Kieron Gillen & Stephanie Hans Reteam for We Called Giants GN Hardcover!

BESTSELLING, BRITISH FANTASY AWARD WINNING DIE CREATORS KIERON GILLEN & STEPHANIE HANS RETEAM FOR UPCOMING GRAPHIC NOVEL WE CALLED THEM GIANTS THIS NOVEMBER! The Walking Dead meets The Iron Giant in this sweeping, post-apocalyptic story!

The bestselling creators behind the three-time Hugo Award nominated, two-time British Fantasy Award winning series Die—Kieron Gillen (The Wicked + The Divine, Immortal X-men) and Stephanie Hans (Secret Wars 1602: Witch Hunter Angela, Black Bolt)—will reteam for their first ever original graphic novel collaboration to be titled, We Called Them Giants. First announced in an exclusive scoop at Gizmodo, this epic, post-apocalyptic story is scheduled to hit shelves in November from Image Comics.

Gillen and Hans first made waves with their breakout hit dark fantasy Die in 2018. Die quickly caught reader attention and the series skyrocketed to the top of the sales charts and launched Hans’ career into superstardom. It went on to appear on many Best of the Year lists, including that of Tor.com, and snagged multiple award nominations and wins.

“After we finished Die, we knew we wanted to do something completely different. Rather than a sprawling ongoing, do something smaller, intimate, self-contained and really pure,” said Gillen. “So, in the middle of the covid lockdowns, I was left alone with my cats, staring at them, and them staring at me, and thinking about the miracle of relationships between beings of completely different kinds of intelligences, and the wonder of the jump across that gap. The image of the feral girl in the devastation and the giants came quickly after that, and we were away. People will fall in love and have their hearts broken—the full Hans/Gillen experience. Despite the post-apocalypse setting the story has an almost weird-fable kind of vibe, and ends up basically as a conversation between The Walking Dead and The Iron Giant. Basically, We Called Them Giants is the story of communication across a chasm at the end of the world. Folks have seen what Stephanie does on a month-by-month rush on an ongoing comic. Here, it’s a thrill to see her luxuriate—creating this single long story, and being able to shape the whole thing into a poignant, romantic, devastating single canvas.”

Hans added: “As an Artist, it is always a joy to work on new challenges, especially when it is with such a great Writer. Kieron wrote an emotional story in which he let me go wild on designs. It’s a new, beautiful end of the world tale, a little bit epic, a bit nostalgic and a bit contemplative. It’s nothing like we did before. In all the best ways.”

We Called Them Giants promises readers the poignant, romantic, and devastating story of a young girl who wakes up to find her world has turned upside down.

“This book is nothing short of incredible,” said Eric Stephenson, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer at Image Comics. “Kieron and Stephanie had already established themselves as one of comics’ premier creative teams, but they’re operating at a whole other level with We Called Them Giants.”

We Called Them Giants hardcover (ISBN: 978-1534387072) will be available at local comic book shops on Wednesday, October 30 and independent bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Indigo, and Waterstones on Tuesday, November 12.

Made a few changes to the date updater script. As you’ve likely noticed, Marvel likes to move books out so far that they disappear from PRH. I’ve written into my date checker now to show me these (the date comes back blank because it doesn’t exist) and then I set the date to 2099-01-01 (see what I did there). Once the real date finally drops on PRH, it will update like normal and show up on the updates log!

I also updated most of the stuff on the unsolicted page that Omar announced over the last couple months. I’ll have to do that again after the tear he just went on though (I like to give those some time to breathe).

As detailed over at PRH a while back, Dark Horse books are now going through Penguin as of June 1st. This also means that the release dates will line up to the same week for Direct and Retail markets. As a nerdy side note for me, that also means I can put Dark Horse into the scripts I have that grab updates from the PRH API (thank god). For you, that means quicker date updates from me! Woo! I just made the change a few hours ago and grabbed some changes (which you can see in the good old change log page) so yay!

PORTLAND, Ore. 05/24/2023 — Image Comics is pleased to announce a worldwide exclusive distribution deal with Lunar Distribution, effective with September on-sale titles (which will open for order on the Lunar site for retailers on Wednesday, June 14), for Direct Market/comic shop distribution.

Previously exclusive to Diamond Comic Distributors, Image Comics will join DC as one of Lunar’s largest periodical publishers and will work in partnership with Lunar to share further communications with the Direct Market, including “next steps” details, to ensure a seamless transition for comic shop retailers.

“First and foremost we want to thank Steve Geppi, Chuck Parker, and everyone at Diamond for their ongoing service and all that they’ve done for Image over the years. For over three decades, they have been at our side, supporting our books from the moment we founded our company back in 1992,” said Todd McFarlane, President of Image Comics. “Every Image comic published, since our inception in ’92, has been distributed to thousands of retail outlets by Diamond, and they have played a very important role in our company’s evolution.”

“We have enjoyed our relationship with Diamond over the decades and we have made some wonderful friends there, so this decision has been a difficult one,” added Erik Larsen, Chief Financial Officer at Image Comics, who served as Publisher at Image from 2004-2008. “It was not a move that we made lightly, though, and ultimately, the change was made because of the benefits to readers and retailers who are our real customers. There are services Lunar will provide that will make it easier for stores to buy our titles, and for fans to find our books. This is a big win for them, and we hope this new partnership is as strong and long-lasting as the previous one. We wish Diamond nothing but the best as we look toward the future.”

“We leave with nothing but the deepest respect for Steve, Chuck and all of the folks at Diamond, both past and present,” said Jim Valentino, Image’s Vice President and former Publisher at Image from 1999-2004.

“This is a big change, but we will still be working with Diamond in other capacities and look forward to maintaining those relationships with the Diamond team for years to come,” noted Eric Stephenson, the company’s current Publisher and Chief Creative Officer. “Lunar is an impressive new player in the Direct Market, and we are eager to work with them on the next phase of our development, as well as joining DC in leading the industry toward what we believe are positive changes for everyone.”

[NOTE: Image will still be working with Diamond Book Distributors for retail book market customers]

Christina Merkler, Co-owner at Lunar Distribution stated: “We are thrilled to announce our exclusive worldwide distribution deal with Image Comics. We are constantly seeking innovative ways to expand our reach and bring exceptional content to our retail accounts around the world. This partnership will allow us to further expand our offerings and provide unparalleled access to the most exciting and sought-after titles in the industry. We look forward to working closely with Image and continuing to provide top-notch service to our Direct Market accounts.”

Lunar Distribution was first launched in 2020, when it became the home distributor to DC, and provides distribution services to the Direct Market with an emphasis on quality, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. Retailers interested in learning more about how to set up an account with Lunar can visit: https://www.lunardistribution.com/home/faq

It’s been a minute since I went to the Upcoming Unsolicited Books page and did edits, so I thought I’d make note of it on the front page. I finally got off my lazy butt and with the help of our librarian, Captain, got this thing all up to date. If I missed anything that Omar (or Amazon incidentally) announced that has not yet been solicited, drop me a line as always!