Broken Frontier

Artist MARK SPARACIO has teamed up with Heroic Publishing for a series of painted covers featuring Heroic's glittering goddess of the light, FLARE. Mark is also on top to be the regular artist for Heroic's much-anticipated LIBERTY GIRL series, which begins in the summer of 2006 with a super-sized first issue featuring 44 pages of story.

The first of Mark Sparacio's FLARE covers will appear on Flare #32, in January 2006. The next in the series is scheduled for Flare #35, cover-dated June 2006, celebrating the 20th anniversary of her first appearance in comics.

For LIBERTY GIRL, Mark plans to produce a series of painted covers, along with fully rendered interior artwork that will be reproduced directly from his original drawings. The first issue of LIBERTY GIRL will feature the return of America's bronze goddess of freedom, an angel of liberty drawn out of the mists of time to fight the battles of today. A nine-page Liberty Girl preview will appear in March in Flare #34, and Heroic Publishing plans to issue a special zeroth issue of Liberty Girl for Free Comic Book Day 2006.

Limited numbered editions of 250 lithographic copies of each of Mark Sparacio's FLARE and LIBERTY GIRL covers will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. The cost is $20 plus $5 shipping and handling. Advance orders for the Flare #32 litho can be made either from Mark Sparacio's website at www.marksparacio.com, or from the Heroic Publishing website at www.heroicpub.com/previews/fl32_litho.php.

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Beginning in January, and throughout the year 2006, Heroic Publishing will be celebrating their 20th year in comics. A special "Heroic Publishing - 20 Years" bullet has been designed that will appear first on the FLARE trade paperback scheduled to be released in late October, and thereafter on all Heroic Publishing titles released in the calendar year 2006.

Heroic Publishing first entered the comic book business in the summer of 1986 with the production of two comic book series for other publishers. The original six-year CHAMPIONS mini-series, which introduced FLARE and the LEAGUE OF CHAMPIONS to the world of comics, was produced for Eclipse Comics. The classic science-fiction series, ETERNITY SMITH, was produced for Renegade Press. In 1987, those two titles, plus Roy & Dann Thomas' CAPTAIN THUNDER AND BLUE BOLT, were brought together under Heroic Publishing's "Hero Comics" imprint. Throughout the late 1980s and the early 1990s, many other titles followed, both in color and black-and-white, notably including FLARE, LEAGUE OF CHAMPIONS, ICICLE, LADY ARCANE, THE TIGRESS, and others.

In October 2004, Heroic Publishing reentered the comic book market with a new line of full-color comic book titles, including FLARE, FLARE ADVENTURES, THE BLACK ENCHANTRESS, TALES OF THE CHAMPIONS, and WITCHGIRLS INC. Several more new titles are on tap for 2006, including Roy Thomas' ANTHEM, TALES OF THE ARCANE, and the much-anticipated LIBERTY GIRL! Previews of all these projects can be found on the Heroic Publishing website at www.heroicpub.com/previews.

Heroic Publishing has also begun a series of trade paperback collections of new and old material alike. The first Heroic Publishing trade paperback appeared in February 2005, featuring the complete ALTER EGO mini-series by Roy Thomas and Ron Harris. The first FLARE trade paperback, collecting her stories from the first seven issues of her new series, is scheduled for October release. The first CAPTAIN THUNDER AND BLUE BOLT volume, collecting issues #1-5 from the original CT&BB series, will appear in January 2006. The second CAPTAIN THUNDER AND BLUE BOLT volume, and THE ADVENTURES OF GIANT are scheduled for April. More trade paperbacks are in the works.

Retailers who haven't been ordering Heroic Publishing titles may want to register on the Heroic Publishing website at www.heroicpub.com/retailer and take advantage of Heroic Publishing's back issue services. Back issues of all Heroic titles are normally made available for wholesale purchase beginning 30 days after their on-sale date.