Beginning, Monday, March 1, 2010, issues one through four of Atomik Mike will be released in a series of panels, for free, at www.atomikmikethecomic.com.

Each week day, the creators of Atomik Mike, Stephan Nilson and Izzy Cruz, will post new panels of the comic, blog about the content and accept questions and comments on the Frozen Beach Studios Facebook Fan Page, located at http://www.facebook.com/frozenbeach?ref=ts

Fans who interact with the creators on the Frozen Beach Studios Fan Page will be entered to win original Atomik Mike artwork and a CGC-graded 9.8 alternative cover for Issue #1 of Atomik Mike.

Award-winning publishing house becomes new IDW imprint

IDW Publishing and Desperado today announced a publishing agreement, which will bring Desperado’s impressive roster of talented creators and expansive catalog of books to IDW under a new imprint.

Founded in January 2005 by Eisner Award-winning comics veteran Joe Pruett, Desperado quickly established itself as a high-end publisher of art books, graphic novels, and comics. Desperado titles have been nominated for five Eisner Awards and won two since 2007, and repeatedly feature the comic industry’s top creative talent.

“We are very excited to have Desperado join us,” said IDW chief operating officer, Greg Goldstein. “Desperado’s books and roster of creators are both very impressive, and as an IDW imprint, Joe will have the flexibility and support to expand both. It’s really a win-win situation.”

IDW’s new imprint will continue to offer the high quality books and feature the talented creators for which Desperado is known. The 2010 line up already includes industry greats, such as Dave Dorman, Tony Harris and George Perez. These books, as well as Desperado’s comics and graphic novels, will be released under the new imprint.

“I was sold from the first conversation,” said Pruett. “If there was one company that I would admit to being envious of, it would be IDW. Watching them transform from a start-up company to the present day publishing beast has been nothing if not inspiring. Everything about IDW speaks to how much they love this industry and love what they are doing. We at Desperado look forward to a long, prosperous relationship. As the famous quote goes, ‘I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.’”

Today I was witness to something that reinforced my love for this industry and that I made the right choice to follow this career path no matter how difficult it can be from time to time.

A friend and I were waiting for our check at lunch today when a guy in his thirties , Paul (I got his name later) walked into the restaurant. I didn’t see him more than heard him. Not that he was making a lot of noise or drawing attention to himself, but it was the familiar rustle of the plastic bags we get at comic book stores. I knew it was comic Wednesday. Without looking at this guy I turned to my friend and established my dominance of the geek-dom by telling him, “Someone just brought in comics.” Nailed it! Paul sits at his table and removes his new comics (and it was an impressive pile) from his comic bag and proceeds to bag and board them while waiting for the waitress. He continues to work while having a polite but slightly awkward conversation about comics and art with the waitress. Now at this point I’m thinking to myself that we have a serious collector because of his attention to detail while sliding his comics into the protective sleeves, but what really impressed me was what he did when he was finished with his project. He organized the books in the order he wanted and started reading them. I sat there for a moment looking at him (I believe I was even staring, sorry Paul). It was great to see someone so intently enjoying reading his comics. Obviously he takes care of them, but it was my opinion that he does that in order to have the books last. I don’t think he’s the type to rush out and Ebay the latest comic gimmick.

I got a chance to introduce myself and talk with Paul, a very casual guy. He seemed a bit skeptical at first. I’m betting he thought my friend and I were going to bag on him for bringing in comics. I told him my name and that I read too, more of the independents than he was familiar with but comic fans are comic fans. By the end of the conversation I got a much better feel for Paul. He’s an avid reader as much as a collector.

The point of this ramble is that meeting a comic fan is just as exhilarating for us as it is for them. I was suffering some serious burnout this week working on three different projects, but now it’s all I can do to finish typing up my thoughts here so I can get back to work. With that I’ll end it a big THANK YOU to all the “Pauls” out there.

Cheers!

Now you have no excuses, you can read the entire first issue of Atomik Mike Volume Two for free right here on the new Frozen Beach Studios site! Check it out, and let us know what you think. Hopefully you’ll enjoy that little yellow monkey as much as we do.

Read the entire first issue free!

Mini-MegaCon is finally upon us! We will be at the show both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. If you will be there stop by and pick-up a book or just say hello, we will be in the Independent Press section, at table Blue 2. We will have some great specials on books (buy two trades and get a 9.8 CGC comic for free) and we’ll be premiering the original graphic novel Extinction.

That’s right Frozen Beach Studios’ first original graphic novel is complete and will be in next month’s previews. A special sneak peek will be available in two weeks at Mini MegaCon in Orlando, Florida. Swing by artist alley to see Stephan Nilson (creator/writer) to get a first-look at the book beautifully illustrated by Kevin Stokes and masterfully lettered by Charles Pritchett. You can see the first nine pages here. Also, you can start following Frozen Beach Studios on twitter under FBStudios. We’ll be updating our production information as well as convention spots.

Cheers,
Stephan

We are holding auditions Saturday April 25th, 2009 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. for a new scripted webisode series that will be shot in Stuart, Florida. If you are interested in learning more see the full posting here. You can send your headshot and resume to stephan@frozenbeachstudios.com.

Apparently we aren’t the only one who enjoyed our Dynamo5 project (we really did…hint, hint Jay). If you haven’t heard, the Frozen Beach Studios members (Stephan, Wesley, Charles and with help from Josh Templeton and Wes Wong) created the back-up story Rough Mourning that ran in Dynamo5 #20 (out now). The story is about Augie on the morning of Captain Dynamo’s funeral and the problems he has to deal with because of the Captain’s absence. No spoiler alert here. If you’d like to know more about the story go out and buy Dynamo5 #20. As an additional bonus, #20 is a new starting point for this great book. Yep, we’re fans too. We’ve been buying it since the beginning. So, go out and get yourself a copy and let us know what you think too. Cheers!

Congratulations go out to our friend and cohort Israel “Izzy” Cruz, artist and Co-Creator of Atomik Mike. Izzy was recently named on the Den of Geeks ” Ten Comicbook Creators to Watch Out for”, and not only was he on the list he heads the list in the number one spot! While we are thrilled with Izzy’s recognition, we feel it we should correct a couple of statements made on the Den of Geeks site. First is the publisher. Alias was the original publisher of Atomik Mike, but since the closing of their doors our new home for our simian hero has been Desperado publishing…and you can still order copies of the trades through their site, your LCS and Barnes and Noble. Secondly, the Comcast deal was something that didn’t pan out. That was an old press release, but there has been some movement recently that we hope to talk about in the near future including the new OGN coming later this year. Again, three cheers for our pal Izzy…now go out and see why he IS such a great artist.

Coming soon – at the end of this month – you can catch our first published comic book work under the new Frozen Beach banner.

In issue #20 of Image Comics’ Dynamo 5 we have a 5 page backup story for one of the secondary characters. The short story was written by Stephan Nilson, pencilled by Wesley Gunn and has letters by yours truly. We’re joined by colorist Wesley Wong and inker Josh Templeton.

Be sure to check it out and let us know what you think. Special thanks to Jay Faerber for giving us a shot as a team. Maybe he’ll have us back some day to do another one.