LAST BORN #1 by Eric Zawadski and Patrick Meaney. Out 10/1

A disgraced outcast samurai living in early seventeenth-century Manila, Kitazume is contemplating ritual suicide when a divine force (of a sort) intervenes: Luis, a rogue Jesuit priest and Kitazume’s longtime friend. At Luis’s insistence, the samurai agrees to help smuggle a Manchu princess to Mexico. But little does he know that he’s really been dragged into an epic struggle for power. Several forces have their malicious sights set on the New World’s rich silver mines: an insurgent Spanish duke, Chinese political interests, and the escaped African slaves known as the cimarrónes. And working in secret among them is a mysterious, long-lost order that has its own plans for the precious metal. As politics and greed collide, Kitazume must call upon his deadly skills once more. But he’s not just fighting to save his friends—he’s fighting for the redemption he so desperately craves.

Foreworld founders Neal Stephenson and Mark Teppo—joined by authors Charles C. Mann and Ellis Amdur, and illustrator Robert Sammelin—forge a comic series with adventure, betrayal, and a samurai’s relentless blade.

Jim Burns’ startling otherworldly visions have adorned the book covers of countless renowned SF authors, including George R R Martin, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Peter F Hamilton, Anne McCaffrey, Robert Silverberg, Joe Haldeman and many more. He also produced early concept ideas for movies such as Blade Runner. 

The Art of Jim Burns: Hyperluminal is a brand-new collection, spanning 40 years of his life. It contains a carefully chosen selection of his most iconic pieces and commentary from the man himself.

Coming From Titan Books, 26th September 2014, £24.99

The science fiction western series branded a hit

“Go buy this book.”  —Comic Book Resources “Copperhead is the best Image debut of the year and my favorite new comic.”  —Brian K. Vaughan Writer Jay Faerber (NEAR DEATH, DYNAMO 5), artist Scott Godlewski (Dracula: The Company of Monsters), colorist Ron Riley (NEAR DEATH, DYNAMO 5), and letterer/designer Thomas Mauer (UNDERTOW, UMBRAL) have won the hearts of readers with their new science fiction western series COPPERHEAD. Issue #1 has sold out completely and is being fast-tracked to a second printing to meet customer demand. "Scott, Ron, Thomas and I are blown away by the response Copperhead's gotten,” said Faerber. “We've been having a ton of fun in the mining town of Copperhead, and we're thrilled people are responding to it. The ride is just beginning!"

In COPPERHEAD #1 readers meet Clara Bronson, a single mother who takes the position as new sheriff in Copperhead, a small mining town on a distant planet. But while Clara might seem like an ordinary lady in all respects, she has one or two secrets she’s hiding… and secrets don’t last long in a small town like Copperhead.

Set in the 24th century and featuring Western archetypes through a sci-fi lens, COPPERHEAD is a fresh new series that Faerber described as “Deadwood meetsFirefly.” 

COPPERHEAD #1 has completely sold out at the distributor level, but may still be available in comic stores. It is currently available digitally on the Image Comics website (imagecomics.com) and the official Image Comics iOS app, as well as on Comixology on the web (comixology.com), iOS, Android, and Google Play.

Image Comics is pleased to announce that this first issue will be going back to print to meet customer demand. The second printing of COPPERHEAD #1 (Diamond Code AUG148041) will release on 10/8. 

COPPERHEAD #2 releases 10/8 as well and will be available for pre-order with Diamond Code JUN148095. 

This past Saturday, Dark Horse Comics, the premier independent publisher in the industry, took home an impressive number of awards at the twenty-seventh Harvey Awards ceremony.

The Harvey is one of the comic book industry’s oldest and most respected awards. Held annually at Baltimore Comic-Con, the Harvey Awards recognize outstanding achievements in over twenty categories. They are the only industry awards both nominated and selected by the full body of comic book professionals.

Below is a list of Dark Horse’s wins.

Congratulations to all winners and nominees!

Best Colorist Dave Stewart, Hellboy: The Midnight Circus. Young Hellboy runs away from the BPRD, only to stumble upon a weird and fantastical circus and the few demons from Hell who inhabit it.

Best Anthology Dark Horse Presents, edited by Mike Richardson. A three-time Eisner and Harvey Award winner, this legendary, premier anthology is back and here to stay!

The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story, by Vivek Tiwary. Also the 2014 Eisner Award winner for Best Reality-Based Work, The Fifth Beatle tells the untold true story of Brian Epstein, the visionary manager who discovered and guided the Beatles—from their gigs in a tiny cellar in Liverpool to unprecedented international stardom. Both heartbreaking and uplifting, The Fifth Beatle not only reveals an important, unsung chapter in the history of the Beatles—but it will inspire anyone who’s ever dared to believe in a dream.

Best Domestic Reprint Project

Special Award for Excellence in Presentation The Best of Comix Book: When Marvel Went Underground In 1974, Marvel publisher Stan Lee and underground pioneer Denis Kitchen collaborated on a series called Comix Book. Featuring underground comix by Joel Beck, Kim Deitch, Justin Green, Trina Robbins, Art Spiegelman (including the first national appearance of Maus), Skip Williamson, and S. Clay Wilson, this best-of collects them all!

Best Online Comics Work

THE DELINQUENTS #1 SECOND PRINTING VARIANT (JUL148296)
Written by JAMES ASMUS & FRED VAN LENTE
Art by KANO
Cover by PAOLO RIVERA
$3.99 | T+ | 32 pgs. | ON SALE 10/1/14 (FOC – 9/8/14)

Valiant is proud to announce that THE DELINQUENTS #1 – the FIRST ISSUE of the first disastrous team-up between Quantum and Woody and Archer & Armstrong – has sold out at the distributor level and will return with a brand-new second printing in stores October 1st! 

You demanded it, so we delivered it! Archer & Armstrong finally meet Quantum and Woody! Written by multiple Harvey Award nominee James Asmus (Quantum and Woody) and New York Times best-selling writer Fred Van Lente (Archer & Armstrong) with art by heat-seeking artist Kano (Gotham Central), start reading here as Valiant's two most ill-suited and irresponsible pairs of “heroes” go head-to-head for a cross-country rat race…with only an ass-map to guide them!

For decades, the underground society of American hobos guarded one secret with their lives – the route to hobo paradise…aka Big Rock Candy Mountain, U.S.A. Only one map leading to its mythical location was ever made…and it was tattooed on the butt cheeks of one lone hobo guardian! In the years since, it has been flayed, dried, and split into two halves. Archer & Armstrong have the left cheek, Quantum and Woody hold the right. And, now, these two halves are about to set the competing duos off on a cross-country rat race where “O” marks the spot!

Quantum and Woody are the world's worst superhero team... Archer & Armstrong are a mismatched pair of conspiracy-busting adventurers... Together…they make a really, really bad team! Stay out of the way because, on October 1st, they're bringing the summer's most out-of-control joyride back to comic book stores everywhere in THE DELINQUENTS #1 SECOND PRINTING!

Praise for THE DELINQUENTS #1:

"✮✮✮✮✮…Asmus, Van Lente, Kano and Sharpe provide a perfect example of how to blend humor and action, adventure and fun." – Comic Book Resources
"✮✮✮✮✮...James Asmus and Fred Van Lente absolutely knock this one out of the park…" – Big Comic Page
"✮✮✮✮½…The art by Kano is gritty and dirty and hilarious…just like our heroes herein." – Bloody Disgusting
"✮✮✮✮½…What Fred Van Lente and James Asmus have cooked up here is so good, I don’t know why any other comics bothered releasing themselves this week." –  Comics Bulletin
"✮✮✮✮…You won't find a comic like this everyday. Don't miss out on it. And again, it has an ass map in it!" – Comic Vine
 For more information, visit Valiant on Facebook, on Twitter, on Tumblr, and at ValiantUniverse.com.
 
For Valiant merchandise and more, visit ValiantStore.com.

Preview Images

October’s hardcover reproduces Charlie Adlard’s pencils for monumental story arc

Why this has piqued our interest. The Walking Dead is one of the strongest running franchises in comics and with All out War creators Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard changed the status quo of the series forever. To celebrate this Image are releasing a special Artist proof edition in October and from all signs it looks like a must have.

In October, fans of Robert Kirkman’s THE WALKING DEAD will see the New York Times best-selling comic as never before with the publication of THE WALKING DEAD: ALL OUT WAR ARTIST PROOF EDITION. In this 248-page hardcover from Image Comics/Skybound, artist Charlie Adlard’s raw pencils for the twelve-issue arc are reproduced, uninked and unaltered from how they appear on his artboard. The ALL OUT WAR story arc marks a major turning point in THE WALKING DEAD, as Rick Grimes unites several communities to fight the villainous Negan and his “Saviors,” while around them the dead continue to roam. The future of the Survivors, Hilltop, and Kingdom communities depends precariously on Negan’s right-hand man, who has turned against him — and not everyone is going to see it through the war alive.

"I've always enjoyed books that show the ‘process,’ and All Out War certainly does that,” said Adlard. “Presenting the pencils as they are is an interesting thing, because they were done to show an inker what to do. So, at times, they are rough, fudged, incorrect...etc, but hopefully still provide an insight as to what goes into making a comic book.”

Adlard has penciled and inked more than one hundred issues of THE WALKING DEAD. Inker Stefano Gaudiano was brought onto the art team (which includes toner Cliff Rathburn and letterer Rus Wooten) at the start of the ALL OUT WAR story arc. 

“And just sometimes it's nice not to have a finished thing,” continued Adlard. “To be able to see the little bits of ‘magic’ occurring in the happy accidents of random pencil marks, which were never intended for anyone other than Stefano to see, where I wasn't caring that it would be seen by a wider audience, makes it all a little bit bolder.”

ALL OUT WAR has never before been collected in a single volume, and this edition presents the monumental story in a whole new way. THE WALKING DEAD: ALL OUT WAR ARTIST PROOF EDITION will be in comic book stores on October 1 and in bookstores on October 8. It is available for pre-order now.

October graphic novel sheds light on a small town’s darkness

Why this has piqued our interest; Nailbiter has been a great series to date, the story of the most infamous small town on the planet has been up there with the best of Image comics this year. We reviewed the first three issues and you can read them here 1, 2, 3. However if you are yet to delve into Buckaroo this trade may be the perfect place to start.

From the outside, Buckaroo, Oregon seems like a typical small town, but there’s something that makes it extraordinary. The setting of NAILBITER by Joshua Williamson (GHOSTED) and Mike Henderson (MASKS AND MOBSTERS), a new graphic novel coming in October from Image Comics is the hometown of sixteen of the world’s most heinous serial killers. Random chance? FBI profiler Eliot Carroll didn’t think so, and his investigations led him deep into Buckaroo’s secrets… where he disappeared without a trace. Now, Carroll’s best friend, army intelligence officer Nicholas Finch, has come to Buckaroo in search of him. The most obvious suspect is Edward “The Nailbiter” Warren — a psychopath acquitted of forty-five counts of first degree murder. Warren may be the key to finding Carroll — as well as the latest killer who has begun to menace Buckaroo.

“I’ve always wondered ‘why, and how?’ What happens in a person’s life that turns them into that kind of monster?” said writer Williamson of his interest in serial killers in an interview at Multiversity Comics. “Is it an event or are they born that way? It’s part of what we explore in the overall Nailbiter story.”

“[Nailbiter] really wended its way in directions we hadn’t predicted once sketches and designs started being kicked back and forth,” said artist Henderson of the creative process. “We both saw a twisting mystery though, rooted under the town of Buckaroo and affecting everyone in it in different (often horrible) ways.”

A mystery with the psychological horror of Hannibal and the surreal small-town claustrophobia of Twin Peaks, NAILBITER VOLUME 1: THERE WILL BE BLOOD will be in comic book stores on October 1 and in bookstores on October 14. It is specially priced at only $9.99 and available for pre-order now.

The all-new fantasy series will boast Marc Silvestri variant cover colored by Sunny Gho

Creator/writer Joshua Williamson (NAILBITER, GHOSTED), artist Andrei Bressan, and colorist Adriano Lucas team up for the highly anticipated new fantasy series BIRTHRIGHT, from Skybound/Image Comics and reveal an awe-inspiring variant cover by Image Comics partner and Top Cow CEO Marc Silvestri and colored by Sunny Gho. BIRTHRIGHT begins with an innocent game of catch in the park and ends with a couple still in search of their missing son years later—never knowing what became of him when he disappeared into the woods that day. But of all their imagined scenarios, nothing could prepare them for what happened when he returned. So begins the new epic series, BIRTHRIGHT, where fantasy becomes reality. BIRTHRIGHT #1 (Diamond Code AUG140536) arrives in stores on 10/8, as an oversized 40 page issue, available for only $2.99. The variant cover by Marc Silvestri can be pre-ordered with Diamond Code JUL148295.