Broken Frontier

Standing tall atop the carnage below, Shrapnel’s Samantha Vijaya has never looked more triumphant or sexier thanks to a painted cover by artist Arthur Suydam. The fan-favorite illustrator has provided the latest image for SHRAPNEL: ARISTEIA RISING #2, following his acclaimed cover work for Radical Comics on Hercules: The Thracian Wars and City of Dust: A Philip Khrome Story.

“Arthur always delivers when it comes to creating great covers, and this is no different,” said Barry Levine, President and Publisher at Radical. “Going into issue #2 of Shrapnel: Aristeia Rising, we definitely wanted a strong image of Samantha, and I knew that Arthur would be the artist to portray that. What he created is simply amazing, and a wonderful addition to our library of great covers.”

An award-winning writer and artist, Suydam's work has appeared in publications from Marvel, Heavy Metal, Image, Epic Illustrated, Penthouse and National Lampoon, including the blockbuster Marvel Zombies series (Spike Scream Award for Best Artist and Comic of the Year). He’s also worked on an wide array of the top properties in the comics industry, including Batman, X-Men, Wolverine, Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, Predator, Aliens, Army of Darkness, Tarzan, Conan and Red Sonja.

His short story Christmas Carol was chosen for inclusion in The Mammoth Book of Horror and Legends for Best Comic Horror Stories of All Time and The Art of Painted Comics (2008).  Recently honored with inclusion in Spectrum 14: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Suydam was also granted the prestigious Gold Award in Spectrum 12 (2006), the San Sebastian Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Maryland and numerous fan-favorite awards around the globe.

In addition, Suydam also illustrates for the mass market with select projects that include Hard Case Crime, in which he provides retro-inspired covers for such titles as the noir pulp great Mickey Spillane's newly released Dead Street, Robert Bloch's Shooting Star, Fright by Cornell Woolrich and more.

SHRAPNEL: ARISTEIA RISING #2 appears in the December 2008 Diamond Previews catalogue and will ship in February 2009 with two covers: one by Suydam (Diamond Code: DEC084205) and one by Gerhard Mozsi (Diamond Code: DEC084206)