Avatar Press

It’s the last “New Comic Wednesday” of 2011! Let’s give you the rundown of what you’ll see on stands today.

The first look at the new ongoing CROSSED series, BADLANDS, is here! Garth Ennis? groundbreaking survival horror series has turned the comic community upside down with its unspeakable and unforgettable imagery. 2012 will be the year of CROSSED, and this is your chance to stake a claim on the first startling images from the violent onslaught to come!

The CROSSED: BADLANDS preview edition, entitled OPENING SALVO, provides a sample of finished pages from #1 along with an interview from the CROSSED team of Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows, and a rare peek inside the upcoming ongoing bi-weekly series featuring story arcs by Garth Ennis, Jamie Delano, Simon Spurrier, and David Lapham! OPENING SALVO includes interviews with Ennis and Burrows, plus the first peak at black-and-white pages from Jamie Delano’s storyline kicking off in issue #4. Limited to just 5000 copies!

CROSSED: BADLANDS OPENING SALVO
$1.99 Retail, Cover by Jacen Burrows
Diamond Item Code: NOV110770

Also this week, Avatar is releasing the AUXILIARY edition of CROSSED: PSYCHOPATH #6, written by David Lapham with interior artwork by Raulo Caceres. This special edition first printing features a tasty treat of a cover from Matt Martin and is limited to 1500 copies.

CROSSED: PSYCHOPATH #6 Auxiliary Edition
$3.99 Retail, Cover by Matt Martin
Diamond Item Code: NOV110772

Finally, today’s release of STITCHED #1 AUXILIARY provides a creepy cover by series artist extraordinaire, Mike Wolfer! It’s a special edition first printing limited to 1500 copies.

STITCHED #1 Auxiliary Edition
$3.99 Retail, Cover by Mike Wolfer
Diamond Item Code: NOV110773

We’re proud to share the news that this year’s CROSSED comics have been nominated for three ComicMonsters.com Horror Comic Awards!? The three categories are:

Cover of the Year 2011:
CROSSED: PSYCHOPATH #1 Wraparound
Artwork by Raulo Caceres

Best Kill of the Year 2011:
CROSSED: PSYCHOPATH #5
“Perhaps a chainsaw in the butt?”
Written by David Lapham, Artwork by Raulo Caceres

Best OGN of 2011
CROSSED 3D
Written by David Lapham, Artwork by Gianluca Pagliarani

The ComicMonsters.com Horror Comic Awards are nominated by the website staff, but ultimately selected by comic book fans! You can register to vote at the Horror News Network (the sister company to ComicMonsters.com) by following this link: http://www.horrornewsnetwork.net/account-new_user.html. Once you’ve registered and logged in, go to the ComicMonsters.com voting site at http://www.comicmonsters.com/horror-comic-awards.html. Make sure to look for the three categories mentioned above.

Show your CROSSED support today! Voting ends in seven (7) days!

When you visit your local comic book shop this week, be sure to pick up the latest graphic novel release from Avatar Press: WOLFSKIN VOLUME 2: HUNDREDTH DREAM! This second WOLFSKIN graphic novel is written by Warren Ellis (Captain Swing, Supergod) and Mike Wolfer (Stitched, Night of the Living Dead), and illustrated by Gianluca Pagliarani (Crossed 3D, Ignition City).

The premise: Before history was recorded in stone and ink, some men wrote it in blood! Wolfskin, a nomadic warrior, hopes to find a new purpose in life after the accidental slaughter of his own tribe while in the throes of an uncontrollable berserker rage. Hired as a guide and swordsman for a rescue mission to the volcanic ice plains, he travels north with a band of misfits and magicians whose skills and ideology are perched between prehistory and the advent of technology. What dreadful enemy will they face on the outskirts of civilization, and will Wolfskin even have a place in the world should he slay it?

This new heroic legend from the darkest corridors of time, as chronicled by long-time collaborators Ellis and Wolfer, features 160 pages of highly-detailed, full-color artwork by Pagliarani and is intended for Mature Readers. The books are available in the following editions:

WOLFSKIN VOL. 2: HUNDREDTH DREAM Softcover Edition
$19.99, Cover by Gianluca Pagliarani
Diamond Item Code: SEP110814
ISBN: 9781592911387

WOLFSKIN VOL. 2 HUNDREDTH DREAM Hardcover Edition
$27.99, Painted Cover by Felipe Massafera
Diamond Item Code: SEP110815
ISBN: 9781592911394

These books are in stores today! If you’re not finished yet with your holiday shopping, you may want to pick one up as a great read for the holidays!

Responding to overwhelming fan and retailer support for their wildly successful comic book horror franchise, Avatar Press announces today the launch of a new, ongoing CROSSED comic book series on March 14, 2012, with a bi-weekly release schedule and its first story arc reuniting the creative team of superstar writer Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Punisher) and original series artist Jacen Burrows (NEONOMICON). Concurrent story arcs will be spearheaded by well-established comic book writers such as Jamie Delano (Hellblazer) and David Lapham (Stray Bullets). The worldwide release of CROSSED: BADLANDS will be marked by a special ?C-Day? in-store event for comic shop retailers, designed to maximize comic fan awareness and drive sales for area retailers.

Since its debut miniseries in 2008, CROSSED has captured the attention of comic book fans across the world with the high tension and visceral horror of its premise: in moments, a viral contagion spread over the face of the Earth, turning much of the populace into sadistically evil psychopaths. The CROSSED: BADLANDS series will present tales from all over the globe, with each story arc provided by a different creative team. Beginning with issue #1, Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows relate a story of a young Englishman, scrambling to avoid roving bands of the ?Crossed,? while simultaneously dealing with the traumatic death of his wife.

The return of Ennis and Burrows to the CROSSED universe has been one long demanded by readers. Regarding his return to script the new CROSSED: BADLANDS series, Ennis says, ?It feels cold and bleak and bad and dark, which is exactly how I hoped it would. You don?t write CROSSED with the sun shining in your heart; you write it around midwinter, watching the long night devour the feeble day.?

Artist Jacen Burrows has dedicated several months to the artwork of the first BADLANDS story arc, working ahead to accommodate the bi-weekly publishing schedule. While his most recent sequential artwork was showcased in Alan Moore?s NEONOMICON, a critically-acclaimed Lovecraftian horror series, he has been consistently contributing to CROSSED as a cover artist for every single tie-in comic book (including the FAMILY VALUES and PSYCHOPATH miniseries, as well as the best-selling original graphic novel, CROSSED 3D). His recent body of work has solidified his reputation as a master storyteller of both subtle, atmospheric horror and visceral, bloody gore.

?The horror genre has been through a lot as it has gotten more popular in the mainstream. It?s been abused and defanged by charlatans out for a quick buck, those who make one-dimensional, generic, formulaic product,? says Burrows. ?With CROSSED, we want to do real horror that pushes the envelope so we can explore the limits of the human condition. It isn?t about violence so much as showing the stakes the characters are facing, and it is our willingness to go to that edge that makes the world so affecting.?

To promote the launch of CROSSED: BADLANDS, Avatar Press is working with Diamond Comic Distributors and retailers in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom to celebrate ?C-Day,? an in-store event meant to expand readership and drive sales for comic shops. C-Day Survival Kits will be available to retailers, containing promotional goods including posters, counter displays, temporary tattoos, buttons, posters, masks, and rare Bonus Edition comics. As a tool for retailers, Avatar Press will simultaneously release the CROSSED: GET INFECTED C-DAY EDITION comic book, a special reissue of the first-ever CROSSED story that serves as a perfect introduction to the entire series.

As with many of their comic books, Avatar Press will offer several different cover editions of each CROSSED: BADLANDS issue, providing fans with the freedom of choice for which graphic, visceral images they want to collect.

CROSSED: BADLANDS #1 Regular Edition
$3.99 SRP, Diamond Item Code: JAN120877

CROSSED: BADLANDS #1 Torture Edition
$3.99 SRP, Diamond Item Code: JAN120878

CROSSED: BADLANDS #1 Wraparound Edition
$3.99 SRP, Diamond Item Code: JAN120879

CROSSED: BADLANDS #2 Regular Edition
$3.99 SRP, Diamond Item Code: JAN120883

CROSSED: BADLANDS #2 Torture Edition
$3.99 SRP, Diamond Item Code: JAN120884

CROSSED: BADLANDS #2 Wraparound Edition
$3.99 SRP, Diamond Item Code: JAN120885

To quote Garth Ennis himself: Dougie and Ivor, the heroes of DICKS, “remain my all-time favorites of the characters I’ve written or created. My pride and joy, the ongoing saga of two idiots from Belfast, (as created) by two idiots from Belfast.” If a comic book legend like Garth Ennis can think so highly of his creations, it’s no wonder that these notorious scoundrels are back!

Selected by Diamond Comic Distributors for the coveted “Featured Item” accolade in their December Previews catalog, DICKS #1 is back — in FULL COLOR for the first time ever! Garth Ennis and John McCrea (the creative team behind Hitman) have returned to add insult to injury with a completely colorized and re-mastered series that is guaranteed to offend and amaze. This monthly series colorizes all the previous Dicks adventures and leads right into a whole new adventure, starting with Bigger Dicks #1 right here! Dougie and Ivor, the shameless bollocks that claim to be private investigators, are back in action with more outrageous antics that will leave no shame uncovered. This series is made for the smart ass comics reader that can’t get enough low-brow humor as only Garth Ennis can deliver! Available with a regular cover, a very Offensive cover, and a special Classic B&W cover showing one of the lost DICKS covers of yesteryear – all by series artist John McCrea!

DICKS #1 Regular Edition
$4.99 Retail, Cover by John McCrea (see above)
Diamond Item Code: DEC110861

DICKS #1 Offensive Edition
$4.99 Retail, Cover by John McCrea (see left)
Diamond Item Code: DEC110862

DICKS #1 Classic Black-and-White Edition
Ask Your Retailer for Pricing! Cover by John McCrea
Diamond Item Code: DEC110863