So yesterday I got 4 boxes worth of comp copies in here, 2 boxes of the hardcover collected trade of the original Hero By Night mini-series, a box of the first issue of the new ongoing Hero By Night comic, and a box of the KISS 4K KISSmas special one-shot.  I'm going to run through my thoughts on them real quick here.

Hardcover HBN trade-  Where to start.  This is admittedly my very first trade collection, or graphic novel, of any kind.  Thus I was prepared to be critical, as I always am when I see any of my work in print.  What I wasn't prepared for when I cracked open that first case of books yesterday, was to be COMPLETELY blown away by how awesome it looks.  I have several hardcover collections already from Marvel and from DC, and I've seen countless others on shelves in comic shops and at conventions.  This HBN hardcover not only stands up there right next to anything DC or Marvel has done, but it surpasses a lot of trades that are out there.  I know that the ONLY collected work I own that is nicer, was the oversized Absolute Batman HUSH hardcover that DC put out, complete with that thick black cardboard slipcase and dust jacket.  The gold foil HBN logo is NOT obnoxious at all on this thing, and neither are the blue foil flames. The printing and design of the spine of the book is great, and will look wonderful on my shelf of books.  The interior page design and layout is spectacular.  Zach Pennington, and everyone over at Platinum Studios, REALLY, TRULY, did everything in their power to make this book beautiful.  Zach's design work is wonderful.  They even included a cover gallery of all the covers from the original series without any text or logos on them, and used a previously never before seen version of the issue 4 cover that didn't make the final cut.  Very cool stuff to see all in one package like that.  A nice introduction by DJ at the front of the book, of course the 5 pages of extra epilogue content we did just for this edition, creator bios, and a great ad for our ongoing series.  Kudos to everyone involved in putting out such a great product are in order.  DJ and I work hard to not only deliver great work each issue, but we're continually pushing each other to do better.  I really feel that is evident from the time you turn the first page of this book, until you get to the last page of the epilogue.  It's only getting better, and I'm extremely energized and excited to see this all come together in such a fantastic way.

Hero By Night #1 (ongoing series)- This won't count as one of the first official reviews since I'm biased.  But, this book looks even better than just about any of the pages from the mini-series.  Lots of reasons I think for that, going back to how hard I think DJ and I push each other to get better, and how hard we push OURSELVES to not settle for good enough but to strive for maybe one day approaching something that resembles really GREAT work.  Thinking back, just doing pages, and more pages, and then doing webcomic work, and more webcomic work, and more pages over the last year, we've started to really become comfortable with working in the world of Hero By Night, and it's starting to show.  When you turn the cover and stare at page one I think you become IMMEDIATELY immersed in this new book.  Starting with page 1 and continuing through page 4, you're looking at this huge fight scene between HBN and a LAVA MONSTER deep in the heart of a volcano.  How cool is THAT?  And if that wasn't enough action for you..well, one of the all time favorite characters from the Hero By Night webcomic, makes his first official debut in print.  It's funny to think that characters makign their debut in an issue 1 already have a fan base, but with over 250 UNIQUE pages of full color work that we've done for the online webcomic in the last year, there is just this enormous backstory to this book already.  Tons of characters and plot lines from the webcomic that ALL tie directly into the books that are being printed.  I mean, there are now 110 pages of story in print, plus all the webcomic stuff....so what, close to 400 comic pages worth of material in about 12 1/2 months.  DJ alludes to it in his intro to the trade collection, but what readers and fans and kids that have been following Hero By Night, or might just be picking it up for the first time, what everyone is seeing happen RIGHT NOW, is a new hero being born.  Everyday for over a year I've spent a good deal of time, up to my eyeballs in Hero By Night.  I'm making a living now using things that didn't exist when I first started reading comics, working on a superhero that wasn't around then either.  But in the space of a year, there is so much story, history and nostalgia behind HBN, that it really feels like the character has been around forever.  I'm proud to say that I'm a part of something that is probably much bigger than DJ or myself.  These are stories that are telling themselves for the most part.  What our job is artistically, and we've often times reminded each other of this fact, is to let the story tell itself, to do what is demanded by the characters on each page, to not take shortcuts for the sake of taking shortcuts (for evidence of that, look back to the original webcomic of the HBN journals, sometimes as much as 4 to 5 hours being put into a DAILY webcomic the NIGHT before it's supposed to be posted-and that's just on MY end) I think part of what makes HBN so special to me, is the fact that the creative team of DJ and myself both believe in the same type of things when it comes to storytelling, and producing comics.  You don't dictate what goes down on the page, the story and characters do, it's up to YOU as a penciler, inker, or colorist, to do what is required of you by the story so that you add something to it, make it something more than just another comic page.  You won't always succeed of course, but more often than not you'll end up with something you can be proud of and you'll know that you really have put your heart and soul into producing that page or book.  When I look at this first issue, I can see vast improvements on both of our parts, and I can say with confidence that we have both put our souls into this book, and it shows.  It may not be a book that is to everyone's taste, whether it be the story or the art, but it truly IS a book that is FOR everyone who loves comics and who loves superheroes.

KISS 4K: Merry KISSmas one-shot- not sure where to start with this book.  A week ago almost to the day I got a phone call at 4 in the afternoon, and was asked how many pages I could color overnight, because the book had to be AT the printer the following morning.  I'm not entirely sure they believed me when I said I could do 13 pages overnight.  So after firmly stating I could, and convincing them that I wouldn't let them down, I proceeded to sit down at 5:30 pm and not get up from my workstation except for a bathroom break or to get more coffee until 11:45 am the next day.  I worked straight through.  I owe some shout outs to a few people that helped me along the way by flatting a few of my pages, and by FINDING me a reliable person to do 3 of the 6 pages I needed done at the VERY last minute in the WEE hours of the morning.  So big thanks to Michael, Alex, Chris and Daniel.  You guys rock.  And you made me not only meet my deadline but look like a badass in the process :D  Taking that into consideration, I really don't think that you can tell I did so much work in so little time.  The pages look GREAT.  Would I have made a few changes here or there if I had more time, you bet.  But it turned out great, AND the book was NOT late.  A large part of that is due to having wonderful line art supplied by Tone Rodriguez.  It was written by THE Chuck Dixon, and I have to say, I laughed my butt off a few times while reading it.  Chuck really paced this book out nicely, and it's really a great read.  I would definitely recommend it for any KISS fan in your life, or for just a sheer fun read (since I colored the first few issues of the actual KISS 4K book, I will also say with confidence that this one-shot is a MUCH better read)

So to recap, the Hero By Night hardcover is GREAT, go buy one today, you can find them on ebay, you can buy them from the Platinum Store in a week or so, or you can have your local comic shop back order you one.  The new ongoing HBN series kicks BUTT, so go get your hands on that as well, and make sure to check out the HBN webcomic where we've got an absolute TON of stuff for you to read for free.  Have a Merry Kissmas, and all that jazz.  I'm headed to make more coffee, grab a few sticks of incense to burn, and get my butt coloring this morning.  If my new set of prismacolor markers come today in the mail, I plan on playing with those for a bit, and tonight, is buddy night with my son while the girls are out having fun.  Which means playing some pool, darts, video games, popcorn, coke, and maybe some more episodes of Smallville.