Even though some may criticize us for a bit of self promotion, I don’t care. When one of our team does something cool outside of their work at The Flickcast, I want to make sure to bring it to as many people’s attention as possible.

Case in point today is The Flickcast co-founder Chris Ullrich’s new venture into indie comics and comics publishing. The first comic out of the gate for this new venture is called Believer. Here’s the synopsis:

Believer tells the story of Jack Hollenbeck, disgraced Los Angeles police detective turned tabloid reporter and occasional private investigator who is hired by a mysterious woman and her aging father to locate an an ancient object of incredible value . . . and incredible power.

During the course of Jack’s investigation and search for the object, he soon realizes things are not what they seem as sinister forces, human and otherwise, converge on Los Angeles to prevent him, by any means necessary, from finding the object.

Aided by a woman he doesn’t really trust and relying on his wits, a few friends in the police who don’t hate him, and his knowledge of ancient magics he’s extremely reluctant to use, Jack must brave all manner of hardship to find the object before someone else does and uses its power to enslave mankind.

Believer was written by Chris Ullrich and Joseph Dilworth with pencils by Kris Carter. Economics being what they are in the startup world, the creators are currently running a Kickstarter campaign to help raise finishing funds for the comic series. Why not give them a buck or two?

You can check out some preview pages for Believer after the break.

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Zombies are hot right now. Hell, they’ve been hot for the past year, since AMC blew the lid off of their ratings roof with the first season of The Walking Dead last October. Now, things are kicking back into scary gear as we ramp up for the Halloween season, and people are coming out of the woodwork to show us their killer zombie franchises.

Creator Eric Powell has been trying to get the animated adaptation of his zombie-killing comic The Goon off the ground for quite some time. The film’s already got voice master Clancy Brown and Paul Giamatti signed on, they just need to work on animating the film itself. Here’s the synopsis from the book, to keep you up to speed.

Bones will be broken and heads will roll! The Goon is a laugh-out-loud action-packed romp through the streets of a town infested with zombies. An insane priest is building himself an army of the undead, and there’s only one man who can put them is their place: the man they call Goon.

Recently, Powell tweeted out this awesome PSA featuring Clancy portraying The Goon in some very rough test footage. You can check out that footage after the jump, and we can hopefully see The Goon in theaters sometime in the next few years.

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One of the most enjoyable things about writing for The Flickcast is having early access to new products like comics, movies and video games. Along with that, sometimes comes the chance for exclusive access to their creators as well. Recently, I was given the chance to interview Christos Gage.

For those not familiar with him, he has quite an extensive resume both in television and comics, from Law and Order: Special Victims Unit to Avengers: Initiative from Marvel. And of course we can’t forget the Flickcast favorite miniseries he recently was a part of through IDW, G.I.Joe: Cobra. Now, Christos is taking on a new challenge, but one he is most certainly looking forward to.

Coming out in August, Christos will debut Absolution from Avatar Press. The same people who brought us Crossed by Garth Ennis will be giving Christos free reign on his creator owned property. The following is the conversation we were able to have with Christos about this exciting new project.

The Flickcast: Thank you for taking the time to answer some of our questions. For those not aware, you have your first miniseries from Avatar Press coming out in August called Absolution. Would you mind giving a brief idea of what the book is?

Christos Cage: Absolution is about John Dusk-a superhero in a world where superheroes are a sanctioned branch of law enforcement-who starts secretly executing criminals.  There comes a point where he’s seen one too many of them end up beyond the reach of the law, whether because they’ve served their time, or there wasn’t enough evidence to convict, or whatever.  He’s seen them go out and re-offend, which he and everyone else knew would happen.

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Many of you may or may not be aware that Diamond Comic Distributors recently upped their minimum order guidelines for comics to be carried by them. Diamond, being the largest and virtually only comic distributor in the United States, has a monopoly on the industry. If small press is unable to make the minimum sales requirements, they will lose their only real means of offering their titles to stores across the country.

Unfortunately, with economic times in this country as turbulent as they are, Diamond’s decision isn’t something that should be held against them. They are a business and need to do what they can at the moment to stay profitable despite downward trends in the comic sales industry. But to give some perspective on the effects of this guidelines, some of the comics listed in the Diamond Top 300 List might not even meet this requirement.

Some popular titles that everyone today is more than well aware of that would have fallen by the wayside due to this guideline include both Bone and the original issues of 30 Days of Night. These mainstream works of popular fiction might never have seen the light of day. From the same perspective, well known artists and writers also may not have been given the exposure that has lead them to the positions they are in now. Imagine where Brian Michael Bendis would be right now if not for his early titles such as Jinx.

So what can be done to help remedy with this problem? The first comes from the consumer level. Everyone has a comic or two that they purchase on a monthly basis, more so out of habit than actually enjoying it anymore. So once a month, skip a book that hasn’t been enjoyable anymore and pick up something new, something that you’ve never heard of from a small press. Chances are, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with a story you weren’t expecting.

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