So we all know someone who loves reality TV, that person who can’t wait to vote for your favorite singer on American Idol or talks to their co-workers about the horrible performer on X-Factor. Well, the idea of reality TV programs is coming to comic books. This past January Image Comics released info about America’s Got Powers, a new comic book series from Bryan Hitch and Jonathan Ross. Many of you Marvel fans will recognize Bryan Hitch from his work on one the best Marvel comic books in the past 10 years, the Ultimates. But you might be less familiar with Jonathan Ross. Jonathan Ross is one the UK’s most famous TV personalities. He also is an avid comic book fan and has been writing Turf which has been featured in Mark Millar’s CLiNT magazine.
These two talented men came together to create America’s Got Powers. Here are some words from the both of them on America’s Got Powers along with a couple of preview pencil pages from Bryan Hitch:
TWICE AS MUCH AS MARVEL FOR A DOLLAR LESS.
Okay, that’s a bold statement and possibly contentious enough to get you to read this but it’s absolutely true.
AMERICA’S GOT POWERS launches in April from Image by us, (Bryan Hitch and Jonathan Ross). We told you a bit about it in January. What we hadn’t told you until now was that issue one has THIRTY-EIGHT pages of story and is still only $2.99.
Here’s why.
Bryan says: Since I started drawing Ultimates issue one in late 2001, I may have only delivered two or three 22 page books. I’ve always pushed the story either with additional visual material to underscore what’s been written or to pump action to the level we all wanted but would never have had the room for. So I just drew it the way it felt right to do so.
Go count the pages in each issue of Ultimates, CaptainAmerica: Reborn or FF. Not many 22 page issues. I got hell of course but my deal has always been that giving the story the best work it can have is the only deal that matters. I even did some pages for free to get them in the issues.
We have taken stuff out of AMERICA’S GOT POWERS issue one, moved it around and walked around the room whistling. It should have been a 22 page first issue but there were things we felt had to be there and those scenes needed to breath. The story needed to be told properly; it ALWAYS does. So we put it back in and told the story the way we wanted to. Thirty-eight pages of it!
Normally a book this size would be at least $3.99 but that didn’t seem fair to us. It was our decision to make the first issue this big and it’s not right to ask you guys to pay extra for it. We are proud of AMERICA’S GOT POWERS, insanely proud and we want to pass that on.
Big time.
We’re just another small business like many of the retailers and we believe completely in the story we’re trying to tell so instead of putting out a 20 page issue and asking you to pay $3.99 for it, we’re giving you nearly DOUBLE that for a dollar less.
It’s had a knock-on effect though. Initially we had intended to release issues one and two in the same month, a sort of double whammy to kick-start the book. We’ve changed that plan slightly as most of that material is now in a single 38-page issue rather than two separate books.
As a result issue two will move backwards slightly into May, issue three into June etc so our team doesn’t kill themselves providing this much awesome in a single month
So we ARE still releasing what we intended to in April; the same TWO ISSUES of story but now it’s in one book and only the price of a single. We’re giving you what we said we would but at half the price.
$2.99
Boom.
And, to emphasize that boom, here’s a sneak peek at a big boom in a cool two pager from the first massive double-sized issue of AMERICA’S GOT POWERS.
Did we mention it was 38 pages at $2.99? It’s also worth mentioning that we can’t guarantee any of the other issues won’t exceed 20 pages either. Though if they do, they’ll never exceed $2.99
Enjoy the pencils sneak peek. Over the next few days, we’re going to properly introduce you to our characters and the amazing world they live in along with loads of pencils and inks from the first issue to get you excited.
Jonathan and Bryan
America’s Got Powers is a six issue series from Image Comics. The series is set to debut in April with this huge first issue. America’s Got Powers follows a group of super human teens in a televised competition for the chance to become the first ever superhero team ala the Avengers or X-Men. But like all celebrities there is a dark side to the fame and fortune. This comic will deal with everything in this world of reality superhero TV. So make sure you go check this huge first issue out this April.
Also stay tuned in here at Comic Booked for all your comic book news!
This sounds pretty sick. I am intrigued