Monday, July 20, 2009

Damn Dirty Apes!

Some news of great interest:

The first-ever original novel based on the classic POTA film series, Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes will hit both the direct market and major book and retail chains in spring 2010. BLAM! Ventures' Creative Director, Andrew E. C. Gaska, along with Editorial Coordinator Christian Berntsen and Developmental Director Erik Matthews, serve as the writing team for Conspiracy.

More than twenty artists are expected to offer their amazing talents to this project. The first on board are legendary artist Jim Steranko (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.), renowned book cover painter Ken Kelly (Conan, KISS), Joe Jusko (Savage Sword of Conan, Tarzan), Sanjulian (Errie, Vampirella) Mark Texiera (Ghost Rider, Wolverine), Leo Leibelman (Heavy Metal), Matt Busch (Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica), Brian Rood (Indiana Jones, Star Wars), Tom Scioli (Godland), David Hueso (G.I.Joe: Storm Shadow) and newcomers Dan Dussault (Critical Millennium) and Dirk Shearer (Mouse Templar).

Fans interested in getting a first peek at the novel's artwork can do so at this year's San Diego Comic Con International, to be held on July 22-26, 2009. BLAM! Ventures will display a gallery of images at booth #2547, as well as making available for sale limited-edition prints of two Conspiracy paintings, entitled Alpha and Omega (from artists Joe Jusko and Sanjulian, respectively), as Comic Con International exclusives. BLAM! will host artist signings and answer questions regarding the upcoming novel, in addition to giving away a limited number of special Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes promotional items, including character bio trading cards and replicas of Landon's dog tags.

3 comments:

E.M. Gist said...

I hate every one of these artists. Mainly because they get to work on a project that I would give my left arm to work on, but also because they are all so good. Funny how often those two things go hand in hand

James Enge said...

This sounds like it might be fun. The artists are certainly pretty impressive.

As a teenager I was quite fond of a couple of the later novelizations in the series: Battle for... by David Gerrold and Conquest of... by John Jakes--in spite of the fact (or maybe because of the fact) that I hadn't seen the movies. (I think "Escape" was the last of the movies I actually watched.)

Christian Berntsen said...

Thanks for the post, Lou! And thank you E.M. and James for the nice comments. The artists are certainly delivering, I can tell you that.