August 13, Mt. Laurel, NJ: Coming in October, Dynamite pays homage to one of the cornerstones and early successes of comics with variant covers inspired by the dark detective.
A top-tier gang of artists contribute to the special set, and they are no cowardly lot. Across six of Dynamite's top titles, vampires, barbarians, Martian queens, and pinup queens reenact iconic covers and artwork from throughout the prolific career of everyone's favorite caped crusader. Will Robson, Jonathan Lau, Vincenzo Federici, and Stephen Mooney answer the signal in the sky for this fun project. Kike J. Diaz and Andrew Dalhouse join as colorists with Robson and Lau, respectively, forming their dynamic duos, while Federici and Mooney color themselves.
Of course one must homage the original foundation of it all. And from one bat-themed comic hero to another, Vampirella #15 portrays the iconic Detective Comics #27. Matching her new title's Hollywood connection, Bettie Page #4 is a natural fit for the theatrical Detective Comics #38, which debuted the boy wonder. Showing her boundless strength and cunning, the She-Devil With a Sword employs some over-the-knee back-breaking as Red Sonja #20 mirrors Batman #497 by the legendary Kelley Jones. Vampi and Sonja stand up to the spotlight, as Vampirella/Red Sonja #12 bows out with a tribute to Batman #9. Fitting with their shared identities of fantastical imagined technology and architecture, Dejah Thoris #9 pulls Gotham by Gaslight as a wild card. Last but certainly not least, a timeless moment from Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Batman: Year One jumps out at readers on DIE!namite #1.
"I really enjoyed doing these covers! The bat-verse is my favourite corner of the comic book world, so getting the opportunity to put my own spin on some iconic covers was an absolute treat," said Will Robson. "I really love Vampirella and Red Sonja, so that was an added bonus being able to draw them for the first time too!"
"Doing homage covers can be tricky and challenging. One cannot force Superman to pose like Spider-Man," said Jonathan Lau. "It takes some artistic freedom and ingenuity to get the results that make readers recognize a homage and at the same time be suitable for the character(s) to pull off. Only the readers will tell if I was successful. But I had fun nonetheless!"
"Like most people, I love Batman so much! When I was a kid I watched the whole animated series and I read a lot of his comics," said artist Vincenzo Federici. "So it was amazing when the editor asked me to draw this cover! I tried to keep the poses, expressions, and general feelings of the original characters, but also using my own art style."
All of these covers are solicited in Diamond Comic Distributors' August Previews for October on-sale. Fans are encouraged to preorder copies with their Local Comic Shops.
###About Dynamite Entertainment Dynamite was founded in 2004 and is home to several best-selling comic book titles and properties, including The Boys, The Shadow, Red Sonja, Warlord of Mars, Bionic Man, A Game of Thrones, and more. Dynamite owns and controls an extensive library with over 3,000 characters (which includes the Harris Comics and Chaos Comics properties), such as Vampirella, Pantha, Evil Ernie, Smiley the Psychotic Button, Chastity, and Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt. In addition to their critically-acclaimed titles and bestselling comics, Dynamite works with some of the most high-profile creators in comics and entertainment, including Gail Simone, Christopher Priest, Leah Moore, Kevin Smith, David Walker, Vita Ayala, Danny Lore, Neil Gaiman, Garth Ennis, Darick Robertson, Mark Russell, Brandon Thomas, Amy Chu, Reginald Hudlin, Nancy Collins, David Walker, Steve Orlando, Greg Pak, Jenny Frison, Matt Wagner, and a host of up-and-coming new talent. Dynamite is consistently ranked in the upper tiers of comic book publishers and several of their titles - including Alex Ross and Jim Krueger's Project Superpowers - have debuted in the Top Ten lists produced by Diamond Comics Distributors. In 2005, Diamond awarded the company a GEM award for Best New Publisher and another GEM in 2006 for Comics Publisher of the Year (under 5%) and again in 2011. The company has also been nominated for and won several industry awards, including the prestigious Harvey and Eisner Awards. |