Hey, kids! Stephen Romano here, with some AWESOME NEWS! By popular demand, we're doing our second-ever GRAPHIC NOVEL COLLECTION of an Eibon Press series, and it's also our first Trade Paperback! Last year we did ZOMBIE as a deluxe hardback. It almost sold out, which was good, but our production costs were pretty high, so we didn't exactly break even. But people keep asking for a GATES OF HELL collection, so we thought we'd try something different. Check it out . . .
This super DELUXE EDITION is a killer book, with 124 PAGES of GATES OF HELL goodness! Plus it's a DIRECTOR'S CUT of the series, with all-new pages you've never seen before, and a rare sketchbook section, behind-the-scenes stuff and MORE! We're making this available in ONE AFFORDABLE EDITION, with each copy of 500 UNIT RUN signed and numbered. It doesn't come shrink wrapped in an Eibon Sleeve, but you do get our classic collector's brochure, a bookmark, a signed print from artist Derek Rook... and we're passing the savings along to you. That means you're still getting a super rarefied, incredibly collectible limited edition book for just THIRTY BUCKS. You can't beat that with a stick!
Plus . . . since we know our Psycho Fans will want something extra, we're opening up the vaults and giving you guys a special treat too:
THE PSYCHO FAN PACKAGE is also affordably priced at just 65 bucks, and for that you get some really cool extra stuff! The rare first-edition printing included with this set of THE GATES OF HELL represents my first attempt with a different publisher at getting this series into print way back in 2003. It was a trainwreck, but the fossil record of it still remains. Our most die-hard fans will want to own this SUPER RARE book, which has been out of print for 17 years!
Plus we're giving you a super-cool preview book of our upcoming series THE BEYOND:
All of this is by way of thanking you, the fans, who have shown up for all our releases and supported Eibon Press. We know you want these collections, so we're trying our best to find a printing and distribution model that will allow us to make them. If we do well with GATES OF HELL, perhaps we can do more of these. IT ALL CONTINUES TO DEPEND ON YOU. So let us know!!!
The GATES OF HELL trade edition goes on sale in JUST ONE WEEK, on Friday Sept 20 at 7PM! Get here early and get a low number in the Psycho Fan set! Or just get here early anyway. It's fun!
On a final, more personal note. Preparing the GATES collection has been a real trip down memory lane for me as a comic book guy. This book has been in the making for literally 20 YEARS. We started doing it in 1999. (I know, what in the TOTAL fuck, right???) Obviously, we had other fish to fry during those years, but GATES has always been in our lives. When we put out that first version of #1 in 2003, we hardly even had any idea what we were doing. We were babes in the woods. But that experience was part of our rite of passage into the real world of publishing. Now, with experience and training and MORE experience and MORE training, we've come around to a way of doing things that brings you some of the finest horror comics on the market. It was my goal, as editor and writer of GATES OF HELL, to make this final victory lap something very special for our fans and for us, as the creators of the material. So the series has gotten a re-vamp on many levels, with new color plates, new lettering, new art, and all-new scenes, including a pretty horrific bit that Derek came up with, which was left out of issue #2. All of that is restored and collected in this new edition, which puts a nice bloody cherry on the top of a 20 year anniversary and a beloved dream project.
BUT REMEMBER SOMETHING IMPORTANT: The single issue releases of this series are still there in our store, and they also contain art and extras you can't get anywhere else. And unless they sell, we cannot afford to continue publishing, much less doing trade collections. So we will go on doing those single issues, and we will go on making them the most unique comic books ever published. That's a promise. And when they sell out, or get real damn close, like on GATES . . . we'll do our best to give you those bloody extra cherries, too.
Be here NEXT FRIDAY September 20th at 7PM Pacific!
VIVA FULCI!
-Stephen