Creator-Owned Heroes #2
Written by Steve Niles, Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray
Art by Phil Noto, Kevin Mellon
Letters by Bill Tortolini
Image Comics
Release Date: July 4, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

Creator-Owned Heroes is Image’s new monthly series that highlights the original content of established comic book talent. More than “just a comic,” it’s a feature-packed magazine that celebrates creative independence. How appropriate that the second issue was released on the 4th of July. You definitely get your money’s worth; this book is loaded with content with two ongoing comic series, interviews, editorials, and how-to features.

The comic book portion, which makes up about two-thirds of the book, continues the Triggergirl and American Muscle series that kicked off last month. American Muscle is a post-apocalyptic, zombie-ish story where human immune systems have completely stopped functioning. The comic follows a small group of survivors and their search for a safe, permanent place to start a new life. In the last issue, they made their way to Los Angeles only to discover that it has become a zombie-riddled wasteland that’s falling into the Pacific Ocean.

Each and every week “Firework Fred” MK2Fac3 and “Firecracker Frank” Henchman21 read a lot of comics. Seriously you guys, a lot of comics. Maybe too many comics. I mean, it is possible”¦ theoretically. They look forward to some more than others, I mean, who doesn’t? So, let’s take a look into the depths of their pull lists, grab some comics, and we’ll let YOU know what the top books to look forward to are for the week of July 4, 2012. Single issues and trades, they’re all here.

Um, yeah, sorry about the delay, folks! We were just sitting over here drinking non-alcoholic beverages in celebration of freedom and such, so we got a little too distracted by the holiday to get this up in time. You forgive us, right? Sure you do. I mean, I’m sure that you might have gotten distracted by all the booms and crackering of fireworks too and missed picking up new comics, right? That’s what I thought. Well, there’s a decent amount of stuff that came out this week, but a lot of it is more new issues than new comics, you know what I mean? Not a lot of fresh pickings. Nonetheless, you should read on because there are new comics to love and behold. Which ones? Like I said, you’ll need to read on for The GoD List.

Steve Niles, Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, Kevin Mellon and Phil Noto are pushing the creator owned comics movement even further with Creator Owned Heroes from Image Comics starting in June.

Details of the upcoming series are still scarce at this point, but as it appears on the official Facebook page, the series will feature two stories in pseudo-magazine/anthology format. Included in the first issue of the ongoing series is American Muscle from Niles and Mellon, an interview with Neil Gaiman and Trigger Girl 6 by Palmiotti, Gray and Noto. The series is set to focus on new creator owned properties from some of the tops names in the creator owned comics movement.