Have you always wanted to own some original one-of-a-kind comic art? Edwin Huang, our amazing penciler/inker, is selling original page art from Skullkickers! From Edwin\’s journal entry:

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All original Skullkickers pages for sale!

Pages range from $50 – $250. Covers from $200 and up.
For inquiries, please email me.
Just mention the sequential page(s) and issue number through email.

email:edwin@edwinhuang.com
paypal account is: edwin@edwinhuang.com

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If you picked up the latest issue of Oni Press\’ The Sixth Gun this week you may have noticed a surprising ad for our very own monster mashy series in the back.

Cross-company promotion like this is rare in the comic biz, but both creative teams are enjoying each other\’s series and felt that the audiences were quite compatible, so we set up an ad swap to see if we could cross-pollinate interest between readers. Skullkickers #7, arriving late May and kicking off our second story arc, will likewise have an Oni Press Sixth Gun ad in the back. Creator owned comics are all in the same boat and we\’re looking for every edge we can get in this market.

If you haven\’t picked up The Sixth Gun, you really should do so. Like SK, TSG recently released their first trade paperback so it\’s easy to get caught up. The Sixth Gun is a wild west fantasy-fueled adventure series with monsters, magic items and mayhem that\’s garnered fantastic reviews and goodwill from pros and fans alike. If you like Skullkickers, you\’ll almost certainly enjoy the Sixth Gun too. Read it, and tell \’em we sent ya. 🙂

Today is the big day!

7 months after we launched the series, right on time, it\’s the release day for Skullkickers Vol 1:1000 Opas and a Dead Body at comic shops across North America. We did it!

I can\’t properly express how proud I am of everyone on the team for their hard work and dedication.

If you live in the Toronto area, it would mean the world to me if you could make it out for the signing event tonight at The Beguiling from 5-7pm. I want to celebrate with family and friends. I would love to see you there.

The book is value-priced by Image as a way to bring a lot more people on board: $9.99 for 144 pages. Please pick up a copy, show your friends, spread the word. It\’s a book now and it\’s a satisfying little chunk o\’ entertainment…. or at least that\’s what I\’ve been told. 🙂

Thank you all for your support.
Zub

The Image app on comiXology has been updated and Skullkickers #1-5 (the entire \’1000 Opas and a Dead Body\’ storyline) is now available digitally.

Check those out along with our FREE zero issue (containing two short stories from Popgun and a first issue preview).

Zub here.

Skullkickers #6 arrives in comic stores today at last! Six issues in six months. We are rocking!

Issue 6 is a wild jam issue with other creators as a way for us to keep Skullkickers on the stands and in people\’s hearts while Edwin and Misty take the time required to rebuild the art buffer for our second story arc. As nice as it would be to have issues completed in one month, at this point that\’s just not realistic. Everyone on the Skullkickers team is juggling extra jobs to make this work financially and, in turn, issues take longer than four weeks to produce. So, even though we started with issues finished as they were being solicited, we\’ve slowly burned through that lead and need time to get ahead again. We want retailers and readers to know that the book will arrive on time as the story arc rolls out and this is the best way to do that.

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Going through the issue 6 creative crew, in alphabetical order:

Brian Clevinger is the writer and co-creator of the hilarious Atomic Robo series, one of my absolute favorite comics being published right now and a real inspiration for the brand of hijinks that populates Skullkickers. Robo is a creator-owned dynamo and if you\’re not reading it you need to stop whatever you\’re doing right now and head to your local comic shop for issues, trades – whatever you can get your hands on.

Jeffrey \’Chamba\’ Cruz is one of those artists who makes it all look so easy, even while you know under the surface that he has masterful skills and works his butt off. His dynamic action artwork and moody colouring has made him a fan favorite on UDON\’s Street Fighter comic series and I\’m excited about having him contribute his skills to the Skullkicker boys.

Ray Fawkes is a rock solid writer and artist who has created titles for Oni Press and Vertigo that strike an emotional core and defy expectations. We first met when I was still in college, lost touch and then reunited through comic conventions and mutual friends. Seeing his skills grow with each project he tackles and knowing that he has a wickedly well developed sense of humour, I wanted him to bring the same kooky/eerie qualities he has in Possessions, his supernatural-comedy graphic novel series, to the world of Skullkickers.

Scott Hepburn is another old college friend and former UDON studio mate who toiled away for years on smaller projects and built up his skills until he was turning heads with the quality of his storytelling and solid figure work. I\’ve wanted to collaborate with him for quite a while and am thrilled that he\’s on board this special issue.

Chris Sims is the gut-wrenchingly funny writer of the Invincible Super Blog. The consistent humor quality of his entries turned it from an occasional amusement in my daily RSS read to a can\’t-wait part of my day. His pointed satire about comics and the industry cuts through crap with ease and I really do feel he\’ll be a big name writer within a handful of years. With that firmly in mind, I wanted to get my hooks in to him early so I could claim some kind of feeble partial credit for his success at a future point.

Joe Vriens is one of those artists who keeps upping his game every time you turn around. From cartoony designs all the way to lushly rendered digital paintings, Joe\’s creativity and natural design sense bursts through in everything he does. After contributing a killer pin-up that we ended up using as the cover for Skullkickers #2 second print, I knew I had to get him involved with this issue.

Adam Warren was the first North American anime-influenced artist I ever saw and his Dirty Pair mini-series (originally published by now-defunct publisher Eclipse and then later by Dark Horse) had a profound effect on my writing and art. His creator owned series Empowered is top notch character study under the wrappings (quite literally) of fetish-y superhero nonsense and it will surprise you with its depth even while it titillates and teases. That I can now count him among my friends kind of blows my mind. I\’m honored to have him on board.

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Without trying to hype it too much, I really do think it\’s a killer creative line-up; Some of the funniest writers in comics working with some of the best artists anywhere. I hope comic fans everywhere snag this issue to see what kind of alchemy formed from these guys pouring their efforts in to our special \’Four Tavern Tales\’ and that it helps build extra excitement for the second story arc of Skullkickers series that begins in issue 7 this May.

Two Skullkickers packages arrived in the mail today. The trade paperback turned out fantastic and issue #6 is equally colourful and entertaining. We are pumped!

Skullkickers #6, 26 comic pages for $2.99, arrives in stores on February 23rd.

Skullkickers Vol. 1, 144 pages for $9.99, arrives in stores on March 9th.

We\’ve gotcha covered on both quality AND value.

Found during Zub\’s recent UK trip:

Green Goblin cider

Skull Splitter beer

We just received this digital snapshot from the Image offices. The trade is printed! Look how wonderfully that spot gloss skull pattern turned out.

We cannot wait to see them in person. Skullkickers Volume 1 arrives in stores in just over a month! 144 pages of monster mashing for only $9.99!

Have you pre-ordered your copy yet?

The 2011 Eagle Awards, England\’s prestigious International Comic Awards, are now accepting nominations. Fans and pros alike can submit their nominations and the top 5 in each category will be placed up for the final vote.

You will have to answer their nomination survey and verify your e-mail address in order to nominate. It only takes a couple minutes though, so make your voice heard about your favorite comics from 2010.

If you feel like voting for Skullkickers in a few of those categories, we certainly wouldn\’t mind.