Hello out there PANTHEON fans. If you check Page 313 of the March 2008 PREVIEWS for product shipping in May, you will find the listing for the Pantheon trade paperback called PANTHEON: Welcome to the Machine. The order code is SEP073843 (due to the resolicitation) and the cover price is $19.95. If you want to get a sneak peek at the contents of the trade, you can check out the color versions of the PANTHEON pages at the WOWIO website listed on the post below. We will be doing a print run based on the order from Diamond and I expect these things to move. So, order from your local retailer now.

UPDATE-
The Lone Star books on WOWIO are hitting the top ten on that site, earning a few bucks for the creators and for charity. Thanks to everybody trying a digital comic!

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I feel the need to make a tremendous apology and explain the circumstances around the release of the first Pantheon trade. The Pantheon trade has been delayed to the Spring. I took way too long in producing the color pages for the trade and blew the deadline. Rather than rush the project through the printer and risk a bad job, I have decided to wait.

By way of compensation for your patience, all of the individual Pantheon issues are available for free on Wowio. Advertisers support that small digital distribution outfit and publishers get a share of that ad revenue. Bottom Line: You get free downloadable pdfs and we get paid. Currently, we have almost thirty bits of fiction on Wowio with the rest of the Lone Star catalogue scheduled to be posted in the next few months. Books and comics include material from both Lone Star Press and Clockwork Storybook. The books free to readers include previously out of print books and comics such as…

Posted-
Beowulf: Monster Maker by Bill Willingham
Beowulf: Hyde and Seek by Bill Willingham
Down the Mysterly River by Bill Willingham
Gods- New & Used by Mark Finn
Beneath the Skin by Matt Sturges
Midwinter by Matt Sturges
Banana-Tail by Mark McKenna

Pantheon #1- #13
Pantheon: Ancient History
Heroic Tales #1- #10
Ex Parte #1 & #2
Strange Heroes #1- #7
Force Seven #1- #3
Ace of Diamonds #0
SideChicks #1

Pending-
Force Seven #4

Special-
Mantlo- a Life in Comics

I got a hold of David Yurkovich and talked to him about his tribute book about the career of long time comics writer Bill Mantlo. Bill created a lot of the comics I loved in the 1970s and 1980s and eventually left comics behind to become a lawyer. One day while he was rollerblading, he was struck by a hit- and- run driver and has been left with permanent medical problems. Proceeds from the Mantlo tribute book go to defray the expenses of Bill’s long- term care. I have waived my usual setup and management costs to make sure that every dollar that comes in goes right to his brother Michael Mantlo.

And here is a bit from a press release that I cannot get run on the comic book news sites…

“Wowio is a win/ win/ win for us,” Lone Star Publisher Bill Williams said. “The fans get free books. Advertisers get eyeballs. Lone Star gets a check and the freelancers get royalty checks. There is something on the list for everyone. I think fans of Fables would be very entertained to read Down the Mysterly River by Bill Willingham. Short story fans would love the work in Beneath the Skin by Matt Sturges. And aspiring creators could do a lot worse than learning from Bill’s original scripts in the Pantheon script book.”

“Of course, comics fans get a look at the Pantheon mini-series, this time in color. While the first trade paperback was delayed, the heart of that material is available for free through Wowio. It’s a great time to be a comic book fan.”

The Complete Lone Star List-
The WOWIO Home Page

ABOUT LONE STAR PRESS:
Lone Star Press is an Austin- based independent comic book publisher celebrating ten years of making books and comics. Among the comics published by Lone Star are Bill Willingham’s PANTHEON, HEROIC TALES, EX PARTE and FORCE SEVEN. Lone Star Press produces the webcomic, SIDECHICKS which is also available on Graphic Smash.

ABOUT WOWIO LLC:
WOWIO opened shop on the Web in August 2006 dramatically expanding access to important written works by eliminating the economic, geographic, and logistical barriers of readers while also ensuring that content owners are fairly compensated.

WOWIO is one of the few sources where readers can legally download high-quality copyrighted ebooks from leading publishers for free. Readers have access to a wide range of offerings, including works of classic literature, college textbooks, comic books, and popular fiction and non-fiction titles.

WOWIO is a privately owned company with headquarters in Houston, Texas.

It is one thing to be critical and snipe at the other guy, but being a true subversive is when you offer negative commentary on your own company and your own editors. The Doctor 13 story is one of the most subversive things I’ve read this year and I do not know how it got past an editor at 1700 Broadway. The plot has the back row of the DC back bench struggling to find and stop a group called the Architects. Never-wases like Captain Fear, Anthro, Andrew Bennett (of the I, Vampire series), Infectious Lass, Genius Jones, and Jeb Stuart (from the Haunted Tank) join the unflappable Doctor Thirteen as they have a few adventures before meeting the men behind the office door.

This is clearly the last gasp for entertainment for the characters that have no place in Didios DC. Cliff Changs art tells the story well and Brian Azzarellos story is a not so subtle look back at a happier and more diverse time at DC when a vampire book could be on the spinner rack beside a pirate book beside a war book beside a goofy Silver Age romp. Dig the Super-Friends cover!

I tend to keep rather silent when it comes to insulting potential employers, but the Editorial Department at DC is off the rails. I guess I can understand that fanboys all have a burning desire to know if Batman can beat up his clones (Daredevil, Moon Knight, etc.), however, I thought we could answer those questions on an individual basis with Heroclix.

If this Art Adams image in support of the latest mish-mash event is anything but an overpriced comission, then that arm of the Time Warner Empire is obviously publishing fanfic. And it is aggressively de-valuing the good work that came before. That is a lousy legacy for any creator.

* (The above image is a detail stolen from a much larger image from another site on the internets and should be considered suspect at best. Those characters are owned by DC Comics and are used here only for mockery.)

Once upon a time, Lone Star Press published a black & white mini-series called Pantheon which was written by Bill Willingham, penciled by Mike Leeke (with help from Brian Hagan & Derec Donovan) and inked by me. Pantheon tells the story of the last great adventure of a team of heroes that stand against a former mate who is bent on planetary domination. That series was ahead of its time, ignored by retailers and loved by fans and reviewers. Now, I have gone back and had the entire mini-series colored for a series of three trade paperbacks.

November sees the publication of Pantheon: Welcome to the Machine. That trade collects Pantheon #1- #6 with seven new story pages detailing a new scene with Tangaroa and one with Ivanhoe.
This trade also contains the Year of the Dragon story that illustrates the love triangle at the center of the main story. Year of the Dragon was written by Bill Willingham inked and colored by me and penciled by newcomer Ty Romsa.

In 2008, Lone Star Press will publish a second Pantheon trade collecting Pantheon #7- 13 and a third trade that collects all of the other stories like Bobby Diaz excellent work on stories about the grim hero, Blackheart.

Pantheon: Welcome to the Machine is scheduled for a ship date of November 7th. It is 168 pages long for $19.95 and it is wrapped in the supercool cover shown above. Go to your retailer and tell them that you want your Pantheon trade. Lone Star Press will do a limited mail order business, but we really want you to go out and support your local comic book shop.

Bill Williams
LSP