Press Release
During a press conference at Comic-Con International today, POW! Entertainment and BOOM! Studios revealed the characters, series and creative teams for three superhero titles to be published by Stan Lee and BOOM! Studios this fall. The three titles are:
SOLDIER ZERO, written by DOCTOR WHO and ACTION COMICS scribe Paul Cornell with art by SUPERMAN artist Javier Pina, tells the story of a wheelchair-bound astronomy teacher who finds himself in a freak accident that bonds him with an alien weapon of war.
THE TRAVELER, written by Eisner Award-nominee and BOOM! Studios Chief Creative Officer Mark Waid with art by AMAZING SPIDER-MAN artist Chad Hardin, features a mysterious new superhero with time-traveling powers battling the Split-Second Men, super-powered assassins from the future.
STARBORN, written by iZOMBIE’s Chris Roberson with art by THE X-MEN’s Khary Randolph, tells the story of a regular guy who discovers he’s the heir to an intergalactic empire, putting him the center of a war between five alien races.
At the press conference, Stan Lee revealed the character designs for all three characters and the covers for October’s SOLDIER ZERO by Trevor Hairsine and Dave Johnson.
SOLDIER ZERO #1 will also be shipping with a special cover signed by Stan Lee. Fans will need to contact their local comic book shop for more information on how to acquire this limited edition item.
The revelation this past March of Stan Lee presenting this series of three superhero titles at BOOM! followed on the heels of a viral marketing campaign announcing “Stan’s Back” that hit the internet in late February. The L.A. Times’ Hero Complex & L.A. Times’ Brand-X also got in on the action, running the “Stan’s Back” campaign in print and on their respective website. All the banner ads linked back to www.stansback.com, a site which had only the “Stan’s Back” logo and nothing else disclosing additional information.
For one week, the internet was in a frenzy, with comic fans everywhere trying to figure out what could the “Stan’s Back” teaser campaign mean. This culminated with the announcement that Stan Lee is back, this time at BOOM! Studios creating a line of three superheroes.
Today’s announcement of all three characters, series and creative teams ends the speculation that started with the “Stan’s Back” campaign.
About POW! Entertainment
(Purveyors of Wonder) Entertainment, Inc. (Pinksheets: POWN) An advanced media and entertainment company, POW! was founded by Stan Lee together with award winning producer Gill Champion and intellectual property attorney Arthur Lieberman, Esq. to create, produce and license original intellectual properties. POW! specializes in franchises for the entertainment industry, including animation and live-action feature films, plus television, DVDs, video games, merchandising and related ancillary markets, all of which contribute to global expansion.
About BOOM! Studios
BOOM! Studios (www.boom-studios.com) BOOM! Studios (www.boom-studios.com), 2009 “Best Publisher” of the year, generates a wide-ranging catalog of multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-nominated comic books and graphic novels featuring some of the industry’s top talent, including Philip K. Dick’s DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?, 20th Century Fox’s 28 DAYS LATER and DIE HARD, The Henson Company’s FARSCAPE, and the original Mark Waid series IRREDEEMABLE. This fall sees BOOM! teaming up with the legendary Stan Lee, creator of Marvel Comics’ characters Spider-Man, The Hulk, and The X-Men for a line of original superhero series, the legend’s first new superhero creations in nearly 20 years. BOOM!’s youth imprint, BOOM Kids!, is an undisputed industry leader publishing Disney/Pixar’s THE INCREDIBLES, CARS, and TOY STORY, as well as Disney’s THE MUPPETS, DONALD DUCK, UNCLE SCROOGE and WALT DISNEY’S COMICS AND STORIES. This year, BOOM! Studios celebrates its fifth anniversary.
Stan Lee is a National Medal of Arts Award-winner and created the superhero mainstays that populate the House of Ideas, Marvel Comics: Spider-Man, Iron Man, The X-Men, The Hulk, Dr. Strange, Daredevil, The Fantastic Four, and Thor amongst many others.
Mark Waid has written for every major comics publisher including well-loved stints on DC Comics’ The Flash and Marvel Comics’ Captain America and Fantastic Four as well as scribing one of the highest-selling graphic novels of all time, Kingdom Come. He is currently the Chief Creative Officer at comic book publisher BOOM! Studios.
Paul Cornell is perhaps best known as a fan-favorite screenwriter on the international TV sensation Dr. Who but he’s also written a number of audio plays and 15 novels. As of late, he’s lent his talents to Marvel and DC Comics working on such titles as Marvel’s Avengers Vs. Atlas and DC’s Action Comics. Cornell hails from the U.K.
Chris Roberson is a science fiction novelist who has been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award three times and on two occasions he has been a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. He won the Sidewise Award for Alternate History Long Form in 2009 for the novel The Dragon’s Nine Sons. He has also worked on DC Comics series such as Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love and the breakout hit iZombie.
Ross Richie is the Chief Executive Officer of BOOM! Studios, 2009’s “Best Publisher.” BOOM! is nominated this year for 7 Eisner and 5 Harvey Awards. 2010 is the company’s fifth anniversary.
2 Comments
Many of these actually sound pretty decent (especially with the attached creative teams). I did not expect this from something with Stan Lee’s once mighty/currently lame name.
He does tend to whore his name out to pretty much anything these days (new show starting soon on History channel Stan Lee’s Superhumans) and he even optioned and created a Backstreet Boys comic when they were big. Stripperella as well. But like Andrew, these titles do seem to be rather interesting and might, just might, get me to buy my first BOOM! title. How much you want to bet that Waid and other Boom(ers) came up with the characters and Stan Lee agreed to just lend his name to them. Or maybe when they were coming up with them Stan Lee said something like, “How about I sign the covers of the books and you send me money? EXCELSIOR!”