October 2023:
MANIAC HARDBOX FOUR ISSUE COLLECTION ON SALE AT VINEGAR SYNDROME NOVEMBER 1, 2023! MARK IT! MORE INFO BELOW!
Neat, huh?
Well, there's lots more!
This is Stephen Romano from Eibon Press/ Vinegar Syndrome Publishing! It's been a long year full of incredible doings, and we thank every one of you for helping to make this new iteration of what we do so awesome. Our ZOMBIE re-release BOX SET was a sold-out success... but if you missed it, don't fear. A second-pressing RETAIL EDITION of the set with alternate front cover art is coming! ALSO, the individual issues are still available at our SITE, for those who want to collect the deluxe SLEEVED VERSIONS... and the no-frills RETAIL VERSIONS of the entire series. Don't have them yet? Get over there and GET SOME, kids!
And here's what we're doing:
MANIAC HARDBOX SET ON SALE NOVEMBER 1 AT VINEGAR SYNDROME!
Got that? It's the BIG NEWS! We have not one, but TWO new HARD BOX SET COLLECTIONS headed your way. That's MANIAC and MANIAC 2: ROADKILL, both based on the classic 1980 horror film by William Lustig and Joe Spinell! I've gotten the production samples in and boy are they insane!
Check out MANIAC here, which goes on sale NOVEMBER 1 at Vinegar Syndrome!
This collects ALL THREE ISSUES of the original series we published in the "old days." BUT! It is also a DIRECTORS CUT will ALL NEW PAGES, an INTRODUCTION BY ELI ROTH, and so much more. It is SUPER LIMITED and only 1,500 copies have been printed.
ON SALE NOVEMBER 1 AT THIS LINK
Some specs here:
• All new SLEEVES for each issue, with painted art by Pat Carbajal. Each issue is contained in the sleeve, and is shrink-wrapped and stickered like a vinyl record album.
• All new printed extras inside each sleeve with your comic. TRADING CARDS, BOOKMARK, COLLECTOR'S NEWSLETTER and ART PRINT. This stuff is ALL NEW and never seen before!
• A SPECIAL SLEEVED BEHIND THE SCENES ISSUE, 60 PAGES, containing everything you ever wanted to know about the making of MANIAC and MANIAC 2, all contained in the same awesome sleeve jacket with the same groovy extras, such as TRADING CARDS, BOOKMARKS, etc. You can only get this issue in the BOX SET and only 1,500 have been printed.
•Plus you get it all in the amazing INTERLOCKING TWO PART COLLECTOR'S HARD CASE, with CLASSIC and ALL-NEW ARTWORK. Can't beat that with a stick.
ON SALE NOVEMBER 1 AT THIS LINK
ONE SALE NOVEMBER 1 AT VINEGAR SYNDROME. AT THIS LINK HERE. MARK THE MOTHERFUCKER!
MANIAC 2: ROADKILL will be along next. It's the infamous, outrageous, and OFFICIAL SEQUEL to the film, fully licensed and approved by director William Lustig! It's done up in the same BOX SET with tons of extras. It is SUPER LIMITED and only 1,500 copies have been printed.
Check it out!
• Contains all issues of the infamous series, the complete epic saga of Frank and Anna in the desert, including the NEVER BEFORE SEEN FOURTH ISSUE, which is so outrageous and gory, your eyes will will explode and your brain will melt and your flesh will burst into flames. No, really.
• ALL NEW printings of each issue, with new pages, new back matter and new design! (Back matter is the stuff at the end of a comic book, like making-of articles; it's not a disease!)
• ALL NEW printed extras, including TRADING CARDS, BOOKMARKS, COLLECTOR'S NEWSLETTERS and ART PRINTS. Never seen before!
• TWO COLLECTOR'S MINI-POSTERS, exclusive to this set!
• And of Course the INTERLOCKING COLLECTOR'S CASE, with CLASSIC and ALL NEW ARTWORK!
Here's a look at some of the ultra-violent scenes from the never before published FOURTH ISSUE. This wild and gory finale was created years ago and archived when the original Eibon Press went under. NOW YOU FINALLY GET TO SEE THE ENDING, and we promise you... it's something you'll NEVER FORGET.
Now, remember, kids... MANIAC 1 ON SALE NOVEMBER 1!!! RIGHT AT THIS LINK!!!
Okay . . . so we know you love our movie comics, and we have more on the way, but we've also been busting butt on some ALL-NEW ORIGINAL STUFF which I can finally talk about. These are dream projects, long gestating, which Vinegar Syndrome Publishing has been kind enough to get behind. We've been working with all-new artists, making ALL NEW MAGIC, and I'm writing, editing and lettering every single one of these babies. It's some of the best work we've we've ever done and we cannot WAIT to share it with you. So let's not wait! Let's announce those suckers right fucking now!
DIVA JACKSON is a long-cherished dream project Shawn Lewis had wanted to do since before even BOTTOMFEEDER. We got together to create this years ago, but were never able to finish it. It's, in my opinion, our best work together. You're going to see an all-new side of the nasty boys who brought you BOTTOMFEEDER. It's steeped in "blaxploitation" film roots, set in the 1970s, with some of the trappings of that sub-genre... but it's also a highly sophisticated piece of storytelling, with characters you'll love, villains you'll hate, heartbreaking tragedy and gut-punching action. We're SUPER PROUD of this one.
The amazing HANK LA MARCA provides the incredible interior art for DIVA JACKSON, an all-new Eibon Press/VSP discovery who stepped up to the plate and knocked it the fuck out of the park. (He's an ITALIAN, like me!) Here's a PREVIEW PAGE from ISSUE #1:
A young black girl with an angelic singing voice is horribly wronged by some real scumbags, caught up in an intergalactic trial for her soul, and sent back to earth changed forever, scared by the savage attack that left her blind, but now possessed of dark powers and the ruling spirit of an angry goddess who punishes the guilty AND the innocent alike! You've never seen a "superhero" like this, kids. In fact, she's not a superhero at all. FEAR HER. Because if you are evil... or if you allow evil to win... you're worse than dead. You belong to DIVA. And the power of her VOICE will DRAG YOU STRAIGHT DOWN TO HELL...
The first four-issue arc is almost completed and tells the epic tale of DIVA JACKSON over TEN YEARS, staring in 1970 with her scourging at 15 years old and ending in 1979, with adult Diva engaging the entire New York mafia in a bloody battle for the ages.
And if that's not enough for you, check out what we also have coming on the SAME DAY:
This one is really special to me, kids. It's a passion project I've had in my heart since 1987 and you can read those influences right there in the title treatment. THE UNDERGROUND TOXIC WASTE MUTANTS? Yep, it's that kinda of party. But, like with DIVA JACKSON, we're taking something that should be campy and silly (and maybe even just plain stupid) and we're making it into something with real heart and substance. In fact, MUTANTS may be the most "Serious Minded" work we've ever done here (cough, rolls eyes), outside of some of the movie stuff. I've been pitching to everyone it as ALIENS meets BLADE RUNNER on the set of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK and THE ROAD WARRIOR... with the CHUDS comin' at ya! (Uh huh, TOTALLY serious, right?)
It's a sequential graphic adaptation of a novel I wrote last year, adapting a story I've had in my since I was a child and it brings almost 40 years of experience, storytelling tools and outrageous monsters into the limelight. Set more than two hundred years in the future, it's the story of a bio-enhanced strike team of manufactured superhumans, created from a mysterious ooze of creation, who must battle a nightmare army of shapechanging monsters in the ruins of civilization.
If it all sounds familiar, well you'd be right. But that's the idea. We're harkening back to exploitation films of the 1980s with this one, a decade when so many great things were done, and so many others were rushing to capitalize on all of it. We're inspired by films such as GALAXY OF TERROR, FORBIDDEN WORD, CREEPOZOIDS and others... but we're going for a style and substance that will (hopefully) blow you away. The art is by newcomer FABRICIO GURERA, and he's kicking ALL the monster ass. Have a look:
BEWARE THE UTWM . . .
Finally... we have something really special for you, kids.
I LOVE this next one and so do the boys at VSP. In fact, this is going to be the first NON-EIBON branded title at Vinegar Syndrome Publishing, because it is based on one of the films we own the rights to, and it's a wild one indeed. Don't worry, I'm still in there as writer/editor and it's still gonna blow yer mind... but this is also a genre we've never tackled at either Eibon OR VSP. It's technically non-horror, even though there are some horrific things in there. It's not a monster story, though we do have an evil spirit lurking within its pages. And we also have voodoo magic, mad doctors and even a room filled with screaming killer kitty cats! And in the middle of it all, the SEXIEST WOMAN ON EARTH:
Yes, we made a comic book series out of THAT MOVIE!
Why did we do it?
Because I love Phyllis Davis and SWEET SUGAR is my favorite Machete Maidens Unleashed type film.
And, in our usual style, it is a radical expansion and enhancement of Sugar's story, with the first issue being a prequel that tells you how she got to the cane fields for her big adventure, and provides TONS MORE BLODY ACTION! I mean, you ain't even gonna believe how intense and sexy and wild this comic book is. It's one of our very favorite things we've been working on! The incredible BILL SCARPITTI, a true kindred soul, provides the obsessed and rocking artwork for SUGAR, and from the very beginning we knew this collaboration was something truly special. We're deep into production on issue #3 now, but #1 is ready to hit your bookshelves soon! Here's some awesome previews from SWEET SUGAR CHAPTER ONE: BOWMAN'S WAY.
The first issues of SWEET SUGAR, DIVA JACKSON and THE UNDERGROUND TOXIC WASTE MUTANTS are headed your way, as our first ever single-issue comic releases, both in DELUXE SLEEVED EDITIONS WITH EXTRAS and in no-frills RETAIL EDITIONS WITH VARIANT COVERS. Check out one of the trading cards from UTWM, done exclusively for the set by Puis Calzada.
Here's the variant for SUGAR #1:
Wow, huh?
And for the box set enthusiasts, we have a special deal for you! Check THIS out:
Yes, you'll be able to order ALL THREE INAUGURAL ISSUES of our incredible new series in a special TRIPLE FEATURE PACK, with an amazing SLIPCOVER. Here's a look at what it looks like, front and back:
You get all three comics, plus an awesome wrap, just like the Vinegar Syndrome video releases, all at a special price you can afford!
And WHEN EXACTLY WILL will all this awesome stuff be headed your way? The answer is very, very soon! You'll be able to get the two MANIAC box sets and TRIPLE FEATURE before the end of this year. Keep an eye on our SOCIAL FEEDS at Twitter (not calling it X, dammit) and Facebook, for specifics, and we'll update here too in the coming weeks.
And if all that wasn't quite enough for you, kids . . . we have even MORE STUFF in the works, including a NEW YORK RIPPER one shot that will burn your eyes out. It's in the works now, with ALEX SARABIA and DEREK ROOK (of GATES OF HELL) on art duties, and believe me when I tell you... this is something you will never put out of your mind, no matter how hard you try.
Also, here's your first hint at something BIG we have in the works right now, with a super-legendary author/screenwriter/comic creator. It's actually a sequential graphic adaptation of a television series I co-created with him, based on probably his most famous (or infamous) stand-alone novel. Not telling the title yet, but I'll give you a few hints: It's a survival horror story, about teenagers facing a supernatural menace, trapped within a zone of intense evil, cut off from the rest of the world. And it's set in the 1980s. Um. Kinda sounds like STRANGER THINGS meets UNDER THE DOME, huh? Well, this novel did all of that FIRST, and it's now my freshest collaboration with PAT CARBAJAL, my favorite partner in comics, the genius artist who brought you both MANIAC and MANIAC 2, along with BOTTOMFEEDER, LASERBLAST, Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE 2 and THE BEYOND. Check out the first-ever PREVIEW IMAGE from this incredible new series, which begins with a bloody bang in early 2024:
What could it be? FIND OUT SOON!
Also, we have a supernatural rock band fighting demons for Satan in DEADGIRLS AND DARKER, also based on an unproduced TV series I wrote many years ago. (Let that be a lesson to ya, kids: NEVER THROW ANYTHING AWAY.) This one is a sort of comedic take on horror, lightening up a bit, but there's no shortage of zombies and ghouls getting their heads blown off. It's really intense and fun and headed your way later in 2024. The art is by the amazing DAVE CABRERA, who did the steampunk VAMPIRELLA series for Dynamite. The amazing covers for both this and UTWM and DIVA are by Erwin Arozza, another new discovery.
Oh and as Columbo says . . . ONE LAST THING:
A SPOOKIES comic book? Yes, your eyes do not deceive you.
But that's also for next year.
Keep an eye on us for more deets about what's coming soon.
And be VERY AFRAID!
CAUSE HALLOWEEN IS COMING!!!!
