Preview: The Witcher – Geralt of Riva Rides the Dark Horse…

Posted on February 11, 2014 by geelw

I’d forgotten Dark Horse Comics was doing a book based on this book and game series, so this was a nice surprise. Paul Tobin (writer) and Joe Querio (art) are on the case here and so far, the preview is not bad at all. It’s hard to step from the realism of CD Projekt RED’s lush and lovely game world to the printed page, but that’s the power of that team’s work that makes such a huge impression on those of us who like Geralt of Riva and his rather interesting adventures. Anyway, everyone’s favorite antihero/monster hunter/ladies man/ is coming to your favorite comic emporium on March 19, 2014 – feel free to bug your retailer or just place an order online at the usual suspects (Things from Another World or Dark Horse Digital).

A few pages and the cover to Issue 2 are below the jump – enjoy!

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“V” For Vitros: Dark Horse’s Pariah Almost Had Me Fooled…

Posted on February 3, 2014 by geelw

For a hot second there I thought that cover was telling me that there was a new comic coming from Dark Horse based on the “V” television series from the 1980’s and the later reboot. Nope, it’s the first issue of Pariah that cover represents, a sci-fi themed comic mini-series by Aron Warner, Philip Gelatt, Brett Weldele set for a February 26, 2014 release. “If you’re now all “Ooh, what’s it about?”, I’ll refer you to the press release which says as follows:

Trapped in space, the genetically engineered geniuses known as “vitros” must band together and create a plan to get back to Earth before their failing satellite turns into a deathtrap!

The cover’s above and with six pages from the issue below the jump. Oh, that final image is the cover to the second issue. Not sure why it’s there other than Valentine’s Day is coming up too quickly, but hey – free is free, so enjoy the read. Continue reading →

Terminator: Enemy Of My Enemy Preview: Back From The Future (Again!)…

Posted on January 27, 2014 by geelw

Dark Horse Comics isn’t letting the recent loss of their long-running Star Wars license get them in the dumps at all. They’re still packing in the licensed properties along with a slew of original books and reprints galore, so it’s not as if they’re going to suddenly sink into the sea like the Titanic. Anyway, here the cover and first five pages from their upcoming Terminator: Enemy Of My Enemy comic by Dan Jolley (words) and Jamal Igle with Ray Snyder (pictures), coming February 19, 2014 to your favorite comic emporium (and as a digital release on Dark Horse Digital). And yes, you can even pre-order this one from Things From Another World if that’s how you roll. Enjoy!

Dark Horse Comics Breaks Out Laser Kitty So You’ll Drop Dollars Their Way Come Cyber Monday…

Posted on November 26, 2013 by geelw

And who DOESN’T like a sale? Dark Horse Digital is going to be running a BIG one come Cyber Monday and yes, both you and your money are invited. Two people walk in, one person leave (that is, if your money were a person, but you get the drift). Take a whopping 50% off your order, sir or madam? “YES, PLEASE” is your response, you get to roll away with another instant library (well, I bet you lose an hour or so choosing from the virtual pile of books there) and everyone’s happy. Except maybe for Laser Kitty who had to have those contacts put in. Everyone hates those contacts. Fortunately I hear he got a hunk of fresh tuna later for his troubles. So yeah, set your time machine for Monday, boogie on over to the Dark Horse site, redeem that 50% discount with the coupon code dhdcyber2013 and fill up whatever your reading device of choice is with some choice comics! By the way, this offer is good for 24 hours beginning at midnight (PST) on Monday, December 2 with a $20 cart minimum, but you KNOW you’ll blow through that roof pretty quickly once you start clicking around.

Two Reads From Dark Horse For The Scary Season…

Posted on October 31, 2013 by geelw

Yeah, yeah… I know for SOME of you every day is scary, but get up and out in the sunshine once in a while and you’ll see that people aren’t SO bad after all. Then again, Halloween most certainly seems like a more than good time to stay IN after a certain hour in some places, so you’ve hopefully stocked up on food and drink, have enough TP to last a while and maybe some nice and scary movies queued up on your favorite device. Yeah, I know you still use that Betamax, so I was purposefully being vague in that previous sentence…

Now, If you’re a reader and like your things with words a bit on the scary side, you may as well venture out before it gets too dark and boogie on over to your nearest comics emporium just to pick up these two finely illustrated fright-filled tomes from the fine folks at Dark Horse Comics. Tales From the Crypt: The EC Archives – Volume 4 is a chilling collection of classic 1950’s horror from some of the best in the business back then and despite their age, the pre-Comics Code tales of terror and that excellently detailed art will have your eyeballs dancing in their sockets as your brain tells them to calm down so it can process that scary stuff it’s trying to also see.

“Feh!” you say? Followed by “Aw, how can some old smelly comic that’s older than my granny be SCARY?” and a smug “They didn’t even HAVE horror back then!”. Well there, dear troll child… let me give you a taste of things to come… Continue reading →

Random Art: Another From The Vaults, Fan Art Division…

Posted on October 8, 2013 by geelw

Did I post this old art already? Who knows? I don’t think I did, but I can’t sleep tonight (well, this morning) and needed to do something before I went bananas. Anyway, this is a scan of a bad photocopy of postcard fan art I did for Dark Horse Comics back around 1994.I did a bunch of these in black and white and color and I believe all got published in a few issues of Diamond Previews catalogs over the course of a year or so. I haven’t done much color art since, but I’m tempted every so often. I’m not a big fan of digital color myself (well, I can’t do it very well), so if I do dive back into this illustration thing, it’ll be old school watercolor and mixed media for me. Hmm… I’m feeling a bit sleepier just typing this post, so perhaps this is working after all…

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Creepy Archives #17: Nostalgia is Sheer Terror, NYC, Hot Pants, and Sharks…

Posted on September 30, 2013 by geelw

Dark Horse Comics has been compiling every issue of Warren Publishing’s excellent horror anthology magazines CREEPY and EERIE for some time now and I’ve finally had the chance to sit down with a few volumes. I had most of these mads back in the late 70’s and early 80’s when my comic collecting was getting seriously out of hand, so these reprints have been kicking me right in the nostalgic bits and it hurts so good.

Creepy Archives #17 is available as a pre-order from Things From Another World (buy it!) and among the other fine and frightening tales in this tome drawn by some great illustrators, by the way) are a few I recall quite fondly for different reasons Creepy #83 (October 1976) featured “Country Pie”, an interesting tale from workhorse writer Bruce Jones about a small town’s police trying to track a serial killer using a psychic’s clues as the killer meets up with his latest victim. While far Jones’ best script (it gives up its secret too soon and some will guess the twist right away), the story is remembered for its art from the unusual pairing of Carmine Infantino and Berni Wrightson (yes, it’s as weird as it sounds, but it works wonderfully). Infantino gets to ink his own work later in Bill DuBay’s somewhat average “The Last Super Hero”, but you’ll need to be a huge fan of his quirky artwork to truly appreciate it…

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Today’s Motivational Messaging Comes Straight From Dark Horse Comics…

Posted on September 6, 2013 by geelw

So, yeah… um… go do important stuff today – your ass must be hurting from sitting so much, so get up and get going. Or something like that. Yay, comics!

Dark Horse’s Upcoming The Star Wars Comic Goes Back to the Future to Bring Up The Past…

Posted on August 28, 2013 by geelw

OK, it’s not just any Star Wars, folks… it’s The Star Wars, an eight-issue maxi series based on George Lucas’ original rough draft screenplay and translated into visual form by writer J. W. Rinzler and artist Mike Mayhew with colorists Rain Beredo and Brad Anderson. Behind that Nick Runge cover (that’s nicely reminiscent of the late Ralph McQuarrie’s work) lies what Dark Horse is promising to be “one of the biggest, craziest, alt-universe stories the franchise has ever seen.” I’m old enough to have had at one point a bunch of Star Wars books on the making of the film including the stellar The Art of Star Wars which showed a load of pre-production art that was based on that rough draft, and so far, the first few pages I’ve seen have captured that look just about perfectly.

So, if you’re a fan of SW, but prefer it classic style (as in Han shooting first) or as originally intended by its creator, here you go. I have the feeling that this one will do well… it must be the Force or something mule-kicking me in the noggin… Ouch.

Comics Preview: King Conan: The Hour of the Dragon

Posted on May 2, 2013 by geelw

Amusingly enough, I popped out of bed too early this morning and had the grand idea to grab a random game from the library and try to grab some test footage with my lousy camera just for fun and to post on my YouTube page. It just so happened to be Cauldron’s old CONAN game for the original Xbox:

Which is good for chuckle or two as well as a peek at some nice art. A few hours later, Dark Horse Comics shoots over the cover art and first few pages of King Conan: Hour of the Dragon for me to ogle and post, so here you go:

King Conan Cover