Free Comic Book Day! May 1st
April 30th, 2010 by Gregg Senko
The time is ticking down as we approach yet another national Free Comic Book Day. What is it, you might ask? Exactly what the name states. Well, let’s clarify that. You don’t get to walk off with just anything off the shelf. Publishers from the big players such as Marvel and DC all the way through the smaller press release a barrage of titles specifically meant for the first Saturday in May. Continue reading ‘Free Comic Book Day! May 1st’
Oni. Rakshasa. Yautjas. The highly intelligent alien race that has been visiting our planet for eons is known best as the Predator. Ever since their film debut alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1987, the space-travelling bipeds have achieved success in film, novels and comic books. I’ve made no secret that Dark Horse’s Predator storylines are what drew me into comic book collecting back in the early 1990’s. It was Predator: Race War that became my first exposure into the print foray of the dreaded hunters. 
Back in the early 90’s, several comic book companies were trying to secure their foothold in the industry. Comics were selling, but not necessarily at the volume they are today. The aggressive onslaught of comic book movies has only helped this surge in book sales, but twenty years ago, Marvel, Dark Horse, and DC didn’t have this luxury. Okay, so there were your Superman movies and the Tim Burton Batman movies (followed by the atrocious Joel Schumacher versions) but these tended to stray from what made the characters successful on paper. 
Whenever I get a chance to write about Rob Zombie I jump right on the first opportunity to do so. The man has done so much over the past 20+ years and his legacy continues. Word cannot even describe how much his career, music, films and other passions mean to me. He provides me the much needed motivation to live strong every day. But wait…his legacy just doesn’t end with music and movies…he’s also been heavily involved in the world of comics and he’s making his return known this May with the title Whatever Happened to Baron Von Shock? 
Newcomers and avid readers of the Robert Kirkman/Todd McFarlane-created series Haunt can breathe a little easier…a collection is on its way. Image Comics will be releasing Haunt Volume 1 later this month. The book will come only in paperback form and will encompass the first five issues of the supernatural series. The recently released issue 5 concluded the title’s first story arc, so it only makes sense for Image to start assembling collective releases now. 
Marvel has woven quite the tale this time. Siege is the latest all-encompassing mini-series that Marvel has unleashed upon the public. It is spawned from the Dark Reign storyline which enveloped just about every title under the Marvel sun. This was in turn birthed from the Secret Invasion series and we can even go further back to Avengers Disassembled when one of the most popular hero teams in all of Marvel was brought down in a hurry. 
Sometimes a good book comes along that laid low on the publicity front. For whatever reason, usually money, these publications don’t receive a great deal of advertising flare and as a result, take on stealth-like characteristics on store shelves. These tend to rely solely on word of mouth, and if the word is mum, there is the unfortunate occurrence that a good story can fall into obscurity. Just before Christmas, I passed on one such hardcover called Giant Monster. 
We just received a press release from IDW Publishing that we thought was interesting enough to pass along to our readers. What is From The Ashes? I have no idea, but after reading about it I am intrigued to say the least. The graphic novel is published by the same people who brought us 30 Days of Night, another favorite of ours. So why not? Let’s give them the floor. Check out the full press release below from IDW about their newest upcoming graphic novel From The Ashes by Bob Fingerman. 
For what seemed to be a once strong then dormant title, it appears that Dark Horse has dusted off the idea vault for the Predator race. Available for sale now, Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War (issue #1) recently arrived in stores with a dramatic fold-out cover, courtesy of Raymond Swanland. The book’s artwork is softly detailed with a bout of writing that accurately rejuvinates life into the hallowed character, Machiko Noguchi. 
The creative team (consisting of writer Rick Remender and comic book artist Tony Moore) that brought us the very cool Fear Agent from Dark Horse Comics is back, and this time they’ve taken Frank Castle, The Punisher, in a direction you’d never thought you’d see. In fact, here’s the conversation I imagine Rick Remender had with his editor. 
Arguably, the most popular G.I. Joe character is Snake Eyes. I fall into the majority here as he is certainly my favorite Joe. Why do so many G.I. Joe fans flock to this one soldier? Maybe it’s the intrigue of his silence along with his mysterious past. Maybe it’s because he wears all black. Maybe it’s just because the dude is one kick-@$$ ninja who knocks down whatever gets in his way. 
From the strikingly different covers that grace these three issues (Paul Pope on issue one, Peter Bagge on issue two, and Stan Sakai on issue three) you know immediately that these aren’t going to be your normal Marvel comics, let alone normal superhero fare. Taking a page from DC Comics’ Bizarro Comics, Marvel enlisted an eclectic group of writers and artists from comic’s indy scene and basically told them to “Have fun.” 
It was in 1990, I believe, when a friend dragged me to a comic book store with him so he could pick up whatever was in his monthly file. Up to this point, I had four comic books in my possession, none of which lit my fire in the world of superheros. So we arrive at the then-thriving, but now long-since defunct American Comics, Cards & Collectibles. I was completely blown away by the clutter in this guy’s store. 
Poor Eddie Brock. The former journalist and Spider-Man nemesis has certainly fallen on hard times. First, Peter Parker catches him in the act of falsifying a story. Lose Daily Bugle job…check. Next, he comes in contact with the alien symbiote that bonds with him to form Venom. Life of crime…check. Next, his father told him he wanted nothing to do with him which was followed by Brock’s wife leaving him. 
With such a variety of super heroes out on the shelves of comic book stores these days, it can be difficult to create something that hasn’t been done before. What is the way around that, you may ask? 
This past summer, dusk arrived a little early in the DC Comics universe. The Blackest Night storyline finally made its debut and it did not disappoint. More than your typical sub-plot for existing storylines, Blackest Night is an 8-part series (issues 1 & 2 are already out) with two other mini-series taking place at the same time; Blackest Night: Batman and Blackest Night: Superman; both being 3-issue series. 
