Urbana, IL – Avatar Press, Inc. announced today that the company will publish Strange Kiss, a new comic by the acclaimed writer of Transmetropolitan and The Authority, Warren Ellis. The three issue mini-series is the first of several bleeding-edge horror comics from Ellis to be published by Avatar. Strange Kiss #1 will be available for pre-order in September for a November, 1999 release.
What is the Strange Kiss? It won’t take readers long to glimpse that terrifying mystery, as in characteristic Ellis fashion, the tale starts fast and furious from page one: “A horrific murder suicide in the middle of a busy city street at midday; an old man rotting and bloating in a hospital bed, something sick gestating inside him; in a darkened place close by, people screaming, impregnated, doomed,” Ellis warns. “Something beautiful and awful is trying to reproduce, and its strange kiss is only to be feared…”
“I think Warren’s fearlessness is the thing that intrigues me most about Strange Kiss and these other upcoming projects,” says Avatar Press Editor in Chief William Christensen. “He’s on top now, and he could easily play it safe by getting all the work he can handle from the mainstream publishers. Instead, he’s taking the time to do these dangerous little stories with a dangerous little publisher. That takes nerve, and the fact that he wants to tell these tales that much should give people pause. We pride ourselves on bringing the same passion to putting the books out as the creators do to making them, so every last shuddering ounce of Warren’s rage – his fear, his passion, his anger – will end up in the finished product. Scary thought.”
“As a creator, I go to different publishers in search of different things, for each publisher has its own culture,” adds Ellis. “What does it say about Avatar, then, that I go there when I want to write stories about old men giving violent and horrible birth to hundreds of baby lizards through their anus? I’ve worked in black and white before, I’ve worked with indy publishers before. Avatar looked to me to be the only place to go. Able to encompass both Jenni Gregory on the one hand and David Quinn & Tim Vigil on the other, Avatar seems to me to be primed to become a breakout publisher.”
Pencils and inks on Strange Kiss will be handled by Mike Wolfer, with tones provided by Dan Parsons. Wolfer is well known on the indy horror scene for the crisp, detailed line work he brings to his creator-owned Widow series. Parsons is likewise known for the lovingly rendered tones of his own long-running series Harpy. The two collaborated recently on Wolfer’s hardcore horror serial Ragdoll. Despite this past experience, Wolfer sees a different sort of challenge before him: “I’ve drawn a lot of horror in my time,” he notes. “But Warren’s script surpasses anything I’ve managed to drag from my own nightmares.”
“Sometimes, you know, you just have to write stories about things that make ordinary people chuck up a week of chewed burgers,” Ellis concludes. “It happens to me more and more frequently. And that’s when I go to Avatar. So there will be more like this. Much more.”
Strange Kiss #1 will be available for order in distributor catalogs in September and will be released in November, 1999. Check out continuing coverage of Strange Kiss and other Avatar projects at www.avatarpress.com. Artwork available upon request.
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