Eastman & Laird Both Coming Back To IDW's 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' For A 30th Anniversary Issue ??? YES PLEASE !!!!

One of my favorite NY Comic Con experiences happened about 5 years ago with my good friend Sam James. Sam and I were walking the floor and he is a huge TMNT guy. So he sees Peter Laird of TMNT fame and starts going bonkers. He runs over to the table and buys a lithograph from Mr. Laird, which he is super happy about. As we started around the floor again, Sam mentioned that he wanted to meet Kevin Eastman, the other man responsible for TMNT... who was also somewhere at the show. As we sought him out I wondered out loud why he wasn't near Laird's table, considering how their creations were so related. Sam explained that they had a huge falling out and that they didn't really like each other much. That made the situation funnier and much more understandable. When we found Eastman, Sam asked him to sign the same lithograph... he explained to Eastman it would be an honor to have both guys signatures on one piece. Eastman promptly said "This is the shitty pieces Laird is selling at his table? I ain't signing that...". But he wasn't a complete dick, he did one better... he turned over the lithograph and did a full on Leonardo sketch right there on the spot. When he finished, he looked up at our shocked faces and said something to the effect of "Fuck Laird... now you got your very own TMNT original, not some generic piece of shit". He signed it, and so Sam was faced with the dilemma of getting both signatures on a piece, albeit one on each side... lol. This was first hand proof that these guys despised each other. So imagine my surprise when I opened my email and see that both Eastman & Laird will be working together on a 30th anniversary one shot issue that will feature a bunch of one off stories about the green foursome. I for one couldn't be any happier...

Click after the jump for more info on the release....

Black Dynamite Gets A Mini Series From IDW.. Watch Out Jive Turkeys !!!

You heard that right, all you kung-fu lovin' mofos... Black Dynamite is back, and he is doing it big! While we wait for director Scott Sanders and actor Michael Jai White to bring us another installment of the film franchise (rumor has it to be a ghetto western in the vein of Blazing Saddles) we have to make due with a 4 issue mini series from IDW. Following up the epic one shot graphic novel, Black Dynamite: Escape From Slave Island, we are getting a four issue limited series from writer Brian Ash, art by Ron Wimberley, and inks by the LEGENDARY Sal Buscema! The first issue hit stores this week, and hopefully the next three issues will be on time over the next three months (first issue Feb, followed by March, April and May). The comic is sure to continue the radical racial hi jinks and nonsense that the movie brought forth, and even kick it up a notch considering there is no limitations to budget in a comic book. In Slave Island BD had a fist fight with a SHARK... A GREAT WHITE SHARK!!! Now he takes on a villain by the name of Too Swole (really!). Can't wait to see what Ash and Wimberley have in store for my favorite anti-hero. Click here to order your copy on Amazon, or go to your local Mom & Pop comic store and pick your copy up! You can see the full press release and the first cover after the jump.

'Monster & Madman' - A New Comic Series From Steve Niles x Damien Worm For IDW

One of my favorite comic writers is Steve Niles, especially due to his special work on the 30 Days of Night comics. That series, with its debut in 2002, ushered in a golden age of horror comics and made vampires in comics cool again. Niles has gone on to work on a slew of other things including Batman: Gotham After Midnight, Batman: Gotham City Line, DC Infinite: Strange Cargo, Simon Dark, The Creeper, and Criminal Macabre that I have absolutely loved, so when IDW issued a press release for his newest project I naturally got excited. It is called 'Monster & Madman' and features Frankenstein joining forces with the most famous serial killer in history, Jack the Ripper. Yup, that's right... Jack the Ripper and the original man made monster in a period piece. Penned by Niles. Drawn by Damien Worm. Good god... I for one can't wait. They book hits stands around March of 2014. Check after the jump for a full size shot of the cover and the full press release from IDW...

The Maxx Is Back!!!!

Sam Keith will always have a special place in my heart when it comes to comic book artists, no matter what he ever does in the future. My man Sam is responsible for the killer art that shaped the book 'Sandman' by Neil Gaiman, still to this day my all time favorite series. Although he was very early in his career and only was the lead artist for like 5 issues, Keith made a huge contribution to Gaiman's seminal series because he came up with Morpheus's signature look. He stepped away after a few issues and honed his craft, and in the great Image Comics movement of the early 90s he created one of the weirdest and wildest comics of all time.... 'The Maxx'! 'The Maxx' was different than everything else going on at Image. 'Spawn' was a true comic book comic... it felt like Spiderman or something classic. 'Savage Dragon' had all the elements of Batman., a great detective book. 'Wild C.A.T.S'. & 'Youngblood' were team books modeled after The Avengers & the X-Men. But 'The Maxx'... yeah, that was something different....

Read more after the jump...

The Transformers Get Their Sgt Pepper On!!!

I love it when comic books take a queue from other pop culture properties for covers. It doesn't have to relate to the story or the comic itself, but if done correctly could portray the comic characters in a fun way. Case in point: Issue #12 of IDW Comics Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye. Artist Nick Roche decided to channel the original Big 4, The Beatles, and have the Autobots & Decepticons get their Sgt. Pepper on. Now I don't read this comic and apparently Optimus is not around in the storyline (I don't know why), but I sure do know a cool cover when I see one. And this is it. Thanks to my main man Dan from It's A Dan World for keeping me in the comic book loop. Check out the cover after the jump....

Alex Ross Does Godzilla For IDW... Your Welcome James West!!!

Check out this phenomenal cover art done by one of my favorite comic artists ever, Alex Ross, for the upcoming IDW Comics title Godzilla: Monster World. Wow. This looks great. The book is written by Eric Powell (of The Goon) and the art will be done by Phil Hester, with Ross supplying a special issue #1 cover as only he can! My cousin and fellow comic book geek James West is a huge Godzilla fan, and he takes extreme pride in his Marvel Comics Godzilla run of books from the 80's. The fact that they are making a new Godzilla book and it comes with this fantastic cover is sure to make his day. The title kicks off in March 2011 so make sure you hit up your mom & pop comic shops and support them when you are picking up this title. Mr. Ross, you are a god. Once again you have outdone yourself.