listening to all of your favorite punk songs at once. Its roots are clearly in punk ethic, science fiction, and biker lore, and it’s a hell of a combination…. Neely’s art is wildly inventive and spastic here, with some mind-boggling layouts and great physical comedy bits.” –Tres Dean, IGN

“Much like the characters it depicts, The Humans is exactly what it wants to be, opinions of others be damned.” –Matt Little, Comic Book Resources

“The Humans is a balls-out, drug-fueled, psychedelic ride through exploitation-era cinema. The book has an old school look to it, like it was just discovered in the most awesome time capsule ever.” –James Ferguson, Horror Talk

“When you are holding The Humans, you can feel the work and energy that rests within its pages.” –Chase Magnett, Comicbook.com