Short and sweet; from now through June 30, you can get back issues of WRITE NOW and COMIC BOOK ARTIST for only $2 each, plus shipping. That’s up to 70% off cover price, even cheaper than our half-price bundles, but you’ve only got two weeks to take advantage of this deal, so click on the “Two Mags, Two Bucks” category in the upper lefthand corner of our home page at www.twomorrows.com and get to ordering! (Due to limited availability, we’ve excluded CBA #21 from the sale, but it’s still available at 15% off.)

And PLEASE don’t phone or mail in orders expecting to get this deal; they’ll be normal price that way. Web orders = easy to process, so you save moolah. Phone/mail orders = hard to process, make my head hurt manually calculating discounts, make me grumpy, wife get mad, no peace at Casa Morrow, so no cheapo mags for you. Nerf said.

We’re expecting our copies of Titans Companion Volume 2 from the printer any second now, so it’ll be shipping tomorrow if the truck arrives on time. You can look for it in stores this Wednesday, and in the meantime, you can download a free Preview of it at:

http://www.4shared.com/file/48337241/aa53d3d3/TitansCompanion2.html

The latest TwoMorrows Tune-In Podcast is all set for you to download! On the show this month, host Chris Marshall talks with comic book legend Nick Cardy and editor, Eric Nolen-Weathington on their new book Nick Cardy: Behind the Art. Chris also goes over all of the June and July releases and has hint as to what’s to come in September with the Modern Masters series. So click here already:

http://twomorrows.com/blog/category/tune-in/

It was only about four weeks late, but last Friday night, we had our Kirby Five-Oh release party at Casa Morrow. In attendance were local Kirby fans Glenn Musial (with wife Jean), Russ Garwood, Ed Stelli, Pat Varker, Modern Masters mogul Eric Nolen-Weathington (with wife Donna and kids Iain and Caper), along with four Morrows (moi included), and BrickJournal editor Joe Meno just for good measure. I played chef, grilling burgers (both real and veggie), hot dogs, and chicken (using wife Pam’s secret marinade), and everybody basically chowed down on a ton of food and had a great time catching up with each other.

Glenn, Russ, Ed, and Pat are the stalwarts who, in the early days of TwoMorrows (and up until we moved to our new location about four years ago) would head over whenever a new issue of the Jack Kirby Collector shipped, and help me stuff them into mailing envelopes and sort them for the post office. In return, we’d swill down pizza and shoot the bull about everything from comics and movies to TV, wrestling, and whatever else each of us was into that given month. So this get-together was a nice chance to catch up, since we haven’t all been in the same place at the same time for at least a couple of years (since our last get-together).

Why four weeks after the actual release of the issue/book? Cause that’s how long it took us all to arrange a day when we could all be in one place. Glenn just got back from Rome (Italy, not Georgia) the night before, so he was undoubtedly pretty jetlagged, but didn’t let it show. Pat regaled us with more stories of his close friend (and international rock star) Tori Amos, Russ (who manages our local comics shop, Capitol Comics) clued us in on the latest in retailing, and Ed told us about his latest eco-vacation trip. We closed the night with a short video of Jack Kirby’s panel appearance at a 1980s comic con, and vowed it wouldn’t be another 50 issues before we got back together.

I can’t thank my wife Pam enough for all the hard work she put into this shindig, from making potato salad to planning what to have on hand for that many people. And thanks to all the guys for the years of helping me get TJKC out to our readers, and the continued friendship.

Westfield Comics has posted a sneak peek at BACK ISSUE #29, showing Al Nickerson’s Claremont/Byrne X-Men article with a few images, at:

http://westfieldcomics.com/feature/211

So scurry on over and take a gander, and look for the printed issue to hit stores in mid-July (it’s in Previews now, so order quickly!).

This weekend, we’re celebrating Free Comic Book Day by offering FREE publications, both in comic book stores worldwide, and online at www.twomorrows.com.

On Saturday, May 3, 2008, our new COMICS GO HOLLYWOOD publication will be available free of charge at comic book shops. This 32-page comic-size book was assembled exclusively for Free Comic Book Day by our regular magazine editors, and reveals secrets behind your favorite on-screen heroes, and what’s involved in taking a character from the comics page to the big screen. It includes storyboards from DC’s animated hit “The New Frontier” (courtesy of DRAW! magazine), JEPH LOEB on writing for both Marvel Comics and the Heroes TV show (courtesy of WRITE NOW! magazine), details of an unseen X-Men movie (courtesy of ALTER EGO magazine), a history of the Joker from his 1940s origins to his upcoming appearance in the Dark Knight film (courtesy of BACK ISSUE magazine), and a look at Marvel Universe co-creator Jack Kirby’s Hollywood career, with extensive Kirby art (courtesy of my own JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine).

This one-shot sampler of our magazine line is also available in print form free from our website (a shipping charge applies), or as a free downloadable Digital Edition just by logging in and adding it to your shopping cart, and checking out. Also, last year’s FCBD publication, COMICS 101 (featuring how-to and history lessons from top comics professionals) is also available for free in print or digital form at www.twomorrows.com.

To give readers a chance to sample complete issues of our publications, we’re again offering free downloadable Digital Editions of these recent issues of our magazines, only from May 3-4:

Alter Ego #65
Back Issue #21
Jack Kirby Collector #47
Write Now #14
Draw #12
Rough Stuff #3
BrickJournal Vol. 1, #9

We’ve also added several new Digital Editions of past issues of our magazines (each available for $2.95 per download), just in time for the FCBD event, and the newest episode of the TwoMorrows Tune-In podcast (hosted by Chris Marshall) has just debuted, featuring behind-the-scenes info on our upcoming publications.

So be sure to go to your local comics shop, and stop by our website and load up on free stuff!

Best regards,
John Morrow
TwoMorrows
10407 Bedfordtown Dr.
Raleigh, NC 27614
919-449-0344
fax 919-449-0327

At the New York Comicon, we unveiled a limited edition portfolio, done in conjunction with the release of KIRBY FIVE-OH!. Called KIRBY: DEITIES, it’s not sold in stores (only from our website), and is a remastered version of Jack Kirby’s 1971 “Disneyland Portfolio”, featuring ten 8-1/2″ x 11″ full-color plates in an illustrated envelope, and is limited to just 200 copies.

On April 9-11, 1971, Jack Kirby was a guest at the Disneyland Convention of Nostalgia, held at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California. For the event, Jack printed a limited edition portfolio of some of his 1960s concept drawings, done while he was still working for Marvel Comics. The originals were inked by Don Heck and Frank Giacoia (and Jack himself), and hand-colored by Kirby, but due to budget restraints, the portfolio’s eight plates were printed in black-and-white only, with no envelope. This remastered version has been renamed Kirby: Deities, since the characters Jack created were all proposed “gods” in a new pantheon he was developing in his mind in the 1960s. This version includes two color plates that weren’t in the original 1971 B&W version of the portfolio. The 9″ x 12″ black-and-white envelope art was inked by Mike Royer, and was originally used on the mailing envelopes for Jack’s 1971 Kirby Unleashed portfolio.

The price is $19.95 plus shipping, and can be ordered now at this link:

http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=677

But hurry; we sold a lot at the New York Comicon, and once the remaining copies are gone, there won’t by any more.

Check out our 1:00 PM panel listing on this sign from the New York Comicon. Sheesh! (They didn’t even spell “Moron” right…)