Comic News: Angel Goes Hollywood

Spoof "movie" and episode adaptations, plus exclusive Bill Willingham variant

All coming in December

The holiday wish lists for Angel fans just got bigger, with two new Angel comics from IDW coming in December, plus an exclusive variant! First, relive one of the most heart-wrenching stories from the television series with the start of the Angel: A Hole in the World miniseries. Then, Angel takes Hollywood by storm with Angel Annual #1, a comic spoof on the Angel movie that never was. Finally, fans can ask their local store about a special edition of Angel #28, the first of Bill Willingham’s extended story arc, available only on December 30th. In all, Angel fans are in for a very special December!

In Angel: A Hole in the World, a 5-issue miniseries also beginning in December, writer Scott Tipton and artist Elena Casagrande depict the tragic events of two landmark Angel episodes, “A Hole in the World” and “Shells,” telling the tragic tale of how Illyria came to fight alongside Angel and leading directly into the events of Angel: Not Fade Away and Angel: After the Fall.

Meanwhile, in Angel Annual #1, fan-favorite writer Brian Lynch and artist Stephen Mooney present the “official” adaptation of “Angel: Last Angel in Hell,” which picks up on the story partially presented in Angel #26, also by Lynch and Mooney. In “After the Fall,” Los Angeles was cast into hell, and when things returned to normal, all the city’s residents remembered their experience in the underworld. Since half the city’s residents are screenwriters, a movie version of Angel’s exploits was sure to follow, and it does here. This special 48-page one-shot presents the adaptation of that movie, and stars the Hollywood-cast versions of Angel and his crew as they go up against the devil himself. The first-ever Angel Annual is presented with two “movie poster” covers by Nick Runge, one featuring Angel and his crew and the other featuring the actors, portraying them in the movie.

As an added bonus for December, on the final week of the year fans can get their hands on a special edition of issue #28 of the ongoing Angel series, the first of the Willingham/Denham arc. This variant edition, featuring a New Year’s Eve-themed cover from artist Jenny Frison, is only available by special order on December 30th, since Diamond will not distribute regular comic books to stores that week.

Interested fans should inquire with their retailer on just how to get their hands on this cover.

“Bill Willingham’s first arc is definitely going to deliver,” promises IDW Associate Editor, Mariah Huehner. “Look forward to some unexpected developments for Angel and crew. Fame has a way of changing things.”

Angel Annual #1 ($3.99, 32 pages) debuts this December. Diamond order code: OCT09 0971


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Comic News:ZERO PUNCTUATION'S YAHTZEE CROSHAW COMES TO DARK HORSE

YAHTZEE CROSHAW’S MOGWORLDARRIVES AT DARK HORSE IN 2010!
CREATOR OF THE ESCAPIST’S ZERO PUNCTUATION BRINGS HIS FIRST NOVEL TO DARK HORSE

Coming soon from Dark Horse Books: Critical sensation Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw (The Escapist’s Zero Punctuation Reviews) brings his signature acerbic wit to his debut novel, Mogworld.

Mogworld, a comedic fantasy novel with a twist, is the story of Jim, who, sixty years after dying in a magic-school mishap, is wrenched back to life by a renegade necromancer. All Jim wants is to die properly, once and for all—no easy task for a minor character in a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game).

Croshaw’s animated Zero Punctuation reviews, which package prescient criticism with frenetic animation, off-color humor, and rapid-fire delivery, have made him a household name in the gaming community. Although Croshaw has covered a lot of creative and critical ground in his short career—before Zero Punctuation, he gained a reputation as an independent game designer and blogger, and he recently produced the pilot for a TV series, Game Damage—Mogworld is his first foray into published fiction.

“I love Zero Punctuation, and I had asked Yahtzee to pitch us a book about video games,” explains Mogworld editor Rachel Edidin. “The last thing I expected was a novel draft! And the next thing I knew, I was taking the manuscript home with me—less to finish it than because I had to see what happened next.”

Says Croshaw, “I’ve been trying to write novels ever since I first read Hitchhiker’s Guide at the age of eight, so this is a pretty big deal for me, and I’m very happy to be working with Dark Horse on this. Mogworld is an idea I’ve been kicking around ever since those dark, unproductive three months I spent playing World of Warcraft. It’s a bit of a cynical take on MMOs and the standard Tolkienesque ‘fantasy’ setting.”

Mogworld is announced in conjunction with Croshaw’s first stateside appearance at this weekend’s GameX show in Philadelphia. Mogworld is set to arrive on shelves in August 2010. Read more...

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