Tag Archives: outland entertainment

Independent Publishers Group Goes Direct to Store for Local Comic Shops

Independent Publishers Group

Independent Publishers Group (IPG), driven by swift growth in high impact manga, graphic novel, RPG, and comic publishers on its distribution roster, is launching direct-to-store terms for the local comic shop market. This rollout includes competitive terms and marketing vehicles for advance notification and sell-in. 

More than 20 must-have frontlist titles will be featured in IPG’s new seasonal “IPG Impact” catalog, which will be circulated to all stores to drive awareness for our publishers, including NBM Publishing, Kodama, One Peace Books, SHP Comics, Dead Sky Publishing, IPI Comics, Outland Entertainment, Ponent Mon, Black Panel Press, Korero Press, ZeroZero Entertainment, and Invader Comics. This new frontlist augments IPGs large backlist in the category. 

IPG is offering flexible terms and incentives for stores ordering direct:

Retail Trade Returnable: 45% Discount, Free Freight, Net 30, and first order gets an extra 3% discount (48% total).

-OR-

Retail Trade Nonreturnable: 50% Discount, Free Freight, Net 30, and first order gets an extra 3% discount (53% total).

Order Minimums:  $100.00 net value

Outland Entertainment Launches the Quill & Codex Role-Playing System from Cullen Bunn

Outland Entertainment has announced the launch of Quill & Codex, a new role-playing system developed by writer Cullen Bunn. The “rules light” game is designed to be easy to learn and easy to play, allowing gamers to focus on having fun, rolling dice, and telling stories together. The Base Game Rules, a fully illustrated 45-page rulebook which provide all the rules you need to play, will be available as a free download.

Quill & Codex will be well-supported with new content. Several additional rulebooks are in development. These supplements cover everything from monsters to spells to magic items to non-player characters.

In addition, Outland Entertainment will be publishing numerous online articles, enhancements, and optional rules for this ever-expanding game.

The centerpiece for this online content is Daemonrot, a “meat-grinder super-dungeon” that will be published level-by-level online. This ever-growing adventure setting uses the Quill & Codex rules, but it can be easily adapted to any role-playing campaign.

The first two levels of Daemonrot (Level 0 and Level 1) will be released on March 19 and March 20. Then, a new level will be released every two weeks.

While the Quill & Codex Base Rules and Daemonrot will be available digitally for free, Outland will be releasing limited edition hardcopy zines for Planet Comicon in Kansas City, MO, on March 21 – 23, 2025. Both the Quill & Codex base rules and a sampler of several Daemonrot levels will be available for purchase by convention attendees.

Outland Entertainment and Cullen Bunn expand their horror endeavor

Last year, Outland Entertainment announced Cullen Bunn’s horror imprint, Outer Shadows. Through Outer Shadows, three prose projects (Swords in the Shadows, Raze, and Crooked Hills) have been published. While more terrifying prose projects are in the works, Outer Shadows will also be pushing into the comic book publishing arena with an aggressive, exciting, and horrifying initiative.

There are dozens of comic books, trade paperbacks, and original graphic novels planned for the Outer Shadows imprint. First up, a dark fantasy/horror series titled The Faraway, written by Bunn and illustrated by Vitalii Kalchenko.

In the release, Bunn described the new series:

The Faraway offers a clear premise. If you’re my age, you loved the old Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, where a group of kids get swept into a magical land. What happens, though, if those kids get trapped in a realm of fantasy and magic… that has been completely consumed by evil? In The Faraway, a group of unlucky gamers finds themselves surrounded by a world of horrifying monsters and murderous cutthroats. And, while the book is gorgeously illustrated, the situation will not be pretty.

The Kickstarter campaign for The Faraway will launch on March 7, 2024. The pre-launch campaign page is live now. 

Several other comics are currently in production for Outer Shadows, with a variety of styles and horror subgenres being tackled. In addition to The Faraway, a new erotic horror thriller titled Bumping Uglies (illustrated by Ann Marie Cochran) will be serialized under the imprint. This story follows a pair of police detectives on a descent into a sex-fueled nightmare as they investigate a new mind-altering drug with supernatural origins.

The Faraway and Bumping Uglies will be a series, but Outer Shadows will also be releasing one-shot horror tales titled Nightmare Fuel Presents. These stories will be self-contained tales of pulse-pounding terror.

Nightmare Fuel Presents one-shots will include Death Duel with Chainsaw Witches (illustrated by Diogo Carvalho) which follows a group of heavy metal bandmates out to destroy the demons they helped summon. Long Pig and Azrael (illustrated by Emmanuel Casallos) follows a lonely hitchhiker and the demonic entity that is always following him. The Window (illustrated by Luay Garwan) features a down-on-their-luck family that moves into a new house… and discovers a passage to an alien world.

Bunn and Joe Bocardo’s apocalyptic vampire epic Nightwalkers, which was previously published in single issues, will join the line-up. It will be released in a collected edition and the series will be continuing through Outer Shadows.

And Bunn promises even more.

“We have several other comics and graphic novels in the works. Terrifying giant monster stories? You bet! Stories about infernally-possessed knickknacks? Of course! There are so many stories in the works, and I’m excited to make Outer Shadows a home for horror and dark fantasy comics.”

Outer Shadows publications will be released first as crowdfunding campaigns with Kickstarter. These campaigns will have options for every budget and reading preference. They will have low funding thresholds and, in many cases, shortened campaign durations. The crowdfunding campaigns will offer readers the chance to help in the creation of these comics and score some product offerings only available during the campaigns. After the campaigns are funded and delivered, comics in the line will also be distributed to the direct market.

Upcoming non-comics offerings from Outer Shadows include I’ll Kill You Last, an anthology of horror tales inspired by 80s action movies; Goblinville, a dark fantasy novella series; and The Complete Short Fiction of Cullen Bunn, a three-volume collection of Bunn’s prose short stories.

It’s Opus & Ashes and more for CEX Publishing this August

OPUS & ASHES

Written by BRETT SETH SIMON
Illustrated by SERGI DOMèNECH
Cover B SERGI DOMèNECH, JOSH JENSEN
Retailer Price: $3.99
On Sale 08/30

Two best friends. One overbearing mother. Trapped with no heat in a cabin during a brutal blizzard. Helena Santos’s struggle for her life and her life’s work has just begun. Read the gripping thriller by Brett Simon and Sergi Domenech!

Cover A: 79394597461000111
Cover B: 79394597461000121

MOTHER RUSSIA #2

Written & illustrated by JEFF MCCOMSEY
Cover B VICTOR ALPI
Cover C CHRISTINE LARSEN
Retailer Price: $4.99
On Sale 08/30

Stalingrad, 1943. Caught in the middle of a zombie apocalypse during World War II, Soviet Sniper Svetlana Gorshkov must make an uneasy alliance with a Nazi soldier if she and the newfound child hope to see the sunrise.

Cover A: 79394597460300211
Cover B: 79394597460300221
Cover C: 79394597460300231

OUTLAND ENTERTAINMENT

HOPELESS, MAIN VOL. 2: INHERITANCE

Written by NIMUE BROWN, TOM BROWN
Illustrated by NIMUE BROWN, TOM BROWN
Retailer Price: $19.99
On Sale 08/30

Growing up with magic doesn’t mean you have all of the answers. On the strange haunted island of Hopeless, Maine, young Salamandra explores the limits of her powers and the strength of her convictions. Both she and her newly discovered friend, Owen Davies, face life-changing events at the Pallid Rock Orphanage and begin to take control of their own lives. Just as magic has limits, so does the ability of adults to shield children from harm and consequences in this often dire place. This is not a story about growing up. It is a story about thinking you had grown up already—and finding it wasn’t so simple after all.

Diamond ID NOV221372
ISBN 978-1-954255-39-5

HOPELESS, MAIN VOL. 2: INHERITANCE

Mother Russia and more from CEX Publishing in June 2023

MOTHER RUSSIA #1

Written & Illustrated by JEFF MCCOMSEY
Cover B UGIS BERZINS
Cover C MICHAEL AVON OEMING
Retailer Price: $4.99
On Sale 07/26

One baby. One rifle. Two million zombies! As a zombie apocalypse breaks out in WWII, a Soviet sniper risks her life to protect an innocent baby boy. From Jeff McCommsey, the creator behind the hit MOTHER RUSSIA: WINTER SPECIAL and introducing rising star guest cover artist Ugis Berzins!

Don’t miss the 1-in-10 incentive cover by Michael Avon Oeming!

Lunar Product Codes 0423CX244 /  0423CX245 /  0423CX246

UPC
Cover A: 79394597460300111
Cover B: 79394597460300121
Cover C: 79394597460300131

SEVEN YEARS IN DARKNESS #3

Written & Illustrated by JOSEPH SCHMALKE
Cover C RICHARD PACE
Retailer Price: $4.99
On Sale 07/26

Months have passed since the massacre at the Academy of Black Magic where seven children lost their lives. Now someone is sabotaging other students leading to deadly results. A mysterious and disturbed class member, Zero, is under suspicion as the possible saboteur while Matthew and the other apprentice mages prepare to be tested and placed into one of five houses.

Featuring a 1:10 variant cover by horror-Meister Richard Pace!

Lunar Product Codes 0423CX247 /  0423CX248 /  0423CX249

UPC
Cover A: 79394597454200311
Cover B: 79394597454200321
Cover C: 79394597454200331

OUTLAND ENTERTAINMENT

THE JOTUNN WAR

Written by IAN STUART SHARPE
Illustrated by DEVMALYA PRAMANIK, GER CURTI, PAUL LITTLE
Retailer Price: $22.95
On Sale 07/26

In the Vikingverse, the Norse rule the stars with restless fleets and an iron will. But when the thralls rebel, turning to the artifice of Norns to help them escape their bondage, the natural order is thrown into chaos.

ISBN 978-1-954255-16-6

See what’s coming from CEX Publishing in June!

ASTRO & INEZ (ONE-SHOT)

Written by LEWELIN POLANCO
Illustrated & Cover A by JUAN ROMERA
Cover B ELIZABETH BEALS
Cover C LANE LLOYD
Retailer Price: $4.99
On Sale 06/28

The adorable misadventures of Astro, a troublemaking pup, and his human, Inéz! Astro has no sense of boundaries, and his impatience gets Inéz into all kinds of shenanigans. Inéz is a hopeless romantic with a “slightly” dramatic personality. She’ll play bingo with your sweet abuelita, and then whine about how she was hustled.

Don’t miss the special incentive cover by fan-favorite Lane Lloyd!

UPC
Cover A: 793945974597 00111
Cover B: 793945974597 00121
Cover C: 793945974597 00121

  • ASTRO & INEZ (ONE-SHOT)
  • ASTRO & INEZ (ONE-SHOT)
  • ASTRO & INEZ (ONE-SHOT)
  • ASTRO & INEZ (ONE-SHOT)
  • ASTRO & INEZ (ONE-SHOT)
  • ASTRO & INEZ (ONE-SHOT)
  • ASTRO & INEZ (ONE-SHOT)
  • ASTRO & INEZ (ONE-SHOT)

JOSIF 1957 #2 (OF 2)

Written by DAVIDE BARZI
Illustrated & Covers by FABIANO AMBU
Retailer Price: $6.99
On Sale 06/28

Josif, the first gorilla in space, is wreaking absolute havoc in low orbit, and no one knows how to stop him! U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower knows just what to do — he blasts into space himself to handle the matter! It’s a zero-gravity battle between the United States President and the Soviet Gorilla, at the height of the Cold War!

Featuring a 1 in 10 variant homage to Blade Runner by Italian super-star Fabiano Ambu!

UPC
Cover A: 79394597456600211
Cover B: 79394597456600221
Cover C: 79394597456600231

  • JOSIF 1957 #2 (OF 2)
  • JOSIF 1957 #2 (OF 2)
  • JOSIF 1957 #2 (OF 2)

OUTLAND ENTERTAINMENT

DEADLANDS: DEAD MAN’S HAND HC

Written by DAVID GALLAHER, JIMMY PALMIOTTI, JUSTIN GRAY, RON MARZ, JEFF MARIOTTE, MATTHEW CUTTER, SHANE LACY HENSLEY
Illustrated by STEVE ELLIS, LEE MODER, BART SEARS, ULISES ROMAN, SEAN LEE, TROY PETERI, MICHAEL ATIYEH, C. EDWARD SELLNER, DOUG SPENCER, JACOB BASCLE
Retailer Price: $19.99
ISBN: 978-1-954255-50-0
On Sale 06/28

This is a collection of one-shot stories set in the Weird West world of Deadlands, created by Shane Lacy Hensley. Each story features some of the industry’s top creators and each story shows a different aspect of the Deadlands world.

DEADLANDS: DEAD MAN’S HAND HC

Who is Josif? Find out that and more in May from CEX

JOSIF 1957 #1

Written by DAVIDE BARZI
Illustrated by FABIANO AMBU
Cover B FABIANO AMBU
Cover C FABIANO AMBU
Retailer Price: $6.99
On Sale 5/31

Debuting the work of Italian superstar artist Fabiano Ambu! You know about Laika, the Cosmonaut dog sent into orbit on Sputnik 2. But no one knows about JOSIF, the first gorilla in space!

Born on Josif Stalin’s birthday and subjected to terrible genetic experiments, Josif soon grew far too powerful. The leadership of the Soviet Union did all they could to stop him. But not everything went as planned!

Featuring a 1 in 10 variant homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey by Italian super-star Fabiano Ambu!

Diamond ID FEB231258 / FEB231259 / FEB231260
Lunar Product Codes 0223CX224 / 0223CX225 / 0223CX226

UPC
Cover A: 793945974566 00111
Cover B: 793945974566 00121
Cover C: 793945974566 00131

SEVEN YEARS IN DARKNESS #2

Written & Illustrated by JOSEPH SCHMALKE
Cover C BEN TEMPLESMITH
Retailer Price: $4.99
On Sale 5/31

Malena’s backstory is revealed, as the students continue their journey through the underground city of Scholomance towards the Academy of Black Magic. The children and Headmaster are met by Ornansis, a vampiric creature who will pick their class’s weathermaker (an untouchable student). Malena lets Matthew know there could be a sinister plot underway by other students who wish to thin out the competition.

Featuring a 1:10 variant cover by living legend Ben Templesmith!

Diamond ID FEB231262 / FEB231263 / FEB231264
Lunar Product Codes 0223CX228 / 0223CX229 / 0223CX230

UPC
Cover A: 793945974542 00211
Cover B: 793945974542 00221
Cover C: 793945974542 00231

THE FIRST THREE

Written by CHRIS PALIQAW, ATUNG YUPAS
Illustrated by CHANG SHENG
Cover B CHANG SHENG
Retailer Price: $7.99
On Sale 5/31

The age of humanity begins! The first three people on Earth burst out of a rock womb to find themselves in a paradise of talking animals and obedient firewood. But two men and one woman is one man too many, and enough… never is.

Inspired by the real-life creation legends of the Tayal people of Taiwan. Introducing legendary Taiwanese artist Chang Sheng to Western audiences for the first time!

Diamond ID FEB231256 / FEB231257
Lunar Product Codes 0223CX222 / 0223CX223
UPC
Cover A: 793945974573 00111
Cover B: 793945974573 00121

OUTLAND ENTERTAINMENT

NORTHERN STEELE

Written by SCOTT SCHMIDT
Illustrated by SLOBODAN JOVANOVIC
Retailer Price: $19.99
On Sale 5/31

In 1897, the world descended upon the frozen hills of the Yukon Territory, mad with gold fever.

But little did they know the perils and pitfalls that awaited them. A trail lined with dead horses and stalked by a man-killer, a haunted cave mined by an army of the dead, and an endless swamp teeming with terrible serpents. And even then there was more.

Enter the legendary Sam Steele of the North-West Mounted Police, commander of men and master of the wilderness. With knife and pistol, horse and saber, brute strength and keen mind, the mightiest Mountie of them all takes to the task of saving the gold-seekers from men and monsters alike.

Diamond ID FEB231261
Lunar Product Codes 0223CX227
ISBN 978-1954255401

NORTHERN STEELE

WARLOCK 5 VOLUME 1 OMNIBUS

Written by GORDON DERRY
Illustrated by DEN BEAUVAIS
Retailer Price: $39.95
On Sale 5/31

The Warlocks protect the Grid. They are the last line of defense against the awful forces of chaos that lurk in the darkness outside the Grid. There’s only one problem. They hate each other.

With a forward by Cullen Bunn!

Lunar Product Codes 0223CX231
ISBN 978-1947659612

WARLOCK 5 VOLUME 1 OMNIBUS

Cullen Bunn announces Outer Shadows, a new horror imprint

Outer Shadows

Cullen Bunn has announced a new imprint curated by him. Outer Shadows will be released and published through Outland Entertainment and will focus on horror. A deeper foray into the horror genre than Outland’s previous works, Outer Shadows will feature work created and curated by Bunn. Outer Shadows will bring readers novels, novellas, short story collections, comics, games, and more.

Several Outer Shadows projects are already in the works. The first publication, Swords in the Shadows, is an anthology of sword and sorcery tales with horror themes. The anthology is set to feature stories by some of the biggest names in the horror genre, including Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Keene, Mary SanGiovanni, Stephen Graham Jones, Hailee Piper, and Jonathan Janz, among many others. Bunn is editing the book.

Bunn’s own horror/fantasy novella Raze: Mother, Maiden, Crone will be released alongside Swords in the Shadows.

Other upcoming projects include I’ll Kill You Last, an anthology of horror tales set firmly in the world of 80s action movies. This book will be edited by Bunn. In addition, Outer Shadows is slated to reprint Bunn’s middle grade horror novel Crooked Hills and publish a sequel. Plans also include publication of a complete collection of Bunn’s short fiction and a book collecting stories from Whispers from the Shattered Forum, the small press magazine Bunn edited more than twenty years ago.

Get a look at what CEX is publishing in April 2023

MISE EN PLACE (ONE-SHOT)

Written by MATT CARR
Cover A NICOLE GOUX
Illustrated & Cover B by LANE LLOYD
Retailer Price: $4.99
On Sale 4/26

After consuming every animal on Earth, humanity turns to the stars, enslaving, butchering and consuming creatures from across the galaxy. But now the food is fighting back — in spectacularly gory fashion!

Tuck in your napkin for this messy, pulpy, over-the-top tale of bloody revenge. Dinner is served!

Diamond ID JAN231417 / JAN231418
Lunar Product Codes 0123CX234 / 0123CX235

UPCs
Cover A: 793945974559 00111
Cover B: 793945974559 00121

SERENO #3 (OF 3)

Written & Illustrated by LUCIANO VECCHIO
Cover B by PAULA BOFFO SUKERMERCADO
Retailer Price: $4.99
On Sale 4/26

The final pieces of the super ritual fall into place. Rise Photophobos, god of Anti-Light!

In a villains’ world, SERENO is the prey, Rufián shows his true colors, and the hero’s Secret Origin might hold the key to salvation in an esoteric all-out Battle for Godhood!

Diamond ID JAN231420 / JAN231421 / JAN231422
Lunar Product Codes 0123CX236 / 0123CX237 / 0123CX238

UPCs
Cover A: 793945974535 00311
Cover B: 793945974535 00321
Cover C: 793945974535 00331

SEVEN YEARS IN DARKNESS YEAR ONE ASHCAN

Written & Illustrated by JOSEPH SCHMALKE
Retailer Price: $9.99
On Sale 4/26

Collect the preview edition that started it all!

The Academy of Black Magic has reopened its doors for the first time in 200 years! Seventy-two children will walk through the Academy doors for freshmen year. But only seven will graduate and walk out alive!

Joseph Schmalke’s epic tale of childhood terror starts here, and you have the opportunity to own this ultra-rare collectible edition – before the darkness takes over the world!

Lunar Product Code 0123CX239

UPC
793945974542

SEVEN YEARS IN DARKNESS YEAR ONE ASHCAN

WARLOCK 5: THE RETURN

Written by CULLEN BUNN
Illustrated by JEFFREY EDWARDS, ANDY POOLE
Retailer Price: $19.95
On Sale 4/26

Five touchstone realities exist at focal points along the Grid. From each of these realities, a Warlock is chosen to act as one of five Guardians. But somebody, or something, is killing Warlocks.

Diamond ID JAN231419
Lunar Product Codes 0123CX240

ISBN
978-1-947659-21-6

WARLOCK 5: THE RETURN

Get a look at CEX Publishing in March 2023!

SEVEN YEARS IN DARKNESS #1 (OF 4)

Written & Illustrated by JOSEPH SCHMALKE
1:10 Incentive Cover by BILL SIENKIEWICZ
Retailer Price: $4.99
On Sale 3/29

The Academy of Black Magic has reopened its doors for the first time in 200 years! Seventy-two children will walk through the Academy doors for freshmen year. But only seven will graduate and walk out alive! Their seven-year journey starts here, in this dark and sweeping fantasy epic from acclaimed comics creator Joe Schmalke!

Featuring a 1:10 variant cover by living legend Bill Sienkiewicz!

SERENO #2 (OF 3)

Written & illustrated by LUCIANO VECCHIO
Cover B by PATRICIO OLIVER
Retailer Price: $4.99
On Sale 3/29

There’s a new guardian in town! NüMen is inspired by Sereno but uses deeply unstable technology in his quest for spiritual illumination. Meanwhile, Sereno’s chaotic shadow self is coming to life all on its own! SERENO will soon find things are not as black and white as he thought, in this epic showdown of Darkness and Light!

OUTLAND ENTERTAINMENT

THE BEAN: INTO THE DARK

Written & Illustrated by TRAVIS HANSON
On Sale 2/22

Being kidnapped by a troll was not what Bean expected from a simple errand to collect mushrooms.

Now the young dishwasher is deep underground, in a forgotten and ruined city, to collect a legendary weapon for the troll – or be killed. But when the sword sings him a new fate, he learns that his future is far bigger than a small, forgotten inn. 

The Bean
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