IDW Publishing To Paint It Black With Silent Hill
Monsters, Cheerleaders, Guns, and More Monsters Collide To Cause Trouble

Painter and semi-professional slacker Ike finds this out the only way guys like him ever find anything out—the hard way. Ike finds his dark muse in the mist-enshrouded, monster-infested reaches of Silent Hill. Then along comes the very sexy, survivalist-trained, gunslinging cheerleader Cheryl and her teammates to shake things up in a very different way. Before Ike knows it, creatures attack, cheerleaders disappear, and the situation escalates from there. Ike can only pray this is all a bad dream.

Ike’s journey is the basis for Silent Hill: Paint It Black, the next installment of IDW Publishing’s successful spin-offs based on Konami’s smash-hit video game. This latest chapter is again written by Scott Ciencin, returning for his third tour of duty at Silent Hill. The art is by Shaun Thomas, who also illustrated the last 48-page Silent Hill installment, Silent Hill: Among The Damned.

“The Silent Hill universe continues to be an endless source of inspiration for us here at IDW,” says editor Kris Oprisko. “With Paint it Black, Scott and Shaun are presenting what may be the most chilling glimpse yet inside the evil that abides there. You’ll want to read this one with the lights on!”

Silent Hill: Paint It Black is a full-color, 48-page one-shot on sale in February 2005.

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.

Konami became the nineteenth Japanese company listing its shares on the New York Stock Exchange on September 30, 2002. Starting with the production of amusement machines, Konami has evolved into a corporate group involved in five business arenas, namely, “Computer & Video Games,” “Exercise Entertainment,” “Toy & Hobby,” “Amusement” and “Gaming.” These five businesses, in addition to being strongly competitive in their respective areas, generate synergistic effects among themselves. Konami marked its 30th anniversary on March 19, 2003.

Swallow—It’s All About The Pictures!

Swallow—It’s All About The Pictures!
Ashley Wood’s Swallow Brings The Best In Art Together

San Diego, CA (December 2, 2004) Ashley Wood is one of the most acclaimed illustrators in comic books. His work on Popbot and art books like Grande Fanta have garnered him numerous fans and awards from both the art and comic communities. Now IDW Publishing is very pleased to announce that they will be presenting Swallow: Book One. Swallow is a magazine devoted to modern illustration and the artists that produce it.

The debut issue of Swallow features some of the biggest names in modern illustration, as well as amazing new illustrators you need to discover! The first issue features work by Ash himself, along with George Pratt, Celia Calle, Jeremy Geddes, Phil Hale, Team Kitten, Mike Huddleston, and many more.

“This is the magazine I always want to find when I hit the racks, but don’t,” says Ashley Wood. “Great modern illustrators, extended folios—no single illustrations here! Lots of pictures, that’s what Swallow is about, period!”

Swallow is the perfect opportunity for fans of progressive art to check out lavish artwork that can usually only be found in a gallery. The different styles that are brought together under these two covers will be a feast for the eyes. Ashley Wood’s art has been a cornerstone to the foundation of IDW Publishing’s emphasis on exciting new art styles in the comics world.

Swallow: Book One is a full-color, 120-page magazine on sale in February 2005.

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

IDW Publishing To Collect Sword Of Dracula

IDW Publishing To Collect Sword Of Dracula
It’s Dracula As You’ve Never Seen Him

San Diego, CA (December 1, 2004) Dracula has been around for hundreds of years. You’ve seen him in just about every type of story and situation… until now.

It’s Dracula with bigger powers, bigger weapons and bigger danger. Think Black Hawk Dracula! This trade paperback collects all six issues of “Season 1” of Sword of Dracula, in which readers first meet Ronnie Van Helsing, the commando who must use every Humvee, chopper, motorcycle, and machine gun at her command to capture Dracula, the most dangerous man on Earth. And then she has to enlist his aid in fighting an even greater horror.

“Ronnie has been the most surprising part of Sword of Dracula’s success,” said creator Jason Henderson. “We expected people to be pleased by a fresh, hard-target Dracula, but it’s been our lead, Ronnie, that people write to me about and draw pinups of. This is as much her story as Dracula’s.”

Sword of Dracula is wall-to-wall vampire/commando/zombie action. Season 1’s success propelled the series into mainstream media, with exposure from CNN, Variety, the Boston Globe and the SciFi Channel. This special “writer’s cut” collection is full of extras, too, including a six-page “Issue 0” and a 15-page “Sword of Dracula Scrapbook,” featuring commentary, artist discussion, concept art and pinups. The entire collection is contained within a brand-new, incredible wraparound cover from Eisner Award-winning artist Tony Harris.

Creators Henderson, Greg Scott, William Belk, and Tony Pallot join forces to make this the most thrilling Dracula tale ever presented in comics.

“Cinescape called Sword of Dracula ‘one of the coolest reinterpretations of Bram Stoker’s character in years,’ and I couldn’t agree more,” said IDW Publishing’s Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall. “And Jason’s assembled such a great array of extras for this trade that even fans who’ve read the entire miniseries are in for a special treat. And then there’s that Tony Harris wraparound cover to stare at for hours on end…”

Sword of Dracula is a black & white, 156-page trade paperback on sale in February 2005.

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.

Creator Henderson is also the creator of the ghost-hunter series Soulcatcher and co-creator with Greg Scott of the “romantic magic comedy” series Sylvia Faust, colored by Leslie Barkley. Henderson has published five novels and screenwritten for numerous computer games, including most recently Deus Ex 2. The comic’s Web site is at , where readers can search for local retailers or order copies online.

CRYPTOZOO CREW’s Unique Take on Censorship!

Cryptozoologists search for unique animals, so it’s only logical that the CRYPTOZOO CREW team would create such a creature to represent the threat of censorship. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) has teamed up with Allan Gross and Jerry Carr from NBM Publishing’s upcoming imprint with a special limited edition print. The print and the original artwork, available through a benefit auction at the Mid-Ohio Comic Convention (November 27-28), will help support the CBLDF’s campaign against censorship. Cryptozoo Crew creators Allan Gross and Jerry Carr will be on hand for the event.
The image shows CRYPTOZOO CREW’s main characters. These include Cryptozoologist Tork Darwyn, his adventurous wife Tara and one of the Cryptozoo Crew, a rare New Zealand Cave Monkey, all in the clutches of a three-headed monster representing censorship. It is done in the style of a political cartoon. All the proceeds from the print and the art auction will go to the CBLDF. CRYPTOZOO CREW will be issued on bi-monthly basis starting in January 2005. This was a satisfying image for the CRYPTOZOO CREW team to create.

Author Allan Gross, an outspoken Libertarian feels very strongly on the subject, particularly the role of the media in censorship today. “Just the fact that no third party candidates were part of the recent Presidential debates speaks volumes,” he points out, “I’m a great believer in personal responsibility, and one should gather their own facts on the candidates, but the role of the media is so powerful today that omissions can be as destructive as blatant censorship.”

Artist Jerry Carr was also passionate about this project. “We’ve chosen to do CRYPTOZOO CREW as an all ages book,” he explained, “But I still feel it is critical to protect our industry from a few whacked out uptight people that can’t understand art. If they would just look at solving their own internal issues, I think they’d be more tolerant and understanding. It really rankles me — hey, I almost missed my deadline on the first issue of the book to get this print done! That’s how important it was to me.”

The CRYPTOZOO CREW comic reflects this passion in its characters. Readers join Tork Darwyn, a world famous Cryptozoologist, and his wife Tara as they travel the globe solving the mysteries of legendary animals, like thy Yeti or the Loch Ness Monster. Think “Crocodile Hunter meets Kolchak the Night Stalker” and you get the idea. Tork is serious about pseudo-science, and even more serious about saving the unknown animals he discovers.

But there’s a unique twist to this story, one rarely seen in the world of comics – if the responses to the recent ashcan previews are any indications — Women and kids LOVE this book too! Women love it for the “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” interaction between Tork and Tara, while kids have been enamored with the fun adventures of Tork with the creatures he encounters. Truly it is an all ages and “all sexes” book. For that reason, CRYPTOZOO CREW is a natural for NBM, long known for selecting and publishing comics with wide audience response.

24 And Agent Jack Bauer Return In 24 Stories

Drugs, Chechens, And A Very Dark Agenda
San Diego, CA (October 29, 2005) Following this summer’s successful 24: One Shot, IDW Publishing will return to the world of Jack Bauer and CTU in early 2005 with 24 Stories, the second one-shot based on the hit TV show.

24 Stories answers some of the questions that have been in the minds of fans of the popular Fox show since the start of the third season. In their second 24 tale, returning writers J. C. Vaughn and Mark Haynes tell a tale about Jack’s early days undercover with the Salazar drug cartel. Chechen separatists have taken control of a high-rise in Los Angeles and Jack must find a way to take them down without blowing his hard-earned cover.

24 Stories follows the unique format of the first 24 one-shot, presenting a different hour of Jack’s day with every two-page spread in the book. This ticking-clock method only adds to the story’s tension, as Vaughn and Haynes present Jack and CTU with an ever-more-desperate and tense situation.

“Jack Bauer is one of the most compelling characters on television or in comics,” said Mark L. Haynes. “This story highlights how the medium of comics is perfect for the continued exploration of Jack’s universe, providing current fans and new readers alike with all the twists and turns they expect from 24.”

Co-writer J.C. Vaughn added, “The first time out, we started with Jack’s first day on the job at CTU. Now we’ve got him hip-deep in drug addiction and caught in the middle of an unrelated and very bad hostage situation, so it’s just another average day at the office for Jack Bauer and company.”

This time around, artist Manny Clark add his craftsman’s touch to 24, offering a photo-realistic style that exudes action and emotion with every panel.

24 Stories is a full-color, 48-page trade one-shot on sale in January 2005.

About FOX Licensing & Merchandising
A recognized industry leader, Twentieth Century Fox Licensing and Merchandising licenses and markets properties worldwide on behalf of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Twentieth Television and Fox Broadcasting Company, as well as third party lines. The division is aligned with Twentieth Century Fox Television, one of the top suppliers of primetime entertainment programming to the broadcast networks.

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.

IDW Publishing and Clive Barker To Release The Thief Of Always Comic Adaptation

For Immediate Release
Contact Beau Smith 304-453-1050
IDW Publishing and Clive Barker To Release The Thief Of Always Comic Adaptation All-Ages Tale Shows The Whimsical Side Of Clive Barker

San Diego, CA (October 28, 2004) Master of horror Clive Barker’s The Thief Of Always is a fable appealing to horror and fantasy fans young and old. Now, IDW brings you its own lavishly illustrated adaptation of the thrilling tale.

In The Thief of Always, adapted by Kris Oprisko and Gabriel Hernandez, Mr. Hood’s Holiday House has stood for a thousand years, welcoming countless children into its embrace. It’s a place of miracles, a blissful round of treats and seasons, where every childhood whim may be satisfied… for a price, as young Harvey Swick comes to learn.

“I’m delighted that this story, which was my first venture in writing for children, will now find a new audience through this beautiful new edition,” said The Thief of Always author Clive Barker.

“Clive is an amazing author, and all his skills are brought to bear in this amazing tale,” says writer Kris Oprisko. “The Thief of Always packs all the thrills and scares you’d expect from Clive, while at the same time perfectly capturing a child’s sense of wonder.”

Clive Barker’s The Thief of Always will be published as three bi-monthly, full-color, 48-page issues starting in January 2005.

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.

Searching for a Way Out in Next Exit

 

Where does your mind go when it wanders? In Next Exit, a new comic book series by Christy Lijewski coming in November from SLG Publishing, that place is Alkaline, a world built on dreams and memories. Retrab and Markesh are trapped in Alkaline, and they’re after what everybody else is after, too: an exit. A map that Retrab wins in a chess game just might point the way to one, but she and Markesh must travel through Alkaline’s bizarre cities and terrain in order to find it. The two find themselves tangling with wacky dream logic, monsters, scantily-clad lady mayors, and the sinister powers-that-be in Alkaline, all the while building a close friendship.

“I have exceedingly vivid dreams,” Lijewski said, explaining the idea behind Next Exit. “I wake up and can remember everything that happened. However, it usually doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I like the idea that a world made of memories wouldn’t totally make sense to an outside viewer, just like dreams don’t make sense once you wake up.” Lijewski was also inspired by Alice in Wonderland, another story set in a dream-land. “I wanted the chance to write a story that would allow me to create my own Wonderland-ish world,” she said.

Lijewski first explored Alkaline in “Doors,” a story she entered into TokyoPop’s Rising Stars of Manga contest. She won honorable mention with it, and decided to develop it into a whole comic book series. “I realized I had so much more that I wanted to do with the story,” she said, “and so much more I wanted the characters to experience. I had barely scratched the surface of the world and wanted the chance to actually tell the whole story as I’d intended it.”

Manga is an obvious influence on Lijewski, who admires the wide variety of stories and art styles encompassed by that label, but she doesn’t feel that Next Exit is manga. “I’m a pasty white girl who draws comics — not manga — and I’m not trying to say otherwise,” she said. “I draw in a style I’m comfortable with, and I hope people who are usually turned off by manga can realize that and maybe give my comic a chance anyway.”

SLG’s editor-in-chief Jennifer de Guzman doesn’t think that will be a problem. “Christy has a very kinetic art style to go along with Next Exit’s story, which is at times fast-moving and frenetic and at other times quiet and poignant,” she said. “It’s a story that’s completely accessible and engaging because it’s fun and has emotional resonance. Christy knows how to play up those elements in a way that’s charming and not in-your-face obvious.”

The first issue of Next Exit is slated for release on November third, and the comic will published on a bi-monthly schedule. A preview of the series is available at SLG Publishing’s website, www.slavelabor.com.

Established in 1986, SLG Publishing is a San Jose, CA-based publisher of comics books and graphic novels. Operating under its imprints Slave Labor Graphics and Amaze Ink, SLG Publishing has distributed the work of such notable cartoonists as Jhonen Vasquez, Evan Dorkin and Andi Watson.

Blood-Stained Sword Drips Red At IDW Publishing

For Immediate Release
Contact Beau Smith 304-453-1050

Blood-Stained Sword Drips Red At IDW Publishing

Dan Wickline and Ben Templesmith Slash You With Intrigue

San Diego, CA (October 26, 2004) Now and then, the word “innovative” pops up in a press release. Most of the time it’s just hype.

Not this time.

Creators Dan Wickline and Ben Templesmith have combined sci-fi action, technology, and the code of the Samurai to bring the readers Blood-Stained Sword, a film put to print.

In a dark and grim future drunk on high technology, the ways of the past have not been completely forgotten by everyone. Kenji has been trained as a Samurai, sworn to uphold the code of the true warrior. Now he faces the greatest challenge of his life; clearing his father’s name.

He must travel to Seattle, where corporations have replaced clans and greed has won out over honor, to find out the truth behind his father’s death and bring in those responsible.

About the story’s development, Wickline said, “I’ve always been fascinated with the samurai, not just from a historical point of view, but as a way of life. Their code of honor makes them the perfect protagonist for any story, whether they are on horseback or hover-bike.”

Blood-Stained Sword features 30 Days of Night co-creator Ben Templesmith further expanding his artistic repertoire with this tale of violent enforcement of the Samurai honor code. The story by Wickline (Metal Hurlant) features cinematic action and the dialogue is crisp and memorable. This book promises to be one of the sleeper hits of the year.

Blood-Stained Sword is a full-color, 48-page one-shot on sale in January 2005.

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.

IDW Publishing Presents Eric Red’s Masterwork—Containment

For Immediate Release
Contact Beau Smith 304-453-1050

IDW Publishing Presents Eric Red’s Masterwork—Containment

In Space, You Can’t Stop Zombies, You Can Only Hope To Contain Them

San Diego, CA (October 27, 2004) How can you beat zombies in space? How can you top having Eric Red, screenwriter on the horrifying vampire movie Near Dark, creating a comic book where astronauts are millions of miles away in outer space, trying to fight off flesh-eating zombies? You can’t, so you just sit back and enjoy every creepy moment of it. Eric Red’s Containment is a five-issue miniseries that will join Red, whose past film credits also include The Hitcher and Blue Steel, with noted artist Nick Stakal (Hyde) in a tale that will leave you breathless.

On a manned NASA space ship millions of miles from Earth, a terrifying malfunction occurs in the cryogenic hypersleep pods containing the hibernating astronauts, turning most of the crew into the violently brain-dead. As the handful of surviving astronauts awaken intact from their artificial slumber, they find they must contend with not only murderous zombies but also their own hidden agendas and increasing feelings of isolation and distrust.

“If there’s one thing Eric has done well in his movies, it’s to ratchet up the tension his characters face. And things don’t get much more tense than being trapped on a spaceship with zombies on board,” said IDW Publishing’s Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall. “Nick really helps communicate every bit of the horror and isolation the astronauts face through his moody, expressive art.”

Eric Red’s Containment is a full-color, 32-page, five-issue miniseries beginning in January 2005.

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.

WATSON TACKLES DIAPERS, DADS AND DRAMA IN NEW ONI MINI

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ­ November 2, 2004
WATSON TACKLES DIAPERS, DADS AND DRAMA IN NEW ONI MINI

Oni Press is pleased to announce the February debut of LITTLE STAR, a rollicking six-issue drama comic from the creator of Oni’s critically acclaimed LOVE FIGHTS and BREAKFAST AFTER NOON. This all-new series returns Watson to familiar ground–the interpersonal relationships that drive us and define our lives. But while BREAKFAST AFTER NOON examined the ups and downs of a romantically involved couple and their changing world, LITTLE STAR looks at a different type of bond–one between father and child.

“I really wanted to tell a story from the father’s perspective,” Watson commented. “Simon Adams experiences the dirty diapers and sleepless nights along with the joy, panic, and the occasional cute moment. It seems like whenever fathers are characterized in fiction they’re either incompetent or absent. I wanted to present a more accurate picture.”

“LITTLE STAR is another fine example of Oni’s ‘real mainstream’ sensibility,” said Oni Press editor in chief James Lucas Jones. “You won’t find anything else like it in comics, but parenthood is a subject constantly tackled by books and movies and television. Andi is mining classic yet fertile territory and the results are both touching and tickling.”

The format is also a familiar one for Watson and Oni Press. “We’ve been doing a lot of graphic novels lately,” Jones explained. “But Andi’s just so adept at the serial. He knows how to pace a 24-page comic, making each a satisfying experience while still leaving the reader hungry for the next installment. As nice as it is to have the book on your shelf, there’s something equally special about a series of well-crafted comics.”

The first issue sees Simon staggering through a world of pee, poop, and puke as he fills the role of caregiver. The late nights, the early mornings, the exhausting days–other dad’s don’t necessarily understand the work each new dawn holds for poor Simon, and the moms? They know, but they just laugh. Is this what it’s like for everyone?

“Simon is a lot of things, but alone is not one of them,” Watson concluded. “His experience is universal. If I do my job right, readers will know his joys, chuckle at his misfortunes, and empathize with his frustrations. People should recognize the Simons around them and with any luck that’ll make the experience of LITTLE STAR that much more enjoyable.”

LITTLE STAR #1 will feature 32 pages of black-and-white story and art, with a full color cover. With a cover price of $2.99, it will ship to comic book stores in February 2005. Future issues will ship on a bimonthly basis.