So, a little thing happened a while back: this little-known company called Disney bought another unknown property called Star Wars. You may have seen it as a child. All joking aside, this deal also dubbed Marvel the new publisher of Star Wars comic books (surprise surprise). Dark Horse’s license officially runs out on the last day of the year, so if you’ve ever wanted to own any of their Star Wars comics digitally, now’s the time to buy them. Everything is 50% off, and you can buy the entirety of the their collection for a flat $300. You’ll be able to read all these comics digitally after the license expires, so no worries there, but this is your last chance to buy them before they’re gone forever! Read more…
Farewell, Dark Horse! You’ve been a lovely friend for Star Wars all these years — over 20, actually. But given that Disney owns both Marvel and Lucasfilm, it was only a matter of time until the comics were brought under the same roof. Marvel will be taking over publishing of all Star Wars comics in 2015. Whether they’ll continue currently running series or halt them remains to be seen. I imagine at the very least they have plenty of plans for comics that’ll support the new films that begin in 2015. What’ll happen next? And what will Dark Horse do to fill the gaps? Read more…
It should come as no surprise at this point, but Bioware and Dark Horse have announced an upcoming digital comic based on the hit title, Dragon Age: Origins. Titled Dragon Age: Those Who Speak, the three part series will focus on the characters of Alistair, Verric and Isabella, as they investigate the death of Alistair’s father. As a bit of a spoiler for anyone who has yet to play the game, Alistair is apparently crowned King at the end of the game, with the comic taking place during his reign. The first issue of the digital comic will be available on August 22nd.
Just a friendly reminder, yesterday saw the release of Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi #1. Dark Horse’s latest Star Wars series focuses on the era of the first Jedi, before the force was divided between light and dark. During this time, Jedi exist as an order of warrior monks who strive to maintain peace and balance. The initial arc surrounds the coming of a stranger said to bring an end to the balance by heralding a new era of conquest and exploration. Read more…
With Christmas around the corner, and no new titles on the horizon, you’re probably wondering what to get your favorite Valve fan. Since you can’t just hand them a new hat for Team Fortress2, try this fantastic collection of comics inspired by Valve’s most recent hits instead. Published by Dark Horse, and featuring the work of veteran comic artist and writer, Michael Avon Oeming, Valve Presents: The Sacrifice and other Steam Powered Stories Vol. 1 boasts over 200 pages of fully-illustrated stories with titles like Team Fortress 2, Left-4-Dead, and Portal — the perfect gift for all those Valve-addicts out there. Seeing as the first-edition hardcover just hit shelves in November, you probably won’t have to worry about them already owning a copy. It retails for just $25 via ThinkGeek, so if you need it in time for the holidays, don’t delay. Just promise me you won’t try to stuff it in a stocking.
The special one-night-onlyNorth American screening of the upcoming live-action adaptation of Gantz is happening on January 20th. Given the special circumstances surrounding the limit release, only select theaters will be showing the film. I remember how annoyed I was when I missed out on a screening of Princess Mononoke simply because I couldn’t find a theater in time, but this time Fathom Events will be looking out for us all. They’re providing a list of all the theaters that’ll be participating in the world premiere event. Better yet, you can search by zip code to find the closest theater nearby and even purchase advance tickets — not that I’d worry about it being sold out before you get there, but you never know. To see the list of participating locations, click here.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 17, 2010 in Comic Books
Dark Horse is reprinting The Goon Volume 4: Virtue and the Grim Consequences Thereof which would normally be a non-event for yours truly. However they’ve gone the extra stretch and had Eric Powell do a new cover (shown above) which just looks brilliant. What makes Powell so unique is that he’s able to combine pull off a combination of an pulp magazine cover that you might have seen back in the day with just the right touch of cartoonishness.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 22, 2010 in Comic Books
So many of the post-apocalyptic films from Mad Max to Escape from New York all owe a little something to Mighty Samson which was a comic book series published by Gold Key Comics back in 1964. The team of Otto Binder (writing) and Frank Thorne (illustration) created their vision of N’Yark which was one corner of planet Earth devastated by a nuclear war. The series lasted until 1982 and the faded into obscurity so I’m glad to see that starting in June Dark Horse will be releasing Mighty Samson Archives Volume 1. The first volume features the first seven comics from the series — here are some covers and interior pages from that era to give you a taste the mutants that roam the former streets of the big apple: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 16, 2010 in Comic Books
Thanks to the goodness of Goon there is no wrong that Eric Powell can do in my mind — which is why I’m looking ahead to Buzzard which is a comic book miniseries that goes on sale on June 9th. Shown above is a cover by Powell and below is an alternative cover by Richard Corben: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 14, 2010 in Comic Books
I came across Groo: Hogs of Horder #4 and it then hit me: I’m guilty of having spent my entire life looking at the amazing artwork of Sergio Aragonés and I’ve selfishly have always assumed that I’d be seeing more. It’s high time for us fans to stop taking Sergio for granted (he’s 72 years old!) and starting to treat him like the comic book god that he is. I grew up with Aragonés in the pages of mad magazine, but sadly those issues were so packed with high quality work that Sergio got lost in the crowd. However as of 2002 he’s drawn more than 12,000 gag cartoons for Mad and that deserves some real respect. And then we have his creation Groo the Wanderer which has been running since the 80s — to me this running series ranks up there with Asterix and Tin Tin, and what’s wonderful about is that it has both an American and Spanish point of view. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 8, 2010 in Comic Books
Jerry Robinson is best known as the comic book artist who helped to put Batman on the map along with Bob Kane — and credit for creating the Joker belongs to him. However sadly his other work is overlooked and that’s why I’m glad that Dark Horse is doing a proper reprint of Jet Scott. This wonderful science fiction themed newspaper strip debuted on September 28, 1953 in The New York Herald-Tribune. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 3, 2010 in Comic Books
Thanks to the CB Radio craze of the 70s I have to admit that I had a cultural snottiness when it comes to any form of entertainment featuring truckers: So I have to admit that I was blown away by the sheer charm of the comic book Mesmo Delivery by Rafael Grampá and Marcus Penna. What I like about the look of this book is that the inking style has quite a bit of grit and texture, yet the character designs and poses almost have a charming if not slightly cute feeling to them. The result is that each page has the sort of warmth that you would see in folk art except that the draftsmanship is both exquisite and exhilarating to look at: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 2, 2010 in Comic Books
Being a manga fanboy the release of Devil #1 immediately caught my eye: “Manga artist Torajiro Kishi (Maka-Maka) and blockbuster anime studio Madhouse (Trigun, Paprika, Ninja Scroll) love comics. So much so that they’ve decided to publish an original, Western-style comic exclusively with Dark Horse! Enter Devil, a thrilling, sci-fi take on the vampire genre.” Read more…
Back in the day science fiction book covers always looked realistic while comic book covers looked like — well comic books! However the last few years that has faded away and comic book covers remind me more and more of the good old days of paperbacks: Except unlike paperbacks the format is even larger. So I was blown away with the quality of this cover by art by Sean Cooke for Star Wars Legacy #47. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 10, 2009 in Comic Books
A while ago that when I read they were gearing up for an Emily the Strange I have to admit that I feared for the worse in terms of quality — as part of a push for the film Dark Horse would be publishing an art book and a comic book. But I have to admit that while I’m still unsure about a film that Dark Horse seems to be off to a good start with our old creepy friend Emily. Shown above is the cover for The Art of Emily the Strange which doesn’t look too bad form the previews — it’s not brilliant, but it’s respectable as you can see: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 2, 2009 in Comic Books
Greg Broadmore is a conceptual designer at the Weta Workshop the New Zealand effects studio that did some amazing work on Lord of the Rings. In his book Dr. Grordbort Presents: Victory Broadmore goes steampunk and has an Edwardian military officer giving a lush tour of a world filled with enemy robots and space aliens. The result reminds me of a cross between old pulp fiction covers and old patent medicine adverts: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 1, 2009 in Comic Books
I just love the power of the draftsmanship of Adam Warren, there’s something so strong and yet silly about his pencil sketching which reminds me of the golden age of Mad magazine. This Thursday his latest effort Empowered Special: The Wench With a Million Sighs will be released by Dark Horse and it looks amazing. The cover isn’t that spectacular but the interior of the book more than makes up for that: Read more…
It’s amazing to think that Buck Rogers got started as a fictional character in an issue of Amazing Stories from over 90 years ago (August 1928 to be exact) — however Buck made his first huge mark as a comic strip series illustrated by John Flint Dille. Those old strips have a wonderfully quirky look to them, and the folks at Dark Horse have picked on this by introducing a line of swag which was designed by the folks at Retro-A-Go-Go. The collection goes on sale on February 24th, 2010 and includes a wide range of goodies including picture frames: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 7, 2009 in Comic Books
365 Samurai and a Few Bowls of Rice looks like a wonderful combination of the storytelling skills of Akira Kurosawa mixed with a Jamie Hewlett look with just a dash of RAW magazine from the 80s. The artist behind this graphic novel is J. P. Kalonji a self taught illustrator who lives in Switzerland. Here’s an amazing 36 page sample from this beautiful book which is nearly 400 pages and will be published by Dark Horse Comics on December 2nd: Read more…
Shown above is the beautiful cover for Star Wars: Invasion #5 by illustrator Jo Chen which comes out today. What I really love about the folks who license Star Wars is that they allow their artists a high degree of creative freedom to work within the brand and they always seem to pull of a high level of quality. So if you didn’t know that the cover was a Star Wars anything you’d still be impressed with it; to me that says so much about how much they care about the product. Below are a few of the interior pages by Colin Wilson which also look great — there’s no bait-and-switch which you see all the time with other titles: Read more…
Beasts of Burden got started as a collaboration between Evan Dorkin (Milk & Cheese) and Jill Thompson (Scary Godmother) for the anthologies The Dark Horse Book of Hauntings, Witchcraft, the Dead, and Monsters. The result? They won the Eisner Awards for Best Short Story and Best Painter categories. So I’m pleased to see that Dark Horse is working to publish an mini-series based on this initial appearance which is due to debut on September 16, 2009. Read more…
As a magazine publisher Warren Publishing was born out as a result of the infamous comic book code of the 50s which made the genre a bit too family friendly: Along with sister publications like Eerie and Vampirella, Creepy magazine kept alive the tradition of horror comics from 1964 until 1983. Next year on January 27th, 2010 Dark Horse will be publishing a set of trading cards based upon covers of the magazine. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 18, 2009 in Comic Books
I don’t have the slightest clue how Citizen Rex escaped my attention, but now I feel that makes it my job to draw attention to this wonderful sci fi themed comic book mini series. But first we need to go back a few decades in time to the 80s: Back then a bit of a revolution was going on in the comic book field, lead by RAW Magazine some very talented artists shook up the field and decided to show that it could be a real art firm. Out were the typical superhero comics that owned newsstands and in came graphic novels and interesting illustrational techniques. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 10, 2009 in Comic Books
Yes I’d love to pretend that there was an era when Emily the Strange wasn’t just about the merchandising, but that would be a lie. I first ran into Emily at Virgin Mega Store (sad to think that they’ll be gone) and her image adorned t-shirts, notebooks and other knickknacks — yet it was the sort of brand that was always slightly under the radar, which I think to me was the appeal. If you gave an Emily item as a gift she’d stand out as just a bit different in a Hallmark world. Well sadly that’s coming to an end and above is the first step where Emily goes mainstream — that sad bit of artwork above is the cover of a limited comic book series. Read more…
