Broken Frontier

Scott Morse and Dean Haspiel have spent years carving out unique niches in the comic market.  Morse, with his sublime SOULWIND saga, and such gems as ANCIENT JOE and THE BAREFOOT SERPENT, and Haspiel with his seminal BILLY DOGMA and OPPOSABLE THUMBS. Both men have also dipped their toes into the mainstream, handling superheroes as diverse as Batman, Catwoman and Elektra, and the entire Justice League of America.

Now the two award winning creators combine their love of comics with their own unique sensibilities to craft AS BIG AS EARTH, an ongoing full color comic book set to debut from Image Comics this fall.

So what is AS BIG AS EARTH?

It's Morse and Haspiel's tribute to the superhero comics we all grew up on. While the book is aimed squarely at mature audiences, its pages drip with high action and sly comedy.  The book will be split between the two creators, with each artist handling his own creations.

In A-Okay Cool, Haspiel details the adventures of Mirth Quake, The Inflatable Adam, Man-Size, The Iron Gate, The Yellow Kite and Celluloid Flame, among others.  It's satire, yes, but the stories are entertaining on any number of levels, soaked in Haspiel's own brand of four color madness. Taking his cue from the freewheeling Silver Age comics of yesteryear, Haspiel has created a hilarious homage to the superhero.  A-Okay Cool will share space with Haspiel's Billy Dogma, a man who flexes the muscle to meet the desire in post disaster adventure chronicles of the last romantic anti-hero.

"Creating exciting characters, much less a new superhero series in today's market is a daunting task," says Haspiel. "But sharing the chore with someone whose art and stories are as provocative and innovative and thrilling as Scott Morse's makes the challenge so much easier and honorable to attempt. My half of AS BIG AS EARTH will feature 'The Devil's Muumuu,' where Billy Dogma accidentally rips Jane Legit's competition dress and his overwhelming guilt sends him to Hell. Stranded in the netherworld, Billy opens old wounds about his long-lost mother when he strikes a bargain with legendary serial killer Ed Gein! Meanwhile, A-Okay Cool tells tall tales of yesterday's superheroes for tomorrow where a band of outsiders confront the persuasive powers of the Paper Poodle, battle The Left Hand of Boom, and a robot discovers the art of yoga. AS BIG AS EARTH showcases the heart of the superhero genre and promises to reveal the universal truths that lie within."

Scott Morse's end of AS BIG AS EARTH will feature new stories centering around the fantastic citizens of MOTIONVILLE, a city of tomorrow across the ocean from the island of Cape Cowl.  When the hero known as The World Record washes up on the shores of Cape Cowl powerless, the stories he tells to the islanders clue us into the life he led back home...a life of crime-fighting in the midst of characters like The Move, The Sneak, The Logistical Nightmare, The Scare, The Projectionist, and The Foolish Fling.  These stories change the lives of the islanders in more ways than one, paving the way for a whole new kind of comic book reading experience.

On top of that, Morse reintroduces his critically-acclaimed fan favorite character ANCIENT JOE with new stories in every issue of AS BIG AS EARTH. Joe was last seen in the trade paperback ANCIENT JOE: EL BIZARRON, which Publisher's Weekly hailed as "...a wonderful tale mixing mythic elements from the ancient and recent past to create a haunting contemporary legend that feels as if it's been around forever".  Joe must discover his true nature one life-experience at a time... but when you're immortal, what's the true measure of a man?  It might just be that Joe is more human that every human he comes across.

"I'm pretty excited to be sharing a book with someone as talented and dramatic as Dean Haspiel," says Morse.  "Seeing what he's been putting on paper makes me want to up the ante, so hopefully I can muster some magic even half as cool as his.  Motionville is my chance to play with heroes in a unique kind of way, a chance to make my own world of super-powered characters that might someday be someone's nostalgia.  I'm no Eisner or Kirby or Kubert or Toth, but man, those old books they made sure make me want to be something more than I am...and made me want to be more than just some ordinary kid when I first experienced them.  This is the new mythology, the brand of literature that sears itself into your hopes and dreams and lets you cut loose in your mind.  It's pure fun."

Image Comics Executive Director has enjoyed seeing Morse and Haspiel put AS BIG AS EARTH together, and thinks readers are in for something special come this fall.

"I don't know about everyone else," enthuses Stephenson. "But I'm going to have a difficult time waiting for the first issue of AS BIG AS EARTH. Scott and Dean are a couple of my favorite creators, and I'm beyond thrilled to welcome them to Image."