Kirkman’s Invincible Teen Turns 50 in Landmark Issue from Image

Robert Kirkman’s Eisner Award-nominated tale about the son of the Earth’s greatest hero hits a milestone with Image Comics’ Invincible #50 , arriving in stores today!

In this double-sized issue, writer-creator Kirkman is throwing a knockdown, drag-out party for his young hero. Inside, Mark Grayson finally takes on his Global Defense Agency boss, Cecil Stedman. Illustrated by series veterans Ryan Ottley, Cory Walker & Bill Crabtree, their long-awaited confrontation will have Invincible fans on their feet. Plus, Stedman’s origin tale, a brand-new Science Dog back-up story and a cover by Ottley & Val Staples make this one of the biggest Invincible events since the series premiered five years ago!

Fans of the Invincible series and anyone who enjoys Kirkman’s work on such titles as The Walking Dead and Battle Pope.

Wedding-Crashing Criminal Team Debuts in DC’s Justice League of America HC Vol. 3: Injustice League

The JLA attempts to recover from a sucker-punch delivered by a new threat consisting of the DC Universe’s greatest villains in the Justice League of America HC Volume 3: The Injustice League.

A wedding is supposed to be a happy day, especially if it’s one for a couple like Green Arrow and Black Canary. Unfortunately, Lex Luthor, The Joker, Gorilla Grodd, Cheetah, Poison Ivy, Doctor Light and a slew of other villains have decided to crash the party. Following an unprecedented attack on the JLA, this newly formed Injustice League manage to take Wonder Woman and other heroes captive. But what’s the Justice League prepared to do about it? The two Leagues collide, and in the end the JLA may ultimately lose one of its own before the fight is done. Collecting the JLA Wedding Special #1 and Justice League of America #13-#16, this HC presents the work of writers Dwayne McDuffie & Alan Burnett and artists Ed Benes, Sandra Hope, Mike McKone, Andy Lanning, Joe Benitez & Victor Llamas and boasts a cover from Ian Churchill.

With so many fan-favorite heroes taking on some of the DCU’s greatest villains in one hardcover, the 144-page, full-color Justice League of America HC Volume 3: The Injustice League should top the wish lists of current fans that enjoy DC’s team-up series or the individual heroes.

Classic Strips Collected in IDW Publishing’s Complete Little Orphan Annie HC Vol. 1!

IDW Publishing revisits the earliest stories featuring one of the most memorable comic strip characters in American history with the Complete Little Orphan Annie HC Volume 1.

Edited by Dean Mullaney with a biographical essay by Jeet Heer and over 1,000 of Harold Gray’s daily comic strips – ranging from the first strip published in August 1924 through October 1927 – this HC presents nine stories of the spunky red-headed orphan always able to get out of a jam.

Fans of classic American comic strips won’t want to pass up the opportunity to reread the stories that cemented Annie as a fan-favorite character and eventually a cultural icon, so place your reorders for the 368-page, full-color The Complete Little Orphan Annie HC Volume 1 today!

Super-Heroes Team-Up Against Supernatural Threat in Image/Top Cow’s The Magdalena/Daredevil

Top Cow Productions brings its holy warrior and Marvel Comics’ Man Without Fear together for Image Comics/Top Cow’s The Magdalena/Daredevil, a can’t-miss one-shot shipping this week.

Writer/artist Phil Hester and artist Ande Parks unite a defender of the Catholic Church and the defender of Hell’s Kitchen for the first time, a meeting capped off by a cover by Hester & Stjepan Sejic. Patience has fought alongside a variety of allies to save the world from evil in the past, but she’s never encountered a tenacious boxer’s son named Matt Murdock. Each hero has fought their share of supernatural villains, but will their combined powers be enough to stop a vengeful demon from settling an ancient score with the Church?

Bringing together two heroes from two very different universes, the 32-page, full-color The Magdalena/Daredevil should appeal to fans of either hero, super-hero crossovers or the contributing creators.

Jackie vs. U.S. in Image/Top Cow’s The Darkness #3

ackie Estacado finds that even paradise can take its toll in Image Comics/Top Cow Productions’ The Darkness #3, now in stock and ready to ship from Diamond!

The bearer of The Darkness, Jackie’s first meeting with Dr. Kirchner was one hard to forget. Now fans will find out exactly what happened during that first run in. As if that weren’t enough to impress consumers, Jackie, a one-man army in his own right, must take on the U.S. Government and its army in a battle that will test the combative limits of The Darkness – if there are any.

Written by Phil Hester and illustrated by Michael Broussard, the 32-page, full-color The Darkness #3 is made all the more appealing with two great covers – Cover A from Dale Keown and Cover B from Stjepan Sejic! In addition, to accommodate those fans that may have missed the onset of The Darkness, be sure to also place reorders for The Darkness #1.

With this new series plopping Jackie into an exciting environment packing danger & mystery with the turn of every page, no reader that has picked up the previous two issues or enjoyed The Darkness’ appearances in other Top Cow series should pass up on this new chapter, so place your orders for it today and see the in-stock list for more great Darkness products!

Vigilante Justice Served in Marvel’s Punisher War Journal Vol. 3 HC

Frank Castle’s war on crime continues with the reintroduction of a classic, brutal and bloodthirsty character in Marvel Comics’ Punisher War Journal Volume 3: Hunter Hunted Premiere HC, which is available now!

Rising star writer Matt Fraction and artists Ariel Olivetti, Cory Walker, Scott Wegener & Howard Chaykin continue Castle’s diary of destruction in this new volume that collects Punisher War Journal #12-#17. When a bank job goes horribly wrong, the Rhino is forced to go to ground to avoid the cops and the Punisher. But as Castle looks to settle the score with an old foe, Kraven the Hunter is stalking the same prey, building himself the ultimate menagerie – a living, breathing super-human zoo! Thankfully, Spider-Man is along for the ride as the lone voice of reason. Plus, with World War Hulk in full swing, New York is shut off from the outside world with no one left to protect those left behind… except Frank Castle! While Mung the Inconceivable rampages through Manhattan, Frank and Clarke help a small band of refugees hold back his relentless onslaught.

Available for immediate delivery, the 152-page, full-color Punisher War Journal Volume 3: Hunter Hunted Premiere HC and related collections are easily marketed to Punisher lovers; secure quantities now for explosive profits!

DC/Vertigo’s Faker TP a True Hit

Eisner Award nominees Mike Carey and Jock turn a time of self-discovery into a very different quest for identity in DC Comics/Vertigo’s Faker TP, which is in stock and ready for delivery from Collector's World Store!

Faker begins with a wild party of college freshman preparing for their second semester. But when the party ends, one reveler, Jessie, discovers that her best friend has become an “un-person” with no identity in the school’s computers or among their once-mutual circle of friends. Against a time and place where people routinely begin to discover and craft their own identities, Jessie tries to unravel the mystery behind her friend’s “disappearance,” uncovering cruelty and deception while struggling with her own dark, suppressed memories.

A must-have for fans of Carey’s writing for Hellblazer, Crossing Midnight, God Save the Queen or Jock’s art on The Losers, the 160-page, full-color Faker TP is available for immediate delivery, so secure your copies today!

Image Explores Seedy Underbelly with Nixon’s Pals GN

Fan-favorite writer Joe Casey looks at the hidden underbelly of the Los Angeles super-villain scene with Image Comics’ Nixon’s Pals GN, which is in stock and ready to ship from Diamond!

Casey teams with illustrator Chris Burnham to introduce fans to Nixon Cooper, a parole officer for some of Los AngelesCounty’s best and brightest super-villains. This colorful cast of parolees is hanging on by their fingernails in the morally bereft underbelly of L.A. But who has it worse: the criminals struggling – and failing – to walk the straight and narrow, or Nixon himself, doing his best to keep up with these people? The 120-page, black-and-white graphic novel presents a crime story unlike any fans have seen before and comes loaded with extra features.

A must-have for fans of Casey or those readers interested in a ground-level look at super-heroics, the Nixon’s Pals GN is available for immediate reorder so place your orders today!

Pigeons from Hell Flies High at Dark Horse

Horror master Joe R. Lansdale brings one of author Robert E. Howard’s darkest and most widely read stories to Dark Horse Comics’ horror line with Pigeons from Hell #1 , the terrifying start of a four-issue limited series which is available for reorder now from Diamond!

Illustrated by comic newcomer Nathan Fox with Dave Stewart, Pigeons from Hell combines the timelessness of a Howard story with the talents of contemporary prose and comic best seller Lansdale. The story takes readers to a damned house in the Deep South... a house with a sinister past that’s said to cast a deadly shadow upon all who enter, a house where enormous flocks of pigeons are seen flying out of it with every sunset. Are they simply birds, or damned souls in flight from the depths of Hell?

The 32-page, full-color issue should inspire the many readers of both authors to investigate this chilling project based on a tale that’s been called “one of the finest horror stories of the 20th century” by Stephen King, so place your orders today and make sure your shelves are stocked!

Heroes Face Bleak Future in WildStorm: Armageddon TP

It could be the end of the world as they know it unless heroes of the WildStorm Universe find a way to stop it in DC Comics/WildStorm’s WildStorm: Armageddon TP , which is now in stock and ready to ship from Diamond!

An event that incorporated Midnighter, Tranquility, Stormwatch: P.H.D., Gen 13, Wetworks and Wildcats, the six-issue Armageddon event from writer Christos N. Gage and artists Neil Googe, Talent Caldwell & several others is offered in this Earth-shaking TP. Six WildStorm heroes are granted a post-apocalyptic vision, prompting the question: now that they’ve seen the results, can they stop the cause?

Featuring some of the most popular heroes from the WildStorm Universe and impacting the future of DC’s innovative imprint as a whole, this 144-page, full-color TP should be highly sought by many avid WildStorm readers, so place your reorders for it now!

Universe-Altering Epic Collected in DC’s Infinite Crisis TP

The limited series that shook the foundations of the DC Universe in 2005 and 2006 is now collected in DC Comics’ Infinite Crisis TP , an amazing softcover available now from Collector's World Store!

Written by Geoff Johns with art by Phil Jimenez, George Pérez, Jerry Ordway, Ivan Reis, Andy Lanning and others, the seven-issue series changed the way fans looked at the DCU and paved the way for the best selling weekly titles 52 and Countdown. Inside, OMAC robots are rampaging, magic is dying, villains are uniting and a war is raging in space. In the middle of it all, Earth's three greatest heroes – Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman – stand divided. During the DCU's darkest hour, heroes long thought dead return to right the universe at any cost. This exhaustive volume will also reprint every cover and variant produced for the limited series, plus annotations, character designs, script excerpts, unused scenes and much more to tantalize consumers.

Perfect for fans of one of DC’s most critically and commercially successful limited series in recent memory, the 264-page, full-color Infinite Crisis TP is in stock and ready for immediate delivery so secure your copies now!

Boom! Studios, EA Mythic Give Away Beta Entries for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

When BOOM! Studios' new comic, Warhammer: Condemned by Fire #1, hits stands this April, game fans everywhere will have a chance at gaining entry into the beta test of the highly anticipated massively multiplayer online role-playing game from EA Mythic, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning!

Each copy of Warhammer: Condemned by Fire #1 contains a scratch-off which reveals a code giving readers a 1-in-5 chance of entry into the Warhammer Online beta test. Please Note: While one copy out of every five at random will have a valid code to the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning beta test, there is no statistical guarantee that assures consumers one code for every five copies purchased.

"As a crossover promotion, this is an excellent chance to expose Warhammer Online fans to the ongoing narrative of the comic book," said BOOM! Director of Marketing and Sales Chip Mosher. "It also positions Direct Market retailers with a hot, interesting product to generate new traffic for their stores with a comic that can snag new readers who might come for the promotion and stay for the story."

EA Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, also known as War, is the upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on Games Workshop's Warhammer fantasy world. Slated for release in 2008, the game features innovative Realm vs. Realm combat that immerses players in a world of perpetual conflict.

"We're thrilled to offer this kind of cross-promotion to our readers and I know they are going to love War. Having spent time playing the game during its beta test, I know it's the best of the best," said BOOM! Co-founder Ross Richie.

Warhammer: Condemned by Fire is a five-issue mini-series that directly follows BOOM!'s successful Warhammer: Forge of War mini-series, both of which are set in the Warhammer fantasy world. Reuniting the Forge of War team of fan-favorite writers Dan Abnett and Ian Edginton with phenomenal art by Rahsan Ekadal, Condemned by Fire concentrates on the exploits of Witch Hunter Magnus Gault. This tireless foe of Chaos roams the Empire seeking to stop the spread of dark magic and witchery of all kinds.

To meet demand, Warhammer: Condemned by Fire #1 will be overshipped to retailers. In addition, Diamond is offering a special incentive on Warhammer: Condemned by Fire #1 of 3% extra discount!

Warhammer already ranks as one of the fantasy world’s most popular franchises and is sure to reach even more fans thanks to the new series and online gaming incentive! Retailers, make sure your customers are in on all the four-color and online action by placing your orders today

Image Brings Dead Space to Frightening Life

Antony Johnston & Ben Templesmith take to the stars for Dead Space #1 , the first of a horrific, action-packed six-issue Image Comics limited series that serves as a prequel to the upcoming Electronic Arts video game!

Set in the desolate void of deep space on a lonely mining colony, Dead Space follows what happens when the miners’ excavations unleash a terrifying extraterrestrial life force with an unquenchable hunger for destruction. The ensuing no-holds-barred battle for the miners’ survival results in relentless violence and hideous carnage on a grand scale that gives new meaning to the term “gut-wrenching,” and should whet the appetites of gamers and comic fans who love stories loaded with a non-stop bombardment of bullets, bombs, and blood.

Perfect for fans of the upcoming video game or those readers who enjoy the creators’ many other works, the 32-page, full-color Dead Space #1 is available for order now, so confirm quantities today!

Goddard Begins Monster Story Arc with Dark Horse’s Buffy #12

The screenwriter of the recent blockbuster Cloverfield and writer/producer for ABC’s fan-favorite Lost, Drew Goddard, takes up the reins on one of Dark Horse’s best-selling series and immediately puts Joss Whedon’s heroine in harms way in Buffy the Vampire Slayer #12 .

Presenting the previously unfilmed “Season Eight” of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BTVS) TV program, this series continues the adventures of Buffy Summers, picking up many months after the seventh season’s explosive conclusion. Goddard made his scriptwriting debut on TV’s seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and returns to Whedon’s franchise with issue #12, joined by artist Georges Jeanty. Goddard begins his four-issue “Wolves at the Gate” storyline here, sending Buffy, Dawn and the rest of the vampire-hunting team to Tokyo to battle nocturnal bloodsuckers with particularly bizarre powers.

As if Goddard’s assumption of writing duties in #12 wasn’t enough, a variant Jeanty cover, shipping in a 1:4 ratio, should provide loyal Buffy readers with added enticement!

With Goddard coming off a smash film project and continuing to thrill viewers with Lost, his return to the mythos that launched his career with the 40-page, full-color Buffy the Vampire Slayer #12 should attract an even greater amount of fans than normal to Whedon’s imaginative series, and retailers should place their reorders now to match demand for this red-hot issue!

New DC HC Asks Who is Wonder Woman?

Acclaimed writer Allan Heinberg explores the myth of the Amazon Princess in DC Comics’ Wonder Woman: Who is Wonder Woman? HC , which is available for order now from Collector's World Store.

One year after the execution of Maxwell Lord and the events of Infinite Crisis, the DC Universe is still struggling to come to terms with its most powerful heroine. In Who is Wonder Woman?, Heinberg honors the character's distinguished history while planting her firmly in the present. Featuring an all-new supporting cast, a brand-new mission and a renewed sense of wonder, the new edition finds Diana missing, leaving former sidekick Donna Troy to take up the mantle of Wonder Woman! But when Diana returns under her former alias of Diana Prince, she is tasked by the Department of Metahuman Affairs to save Donna Troy. Will she retake the role of Wonder Woman? The book features interior artwork by Terry & Rachel Dodson and Gary Frank & Jon Sibal, and boasts a gorgeous cover by the Dodsons.

Easily marketed to fans of the DCU’s top female hero or those readers who enjoyed Heinberg’s work on the TV hit Grey’s Anatomy or Marvel Comics’ Young Avengers, the 144-page, full-color Wonder Woman: Who is Wonder Woman? HC is available for reorder now!