With the launch of both Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki #4 and Skullkickers #1 yesterday, it was pretty insane.

Ibuki #4 Press:

• Behold the Geek! is really happy with the Ibuki mini-series wrap-up. “[it]’s a satisfying end to Ibuki’s own miniseries and a perfect introduction to a really fun character. I’ve grown to like Ibuki thanks to Zubkavich and Dogan, which to a non-video gamer like me is a feat in and of itself.”

• Street Fighter blog X-ism has a new review for Ibuki #4 posted up. “Issue #4 wraps up the series with a bang.”

Skullkickers #1 Press:

• Movie/entertainment megasite Ain’t It Cool News has posted a review of Skullkickers #1, stating that “SKULLKICKERS is a thematic amalgam of almost every geek trapping that sets our Twitter feeds atwitter” and “everyone who loves comics should buy SKULLKICKERS”.

• Broken Frontier reviewed Skullkickers’ first issue and declares that “Zubkavich’s comedic timing is brilliant and fluid; his words balanced with ease by artists Chris Stevens and newcomer Edwin Huang.”

• At the end of this week’s episode of A Comic Show they feature Skullkickers, calling it “the new Chew” which, if you haven’t read the award-winning Chew series, is high praise indeed.

• I was a special guest host on the Watchtower Comic Podcast this week, discussing Skullkickers and also running through recent comic news, reviews and gossip. Give it a listen and enjoy.

• Atomic Comics has a brand new interview all about Skullkickers and the amazing advantages of the comic medium.

I cannot believe we’re here. Skullkickers #1 is in comic shops today. Today!

I need to thank some very important people who have helped make this a reality. Please, join me in thanking…

Chris Stevens, the original Skullkickers artist, who designed the characters and blazed the trail for how it would look and feel with our Popgun stories. He’s also the man behind half the pencils on issue #1 and the eye-catching covers that have grabbed so much attention.

Edwin Huang, the new Skullkickers artist, for reigniting this book with his tireless efforts and amazing quality. I’m thrilled to be working with you on this series. You are a true professional.

Misty Coats, the Skullkickers colorist, whose moody palettes and clean animated-style rendering is exactly how I envisioned the book looking. You make great art even better.

Marshall Dillon, our brilliant letterer, who is jumping through hoops to letter this book while I throw him many a font-laden curve ball.

Tom Liu, for saving Misty’s soul with colour flats under the gun.

Saejin Oh and Joy Ang, for painting cover line art while the clock ticked.

Joe Keatinge, Mark Smith and Erik Larsen, for bringing us onboard with the original Popgun stories and encouraging me to pitch a series of these two mercenary lunkheads.

Eric Stephenson, for taking a chance on the Skullkickers series when it went from the back burner to the front just in time for the September Previews catalogue.

Betsy Gomez, Todd Martinez, Tyler Shainline and Vincent Kukua at Image for their help and encouragement.

Cory Casoni, whose enthusiasm for the book kept me going when I couldn’t see it.

Chris Butcher, Jerry Holkins, Howard Tayler, Ryan North, Rich Johnston and the many other people who reviewed the book in advance and helped spread the word that this is a fun series worth checking out.

Erik Ko, my boss at UDON and dear friend, who has been patient and supportive while I juggle this on top of everything else.

The love of my life, Stacy King, who built the Skullkickers website and whose love and support really does make all of this possible.

Thank you also to everyone who has helped promote, posted links, tweeted, talked to their local retailer and built momentum. You’ve given us the chance to do something we love and that is an incredibly wonderful thing.

Go read and enjoy!
-ZUB

My friend Miles is one of the only people outside of Image or the creative team that I’ve sent an advance reading PDF of the second issue of Skullkickers to, and he just posted up this quick review.

“This is Huang’s first professional comic gig—but you wouldn’t know that looking at this art. He draws more cleanly, more fluid and with better motion than most of Marvel or DC’s artist roster. Seriously, guys, this kid is putting a lot of career artists to shame.”

Without trying to sound cocky, I really do feel that issue two is stronger than issue one. The handful of people who have read both have unanimously come back with that assessment. If people are liking the first issue, and they seem to be so far, I hope they really dig in on #2.

Tonight I’m heading up to the Newstalk 1010 radio station here in town to record an interview with The Watchtower Podcast all about Skullkickers and other comic industry chatter. I’m really looking forward to it.

I can’t believe the first issue is out tomorrow. Surreal.

Apparently today’s a damn fine day for Skullkickers press:

• Ain’t It Cool News has posted a 5 page preview. They’ll have a full review of the issue on Wednesday.

• Third Eye Comics has it on their weekly release list as a ‘Must Buy’.

• Big Shiny Robot tells their readers to “…get to your local comic shop and get your hands on this book.”

• Flames Rising has a positive advance review. “The jokes are funny and the action is solid.”

The Skullkickers press leading up to Wednesday’s launch events is heating up!

• Living Between Wednesdays has an advance review of Skullkickers #1.

• Multiversity Comics also has an advance look at it.

• iFanboy has a brand new podcast interview posted up.

• Comic Book Resources has an extended 9 page preview of the first issue.

• Bleeding Cool is speculating on the value of issue 1’s low first print run.

Brian Clevinger and I have been chatting about comics a bit over e-mail. If you’ve never read his stories before then you’re missing out on some of the funniest and most creative comics being published right now, seriously. Anyways, Brian just redesigned the Atomic Robo website and, while I was browsing through the content there, I noticed an amazing article called

Which is great, but is even better when he backs it up with a run through of what that promise means.

Awesome. So awesome.

Have you ever read something and wondered how someone was able to photocopy the contents of your own brain and reproduce it without you even knowing? Yeah.

Brian and I want to meet in person when I head to the New York Comicon in a few weeks. I cannot wait.

The first pint’s on me, buddy.

This Wednesday, alongside the Skullkickers launch, will finally be the release of Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki #4, wrapping up the UDON mini-series I started earlier this year. The issue’s been done for a while, but administrative stuff and printing delays kept it pushed back until now.

Cover A by Omar Dogan / Cover B by Jo Chen

I’m really proud of this mini-series. Omar put together the best art of his career and really delivered on the humour and action I put in to the scripts. I could tell that he was pushing himself every step of the way and I’m thrilled we finally had a chance to collaborate so closely on a comic project after all these years of working together.

Contributing to the Street Fighter legacy, even in a small way, and expanding the history of some of these characters is a great feeling. I don’t know if any of the material I wrote will work its way in to Street Fighter canon, but the fact that the Ibuki mini-series is out there and Capcom/UDON liked what I wrote means a lot.

I hope you enjoy the finale.

Thank you everyone who has responded, Facebook ‘Like’ed, Tweeted, all that stuff… it really means a lot seeing such a positive response to the hard work we’ve put in to this book.

Anyways, it may sound a bit weird announcing that Skullkickers #1 first printing has ‘sold out at the distribution level before release‘. What does that mean and how does that happen? Can people still buy copies on September 22nd?

Okay, here’s how it goes:

Comics are solicited 3 months in advance of their actual release (book stores order way earlier than that. 6-9 months usually). This means comic retailers who have accounts with Diamond Distribution receive a catalogue of upcoming titles and can place an order for the number of copies they’d like to stock.

Unlike book stores, comic book retailers purchase these comics outright from Diamond, so there are no returns (except in rare cases). This helps stabilize income for smaller comic publishers (they won’t get hit with returns and restocking fees later on so the money they get is what they’ve earned) but it also means most retailers are afraid to try new titles if they’re unsure it will sell because they’d be stuck with them. There isn’t a lot of incentive to take risks on new things, especially from untested/unknown talent. They’re safer seeing what gets popular and jumping on later rather than trailblazing.

That’s why I’ve been beating the drum so hard doing so many interviews, trying to get as much interest and awareness as I can before the book comes out. That’s also why I sent some super early review PDFs out, rolling the dice that advance reviews would be positive so we could leverage those to get better coverage. I believe in what we’ve put together and the reviews have been solid.

Even still, Skullkickers is an unknown quantity and retailers responded with the expected pretty-good-but-not-great orders when we hit the Final Order Cut-Off deadline. That’s the date when retailers can change their numbers and print runs are set by publishers. Talking to the reps at Image, they felt the book had been under ordered and it was possible we could move quite a few more with reorders after issue #1 came out and good of word of mouth grew for the series. We put together a generous overprint (to cover any copies damaged in shipping and to absorb those hopeful reorders) and then crossed our fingers reorders would be strong.

Right after that cut off date, Skullkickers received some great coverage on several comic sites (notably, Bleeding Cool‘s positive assessment) and more advance reviews popped up with very positive feedback. Retailers responded with reorder requests and, when more positive coverage hit, those late orders grew again. Eric Stephenson at Image asked me to prep a possible 2nd printing cover in case we had to go back to press on the issue right after launch in order to fulfil those late orders.

Well, something awesome seems to be rolling because those extra orders have now roared past our overprint number and Image is going back to print on the book even before it comes out in order to meet retailer demand. It’s pretty much the best case scenario for a new indy series trying to get extra interest with potential readers and it puts us in a good spot at the upcoming New York Comicon in early October.

So, in short, next week you can buy copies of Skullkickers #1 first printing. Grab them while they last. If your local comic shop ordered copies then they’ll be there. If they didn’t order any (and that is the case with many stores), they can now get 2nd printing issue 1’s on October 13th, one week before issue #2 hits store shelves.

We’re not out of the woods yet. This is still the comics business and an unknown title. I assure you, there are no dump trucks of money to be had on something like this. Even with possible reprint sales we’ll be doing our best to just carve out something sustainable. If the buzz can carry over to a stable readership from issue #2 onwards that would be fantastic, the art team can make a freelance artist-worthy wage and I can eventually make back the money I’ve invested in to getting this off the ground.

I’m ecstatic and doing my best to stay level-headed while simultaneously feeling amazing about the book’s potential. I don’t want empty hype or to build expectations too high on it, I just want people to jump on board a new comic series and have as much fun reading it as we’ve had putting it together.

Holy crap!

Inbetween initial orders, final order cut-off and pre-release, additional late retailer orders are pouring in for Skullkickers #1 based on the momentum building and they’ve exceeded the first printing, even with Image’s initial overprint buffer. We’re going to a 2nd printing even before the first print hits store shelves next week!

Snap up those 1st print #1’s where you can on Sept 22nd.

Thank you everyone for your support!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Betsy Gomez
510-644-4980 x 26
betsygomez@imagecomics.com

HEAD-CRACKING BUZZ CREATES A SKULL-BUSTING SELLOUT
SKULLKICKERS #1 sold out at distribution level, rush second printing on its way

Berkeley, CA – 15 September 2010 – SKULLKICKERS is kicking down doors all over the place, with great early reviews and advance buzz. Image Comics is proud to announce that despite a significant overprint, SKULLKICKERS #1 has already sold out at the distribution level in advance of its September 22 street date! The second printing of this phenomenal issue will be in stores October 13.

SKULLKICKERS is fantasy action-comedy written by Jim Zubkavich (POPGUN, Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki) with art by the gifted team of Edwin Huang, Chris Stevens (POPGUN) and Misty Coats.

“Everyone on the team was ecstatic about the momentum building for the book,” says Zubkavich. “Even still, when our rep told me the generous print run had sold through before our release date, I was stunned. I can’t wait until people have a chance to give issue one a read and jump on board the wild ride we have planned for the series. Image is on a roll, and we’re proud to be a part of it.”

In SKULLKICKERS, two mercenaries are entangled in a high-class assassination plot, and nothing — not werewolves, skeletons or black magic — will stop them from getting paid. If you love fantasy, action-comedy, a touch of black-hearted violence and movies like ARMY OF DARKNESS, SKULLKICKERS is the book for you!

SKULLKICKERS #1 Second Printing (AUG108013), a 32-page full-color comic book for $2.99, will be in stores October 13, 2010. SKULLKICKERS #2 (AUG100490) will be in stores October 20. Follow the Skullkickers blog at www.skullkickers.com for sneak peeks and more. You can download a free preview of SKULLKICKERS using the Image Comics app from comiXology.

Image Comics is a comic book and graphic novel publisher founded in 1992 by a collective of best-selling artists. Image has since gone on to become one of the largest comics publishers in the United States. Image currently has five partners: Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri and Jim Valentino. It consists of five major houses: Todd McFarlane Productions, Top Cow Productions, Shadowline, Skybound and Image Central. Image publishes comics and graphic novels in nearly every genre, sub-genre, and style imaginable. It offers science fiction, romance, horror, crime fiction, historical fiction, humor and more by the finest artists and writers working in the medium today. For more information, visit www.imagecomics.com.

It’s a real comic, folks. Creator comp copies showed up today at the house which means the book will definitely be in stores on time – Wednesday, September 22nd. I have copies sitting on my dining room table right now. So awesome.

I still get excited seeing books I’ve been involved with in print. Sometimes it’s a mild “neat” feeling, but with something like this where we’ve worked our asses off and pushed like crazy to get the word out it’s a full blown satisfaction that’s hard to explain.

It’s real and we’re doing this.

Today, comics are pretty damn fun. 🙂