ComiXology Originals and Stout Club Entertainment Present the Horror Thriller, Hailstone

 ComiXology Originals and Stout Club Entertainment Present Hailstone, a Horror Thriller, Written by Rafael Scavone and Illustrated by Rafael de Latorre

 

 

 

May 6, 2021 – New York, NY – ComiXology, Amazon’s premier digital comics service, and Stout Club Entertainment present Hailstone, a horror thriller set during the U.S. Civil War, written by Rafael Scavone (A Study in Emerald, Hit-Girl and Funny Creek), illustrated by Rafael de Latorre (SuperZero, Animosity and Black Widow) with colors by Wesllei Manoel, letters by Bernardo Brice, and edits by Bis Stringer Horne.

 

The 5-issue limited series will be released monthly beginning May 11, 2021 with Hailstone issue #1 featuring a cover by Rafael De Latorre and Rafael Albuquerque (American Vampire). Hailstone is part of the comiXology Originals multi-book deal with Stout Club Entertainment and will be available simultaneously in both English and Portuguese.

 

Ahead of release, Hailstone is already gathering accolades:

 

“Hailstone delivers the goods as only the best Westerns can. The visually stunning period artwork by Rafael de Latorre alone is worth the price of admission, but add Rafael Scavone’s engaging mystery and world building and Hailstone is an instant hit.”

—Jimmy Palmiotti (Jonah Hex, Harley Quinn)

 

“A killer winter in a closed valley, townsfolk disappearing, a beast in the forest and a mystery in the factory – I don’t know what genre this is but I'm loving it and I’m hooked!”

—Frank Quitely (Jupiter’s Legacy, The Authority)

 

In this gripping and haunting series, the people of Hailstone, Montana are hungry and disappearing. Trapped by relentless snow, the remaining townspeople grow increasingly desperate and come into conflict with the well-stocked military factory in the area. The situation grows worse when a local girl named Mary disappears while searching for food with her mother. Sheriff Denton Ross and his deputy Tobias step in to keep the peace, but their efforts start them down a dangerous path. Their investigation into Mary’s disappearance reveals a mysterious and well-kept secret that will change their lives forever. . . . But only if they survive.

 

"Hailstone presents a story of mystery, mixed with historical, horror and supernatural elements, all seasoned with good old western action," says writer Rafael Scavone. "If I had to pick only one genre to define it, I'd definitely go for weird-fiction. The characters range from a traumatised Sheriff, unable to help his people, to an arrogant army officer running a military factory in a remote town. Art-wise Rafael de Latorre gave it a beautiful but uneasy atmosphere, his work is a perfect match for the story. The moody ambience he created grows denser as the story goes on poking the characters' fears with it. All of these elements allowed us to play with sequences and pacing. We hope the readers dig it as much as we did while creating this comic."

 

Part of the comiXology Originals line of exclusive digital content, Hailstone will be released monthly. Each issue will be available upon release, at no additional cost, for members of Amazon Prime, Kindle Unlimited, and comiXology Unlimited, and for purchase on the Amazon Kindle Store and comiXology. Prime Reading offers all Amazon Prime members a rotating selection of over a thousand top Kindle books, magazines, short works, comic books, children’s books, and more – all at no additional cost. Kindle Unlimited gives customers access to more than 1 million titles, including thousands of audio books, and current magazines for just $9.99 a month with a 30-day free trial at amazon.com/kindleunlimited. ComiXology Unlimited offers over 30,000 comics, graphic novels and manga for just $5.99 a month with a 30-day free trial at comixology.com/unlimited.

 

For more updates on comiXology Originals, check out http://comixologyoriginals.com.

 

About the Creative Team:

Rafael Scavone started writing comics in 2014. His main work includes Wonder Woman, All-Star Batman and Mark Millar’s Hit-Girl. In 2017 he adapted the popular Neil Gaiman tale A Study in Emerald. Rafael’s latest works are Hidden Society, for Dark Horse Comics and Funny Creek, for comiXology.

 

Rafael de Latorre is a Brazilian comic book artist. Making his debut with Fade Out: Painless Suicide, his previous works include Superzero and the best-selling series Animosity, both for Aftershock Comics, leading him to be nominated as “Best Artist or Penciller” for the Ringo Awards in 2017, and the Russ Manning Promising Newcomer Award in the same year. His most recent work is Black Widow for Marvel Comics.

 

About comiXology

ComiXology, an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ:AMZN), is a revolutionary, cloud-based digital comics service. With content from over 125 publishers as well as thousands of independent creators from around the world, comiXology provides an unrivaled library of comic books, graphic novels, manga and bandes dessinées. The company’s first-in-class innovations include Guided View technology which provides an immersive and cinematic reading experience and a monthly subscription service. ComiXology is based in New York City, with operations in Seattle and Los Angeles. For more information, visit comixology.com and follow the company on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Fantagraphics Publishes Richard Sala’s Final Comics Collection POISON FLOWERS AND PANDEMONIUM

 

For Immediate Release:

Fantagraphics Publishes Richard Sala’s Final Comics Collection, 

POISON FLOWERS AND PANDEMONIUM 

 

(May 3, 2021) Considered a cartooning master of the macabre, Richard Sala’s comics feature eerie, atmospheric settings, creepy characters, over-the-top slasher violence, and dark-humored camp — all rendered in his lush watercolor and pen & ink style. Sala passed away on May 7, 2020, leaving behind a substantial oeuvre of comics and graphic novels. Fantagraphics will release his final comics collection, Poison Flowers & Pandemonium, on May 4, 2021.

Poison Flowers & Pandemonium comprises four separate graphic novellas that showcase Sala’s love of B-movie horror, silent film-era archetypes, and femmes fatale. House of the Blue Dwarf features master criminal the Bloody Cardinal, who leaves a trail of mayhem and madness everywhere he goes. Monsters Illustrated highlights Sala’s visual imagination through a fun riff  on monster movies. Cave Girls of the Lost World is a campy romp about a team of young women whose plane crashes in a land forgotten by time and rife with dinosaurs, carnivorous plants, and apemen. The volume is rounded out with Fantomella, an action-packed thrill ride starring a mysterious masked heroine. Taken in sum, this collection is a fitting capstone to Sala’s prolific, idiosyncratic cartooning career.

Sala’s passing inspired an outpouring of tributes:

“I always loved reading his new books and then talking about them with him,” said Pen Award-winning Eightball cartoonist Daniel Clowes. “Every character and idea had an interesting origin (the name Peculia, for example, came from a childhood misreading of pelicula in a Spanish film magazine) or a connection to some tangible event in his life. It was all so much deeper and more loaded emotionally than the surface implied. I loved him so much, loved hearing his thoughts on every subject, and his utterly unique Richard Sala-ness ("Sala-esque" is an oft-used adjective in the Clowes house), and feel so deeply grateful that I got to know such a private man. I'll be having conversations with him in my head for as long as I live.”

“He was a wonderful artist,” said My Favorite Thing is Monsters cartoonist and Guggenheim fellow Emil Ferris. “I ate up his amazing art.”

“Sala is one of the best and most underrated cartoonists of his generation, who produced a phenomenal body of work that included several bonafide comics masterpieces, such as The Chuckling Whatsit, Delphine, and The Hidden,” said Fantagraphics’ Associate Publisher Eric Reynolds. “Every single one of his books is deeply personal yet wildly entertaining, familiar yet told with one of the most distinctive and original voices and visual styles the medium has ever produced. I am grateful for all he gave of himself and all he left us in his work.”

“Richard Sala was wonderfully unique,” said Eisner Award-winning Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. “ It was all there in everything he did, his love of old monster movies, the pulps, mystery and horror in general ― the good stuff and the terrible ― wore it all like a badge of honor and did wonderful things with it. I miss him.”

Poison Flowers & Pandemonium is on sale on May 4, 2021.

For more info, follow: 

Fantagraphics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

Co-Op Horror Shooter GTFO from Ex-PAYDAY Developers Receives “Rebirth” Update Featuring New Environment Type, Dangers, and Brain Juice

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
Cooperative Horror Shooter GTFO from Ex-PAYDAY Developers Receives “Rebirth” Update Featuring New Environment Type, Dangers, and Brain Juice
 
Enter the Bio-Doom: GTFO’s Fifth Rundown Update Sports Unique Fauna-Filled Levels with Terrifying New Scenarios and Adds “Boosters” to Aid New Players
 
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (April 29, 2021) — 10 Chambers Collective — a Swedish game development studio composed of industry veterans known for PAYDAY: The Heist and PAYDAY 2 — are proud to announce today the release of the “Rebirth” update for their cooperative horror shooter GTFO on Steam. As the game’s fifth major title update (dubbed Rundowns), Rebirth is the game’s biggest expansion yet, introducing a new ecological sector to the game’s evolving underground facility, The Complex. The Rebirth Rundown takes GTFO players to new depths, flush with fauna, unique mission scenarios, horrifying monsters to face, and it introduces new, juicy gameplay mechanics.



Described as “Left 4 Dead meets Aliens,” GTFO is a terrifying, hardcore cooperative multiplayer shooter where good teamwork means the difference between life and death. The game uses a concept called Rundowns, which are regular game updates that add new limited-time expeditions (maps, scenarios, enemies, etc.) that completely replace the previous Rundown. Cast in a four-player team of prisoners held against their will by a mysterious entity called The Warden, survival depends on a team’s ability to communicate, coordinate, and manage their ammunition — else they doom themselves to a bloody, messy death. To the Warden, they’re all expendable. 

Rebirth sets players farther down into The Complex into an area called Floodways — a new environment that substitutes a dark and cold industrial aesthetic for one where nature has sought to reclaim the domain. Further expanding the lore of GTFO, within Floodways are clues as to why players are trapped in The Complex and imprisoned by The Warden. 

New to GTFO are Booster Implants, which give players additional incentive to re-enter The Complex. Players can now find valuable artifacts within the game that The Warden eagerly collects. If pleased with their findings, he rewards players with Booster Implants — an ability-buffing injection delivered directly into the brain. Players juiced up with a Booster Implant can enjoy a range of perks such as better weapon handling and faster terminal hacking. Earlier Rundown updates have seen the additions of other gameplay mechanics such as layered difficulty, which gives players the option of choosing different routes through expeditions, ranging from very hard to extreme. Artifacts are delivered to The Warden regardless of completing an expedition, giving players an additional resource when revisiting a Rundown that may have bested them previously. 



View the GTFO “Rebirth” Update Trailer here:

[YouTube] https://uberstrategist.link/GTFO-Rebirth-YT
[Download] https://uberstrategist.link/GTFO-Rebirth-DL

“Brick by brick, we’re laying the foundation for GTFO to exit Early Access as a force to be reckoned with,” said Ulf Andersson, Creative Director of GTFO. “We believe the addition of Booster Implants gives players an optional gameplay mechanic that not only enhances replayability but also accessibility to those facing too much of a challenge when they first start playing GTFO. In combination with layered difficulty and other quality-of-life improvements, we maintain GTFO’s challenging gameplay for hardcore gamers but ensure that new players are welcome into our fantastic community.”

“With Rebirth, we’re also expanding the lore for fans that want to know more about the world we created,” said Simon Viklund, Narrative Director of GTFO. “The new additions found in the Rebirth update offer clues to the background story of the game, providing slivers of new information as to what’s going on, why players are imprisoned in The Complex, and who — or what — The Warden is. Overall, we can’t wait to hear what players think of GTFO’s most significant update to date!”

New in the GTFO Rebirth Update:

• New Environment: Floodways — Mother Nature has met her match with The Warden. Plantlife has been allowed to propagate in the new Floodways sector of The Complex, but so have new nightmares and obstacles. You’ll need a steady trigger finger as opposed to a green thumb to survive here.
   
• New Enemy: Spawner — Keep your eyes forward and also up. Spawners reside on ceilings, giving birth to monsters even in rooms already previously cleared. 
   
• Booster Implants — Collect artifacts during the Rundown and offer them to The Warden for a prize: an injection of “special” liquid into your brain that boosts abilities. Booster Implants carry to additional Rundown playthroughs even if killed, offering players additional incentive to progress. 

GTFO released on Steam in Early Access in December 2019 and is available for purchase for $34.99. To celebrate the launch of the Rebirth update — which is free to owners of the game — GTFO is on a limited-time sale for 20% off. To purchase the game, please visit https://store.steampowered.com/app/493520/GTFO. 


​Interact with 10 Chambers Collective on Twitter, Discord, YouTube, and Facebook, and join the Ambassador Program to access future perks. 

PAYDAY THE HEIST® and PAYDAY 2® are registered trademarks of their respective owners. 10 Chambers AB is not associated with, affiliated with, sponsored by and/or endorsed by them.

About 10 Chambers

Founded in 2015, 10 Chambers is a game studio based in Stockholm, Sweden. The studio was founded by Ulf Andersson, who founded Overkill Software and was the brain behind the PAYDAY franchise. GTFO is the debut title from the studio. More information about 10 Chambers is available at www.10chambers.com.

Comic Con Revolution 2021: Timothy Zahn - Star Wars Author & Creator of THRAWN Comes to CCR!

 

STAR WARS AUTHOR & GRAND ADMIRAL THRAWN CREATOR TIMOTHY ZAHN COMES TO COMIC CON REVOLUTION DECEMBER 18 & 19, 2021 More  BIG Guests Announced EVERY TWO WEEKS! The excitement is building as Comic Con Revolution 2021 continues to grow! Our third exciting guest announcement is here -- legendary author Timothy Zahn is joining the revolution this December! Timothy Zahn, the creator of Star War's Grand Admiral Thrawn and writer of both Thrawn Trilogies is excited to come and meet fans all weekend long at CCR. His new book, Star Wars Thrawn: Ascendancy (Book II): Chaos Rising, just hit shelves today and marks the midpoint of his second Thrawn Trilogy. Timothy is one of many exciting guests to be announced for our big return this December. Keep an eye out every week on social media for a new guest announcement and be back here in two weeks for a HUGE comic special guest... Order your tickets today at www.ccrtix.com   For more information about Comic Con Revolution go to www.ccront.com   CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS

Barry Windsor-Smith’s Highly Anticipated Graphic Novel MONSTERS is On Sale From Fantagraphics This Week

 

For Immediate Release: 

Barry Windsor-Smith’s Highly Anticipated Graphic Novel MONSTERS is On Sale This Week From Fantagraphics 

(April 26, 2021) Over three decades in the making, the graphic novel MONSTERS by legendary comics artist Barry Windsor-Smith is a 360-page tour de force of visual storytelling. Best known for drawing the Conan series of the ’70s and creating several independent comic series of the ’90s — including Young Gods and The Paradox-Man — Windsor-Smith is now releasing his first major work since The Freebooters (2005). Fantagraphics will release MONSTERS on April 27, 2021.

Set in a timeline spanning the 1940s to the ’60s, Monsters centers around young Bobby Bailey, a naïve, emotionally fraught young man with a tragic destiny. The day he walks into a US military recruitment office, little does he know that he will become the subject of a top secret, experimental genetics program with loathsome Nazi origins. Thus kicks off a dizzying chain of cascading events that spin out of everyone’s control as friends, foes, and others are swept into his orbit and must grapple with the earth-shattering ramifications of what this unholy experiment has wrought. As the titular monsters of the title multiply, becoming real and metaphorical, literal and ironic, the story reaches its emotional and moral reckoning.

“After putting so much time and investing so much creative energy in this project,” says Windsor-Smith, “I’m pleased that it’s finally being published.”

“I’ve known Barry for over 50 years now, so publishing his biggest and most artistically mature work to date is a personal and professional milestone for me,” said Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth. “I’m grateful that he’s entrusted this important work to us.”

Monsters’ vast narrative canvas is part familial drama, part espionage thriller, part metaphysical journey — in sum, an intimate portrait of individuals and an epic political odyssey spanning two generations of American history. Trauma, fate, conscience, and redemption are a few of the themes that intersect in Windsor-Smith’s Monsters. Rendered in Windsor-Smith’s impeccable pen-and-ink technique, this graphic novel is surely one of the most intense and gripping works of visual storytelling ever drawn.

Here’s what people are saying about MONSTERS:

“Barry Windsor-Smith has for over three decades been working on Monsters. Almost twenty years ago I read an unfinished version and was shocked and astonished at the power and delicacy of the storytelling, by the honesty of the family relationships, by the feeling that this was being created by someone willing to reveal too much and go too deep in order to tell the story he had to tell. That it is completed and that it will be released to the world is something that's genuinely exciting for any of us who care about comics, or stories, or the place where art and imagination meet.”― Neil Gaiman, New York Times bestselling author

“Any time Barry Windsor-Smith decides to put pen to paper, it's worth paying attention, but the publication of Monsters feels especially momentous even when you consider his illustrious career. ... Barry Windsor-Smith remains a master of the form, and Monsters is proof.”― Syfy Wire

“This exquisitely illustrated epic bursts with emotion, insight, and empathy. Five decades into his already influential career, Windsor-Smith has created his magnum opus.”― Library Journal (starred review)

“Consummate craftsman Barry Windsor-Smith presents an epic tale of love, horror, revenge, and redemption in his outstanding graphic novel. ...Years in the making, Monsters is a graphic narrative masterpiece and a haunting examination of the lingering effects of evil.”― Foreword Magazine (starred review)

“The illustrations are in black and white and finely detailed, with shadows enhancing an ominous tone, and readers of political and supernatural thrillers, sf, and historical fiction with a vein of forbidden love will all enjoy this book.”― Booklist

“Deeply disturbing and frequently beautiful.”― Publishers Weekly

For more info, follow: 

Fantagraphics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

Edgar Award-nominated Writer Harold Schechter and THE GOON Creator Eric Powell To Present “DID YOU HEAR WHAT EDDIE GEIN DONE?”

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

Legendary Cartoonist Eric Powell and Edgar Award-nominated Writer Harold Schechter 

Present “DID YOU HEAR WHAT EDDIE GEIN DONE?”

An Original Graphic Novel about Ed Gein, The Serial Killer Who Haunted America and Inspired Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Silence of the Lambs

Eric Powell—the legendary creator of comics like The Goon and Hillbilly—and Harold Schechter—the author of true crime classics including Deviant and The Serial Killer Files—are collaborating on an ambitious new graphic novel about one of the most notoriously deranged murderers in American history, Ed Gein. 

Powell and Schechter are co-writing DID YOU HEAR WHAT EDDIE GEIN DONE?, an all new, 200-page, original graphic novel illustrated by Powell that delves into the twisted history of the Gein family and the notorious violence that inspired Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs. Painstakingly researched and illustrated, Schechter and Powell’s true-crime graphic novel presents Gein’s infamous story like never before.

“This book takes Gein’s gruesome crimes out of the realms of exploitation and delivers a powerful, fact-based dramatization of the tragic, psychotic, and heartbreaking events,” said Powell. “Because, in this case, the truth needs no embellishment to be horrifying.”  

Eric Powell’s company Albatross Funnybooks is launching a Kickstarter campaign for DID YOU HEAR WHAT EDDIE GEIN DONE? SIGNED SPECIAL EDITION, featuring a Kickstarter exclusive paperback edition of the book with a cover by acclaimed horror artist William Stout, a hardcover edition with a Kickstarter exclusive dust jacket by Eric Powell, limited edition prints, and more. DID YOU HEAR WHAT EDDIE GEIN DONE? will be published by Albatross Funnybooks in comic shops on July 21, 2021 and in bookstores on August 3rd, 2021. The DID YOU HEAR WHAT EDDIE GEIN DONE? mass market edition, distributed to comic shops and bookstores, will not be available via the Kickstarter campaign. 

“Obviously Ed Gein’s story has been fictionalized many times in the movies,” said Schechter. “In no visual medium, however, have the bizarre inner workings of his mind been explored and portrayed. The graphic novel is the perfect medium to conduct such an exploration. DID YOU HEAR WHAT EDDIE GEIN DONE? will not only bring the factual details of Gein’s crimes to vivid, compelling life but draw the reader into the phantasmagoric realm of his uniquely deranged psyche.”

“The case of Ed Gein is terrible, tragic and fascinating.” said Powell. “This story is not just about Gein and his crimes, but also how a society tried to deal with the shocking facts of these crimes and the idea that the quiet neighbor next door could be a real life bogeyman. The after effect it had on our culture, especially pop-culture, cannot be overstated.”

For more updates on Albatross Funnybooks and DID YOU HEAR WHAT EDDIE GEIN DONE?, follow the company on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. 

Here’s the link to the Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gein-graphic-novel/eric-powell-and-harold-schechters-ed-gein-graphic-novel?ref=6ok5b1

 

Harold Schechter is an American true-crime writer who specializes in serial killers. Twice nominated for the Edgar Award, he is the author of the nonfiction books Fatal, Fiend, Bestial, Deviant, Deranged, Depraved, The Serial Killer Files, The Mad Sculptor, and Man-Eater; the Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestseller Hell’s Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men; the Amazon Original Stories collection Bloodlands; and Ripped from the Headlines. Schechter received his PhD in American literature from the State University of New York in Buffalo. A professor emeritus at Queens College, he is married to the poet Kimiko Hahn. For more information, visit www.haroldschechter.com.

Eric Powell is a comics publisher, writer and artist who has contributed work on such comics titles as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Hellboy: Weird Tales, Star Wars: Tales, The Incredible Hulk, Black Panther, The Avengers, The Hood, MAD magazine, Devil Dinosaur, Swamp Thing, She-Hulk, The Simpsons, Arkham Asylum: Living Hell, Action Comics, and Creepy. But he is mostly recognized for his critically acclaimed dark comedy series The Goon. 

Awards: International Horror Guild: 2004 Best Illustrated Narrative, Will Eisner Comic Industry Award: 2004 Best Single Issue (The Goon #1), Will Eisner Comic Industry Award: 2005 Best Humor Publication, Will Eisner Comic Industry Award: 2005 Best Continuing Series, Will Eisner Comic Industry Award: 2008 Best Writer/Artist—Humor, Will Eisner Comic Industry Award: 2008 Best Painter or Multimedia Artist.

About Albatross Exploding Funnybooks: Launched in 2002, Albatross Exploding Funnybooks has always been a labor of love for award-winning, Nashville-based cartoonist Eric Powell. The label began as a means to publish Powell’s creator-owned series THE GOON, which mainstream publishers had deemed “too different.” Although THE GOON later found a home and wider audience with Dark Horse Comics, Powell continued to publish, celebrate, and cultivate creator-owned titles through Albatross Exploding Funnybooks, including his all-ages comic CHIMICHANGA and Rebecca Sugar’s PUG DAVIS. In 2016