New Releases by Fred Van Lente

In this issue: Transmech Catchers. Soft Robots. Computers that are guns. Ultraviolent versions of video games that aren''t actually video games because everybody that plays will probably die. Welcome to THE BUTCHER BLOC, from acclaimed creators FRED VAN LENTE (Marvel Zombies, Conan The Avenger) and CORY SMITH (Fathom, TMNT)!

In a city full of superpowered do-gooders, the mob needs above-average enforcers to get away with robbery, murder, and so much more. Enter the Silencers, a lineup of criminals with extraordinary abilities who are more than happy to use lethal force for a mafia-funded payday. But when the Silencers'' leader, the legendary Cardinal, finds out his team''s being set up for a deadly fall, these pawns do more than try to put a mob king in checkmate . . . They want to take over the whole city''s crime scene. Collecting the gritty cult-favorite crime comic from New York Times best-selling creators Fred Van Lente (Marvel Zombies, Brain Boy, Archer & Armstrong) and Steve Ellis (High Moon, Breaking Bad, The Only Living Boy), this comprehensive collection features the entire Silencers story.

A step-by-step guide to all aspects of comic book creation--from conceptualization to early drafts to marketing and promotion--written by two of the industry''s most seasoned and successful pros. Discover the Secrets of Your Favorite Comic Book Creators Do you want to break into the comics industry? There are many creative roles available—writer, penciller, inker, colorist, letterer, editor, and more. Each creator serves a vital function in the production of sequential art at companies such as DC, Marvel, Image, and Valiant. In Make Comics Like the Pros, veteran comics creators Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente team up with a who’s who of the modern comic book scene to lead you step-by-step through the development of a comic. With these two fan-favorite writers as your guides, you’ll learn everything from script formatting to the importance of artistic collaboration to the best strategies for promoting and selling your own sequential art masterpiece. Pak and Van Lente even put their lessons into practice inside the pages of the book—pairing with Eisner Award–winning cartoonist Colleen Coover (Bandette) to produce the swashbuckling, adventure comic Swordmaids, and giving you front row seats to their creative process. Make Comics Like the Pros provides all the answers you’ve been seeking to take your comic book–making dreams all the way to professional-level reality.

Living it up at the Hotel California! Dead celebrities, an extra-dimensional hotel, the truth about The Doors?and that was all in our first issue! Fred Van Lente?s ground-breaking run continues as Archer & Armstrong face off against their greatest foe, The Lizard King, as the fate of reality itself hangs in the balance!

At last ? an oversized deluxe hardcover collecting the complete first year of Archer & Armstrong by New York Times best-selling writer Fred Van Lente (Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel Zombies)! Join one of the most acclaimed adventures in comics as naive teenage assassin Obadiah Archer and the fun-loving, hard-drinking immortal called Armstrong unite to stop a plot ten thousand years in the making! From the lost temples of ancient Sumeria to modern day Wall Street, Area 51, and beyond, Valiant?s conspiracy-smashing adventurers are going on a globe-trotting quest to bring the down the unholy coalition of cultists known as the Sect ? and stop each of history?s most notorious conspiracies from remaking the world in their own insane image. Collecting ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #0-13, the Archer & Amstrong Deluxe Editon oversized hardcover also comes jam-packed with more than 20+ pages of bonus features, including covers, character designs, and process art by Neal Adams, David Aja, Juan Doe, Tom Fowler, Clayton Henry, Emanuela Lupacchino and many more!

When the United States Secret Service needs to stop an assassination before the killer''s even decided to buy a gun, they call the world''s most powerful telepath: Matt Price, a.k.a. Brain Boy. But when the secret agent that can read anyone''s mind finds that a powerful psychic network has been hidden from him, Brain Boy begins to wonder whether he knows everything or nothing at all! * Written by _New York Times_ best-selling author Fred Van Lente (_Archer and Armstrong_, _G.I. Joe_) with art by R. B. Silva (_Superboy_, _Jimmy Olsen_)! 

Ambushed while protecting an important statesman, Matt Price, a.k.a. Brain Boy, finds himself wrapped up in political intrigue that could derail a key United Nations conference and that sets the psychic spy on a collision course with a man whose mental powers rival his own! Collects Brain Boy #0–#3. * New York Times bestseller Fred Van Lente (Archer & Armstrong). • Art by R. B. Silva (Superboy, Jimmy Olsen), and Freddie Williams II (Green Arrow, Captain Atom)!

Every enemy. Against each other. For centuries, the cloak-and-dagger coalition of conspiracies collectively known as The Sect has worked together to bring silent oppression and undercover tyranny to a world that thought it was free. But, now after centuries of profit sharing and uneasy alliances, the factions of The Sect are about to erupt into open conflict…and the only men that can end the insanity are Archer & Armstrong! Too bad they’re fighting for different sides! Why? How? And will either survive? The knockdown, drag-out A&A event of the year starts now – and no conspirator is safe! Collecting ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #14-17 by New York Times best-selling writer Fred Van Lente (Incredible Hercules) and acclaimed artists Khari Evans (Harbinger) and ChrisCross (Superman/Batman), jump into the series that IGN calls “a must read” with an all-new adventure pitching Archer & Armstrong into their biggest battle yet!

Study the tenets of Plato, the wrestling superstar from ancient Greece; learn the lessons of Nietzsche, the original Ubermensch; and meditate on the Bohdidharma, a kung-fu master. Laugh, learn, laugh a bit more and ponder the messages of history''s greatest thinkers as Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavy deliver this comprehensive cartoon history from the pre-Socratics to Derrida! This highly original, pretension-free and riotously funny collection celebrates its 10th anniversary in print with this deluxe hardback ''Uberedition''!

Collects X-Men Noir #1-4. The Brotherhood is re-imagined through a Noir prism as Xavier, a discredited shrink sits in a jail cell, wondering what in the world his little refugees from the Xavier School for Exceptionally Wayward Youth are up to now. Other than staying one step ahead of Magnus and the Brotherhood, that is.

Christopher Sebela (_Captain Marvel_, _Ghost_) crafts a horror tale from World War II-there''s blood in the water in _Cruel Biology_! And two misters return to the pages of _DHP_, as Dean Motter delivers a new noir tale starring Mister X and Michael T. Gilbert''s Mr. Monster faces off against a telepathic threat bent on world domination! Plus, new installments of _Nexus_, Fred Van Lente''s _Saint George_, _Kill Me_, and more! "As always, I can''t recommend _Dark Horse Presents_ enough."-Unleash the Fanboy "Seriously, this is comics'' best kept secret trove of great comics."-Comic Book Resources

Ambushed while protecting an important foreign dignitary, Matt Price, a.k.a. Brain Boy, finds himself wrapped up in political intrigue. An assassination plot that could derail a key United Nations conference sets Brain Boy on a collision course with a man whose mental powers rival his own! Get ready for a psychic smackdown over the streets of New York City! * Written by New York Times best-selling author Fred Van Lente (_Archer and Armstrong, G.I. Joe_) with art by R. B. Silva (_Superboy, Jimmy Olsen_)! 

Castaways in the Faraway! Mary-Maria, Archer?s arch-nemesis/love interest/adopted sister, is back and dead-set on taking over the Sect by any means necessary. What better way to seize control of the most secret of secret societies than by unlocking their most secretive of secrets inside the secretest place on Earth? Now, as Mary-Maria sneaks her way inside Area 51 to claim a long-hidden prize, Archer & Armstrong are about to discover the forbidden history that binds America?s blackest black-ops base to the time-lost lands of the Faraway ? and wind up fighting their way through each of its tightly guarded mysteries, one punch at a time. Collecting ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #0 and ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #10-13 by New York Times best-selling writer Fred Van Lente (Amazing Spider-Man) and artists Clayton Henry (Incredible Hercules) and Pere Perez (Harbinger Wars), follow Valiant?s conspiracy-busting adventurers from the pages of their saga-smashing zero issue and into their most dangerous mission yet, right here in the next epic volume of the series that IGN calls ?the most fun you?ll have in a ?superhero? comic?. ?It?s hard to believe that month after this book keeps getting better, but it does.? ? Comic Vine ?Don?t miss one of the best books currently running!? ? Mania.com

Hercules battled gods, men and monsters in a lifetime of violence and destruction. Today, Hercules is best known for his ''twelve labours'', a series of near-impossible tasks assigned to him as punishment for the killing of his wife and children. During those tasks, he slew the multi-headed hydra, wrestled with Cerberus, hound of the underworld, and stole the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. Yet even when his labours were done, his adventures continued. Hercules led armies, sacked cities, fought against the gods, and then joined forces with the gods in the great war known as ''The Gigantomachy''. This book tells the complete story of this legendary warrior, including information on the classical sources, his deification and cult, and his continuing popularity as a character in film, television and comic books.

Agent Price''s new mission pits him against a doomsday cult leader with a political agenda that poses a direct threat to the president. But a mysterious hive mind has more menacing plans for Brain Boy. He''ll have no choice but to go head to headbrain to brainwith the mysterious Men from G.E.S.T.A.L.T.! * Fred Van Lente (_Archer & Armstrong_) and Freddie Williams II (_Green Arrow_, _Captain Atom_) team up again! * A great jumping-on point for new readers! * Pick up _Brain Boy_ Volume 1: _Psy vs. Psy_ now, then start this new series arc!

Are you near-death experienced? Framed architect-turned-thief Jericho Way has discovered he''s a Resurrectionist**,** one of a select group of people who can not only remember their past lives, but _become_ them. Two groups are now after his servicesthe Sojourn corporation, which wants to exploit his powers for mysterious purposes, and a motley crew of modern-day tomb robbers who have been trying to pull the same impossible heist for 3,000 yearsand if Jericho joins them, he may steal back his own future! * A new creator-owned ongoing comic series. * Art by rising stars Maurizio Rosenzweig (_Clown Fatale_) and Moreno Dinisio (_Dead Body Road_)!

ALL-NEW ARC! Archer and Armstrong and Aliens. Oh my! Mary-Maria, Archer?s arch-nemesis/love interest/adopted sister is back, ready to take over The Sect ? by any means necessary. And what better way to seize control of the secret society of secret societies than by unlocking their most secretive of secrets on the secretest place on Earth? And who but the Valiant Universe?s premiere team of conspiracy-busters can possibly stop her? Just when you thought this book couldn?t get any weirder, Archer & Armstrong storm Area 51?and things get weirder still!

The true story of the Epic (Fail) of Giglamesh! Original series artist and Harbinger Wars superstar Clayton Henry returns to tell a tale of the early days of the man known as Armstrong! How early? How?s ancient Ur sound? For the first time, the 100 percent true story behind the Epic of Gilgamesh can be told? A tale of three warrior brothers, the Anni-Padda ? or as you may know them, ARMSTRONG, the ETERNAL WARRIOR and TIMEWALKER ? on a quest to the mysterious Faraway to bring back its immortal Boon. What they find is a lost land full of danger, excitement ? and the greatest secret of the Valiant Universe! Plus: this issue tees up the next arc of A&A, beginning this June in issue #10!

Nothing is forever. So say the Null. ?The Wrath of the Eternal Warrior? gears up for its universe-shattering penultimate issue! ?Nothing is Forever.? That is the motto of the Null, the enemies of the Geomancers for centuries. Now, at last, the Null have found the key to the utter destruction of all that is ? and his name is Obadiah Archer! Can Aram and Gilad set aside their differences long enough to team up against Armstrong?s best friend ? and will any of them survive the final battle?

Another issue of 2012''s best anthologyanother collection of amazing comics, natch! Premiering this issue: Dan Jolley and Leonard Kirk''s supervillain tracker Clev is back out of prison to help the FBI hunt an invisible killer, Fred Van Lente and Freddie Williams II delve into a world of psychic espionage in _Brain Boy_, and Peter Hogan and Phil Winslade pull you into another magical dimension with _King''s Road_. * Dan Jolley''s _Bloodhound_ comes to Dark Horse! Dark Horse''s prestigious anthology series . . . showcases emerging talent alongside some of the greatest writers, artists and cartoonists comics has to offer, as well as promising new and underground talents.�ComicsAlliance

Dennis Calero delves into the bloody world of corporate mergers in _The Suit_a real cutthroat businessman! Ken Pisani and Arturo Lauria bring their Geekie Award�winning political sci-fi drama _Colonus_ to the pages of _DHP_! And Brent Schoonover gets down and dirty with the Burial Brothers, featuring colors by Jordie Bellaire! Plus, new chapters of Fred Van Lente and Guiu Vilanova''s _Weird Detective_, Brendan McCarthy''s _Dream Gang,_ and Mike Grell''s _Tarzan_! If you are a fan of independent comics, there is simply no reason not to be reading this.� Infinite Comix

For the first time ever, the inspiring, infuriating, and utterly insane story of comics, graphic novels, and manga is presented in comic book form The award-winning Action Philosophers team of Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey turn their irreverent-but-accurate eye to the stories of Jack Kirby, R. Crumb, Harvey Kurtzman, Alan Moore, Stan Lee, Will Eisner, Fredric Wertham, Roy Lichtenstein, Art Spiegelman, Herg , Osamu Tezuka -- and more

When things get scary, it’s nice to know that Odd is on our side. The one and only Odd Thomas is back—in his second edgy and enthralling graphic-novel adventure from #1 New York Times bestselling suspense master Dean Koontz. It’s Halloween in Pico Mundo, California, and there’s a whiff of something wicked in the autumn air. While the town prepares for its annual festivities, young fry cook Odd Thomas can’t shake the feeling that make-believe goblins and ghouls aren’t the only things on the prowl. And he should know, since he can see what others cannot: the spirits of the restless dead. But even his frequent visitor, the specter of Elvis Presley, can’t seem to point Odd in the right direction. With the help of his gun-toting girlfriend, Stormy, Odd is out to uncover the terrible truth. Is something sinister afoot in the remote barn guarded by devilish masked men? Has All Hallows Eve mischief taken a malevolent turn? Or is the pleading ghost of a trick-or-treater a frightening omen of doom?

When humanity expanded beyond the safety of Earth to new stars and horizons, they never dreamed what dangers they would encounter there. When the alien juggernaut known as the Covenant declared holy war upon the fragile human empire, millions of lives were lost—but, millions of heroes rose to the challenge. In such a far-reaching conflict, not many of the stories of these heroes, both human and alien, have a chance to become legend. This collection holds eleven stories that dive into the depths of the vast Halo universe, not only from the perspective of those who fought and died to save humanity, but also those who vowed to wipe humanity out of existence. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Iron Man must find a way to keep the Plantman from using the creeping doom to end the domination of animals over the Earth.