Strangeways

By popular demand: the collected Chapter One from Strangeways: Murder Moon. All the pages are there (sized up, and in a decent resolution, while trying to maintain a modest file size.) There's also a special bonus, which you'll have to read all the way through to get to. Everything is in one nice, tidy package, PDF-formatted for ease of reading (and sharing with all of your lycanthropic friends).

Pre-order information, of course, is included for your convenience. But if you're savvy already, head to your local comics retailer and ask for JAN083670 F STRANGEWAYS MURDER MOON GN. That's the Diamond Comics ID number for the Strangeways graphic novel.

Now, let's look at some solicit text, shall we?

Strangeways: Murder Moon by Matthew Maxwell, Luis Guaragna, and Gervasio/Jok
It’s 1868, and former army officer Seth Collins seeks to escape the horrors of the Civil War by traveling the frontier. Answering an urgent letter from his estranged sister, Collins finds himself under attack by a strange creature that is neither man nor wolf. When his friend and partner Webster is accused of being the beast, Collins must track down the real threat. But which will kill him first: the Wolf, or the secret that the sheriff of Silver Hand is trying to keep buried?

Strangeways: Murder Moon is written by Matthew Maxwell (Highway 62, EATERS) and is illustrated by Luis Guaragña. Cover and chapter illustrations by Steve Lieber (CIVIL WAR, WHITEOUT). Interior gallery pages by Guy Davis (BPRD, THE MARQUIS, SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE), Fábio Moon (CASANOVA, SMOKE AND GUNS) and Gabriel Bá (CASANOVA, THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY.)

And for more Strangeways goodness, go check out the animated preview video for Murder Moon.

Again, if you're interested, please feel free to use the code JAN083670 to pre-order Strangeways: Murder Moon from your local Direct Market retailer. And if you don't know where to find them, then use The Comics Retailer Master List to track them down.

The above cover art is by the inimitable and indomitable Steve Lieber, who really didn't kill Speedball.

Publisher Information
Highway 62 Press
Matthew Maxwell, Publisher

ISBN-10: 0-9796957-0-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-9796957-0-4

144 pages, 7x10 trim size
black and white with color covers

Distributed by Diamond Comics
Street date March 29, 2008

Strangeways: Murder Moon - Chapter 1 - 5 megabyte PDF

Posted by Matt M. at 01:18 PM | Permalink

Okay, you've read the preview. If you liked what you saw, and I'm hoping you did, then maybe, just maybe you want to read the whole damn thing. And if you want to read the whole damn thing, then you're going to need to print this out and hand it over to the gentleman or gentlewoman who runs your local comics emporium. If you want to guarantee that there'll be a copy of the book waiting for you on 3/26/08, then pre-order. Otherwise, you're rolling your dice and taking your chances. Sure, it'll be available for ordering after the fact, but then the shop has to pony up the re-order percentage.

Pre-ordering would make 'em a whole lot happier.

And, as always, if you don't know offhand where your local store is, then be sure to look it up on The Master Comics Retailer List.

Thanks for reading along.

Posted by Matt M. at 11:15 AM | Permalink

Folks who visit over here, as opposed to the Highway 62 blog itself, might have missed the above, which is a short video I made to promote Strangeways: Murder Moon. Come for the comics, stay for the soundtrack.

Posted by Matt M. at 01:29 PM | Permalink

1/19/08 EDIT - Check out the new and updated pre-order information page, with couponic convenience!

For those of you who've been reading along (and the preview isn't over just yet--we've got more pages of the opening chapter, and a few surprises after that), if you're interested in pre-ordering the book with your favorite Direct Market retailer, be sure to give them this information.

JAN083670 F STRANGEWAYS MURDER MOON GN

That's the Diamond code for the book, and it'll ensure that you get your copy when it ships at the end of March. I'm afraid you won't be able to depend on your store having it unless you pre-order. I'm a new writer, Luis and the other artists are unknown in the US, and while I have some fine guest artists (Guy Davis, Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá) and Steve Lieber providing the striking cover art, the original graphic novel is something of a risky format.

Well, it's less risky than doing an initial run of single issues believe it or not, as the classic model for indie books without an established audience goes something like: optimistically high numbers for the first issue, a substantial drop for the second and the third one really gets hit once retailers can adjust their orders down, having seen the actual audience. Diamond requires a minimum dollar value in order to be interested in carrying any particular book, and I don't blame them. It's significantly harder to hit that minimum based on the returns from single issues (but then it's just as hard to get folks to gamble on a higher price tag for the whole story instead of buying the book piecemeal in monthly form.)

Which is why I'm doing this preview in the first place. The hope is that you'll all be intrigued enough to keep reading once the preview runs out. Strangeways: Murder Moon tops out at 144 pages, of which say 25 or so will be in the preview.

I'll also be running advertisement in places like RUE MORGUE, as well as spreading out some ad dollars online. And if anyone's willing to listen, I'm willing to jaw at them regarding the book. I suspect there'll be a fair bit of that in the coming weeks, and then again when the book actually ships.

So, once again, for those interested, remember: JAN083670 F STRANGEWAYS MURDER MOON GN is your ticket to a shiny, brand-new copy of Strangeways: Murder Moon come March. I'll be putting together an order coupon for folks to cut out and print out, saving the troublesome step of memorizing some arcane string of numbers. Hey, if Warren Ellis can do it for his new books, I can be bothered to do it for mine.

Posted by Matt M. at 08:04 AM | Permalink