WHAT'S NEW? May 20, 2013

By pghhead -



MAJOR SPOILERS PODCAST: Check out www.majorspoilers.com for a variety of podcasts on subjects near and dear to our pop culture cravings. It’s the new home of WAYNE’S COMICS, a podcast that I try to follow. WAYNE’S COMICS PODCAST #90 features a great interview with writer John Layman, who discusses his work on CHEW, DETECTIVE COMICS and many others.

TOP SELLER FOR APRIL: It’s great to see a book that’s not a Marvel or DC title break into the top sellers list. JUPITER’S LEGACY reached #3 in April 2013 based on pre-orders through Diamond Distribution.

BRANDON PETERSON IN MARYLAND: Artist Brandon Peterson (Age Of Ultron) will visit Comics, Cards & Collectibles (100A Chartley Drive, Reistertown, Maryland) on Saturday, June 1 from 1 to 5 p.m.

DC HUNGER FUND-RAISER: DC Comics fans really supported their We Can Be Heroes crowd-funding campaign in a big way. The original goal was to raise $50,000 for non-profit agencies to provide hunger relief in Africa. By the end of the campaign that amount had tripled to a total of $152, 941. The upside is that comics fans have heart and will turn up for a worthy cause.

VALIANT INTRODUCES H.A.R.D. CORPS.: The newest revival of original Valiant characters will be the H.A.R.D. Corps, set to debut this June in HARBINGER WARS #3 and #4. This promises to be a different spin on the group, and if it follows the trend of successful re-imaginings of Valiant characters it will be a welcome one. Supposedly summoned by Project Rising Spirit to control the conflict between Harbinger Foundation, Bloodshot and Peter Stanchek’s Renegades the H.A.R.D. (Harbinger Active Resistance Division) Corps jumps into the fire. In July, writer Jim Zub and artist Edwin Huang (both of Skullkickers fame) debut with a one-shot short story about H.A.R.D. Corps recruitment efforts. Episodes of the story will appear in every Valiant title that month. (Spoiler alert!) All that’s known for sure is that Bloodshot will join the team, as his title becomes BLOODSHOT AND H.A.R.D. CORPS with issue #14 in September. I’m a bit apprehensive about that latest announcement. I recall RAI, a great title from the original company, that morphed into RAI AND THE FUTURE FORCE in a directional change that was not for the better. I’m keeping my fingers crossed on this one.






MORE CROWD-SOURCED AND FUNDED SERIES NEWS: What began as an ambitious four-issue miniseries funded through Kickstarter became an Indiegogo campaign to fund productions costs for the first issue only. The new horror comics series EVIL JESTER PRESENTS has completed funding after raising $5,645 in contributions. We are looking forward to seeing this in print. The original line-up of artists and writers was premium quality all the way.








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