Hey kids! Sorry for not updating for a few days - the Convention was amazing! There was so much to see, so much to do - everything vaguely nerd was there - from Japanese designer toys to trading card games to comics. Walking around, there was so much going on you actually forget to eat and drink. You bump into famous people and realize they are human beings, or hear them speak and become more convinced they are a literary god. I’m still absorbing the events, but I’ll share with you some of the cool news I picked up. Read the rest of this entry »

They aren’t comic’s only married creative team, but they’re one of the few. Working together on such titles as Albion, Wild Girl, and titles using other creative properties, Leah Moore and John Reppion continue to bring new ideas and unique interpretations of the medium.

Recently, Moore and Reppion took time to talk to me about their new crossover and their zombie series, Raise the Dead. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve harped on it before, but this is a problem with comics and bares repeating several times. Getting into a series or character is nigh impossible. But, trade paperbacks change that. You can usually find a big chunk of a series in book form, and while it might be expensive, it is far more appealing than shuffling through boxes of back issues at conventions.

Of course, even though these trades are convenient, the publishers still need to make money, so for some series - let’s use Marvel’s Exiles for example - they are collected in as many as 16 volumes. That’s a pricey meatball!

Image courtesy
Top Cow Productions

But, some publishers are trying to get readers into their properties. One of those publishers is Top Cow, most well known for Witchblade and The Darkness. In the past, Top Cow released 50-issue, color, compendium volumes - $62 for paperback and $100 for hardcover. Considering how much it could have cost you, this is a bargain, especially considering the majority of the entire series is in one volume. But for the past couple months, these volumes have been out of print, and those you can find tend to fall apart (as is what happened with my Darkness Compendium).

But I have it on word from Top Cow that in the next few months there will be new printings of these compendiums, which so far feature two of Witchblade, one of The Darkness, and another of Lara Croft, Tomb Raider. I recommend these tomes because unlike Marvel or DC, these characters are newer and much easier to discover than “loose, baggy monsters” like Batman or Spider-man.

Founded in 1992, Top Cow Productions had been the home to some of modern comics’ greatest properties and features work from the industry’s top writers and artists. On Monday Filip Sablik, Vice President of Marketing & Sales, was promoted to Publisher, where his “primary responsibility will be to oversee aspects of Top Cow’s comic book and graphic novel publishing including editorial, sales, and marketing,” the press release stated. Mr. Sablik was kind enough to answer some questions about his new position and what exciting projects are in the works for 2008. Read the rest of this entry »

The comic publishers send their product descriptions to Diamond Comic Distributors, the comic book supplier to most comic book stores for North America three months in advance.

This March there are dozens of great titles to preorder. Read the rest of this entry »