Batwoman update & some J.H. cover art!

Some of you have heard that J.H. Williams III's new Batwoman series was supposed to start in February, well some of you may have also heard that the debut of this new series has been moved to April. Today, on his blog, J.H. clarifies why this is happening (and it's not because he's a video game junkie, because he's not - grin!). Click here: http://www.jhwilliams3.com/
The three images here on this Ich Liebe Comics! entry were also posted today by J.H. and are the covers of Batman Inc. issues #3, #4, and #5, sans logo. Sadly, Batman Inc., by Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette, which has been highly entertaining, is also running late, but this lateness has nothing to do with J.H.

Damn, these are some fine, fine looking pieces of art, right!? Of course I'm with those of you who are sad to be waiting for Batwoman to start, but anyone who knows and loves J.H.'s art, knows that he doesn't take short cuts and when the issues appear, we'll all agree that it was worth the wait!

DC Comics new, lower priced comics!

This snazzy poster by Ivan Reis is now hanging up at my store and the first 100 people that come in to Alternate Reality Comics tomorrow, Wednesday, Jan. 19th, will get one of these posters free with your purchase of a DC comic! DC has lowered most of their comic book line to $2.99 (at least 85% of their line), so now is a great time to try out a DC comic that you've been wanting to try.

This display is of some of the DC Comics that came out last week. For the month of January, DC is going with a cover theme, which has the main character or characters of their various superhero comics in a striking pose alongside cool logo visuals on a white background. These comics really do stand out amongst the seas of titles out there and look great when displayed together. Here are some of tomorrow's DC's comics for your consideration, with equally cool covers: Superman / Batman, Supergirl, Batman, Brightest Day, Green Lantern Corps, Legion of Superheroes, and Justice League of America!

And after you pick up your free DC poster (with a DC comic purchase), I'd suggest hanging this in your house / apartment, and cutting out the area that says "Drawing the line at $2.99" (after you've appreciated DC for doing this) and draw yourself and your friends flying in the space above the other DC heroes!

The Utopian TP release party & Shade Tree benefit!

Alternate Reality Comics (located at 4110 S. Maryland Pkwy. #8, next to Buffalo Exchange at the Maryland & Flamingo intersection, of course) is happy to announce that Saturday, January 22nd from 12-3pm, I'll be hosting Pj Perez' launch party for the trade paperback collection of The Utopian! We are tying in this fun time with a benefit for Shade Tree, a non profit local organization that helps homeless and abused women and children. For a list of items that Shade Tree is in need of in addition to donations, click here: http://www.theshadetree.org/wishlist.shtml. Additionally I'll have the biggest back issue sale I've ever had at Alternate Reality Comics and ALL of the proceeds from that sale will be donated to Shade Tree!

For readers of Ich Liebe Comics! that haven't read the online version of The Utopian or the single issues yet, Pj put together a REALLY handsome collected version of his comic about a high school senior who takes it upon himself to fight the injustices he sees around him, for a mere $19.99 for 120 full color pages, with additional pages annotating every page of the story! So even if you have the single issues and or have read the online version, I think when people see the trade paperback version of The Utopian, they'll want to get this edition and then they can gift the single issues! So please enter Saturday, January 22nd from 12-3pm into your calendars, check out the link above to see what Shade Tree does for this community, and come on by for what's gonna be a fun time, with a couple of great local creative forces by the names of Pj Perez and Hernan Valencia (the collected edition cover artist)! There'll also be sketches and refreshments on hand!

Charles Holbert Jr. art!!

The art shown here is by Charles Holbert Jr., all around great guy and resident artist of one of Las Vegas' other fine comic book stores, Comic Oasis! Derrick (owner of Comic Oasis) had Charles make cartoon art images of several of the comic book store owners here in Vegas and then Holly made buttons for all of us. That's me on the left and Kate on the right, with Epstein (the Alternate Reality Comics mascot) in the middle - we couldn't be more pleased with our cartoon selves! Thanks Charles and everyone at Comic Oasis!

To check out more of Charles Hlbert Jr.'s art check out his deviant art page:

http://kidnotorious.deviantart.com/

V.A.G.I.N.A. bake sale benefit for Red Rock graffiti clean up tomorrow!

Tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 8th from 10am-2pm, Alternate Reality Comics, will be hosting a bake sale to benefit the graffiti clean up at Red Rock!

The bakers, brains, and muscle on the front lines of this bake sale benefit for Red Rock is Stephanie Payne and her friends, who collectively call themselves, Very Awesome Girls Into Nerdy Activities (V.A.G.I.N.A.- nobody has a problem with that wonderful word, right, grin!?). V.A.G.I.N.A. is a fairly recently formed group with the only criteria to join being that you're a gal and love everything geekdom embraces (but guys can also be friends of V.A.G.I.N.A. because they're all inclusive!). So they'll be at my store, Alternate Reality Comics (4110 S. Maryland Pkwy. #8 at the intersection of Maryland & Flamingo behind the Long John Silver's, right next to Buffalo Exchange) and at both Maximum Comics locations from 10am-2pm to accept donations for their baked goods, of which all of the proceeds will go to the Red Rock graffiti clean up. Just another example that you can have fun and help the community at the same time!

Besides hosting the bake sale benefit, Alternate Reality Comics will be having a HUGE back issue sale and raffles to add to the fun! Everyone who donates / purchases baked goods from V.A.G.I.N.A. will get a raffle ticket! Here's how the back issue sale works: all of my back issues that are normally only one dollar (!), will be two for one dollar - that's .50 cents each!! And 50% of the sales from my back issue sale tomorrow will also be donated to the Red Rock clean up!

Some great gals into comics and all things fandom related, baked goods, cheap back issues, and raffles, you'll not find a more fun time in the Las Vegas valley, so pop over to Alternate Reality Comics and then go over to either Maximum Comics and see their own spin on fun (as they are hosting the bake sale benefit also)!

The Cape; Joe Hill

The Cape #1 (no relation to the upcoming NBC television show of the same name), is a one shot comic written by Jason Ciaramella, from a short prose story by Joe Hill (author of Locke & Key and son of Stephen King), drawn by Zach Howard, and published by IDW.

The Cape came out a couple of weeks ago, but I just got around to reading it yesterday and it made for a great first comic to read to kick off 2011. This is one of my Ich Liebe Comics! posts in which I talk even less about the actual story then I usually do (as regular readers of Ich Liebe Comics! may have noticed, my entries here mostly serve as a shout out for a comic or graphic novel that may have been overlooked by most people), because The Cape is one of those comics that the less you know about it the more impact it'll have when you read it. And I'm certain that everyone who reads The Cape #1 will want to read more, and although this is a one shot comic, at the end of this issue there is a notation that there will be more The Cape this year. This is a huge money back guarantee comic at Alternate Reality Comics!

Whatever happened to Big Numbers?

Over on facebook today a friend of mine, PJ, posted a link that has artist Bill Sienkiewicz, talking about what happened to Big Numbers, a series he worked on with Alan Moore, of which only three issues were ever completed (only two issues were ever published). I think that if Big Numbers had ever been completed it would have been one of the most amazing works ever in the sequential art medium we call comics.

The following piece by Bill Sienkiewicz is long, but it's great, honest writing on what stalled Big Numbers and has some of the most descriptive passages that I've read about what it's like working with wordsmith master, Alan Moore. Here's the link:

http://slovobooks.blogspot.com/2011/01/bill-sienkiewicz-speaks-about-big.html#comment-form