Comic Books - Slave Labor Graphics

[Batfreak]

Blatant plug for my auctions, am transferring from the Dark Side, So, Helllllllooooooooo Ebid, Give me some love...Woop Woop.

[Batfreak]

More New Stuff Listed, More to come.. It's a good day to Ebid people, take a lookie look

[Batfreak]

And yet more stuff, it's good stuff, honest, not just for kids, :-)

[Batfreak]

Wow, you guy's are difficult to get a response out of.

[Batfreak]

Dont you just love having a job where you get paid to sit in front of a computer all day.

BUMP.

Anybody need anything listed let me know. Last Months DC And Marvel will all be listed by next weekend (I Hope) Some GREAT Bargins.

Have a nice day y'all.

[Batfreak]

SLG PUBLISHING RELEASES ITS BIGGEST GRAPHIC NOVEL EVER!

The Babysitter Threatens To Break Bookshelves With New Mammoth Collection!


Setsuko is your ordinary Japanese freshman in high school. During the day you can find her studying half-heartedly for exams, going to class, socializing with her peers, battling off giant killer robots, preventing global conspiracies from running rampant, eating lunch, destroying alien invaders, doing homework, annihilating restless spirits of the dead, and other mundane things. Oh yeah, she also manages to babysit sometimes at a very reasonable rate of $10 per hour.

Using only his pop culture knowledge of Japan (having never visited the place before) creator Andy Ristaino (Life of a Fetus) brings us his own unique perspective of the land of the rising sun through Setsuko's daily adventures in SLG Publishing's special oversized printing of The Babysitter. But why attempt to recreate an entire country that he hasn't visited? "It seemed like a good idea to make the comic about living in Japan based soley on my pop culture knowledge that I've gathered from a lifetime of studying far too much manga and anime," Ristaino says.

The book's unique art style, inspired by Will Eisner and Ristaino's own studies of claustrophobic art, is intended to parody and deconstruct established manga conventions. Where manga tends to be small in size, easily read, with clean art lines, The Babysitter represents the complete opposite in its mammoth presentation, dizzying art panels, and bold style. "I wanted to create a book that you couldn't just skip ahead and read the last panel to find out what happens… something you had to translate, concentrate on…like one of those magic eye puzzles," says Ristaino.

The Babysitter Collection (ISBN 9781593621346) arrives in stores this August at 112 pages and measures at a colossal 9.5 x by 15 inches. The volume collects issues #1-3 of The Babysitter and is packed with special features including concept art and a brand new full length color story. It will be available in my store soon.

[Batfreak]

A Mystery in a Land Called MuZz
New FSc Graphic Novel from SLG

FSc has been charming and frightening readers with her lovely and strange comics work in Nightmares and Fairy Tales as well as numerous other works, and now the first volume of her epic graphic novel series called MuZz is available from SLG Publishing.
MuZz is the story of Farllee, a girl who wakes up on a train, surrounded by strange creatures, with no idea of who she is or how she got there. She's on the MuZz Express, a train that carries discarded ideas to a land where they hope to live happy existences. In the company of these odd beings, Farllee embarks on an adventure that includes nearly being turned into a Tamagotchi-style toy, hallucinogenic fruit, murderous alter-egos, and a Dream lord in hiding. The deeper she travels into MuZz, the more she understands about her heritage and the important role she plays in this strange place.

MuZz Volume One is a 228-page graphic novel available in store soon

[Batfreak]

Rum and Crime on the Strip
Tiki Joe Mysteries in July

In 1959 Las Vegas, WWII veteran Joe Halliday is enjoying the good life, running his bar, Tiki Joe's, and dating a smart, beautiful woman. But his Polynesian Pop dream is shaken when the local Mafia hits him up for "protection" money. Joe isn't the type to give into extortion, and with the support of his stalwart army buddies, he decides to take on the Mob in SLG Publishing's new graphic novel by Mark Murphy, Tiki Joe Mysteries Volume One: High-Stakes Patsy.
Tiki Joe and Murphy were natural fits at SLG, which publishes tiki drink and art books under their Club Tiki imprint. "Tiki Joe Mysteries is a deliberate blend of two of my favoite passions -- detective fiction and mid-century popular culture," said Murphy, whose previous graphic novels, the NBM-published House of Java series, were critically acclaimed. "It’s the book I’ve always wanted to see on the stands -- a book filled with tough guys, beautiful girls, bullets and tiki masks!”

Tiki Joe Mysteries Volume One contains two stories, "The Pay Off," about Joe's confrontation with the mob, and "The High Stakes Patsy," about his entanglement with a robbery involving a jewel heist and a troupe of female stunt motorcyclists. With action, beautiful dames, a cool-under-pressure hero, and Murphy's clean, classic drawing style, Tiki Joe Mysteries is an exciting and nostalgic tribute to the Rat Pack era's culture of cool.

Tiki Joe Mysteries Volume One: High-Stakes Patsy will be in stores in July 2008. It's 96 pages and will retail for $9.95.

[Batfreak]

Halo and Sprocket Returns in July
New Amaze Ink Graphic Novella

It's a perfect "strange bedfellows" concept: a young woman shares her house with an angel and a robot. The young woman and angel are charged with teaching the robot what it means to be human. This was the premise of Halo and Sprocket by Kerry Callen, a comic published by Amaze Ink in 2002 through 2003 that became a hit with readers and critics for its clever humor and clean, expressive art. After a five-year hiatus, Katie, Halo and Sprocket are returning to the printed page in Callen's new graphic novella, Halo and Sprocket: Natural Creatures, published by Amaze Ink, the all-ages imprint of SLG Publishing. It will be released in July.
Callen regretted having to take a break from his comic. "The original series was building a somewhat impressive fan base, but I had to stop a while for physical reasons," he said. "I can’t tell you how happy I am to be returning to these characters! My goal with this new book was to produce more of the same quirky stories, but crank up the art a little bit.”

Natural Creatures retains the same format as the Halo and Sprocket comics -- short stories that depict Halo and Sprocket exploring the questions that behavior of humans raises in even the most simple situations while Katie holds her own for human nature against a robot's logic and an angel's divine knowledge. The trio visit Katie's bathroom (why do women shave their legs but not their arms?) and a pet store (why are kittens cuter than lizards?). Sprocket briefly experiences what it is to be human, and Katie learns that it's no easy thing to play a practical joke on an angel.

Halo and Sprocket: Natural Creatures is 72-pages long

[Batfreak]

SLG Publishing was conceived of and founded by Dan Vado in 1986 when he had the sudden realization that comics were merely "paper, ink, and staples." We will overlook the fact that this epiphany arrived after many years in the comics business, including two retail stores (separated by five years, but miraculously in the same location) and organizing several conventions.

The first book Slave Labor Graphics actually published was called Shadow Star #3 (the first two were published independently by two of Dan's friends). But the book that put the company on the map was Samurai Penguin #1 by Dan and Mark Buck, which sold a staggering 58,000 copies in the summer of 1986. Back then, speculation was rampant in the industry, and everything we put out sold with inflated numbers. This would have been really cool if some distributors hadn't gone out of business without paying us, but regardless soon after the numbers dropped back to more realistic levels.

Our early line-up featured titles like Barabbas, Hero Sandwich, It's Science with Dr. Radium, and Suburban High Life. All these books were by guys Dan had been friends with in San Jose, like Gino Attanasio, Chuck Austen, Scott Saavedra, and Frank Cirocco. Within a short time, however, they all seemed to go in different directions, and only Scott Saavedra stayed and provided the young company with its look as the art director.

Dan responded to all these changes inside and outside the company by finding new books to publish like Pirate Corp$! by Evan Dorkin and Tales from the Heart, the story of a Peace Corps worker in Africa. Pirate Corp$! led to Milk & Cheese and our first big success following the heady early days of the company. Also during this time, other future notables published their early work with us, including Mike Allred, Ed Brubaker, Jeff LeVine, Troy Nixey and many more.

In 1995, Dan launched the imprint Amaze Ink, which is dedicated to publishing all-ages humor and adventure comics. The first title to be published under the Amaze Ink banner was Skeleton Key, by Andi Watson, whose first comic book, Samurai Jam, was published by SLG in 1993. Amaze Ink continues to publish comics and graphic novels that are fun reading for kids and adults alike, such as Patty-Cake and Friends by Scott Roberts, Bombaby by Antony Mazzotta, Halo and Sprocket by Kerry Callen, The Super-Scary Monster Show by Landry Walker and Eric Jones and Jet Pack Pets by Michael Stewart and Garry Black.

Also in 1995, a kid named Jhonen Vasquez came walking into our office with a little book called Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, and Dan knew he was destined for success. Around the same time, Dan met Roman Dirge, who was self-publishing a magazine called Xenophobe and developing a character named Lenore. These two guys helped push our company into new markets and to new audiences, and the attention brought new creators to the company, such as Serena Valentino and Ted Naifeh, creators of GloomCookie.

Valentino remains one of the company's most prolific creators, writing both GloomCookie and Nightmares and Fairy Tales. The two series continue to be consistently strong sellers, with GloomCookie reaching its twenty-fifth issue and Nightmares its reaching its fifteenth in 2005. The two books are among the "goth" or "spooky" books that SLG is known for, among them Tommy Kovac's comics Stitch and Autumn, Landry Walker and Eric Jones's Little Gloomy comics, Little Scrowlie by Todd Meister and Jennifer Feinberg and Outlook: Grim by Black Olive.

However, SLG continues to remain true to our roots as a publisher of great diversity. Besides continuing to publish the work artists who have been with the company since its early years, such as Evan Dorkin and Andi Watson, we're proud to be a company known for taking chances on new talent and many types of comics. Among many new artists to have their first published comic work come through SLG are Jamie Smart (Bear), Christy Lijewski (Next Exit) and James Turner (Nil: A Land Beyond Belief and Rex Libris).