NBM PUBLISHING DISCOVERS UNIQUE CRYPTOZOO CREW!
NBM PUBLISHING DISCOVERS UNIQUE CRYPTOZOO CREW!
Bi-monthly comic solicited this month for January 2005 coming out party!
You may never see a Thunderbird in flight. Or feast your olfactory senses on the pungent odor of the mysterious Florida Skunk Ape. But coming this January, you will have a chance to read a comic book with universal appeal. Now that’s rare indeed!
And for that reason, CRYPTOZOO CREW is a natural for NBM Publishing, long known for selecting and publishing comics with wide audience response. Readers join Tork Darwyn, a world famous Cryptozoologist, and his adventurous wife Tara as they travel the globe solving the mysteries of legendary animals. Think “Crocodile Hunter meets Kolchak the Night Stalker” and you get the idea. But there’s a unique twist to this story, one rarely seen in the world of comics – WOMEN AND KIDS LOVE THIS BOOK TOO!
“The husband and wife interaction has drawn great responses from both sexes,” said artist Jerry Carr, whose clean style and sexy girl next door heroine has endeared both seasoned comic fans and housewives alike. “And we’ve found out from the ashcan editions that this is truly a strip for all ages. It’s been wonderful to watch kids pick this up and buy it with their own money. We’re excited about bringing comics back to a larger audience!”
“CRYPTOZOO CREW came together like a perfect storm,” points out writer Allan Gross, “It combines my passions and experiences writing for children’s television, conspiracy theory comics (Doctor Cyborg), and newspaper adventure stories (Tarzan). Not only does Tork track down these wild, unknown animals, he can often communicate with them. As for his wife Tara, well, she expects Tork to read her mind!”
More information on CRYPTOZOO CREW, a free sample story, and daily strips and informational “cryptid-bits” can be found at: http://www.cryptozoocrew.com. In fact, CRYPTOZOO CREW was first launched as a free on-line strip at Insight Studios http://www.SunnyFundays.com website and quickly garnered attention from comic shops, legions of fans of Cryptozoology, and webmasters of comic book related sites interested in increasing traffic.
Ashcan editions sold out at quickly at last years Small Press Expo and then again this year at Philadelphia WizardWorld and the San Diego Comic Convention. There have also been stories produced for the MORE FUND and EVEN MORE FUND CBLDF anthologies. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Readers like the straightforward single-issue stories with character-driven plots and punch lines. Each book will feature 2 complete stories. No getting bogged down in continuity!
But what has been truly amazing has been the variety of sources taking notice! Even before the publishing agreement with NBM was announced, one major comic shop volunteered to help promote the book, writing to say, “We were wondering if it was at all possible to get advance copies, or posters, or anything really, as we would really love to push this book. You know, it’s not often we do this – in fact, this is the first letter I’ve written like this! Actually, we’ve already started hyping it – some customers already ask if it’s out yet, every week.”
And it’s a phenomenon that has caught the attention of those outside the comic book industry through the wonders of the Internet. The Cryptozoology message boards are already abuzz with talk about the new CRYPTOZOO CREW. One fan said, “This has been the MOST enjoyable read I have come across in a LONG LONG time.” Cryptozoology is a diverse and growing field with a tradition of enjoying both good science and great fiction!
Others on the Internet were not content to merely read the strip. They began to use the “Tooncasting code”, which allows then to run the strip (updated automatically on a daily basis) on their own personal pages. The first fan started only three days after the strip was launched! She said, “I just put it on my website. I hope you guys keeping popping these babies out, they’re so cool!” And others sites soon followed, including GEMSTONE PUBLISHING and COMICWIDOWS.
When not running a story, the on-line strip still features fun and informative “Cryptid-bits” describing the characters and strange creatures to appear in upcoming story lines. This daily entertainment and presence on the Internet will amplify the buzz between issues of the regular series. This series has more legs than the cryptids that Tork and Tara track down!
CRYPTOZOO CREW appeals on a number of levels. It is suitable for all ages, but still great fun for adults. Men enjoy the adventure and Jerry’s good girl art, while women see Tara as the real hero of the story as she often has a great deal of fun at Tork’s expense. But she sticks with him through thick and thin as he tracks down the legendary Cave Monkey or chases the blood-sucking Chupacabra. Ultimately, there’s only one creature whose secrets Tork will never unravel, and that’s his lovely wife!
TRIPPIN’ WITH FRANKENSTEIN MOBSTER
TRIPPIN’ WITH FRANKENSTEIN MOBSTER Image Comics Hit Teams Up for Travel to Transylvania
Mark Wheatley has announced that his Image Comics hit, Frankenstein Mobster, will be making the real life journey to Transylvania.
With Halloween just a few weeks away, a group of dedicated night owls are gathering for the ultimate Halloween adventure: one full week of haunted horror happenings in Transylvania!
Billed as “DraculaTour” and now in its seventh year, a professionally-guided, fully-escorted journey is set for Romania’s famous (or infamous) Transylvania region, October 27 through November 3, 2004. Travelers from all over the U.S. will be partying for a week of fear-filled fun and festivities under the theme of a “vampire vacation.” And their vacation now includes Frankenstein Mobster.

Charles F. Rosenay, who runs the DraculaTour, said copies of Frankenstein Mobster will be included in the trick-or-treat bags all tour participants receive.
“We’re always looking for ways to reach readers outside our traditional audience,” said Mark Wheatley, “and Transylvania is definitely pretty far outside our traditional audience. It seems like a great fit.”
Travelers on the tour will actually follow in the footsteps of Jonathan Harker’s trail from Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. They spend time in ancient Bucharest ascending the Carpethian Mountains to Vlad Castle. They visit medieval Sighisoara, birthplace of Dracula, as well as climb up eerie Clock Tower with time for the nearby gruesome Square History Torture Museum. All participants journey through Borgo Pass to Dracula’s Castle to experience the definitive Halloween eve –Masquerade Ball, Vampire Show, Bonfire, Dinner and “Monster Mash” Dance Party right in Dracula’s Castle! It’s scary, spooky but most of all, fun.
“This is the kind of thing that I think Frankenstein Mobster readers will enjoy, and Frankenstein Mobster has the kind of odd and somewhat whimsical horror that the folks on the tour should love,” Wheatley said.
Couples, families and single travelers all take this trek of terror. For the third year in a row, there is even one couple getting married in Dracula’s Castle. This year’s tour is the first time all participants will receive a travel goodie bag, which will include horror film posters, magazines, DVDs and copies Frankenstein Mobster.
Dracula Tour is a $3300 value for only $1699 per person including airfare from N.Y., $1999 including airfare from L.A., based on double occupancy. Package price includes round-trip airfare to Bucharest, deluxe hotel accommodations, transfers, luxury coach ground transportation, all events – attractions – admissions and of course, copies of Frankenstein Mobster! Space is limited.
For those who can’t go this year, or can’t ever go during Halloween, the tour organizers have scheduled a similar version of this haunted travel adventure for July 11-18, 2005. As a special treat, the guest host for that tour is actor Butch Patrick, TV’s Eddie Munster.
To read about past vampire vacations, or for any additional information, visit the website:
Frankenstein Mobster, which is concluding its acclaimed original story arc “Made Man,” is available bi-monthly from Image Comics, . The online Frankenstein Mobster comic strip is also presently running on in addition to Imagecomics.com, Wheatley’s Sunnyfundays.com and many other websites.
Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips Set Black Sails For IDW Publishing
Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips Set Black Sails For IDW Publishing
Vampires, Pirates, and Horror On The High Seas
San Diego, CA (Date) IDW Publishing is very proud to announce that they are working with Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips to publish their creator-owned miniseries, Black Sails.
Black Sails mixes high adventure and horror in a vampire tale like no other. Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, the creative team behind the hit comic Sleeper, cast a three-issue tale of mysterious vampire pirates with an intriguing hook: these men are manning the very ship on which Dracula himself once sailed.
In Black Sails, Depression-era coastal towns are terrorized by a mysterious ship that sails only by night, drifting in with the fog, and leaving bloody waters in its wake. Brubaker’s moody and horrific story follows a darker path than readers are accustomed to seeing from him, and Phillips’s textured artwork is again the perfect complement to his prose. The series should hit your port in Spring of 2005.
“Working with Sean has been one of the most fulfilling parts of my career, and now to be continuing that partnership on work we own, at a company that I feel puts out some of the most beautiful packages on the shelves, is just perfect,” said Brubaker. “Black Sails is an idea that just hit me out of the blue, and seemed like the perfect way to start a relationship at IDW, bringing what we do to a genre they’ve done very well with, and giving it a twist that I’ve never seen done before. Of course, I immediately sent my idea to Sean, and by way of his acceptance, got back a color rough of his first cover idea.”
Chris Ryall, Editor-in-Chief of IDW Publishing, added that “Ed and Sean are among the best creative teams in comics today, and I couldn’t be happier that they’re bringing a book like Black Sails to IDW. People are really in for a surprise here—this is unlike anything they’ve done before.”
IDW PUBLISHING is a division of Idea + Design Works, LLC, a revolutionary creative service company with a wide range of clients including The Upper Deck Company, Electronic Arts, Ultima Online, WizKids, Cartoon Network, Sony Online Entertainment, Nickelodeon, and many more. IDW Publishing focuses on a small number of high-quality titles. Among them are CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation; Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith’s 30 Days of Night and its sequels, Dark Days and Return to Barrow; Ashley Wood’s Lore; CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations; Beau Smith’s Wynonna Earp; and Steve Niles’ Wake The Dead. Columbia Pictures has optioned the movie rights to 30 Days of Night, with Sam Raimi attached to produce. Konami is producing a video game based on CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations. Dimension Films has optioned the movie rights to Wake The Dead and Hyde. Paramount Pictures has optioned the movie rights to Aleister Arcane.
ARTESIA WINS BEST SELF-PUBLISHED COMIC SERIES AT 2004 DIY BOOK FESTIVAL
Archaia Studios Press (ASP) Press Release
For Immediate Release
ARTESIA WINS BEST SELF-PUBLISHED COMIC SERIES AT 2004 DIY BOOK FESTIVAL
Fort Lee, NJ — October 5, 2004 — Archaia Studios Press (ASP) is pleased to announce that the 2004 DIY Book Festival has chosen Artesia as the best entry in their self-published Comics and Zines category. Specifically, the entire Artesia collection (Artesia, Artesia Afield and Artesia Afire) was voted as the category winner at this year’s festival, announced last week. This is the third award Artesia has won this year, following the Gold in ForeWord Magazine’s 2003 Graphic Novel Book of the Year Award and BrokenFrontier.com’s Paper Screen Gem for Fantasy Award.
The DIY Book Festivals consider self-published or independently published works in a variety of categories and are part of a series of annual festivals sponsored by L.A.-based DIY Conventions that look for the best in self-published and self-produced literature, music, photography and film . The winners were selected by a panel of publishing industry experts and were required to meet a single criterion: General excellence that exhibits the author’s passion for telling a good story.
Also, in a bit of product placement news, keep an eye out for Artesia comics and trade paperbacks making a possible appearance in next year’s New Regency/Fox film Mr. & Mrs. Smith, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The film is being described as a spy adventure-romance in which Pitt and Jolie play John and Jane Smith, an ordinary suburban couple with an ordinary, lifeless suburban marriage. But each of them has a secret — unbeknownst to each other, they are actually both legendary assassins working for competing organizations.
According to Mark Smylie, creator of Artesia: “Apparently the character played by Brad Pitt reads and collects comics, and the production company has asked to use issues of Artesia as part of the set dressing in a scene or two. So if Lady Luck smiles, we might get to see Artesia lurking in the background as part of Mr. Smith’s comic book collection…”
Written and painted by Mark Smylie, Artesia is a comic book rich in fantasy, mysticism, and mythology, an epic and strange tale of war and magic set in the strife-riven realms of the Known World. Artesia ($24.95, ISBN: 1-932386-00-9, 192 pages), Artesia Afield ($24.95, ISBN: 1-932386-02-5, 192 pages) and Artesia Afire ($24.95, ISBN: 1-932386-08-4, 240 pages) are available at finer bookstores and comic book shops everywhere. A new roleplaying game, Artesia: Adventures in The Known World, (ISBN: 1-932386-10-6, Stock# ASP1010, $29.95, 192 pages, full-color, 8.5″ x 11″) is slated for a December 2004 release.
ABOUT ARCHAIA STUDIOS PRESS (ASP)
Mark Smylie founded Archaia Studios Press (ASP) in 2002 as the home for his epic fantasy comic book, Artesia. Artesia was first published by Sirius Entertainment beginning in 1999 and was followed by the sequel series Artesia Afield. Artesia Afire, the third installment in the Book of Dooms, is the most recent storyline and the first one published under the ASP label. The next installment, Artesia Besieged, is slated for a spring 2005 release.
COURAGEOUS MAN JOINS THE FIGHT AGAINST DIABETES
COURAGEOUS MAN JOINS THE FIGHT AGAINST DIABETES
Super heroes save lives and now, here’s your chance to be heroic, as well! This year at MID-OHIO-CON, when you make a donation of $5.00 or more to the CHARITY JAR, you not only get to help fund the work of the American Diabetes Association, you get a copy of George Broderick, Jr.’s COURAGEOUS MAN ADVENTURES, signed by creator George Broderick, Jr.
“I love Mid-Ohio-Con! I’ve helped raise money for Diabetes education & research in past years, and am pleased to be doing so again,” claims Broderick, “especially, for their twenty-fifth anniversary show! Roger Price and his crew always put on a great, family-friendly show! They ROCK!”
“I can think of no better way to help celebrate this milestone,” Broderick continues, “than by continuing a tradition started by my collaborator, Chris Yambar, and myself, several years ago and offering a signed comic in exchange for a charitable donation… and having my character, Courageous Man as a ‘spokesman’ seems very appropriate! CM is all about courage, as his name implies, and people dealing with diabetes (especially children) must show their courage daily. Now, the fans have a chance to demonstrate the ‘courage of their convictions’ and help battle this serious disease…it’s the perfect kick-off to the Christmas season, the season of giving!”
Courageous Man Adventures is a throwback to the early days of the Silver Age of comics (with a 21st Century sensibility) when men were men, villains were vile and caption boxes were unwieldy enough to cripple a charging bull elephant – the African ones, of course, not those runty Indian jobbies. Yes, evoking images of the sanitized, code-approved 50’s and early 60’s is what Courageous Man is all about! All-ages fun in the classic mold… Huzzah! But, bring your thesauruses, because in Townburg City, they don’t accept American Express, and they don’t suffer monosyllabic Gen-X wastrels!
The 25th annual Mid-Ohio-Con will be held November 27 & 28 at the Hilton Columbus: Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio. For more about the show, including a full guest list, ticket info and more, go to: http://www.midohiocon.com.
IDW Publishing To Release Will Eisner’s John Law: Dead Man Walking
IDW Publishing To Release Will Eisner’s John Law: Dead Man Walking
Collection of Classic John Law Adventures and New Stories Arrives in December
San Diego, CA (9/23/04 Comicdom’s master craftsman Will Eisner and his classic hero John Law return in John Law: Dead Man Walking, a collection of all-new stories and classic tales. Award-winning writer/artist Gary Chaloner was contracted by Eisner to develop all-new adventures featuring his pipe-smoking, one-eyed Crossroads cop, John Law.
These stories, the first original John Law adventures since Eisner worked on the character in 1948, will be available in print exclusively from IDW.
This special 80-page collection will be available in both a softcover collection as well as a limited hardcover volume. The special hardcover edition will feature a numbered tip-in plate signed by Will Eisner himself. The book includes both Chaloner’s new material and classic John Law tales by Will Eisner. Every page of art has been lovingly re-toned by Chaloner to capture Eisner’s full noir stylings.
“John Law: Dead Man Walking is a terrific book that is worth the wait,” said Ted Adams, IDW’s President and Publisher. “I’m anxious for readers to see the amazing work by Will Eisner and Gary Chaloner. I know they won’t be disappointed.”
John Law: Dead Man Walking is a black and white and graytone, 80-page trade paperback on sale in December 2004, with a retail price of $14.99.
IDW PUBLISHING is a division of Idea + Design Works, LLC, a revolutionary creative service company with a wide range of clients including The Upper Deck Company, Electronic Arts, Ultima Online, WizKids, Cartoon Network, Sony Online Entertainment, Nickelodeon, and many more. IDW Publishing focuses on a small number of high-quality titles. Among them are CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation; Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith’s 30 Days of Night and its sequels, Dark Days and Return to Barrow; Ashley Wood’s Lore; CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations; Beau Smith’s Wynonna Earp; and Steve Niles’ Wake The Dead. Columbia Pictures has optioned the movie rights to 30 Days of Night, with Sam Raimi attached to produce. Konami is producing a video game based on CVO: Covert Vampiric Operations. Dimension Films has optioned the movie rights to Wake The Dead and Hyde. Paramount Pictures has optioned the movie rights to Aleister Arcane.