John’s talking about independent film here, but it sure feels like he’s talking about independent comics. The bit about theatrical release being a token gesture on the road to the DVD sure as shit feels like the situation with floppies vs. trades.

Okay, this snuck up on me. Looks like Atomic Robo and the Dogs of War #2 is now available for pre-order.

The Eisner-nominated adventures continue… June, 1943: control of the Mediterranean hangs in the balance as the Allied Invasion of Sicily crashes against elite Nazi soldiers in “walking tank” armor that only ATOMIC ROBO can stop! Too bad he’s battered, beaten, shot, hit with grenades, captured, and miles away. What does this mean for the Allies who are trapped between the sea and these unstoppable Nazi super weapons?

Pick it up locally or online. Heavy Ink did a great job of keeping folks supplied with Robo issues the first time around, so they’re gettin’ the plug this time too. You guys know by now how difficult it can be to track down issues of Atomic Robo, so I definitely suggest pre-ordering to secure yours now.

This was a fun issue to write. It’s basically a series of fight scenes linking up with and interconnecting with one another for twenty-two pages. But what I really love about this new series is how much higher Scott and Ronda have raised their respective bars. Here’s a couple pages — with my inane dialog out of the way — showing off their amazing work on this volume.

Ronda in particular pulls off some wonderful subtle lighting effects to simulate the passage of time in the second half of the issue. Keep an eye out for that when you pick it up yourself September 10th.

Atomic Robo and the Fightin’ Scientists of Tesladyne hits shelves this Wednesday!

Wednesday, Scott will be signing at New England Comics in Malden from 11:30am - 1:30pm and the NEC in Harvard from 3:30pm to 5:30pm. Friday he’ll be at Jim Hanley’s Universe in NYC from 6 to 9pm and Saturday he’ll be at the Staten Island JHU from 1 - 3pm (and probably a little hungover).

Meanwhile! I’ll be at the Bad Apple Comics by UCF from 3 - 5pm on Wednesday, and I’ll be at their OBT location across from the Florida Mall Saturday afternoon from 12 - 2pm.

Luckily, in the grand scheme of things, it’s pretty minor.

Atomic Robo and the Fightin’ Scientists of Tesladyne will be late. Our printer screwed up and there is no possible way for it to hit shelves June 11th as scheduled. It should arrive the following week, June 18th.

Team Robo turned in all materials to Red 5 on time and Red 5 turned in everything to the printer on time. The printer just misunderstood (or mistyped?) when they needed the job to be done and no one realized it until it was too late to do anything.

Not too happy about this, but I’m trying to be zen about the situation. We did everything right, what went wrong was out of our control, and getting heart-attackingly infuriated about it now won’t fix anything. Serenity now.

Most importantly: everyone who ordered our trade will be getting it. You’ll just get it a week later than expected. What really cheeses me off (sorry for the harsh language, there) is how unfair this is to the retailers where Scott and I were going to do signings. These folks have been plugging us and the trade’s date of release for weeks, and now they’ve got to say “just kidding!” Bleh.

The trade paperback of our first mini-series, Atomic Robo and the Fightin’ Scientists of Tesladyne, hits June 11th. If this thing moves the way the individual issues did, it’s in your best bet to pre-order it. Just head down to your local comic shop and give them the order number: APR084084. If your local shop is a million miles away (or fewer but still outside of reason), fine chain bookstores such as Waldenbooks, Books-a-Million, Barnes and Noble, Borders, and so on can order it for you too. Or you can pick it up online at a variety of stores including Amazon and Heavy Ink.

Dear god, there’s more!

The first issue of our new mini-series, Atomic Robo and the Dogs of War, comes out August 13, but you can order it now! Local shop; go there; order number JUN084181; give them. Also, online and Heavy Ink.

Whew.

Meanwhile, we just turned in Vol 2 Issue 2 yesterday (ahead of schedule, cha-ching), Scott’s already a couple pages into Issue 2.3, and I’m making some headway on 2.4. Team Robo is an entertainment machine and we’re stuck on turbo, baby.