SAN FRANCISCO - AiT/Planet Lar publisher Larry Young announced today that a five page preview of Joe Casey and Charlie Adlard's ROCK BOTTOM will be showcased in Image Comics' THE WALKING DEAD #31, out in shops this Wednesday.
"Just like Marvel and Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips were like Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, and hit the moon first 'for all mankind,'" said Young, "AiT and Joe Casey and Charlie Adlard go second like Apollo 12's Pete Conrad and Al Bean and get to have none of the pressure and all of the fun. I guess that makes Kirkman NASA. Or the government. I don't know; I haven't thought this analogy all the way through. The point is, we're all having a blast. It was a friggin' joy working the logistics out with Robert, because he just doesn't love his comics; he loves all comics. And how do you not respond to that kind of enthusiasm?"
"Like I said in the CRIMINAL press release, 'Image has been kind enough to allow me to do this; we're all in the business of selling comics, more specifically GOOD comics and I think we all feel there's room for more of those no matter WHO the publisher is,'" said Kirkman. "I haven't even *read* ROCK BOTTOM yet, but it's written by Joe Casey and drawn by Charlie Adlard, so I don't NEED to in order to know it's AWESOME and neither do you. Be there or be square."
ROCK BOTTOM and WALKING DEAD artist Charlie Adlard keeps the good vibes flowing. "It was fantastic of Robert to give up space in THE WALKING DEAD to preview ROCK BOTTOM... though, he had too, really, because [a] I'm a goddamn genius... and [b] his life would not be worth living if he didn't run it in our book!"
Writer Joe Casey has some fun with his non-standard press release quote, too: "Years ago, when Charlie embarked on the artistic odyssey that is ROCK BOTTOM, I told him he should find some wildly successful black & white zombie book to draw... that way, when *our* book was ready to go, we could run a preview in the back of an issue. Funny how Kirkman played right into our hands!"
THE WALKING DEAD #31 from Image will be in stores on September 20, and ROCK BOTTOM from AiT will be hitting shops the week after... ensuring at least two good reasons to go into your local shop this fall.