Westfield Comics has just posted an online preview of the Gladstone/Disney article from BACK ISSUE #23, so check it out! And if you aren’t familiar with Westfield Comics, they’re a fantastic mail order comics service, that I used to use for all my comics purchases. Great people, great service!

Back Issue editor Michael Eury will be signing copies of the just-released COMICS GONE APE!, along with BACK ISSUE, at Cosmic Monkey Comics (Hollywood District) in Portland, Oregon this Saturday (Free Comic Book Day) from 12 noon to 3 pm.  The address is 5335 NE Sandy Blvd. in Portland, Oregon.

Also in attendance: Matt Wagner, Steve Lieber, Jeff Parker, Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin, and David Hahn (among others). So if you’re in the area, stop on by!

We just posted PDF previews of our three new books online:

COMICS GONE APE!

WORKING METHODS

BRUSHSTROKES WITH GREATNESS: THE LIFE & ART OF JOE SINNOTT

Just go to the detail page for each book, and click on the link.
You’ll need Adobe’s Acrobat Reader to view them.

All three books will be shipping in the next three weeks, so check ’em
out!

Who says you can’t get something for nothing? On Free Comic Book Day (this Saturday), stop in your local comic book shop and ask for a free copy of Comics 101, our new primer created just for the event. If they don’t have any, then order yours at our webstore by Sunday, and it’ll only cost you enough to cover our printing and postage costs. After Sunday, we’re going to start charging more for it, to help recoup our expenses (but it’ll still be a bargain!).

Also, this weekend only, you can download FREE PDF COMPLETE ISSUES of the following mags, just by logging in and putting them in your shopping cart:

Alter Ego #65
Back Issue #21
Jack Kirby Collector #47
Write Now #14
Draw #12
Rough Stuff #3
Because of contractual obligations, we can only give these away this Saturday and Sunday, and then we’ve got to take them down. So if you’re never sampled all of our mags, here’s your chance to try an ENTIRE ISSUE, absolutely FREE! Go get ’em, and enjoy!

I know this forum has been awfully quiet over the last couple of weeks, but for good reason. I’ve been buning the midnight oil getting an awful lot of mags and books to press, which you’ll hear more about shortly. Also, we’ve been getting geared up for the Motor City Comicon in a couple of weeks (May 18-20 in Novi, Michigan), and planning out booth space and what books to bring to the colossal BookExpo in New York on June 1, and the American Library Association conference in Washington, DC at the end of June. Yeah, it sounds pretty boring, but it’s a really necessary part of this publishing gig. Now I’ve just gotta find a few hours to go see Spidey 3 at our local IMax theatre. (Hey, it’s a legitimate business expense…)

Good stuff’s coming; thanks for your patience!

Pete Von Sholly’s swamped with a big storyboarding project right now, so we won’t be featuring his cartoons here for a few weeks, until he’s wrapped his paying gig. But stay tuned; just like Arnie, he’ll be back!

We’ve gotten a nice plug for George Khoury’s upcoming book Image Comics: The Road To Independence here.

If you’re curious to talk to George about the book, or any of his other projects, check our this link to the “Marvel Masterworks” website, and post to the message board, which George frequents.

The book’s almost done, and man, people are going to be talking about it for a long time to come. It’s not just about the Image founders; it’s about the whole state of the comics industry from 1990 to today. And like so many of our publications, it all comes back around to Jack Kirby. Yes, Jack Kirby; just wait and see!

It should be out the last week of May. Trust me, you’ll want to read this book.

Yep, Alter Ego is nominated for “Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism” in this year’s Eisner Awards! The category was especially challenging this year, since it included not just print publications, but websites as well. Haven’t seen the list of what AE is up against yet (we just got the word from Eisner chair Jackie Estrada a few minutes ago via e-mail), but this is great timing, considering Roy Thomas is a Guest of Honor at this year’s Comicon International: San Diego, where the Eisner Awards will be handed out this summer.

Great work, Roy, as well as Jim Amash, Bill Schelly, Michael T. Gilbert, P.C. Hamerlinck, Chris Day, and everyone else who’s worked so hard over the last 68 issues to make this honor so well-deserved!

The Scoop (Diamond’s e-newsletter) just gave a great plug for the Blue Beetle Companion. Thanks, guys!

Get the Von Sholly Bundle. You’ll love it!