I’m wrapping up the layout on TwoMorrows’ new book on Vince Colletta this week, and if all goes well on press, it’ll debut at Comic-Con next month. Entitled THE THIN BLACK LINE: PERSPECTIVES ON VINCE COLLETTA, COMICS’ MOST CONTROVERSIAL INKER, it’s a really fascinating look and Vinnie’s life and career, and answers a lot of questions fans have had. His son discusses Colletta’s alleged mafia connections, and a wealth of top pros weigh in on VC’s work, pro and con. It’s written by Robert L. Bryant Jr., who spent months researching Vinnie’s history, family, and friends both in and outside of comics.

It’s one of the most fascinating life stories I’ve ever published, about an inker whose inking I pretty universally despised over Kirby. But like him or hate him, he was quite a character, with an amazingly colorful life. Really a fun read for me, as a big Kirby fan, and I think it’ll be pretty eye-opening for any fan of comics.

And don’t worry; I resisted the temptation to leave the last few pages blank to make the Comic-Con release, in honor of Vinnie’s own solution to all the last minute deadlines he was constantly handed.

Doing his part to keep comics history alive, Kirby Collector columnist Adam McGovern has a story in the tabloid newsprint anthology “pood,” from Big If/Blurred Books. Adam teams with artist Paolo Leandri (his partner on the Ignatz-nominated “Dr. Id”) for a Twilight Zone-ish parable taking up a full page of “pood”’s 17 x 23-inch format. Fifteen other creators from comics’ cutting edge have a page each too. It premiered exclusively at the indie-comic MoCCA Fest in April to rave reviews and was picked up by Diamond (order code MAY100817) for release in comics shops July 14. Sample it in this YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpuZg2klfKs. So check out “pood”: as Adam says, it’s “cutting-edge comics like they did ’em in 1910!”

Hey, gang, TwoMorrows Publishing is closed from June 18-25 for convention and vacation travel, but our 50% off magazine sale is still going on! So feel free to place orders over the next week, and we’ll get them processed the week of June 28. I hope you’re having a great summer, and I hope to see some of you at Comic-Con next month!

You guys and gals have repeatedly asked me something to this effect for years now:

“Hey John, I love the half-price Ultimate Bundles you offer, where I can get, say, EVERY issue of Alter Ego or Back Issue at half-price, but I don’t want to buy the WHOLE SET! I’ve already got a few of the issues; can I just get PART of the bundle at 50% off?”

Well, no, you can’t. Logistically, we’d go nuts trying to figure up the cost of, say, the KIRBY COLLECTOR ULTIMATE BUNDLE, less 7 random issues that you already own, then try to figure up one for your neighbor who has all but 3 of the issues, and so on, and so on.

BUT…

Now through June 30 , we’re having our “Build-A-Bundle” Sale, where almost all of our mags are 50% off. So you can create an order with any combination of the issues you want, and they’ll be 50% off. (Only the latest issues are excluded from this sale, but even those are 15% off, making this your best chance ever to fill the holes in your collection.)

So go crazy! The Half-Price “Build-A-Bundle” Sale includes:

Back Issue! #1-34
Jack Kirby Collector #23-52
Draw! #4-17
Alter Ego #2-86
Rough Stuff! #1-12
Write Now! #1-20
Comic Book Artist #9-25
BrickJournal #2-5

plus other miscellaneous humor and one-shot magazines, all at 50% off cover price. We’ve even got a select group of books that are also 50% off during the sale.

But you HAVE TO order at www.twomorrows.com by the end of June to get this deal.

AND PLEASE BE PATIENT!!! We’ve already been inundated with orders for this sale, and while we normally get orders shipped within a day or so of being placed, we’re currently running about 3-4 days later than usual on shipments. We’re working overtime to get to them all, and if you’ve paid extra for Priority Mail shipping, we’ll fill yours first in each batch that’s processed.

Our pal and do-everything-guy Eric Nolen-Weathington just got back from Charlotte, NC, where he manned our booth at Heroes Con (still one of our all-time favorite conventions). Here’s a big shout-out to everyone that came by the booth; sales were brisk, and according to Eric, the conversation was fantastic as usual at our booth.

Next up is the Big Kahuna: Comic-Con International in San Diego, from July 21-25. We’re frantically getting several new books and mags to press the next couple of weeks, so they’ll be on hand for the expected 125,000 attendees to scoop up. (Not that all 125,000 show up at our booth, but most days it FEELS like they’re all there at once!)

Before Comic-Con, BrickJournal editor Joe Meno and I will be at the BrickWorld LEGO convention in Chicago, and then I’ll be taking a week off with the family, plus working in a trip to the Grand Canyon with our kids on the way to Comic-Con. As usual, it’s going to be a fun, fast-paced summer, and will be over way too soon, but I plan to enjoy every hot, steamy minute of it, wherever I am. Hope you do too!

We’re about to go to press with Back Issue #42, our “Wild West Issue”, and had a perfectly lovely Tony DeZuniga cover illo of Jonah Hex all planned for it, when we designed it several months ago. But back then, we were working from a less-than-optimal scanned image, which worked fine for the small promotional images we use, but wouldn’t repro well at full size. We thought we’d be able to get a better scan by presstime, but alas, it didn’t happen.

So, the above is our NEW cover art for issue #42; still Tony DeZuniga art, still Jonah Hex, but one that’ll reproduce up to our standards. And hey, I think it’s arguably an even more dynamic cover than what we’d originally planned. Kudos to designer Michael Kronenberg for the new layout, and to editor Michael Eury for tracking down this alternative DeZuniga image.

And don’t miss the new interview with controversial Hex and Spectre writer Michael Fleisher in this issue. He’s been missing from the comics scene for around 20 years, and some people even thought he’d gone to the Great Beyond, but we’re happy to report he’s alive and well, and gives us great insight into his work on Jonah Hex.