Back for the Attack...

Hi there! I'm just getting ready to get this blog back into gear. Hopefully we'll be dishing out frequent posts and content. And I'll try my best to not assail you with any more Dokken references... but no promises, okay?

In the meantime, please check out THE NIGHT PROJECTIONIST NOIR! NPN is the "noir" version of the breakthrough hit comic The Night Projectionist and is updated weekly. As of this posting, we're up to forty bload-soaked, terror-filled pages! If you love what you read, please tell your buddies and order the trade paperback of Night Projectionist from your favorite local comics shop.

Also, not to be, um, forgotten, is FORGOTTEN 22! You can get started on this dark tale by reading the first 10 pages. Let us know what you think!

That's all for now, but I'll be seeing you soon. Well, not really, because that would be kinda creepy and I'd have to explain the whole thing to my wife and stuff...

Cheers,
Steve

Smuggling Spirits and the Spice of Life

The best thing about working for Studio 407 is the variety. Everyday, the Big Pencil and Lord Galactitron find new and exciting ways to make our jobs a thrill. For example, you never know what color lunch will be. Some days, it's baby-poop brown slop. Other days, it's dog-vomit green slop. And once or twice a week, the Big Pencil makes a big show of sprinkling Crystal Light into the vat of luke-warm water we drink from. Will it be Raspberry Peach or Tangerine Surprise? We never know until it happens!

Friday is a thrill because it's casual day, which means Lord Galactitron undoes our shackles and lets us walk the yard for a full fifteen minutes. Sweet freedom! 

And Saturdays are best of all because it's Knight Rider day! Of course, we're not allowed tocactually watch television because the Big Pencil says it'll steal our souls, but he did have one of the artists make flipbooks of a couple episodes. Will we flip through "Knightmares" or "K.I.T.T. vs. K.A.R.R."? Who knows!

Speaking of variety, I wanted to tell you about a new graphic novel Studio 407 has in Previews this month. By now, you're probably used to our special brand of high-octane, glossy, full-color sci fi and horror. Well, now for something completely different.

It's called Smuggling Spirits, a moody, atmospheric ditty written by Ben Fisher and drawn up in Sin City-style stark black and white by Mike Henderson. Ain't it Cool News calls it "Road to Perdition with monsters." Here's how Studio 407 describes it:

Set in a nightmarish vision of the past where deadly monstrosities roam the shadows of Prohibition-Era America, Al Stone is a bootlegger who finds himself on the run when he inadvertently stumbles upon the bloody secret of the creatures' survival. As the beasts close in to take it back, Al and his young ward, Nathan, make their final stand in this blend of horror, drama, action and suspense.

Chilling! It's cool, smart and chicks dig it, or at least that's what I'm told. I haven't seen a woman in a while, given Lord Galactitron keeps all the foxy interns in a separate cage.

Order Smuggling Spirits now at Heavy Ink by clicking here.

Singing with Satan

I went to my first karaoke bar the other night. It was a birthday party for the wife of a director I know -- one of those fancy, alternative types who uses a single letter for his name. This guy calls himself Y. 

Anyway, I showed up at the bar with a gift for Y's wife (who uses several letters in her name). It was my left buttock cast in bronze. Despite the fact that this is considered a great complement in some cultures, it didn't go over so great with Y. Fortunately, the guy I came to the party with, Georgia Tom, is well-versed in Greco-Roman wrestling and was able to subdue Y so that I could take the stage for a quick rendition of "Man, I Feel Like A Woman!" by Shania Twain. 

Things were going alright until Studio 407's Managing Director, Lord Galactitron, showed up and kiboshed the fun. 

"Edgar!" he bellowed, grabbing the microphone from Bob Saget's daughter. (The Saget family was also at the bar, only not with us.) "What the hell are you doing making merry when Studio 407 needs its blog? Get back to your cave!"

Then he just yelled "Studio 407" again because he's always bugging me to include the name of the company in these blogs as often as possible and he probably knew I'd write about this.

I tried to unleash Georgia Tom on him, but Tom's wrestling skills were no match for Lord Galactitron who, thanks to years and years spent as a bikini jello wrestler, is no slouch in the ring himself.

Needless to say, I got my toys and went home as Lord Galactitron took the stage with some of his fellow evil dictators to sing "A Whole New World" from Aladdin.

What's the moral of this story? Well, it's that if you ever go to karaoke and you think your boss might be there, make sure to have access to a camera so you can post things like this as payback:

Speaking of being tormented by the forces of hell, this week I'd like to tell you about our new book Helix. It's the story of an exorcist who, due to a botched exorcism, is forced to absorb a legion of demons. Now he has their powers, which is pretty cool, but every time he uses them, the demons steal a little more of his soul. Dark stuff.

The book was written by Denis Faye, who proved with his indie book The Monocle and Jimmy Specs that he has a weird preoccupation with superheroes in desperate need  of therapy. The art was done by Stefano Cardoselli, who some of you might know from 2000AD or Heavy Metal.

Helix is a quick read, but a good one. Check it out here.

Buy it here.

The Spark, Spider-Man and a nice bowl of dead squirrel

The thing that bugs me most about the way "reluctant" heros are portrayed in comics is that they're reluctant in the same way that Studio 407's Editor-in-Chief, "The Big Pencil," is reluctant to eat roadkill. That is to say, they're not reluctant at all. 

Take Spider-Man. Mind you, I love the web-slinger as much as the next geek, but issue after issue, on page 7 he'll be all, "I'm reluctant! I'm reluctant!" then on page 9, he changes his tune to "Should I wear my red and blue Spidey suit or my black one? Tell me, seriously, because I'm worried the black one make my butt look big."

These guys have all this existential angst and blah, blah, blah, but ultimately, they just luuuuuuuv to slide on that spandex almost as fast as The Big Pencil tucks into a freshly-grilled possum kabob.

That's why I truly dig Studio 407's new graphic novel The Spark. It's the story of this kid Lucas who, thanks to a mysterious phenomenon called The Spark, gets super powers. At this point, he's supposed to join three other Spark-empowered kids to prevent an alien invasion. Unfortunately, he's (you guessed it) reluctant. He's got a busy life, a dysfunctional family to prop-up, a job to keep. Sure, saving the planet seems the obvious choice from an outsider's perspective, but in real life, sometimes personal issues seem far more overwhelming than even the risk of extraterrestrial enslavement.

It features writing from Martin Renard, art from Nahuel Sagarnaga Cozman  -- and an excellent wet t-shirt scene about half way through the book.

Ask for it at your local book store or comic book shop. Click here to check it out. 

If you just can't wait for it to hit the shelves, pre-order at Barnes and Noble here.

Regarding The Night Projectionist, a Pink Elephant and Nude Robot Dancers

I was chillin' with a little Vedanta meditation last night after eating one of those weird-tasting brownies that 407 editor-in-chief Chad, aka "The Big Pencil," supplies me with. Man, when I eat those things, I can reach all kinds of crazy-ass levels of consciousness. (Thanks, Chad!)

Anyway, I was floating about three feet off the ground, trying hard to ignore the naked, dancing robot girls playing a bump-and-grind version of Duck, Duck, Goose around my head, when all of the sudden, a huge, four-armed, fuschia elephant wearing a fez appeared. "Yo, Edgar, you ever tried enlightenment?" he said. "I'd like to turn you on, so the first taste is free."

Of course, this wasn't the first time an obscure Hindu deity has tried to turn me into an enlightenment junkie. Haven't we all had this happen to us at some point? But still, the pink pachyderm was offering to answer any question I wanted to ask. How can we fix the economy? How do we fix the Middle East? How do I get Transformers star Megan Fox to check out my personal Optimus Prime, if you catch my drift? These are the questions for the ages -- and I could get one of them answered.

Then Lord Galactitron called. 

"Edgar!" he barked, as the elephant chatted up my robot girls, waiting for my question, "I want more people to know about 407's awesome vampire title, The Night Projectionist! If you don't write the best friggin' blog about it ever, by tomorrow, I'm cutting off your 'Big Pencil' space cookie supply! And your elbows! I'm cutting those off too."

I hung up the phone and hung my head in despair. I could live without elbows, but I love my space cookies. The elephant looked up from his quickly forming robotic harem "Well?" he asked.

"How do I best get the word out about The Night Projectionist?" I sighed.

"Easy," said the elephant, "Tell people about all the other people who dig the book. For example...

A spooky theater. A group of mismatched people. A shadowy man with pointy teeth and piercing eyes. All ingredients for the fun that makes up THE NIGHT PROJECTIONIST... An impressive first issue and one I will be following as the series progresses. - Ain't It Cool News

Heske's writing is nice and crisp... The dialogue feels natural and never clunky. He does an excellent job of setting up tension and subplots that will play out in the series itself. Artist Diego Yapura has an excellent style for this story. It has elements of old school EC Comics, while maintaining a modern feel. - Comics Bulletin

The Night Projectionist is a no-holds-barred, bone-chilling tale of blood and revenge. - The Rundown

"And if that doesn't work," he added, "just give them a little taste."

Studio 407's preview of The Night Projectionist.

An android babe in each arm and one hanging from his trunk, my elephant enlightenment pusherman prepared to vanish -- but first he said one more thing.

"Funny you should ask that question," he mused. "A long time ago, Stan Lee asked the exact same thing about Spider-Man. Now he's one of my best customers."

Regarding Horror Anthologies and My Cannibal Boss.

Sorry about my absence last week. As it turns out, 407's Managing Director Alex doesn't want to be called Galactitron. He wants to be called Lord Galactitron. 

So, long story short, he went ballistic on me about the whole thing. Yeah, I could have cleaned his clock, but he's the guy who writes my paychecks, so I had to let him rough me up a little. As luck would have it, the morphine they gave me in post-op messed with my concentration and the wifi network at the hospital was terrible and blah, blah, blah...

The good news is that the doctors were able to save my leg, although it will probably stick out funny. Also, here's an interesting fun fact: your liver actually grows back, even if the majority of it has been eaten! 

The moral of this story is that if Lord Galactitron comes at you with a loaded stapler and he hasn't had his morning snack yet, run the other direction.

Speaking of eating body parts out of living people, I'd like to tell you about our new horror anthology coming out in January, Shadow Chronicles. It's a creepy little taste of the vampires, space zombies and ghost hunters you can expect to see hanging around the pages of Studio 407 in the future, including Night Projectionist by Robert Heske and Diego Yapura, Netherworld by Chad "Big Pencil" Jones and R.B. Silva and Demon Squad by Neil Marshal Stevens and Rafael Ortiz.

Odds are, you're too much of a mama's boy to enjoy stuff this scary, but if I'm wrong, check out the preview here. If you just can't wait until 2009 to pick up a copy, pre-order now at Heavy Ink. Tell 'em Edgar Fiend sent you. They won't give a rat's arse, but if you don't, I'm telling Lord Galactitron.

I have a little Golem, I made it out of clay...

Our managing director, ahem, Galactitron (Do I really need to call you that, Alex?) wanted me to let you know that we got some good stuff coming out in January. 

One of our new years books will be Golem, the story of a big hunk of animated clay that kicks ass. Of course, I'm generalizing slightly. It's actually a really hip update of a old Jewish legend about a guy who crafts a slave monster out of clay and brings it to life to do his bidding. In our version, penned by Scott Barkman & Jeff Le and drawn by Mark Louie Vuycankiat, the Golem comes to life in war-torn 1992 Sarajevo. He's a smart-mouthed bad-ass with an agenda of his own. Think Frankenstein's Monster crossed with Bruce Willis. 

And if you don't believe me, here's what Ain't It Cool News had to say...

There are a lot of cool elements going into Studio 407’s GOLEM. Writers Scott Barkman and Jeff Lee do a nice job of making this story of a man in trouble giving life to a lump of clay different than any Golem tale before it.

Sounds cooler by the minute, no? If you want to beat the rush, reserve your copy online at Heavy Ink.

Or look for it on the racks at the start of 2009. That's it for now, geek buddies. Next time I'll tell you a little about our new horror anthology, Shadow Chronicles.

Introducing Edgar

Hi. I'm Edgar Fiend. I'll be your new host here at the Studio 407 blog. The kids down in the editorial pool may know a thing or two about putting out great comics, but when it comes to blogging, they're just scared little children. To wit, when I talked to 407 Editor-in-Chief Chad -- or "The Big Pencil," as we call him -- about his reluctance to post here more often, he just stammered and blushed in the same way he did at a recent comic store appearance when a babe dressed like Vampirella asked him to sign her Shadow Chronicles, so to speak. 

So to make a long story short, they had to pull in the blogging big guns -- me. 

I'll be keeping you up-to-date on new releases and upcoming Studio 407 events. In fact, if next year goes as well as planned, 407's managing director Alex -- or "Galactitron," as he's asked us to call him (Don't ask) -- has promised The Big Pencil that he can throw that Saran Wrap toga party he's been asking for. So if for no other reason, stay tuned to hear more details on that.

Studio 407 Signing In Los Angeles

This Wednesday, creators will sign both Studio 407 titles currently on the shelves. Peter Kwong will be signing issues 1 and 2 of Hybrid and Matthew Bradford and Alex Leung will be signing issues 1-3 of Night & Fog at Meltdown Comics at 7522 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles from 6-8PM.

October Previews

The October issue of Previews, on stands now, solicits Hybrid #4 for a December release. Be sure to ask your local comic shop to reserve you a copy now! Here's the copy:

It's the thrilling conclusion to the series Ain't In Cool News called, "a good, old fashioned horror story... delivering on all levels." With time running out, Brooke and Ethan make their final stand against a man driven mad with obsession and the deadly, inhuman creature that's been hunting them in this action-packed, oversized finale.

Sounds exciting! And guess what? I've had a peek... and it is! You won't want to miss this thrilling conclusion.