Dark Horse brings back: Channel Zero!
Written by: Gary M. Kenny, CC2K Comics Editor
Brian Wood’s break out title Channel Zero is being re-released and many of you have never ever heard of this amazing comic. It’s a story about a post terrorist world where people have given up their rights and dreams in order to live in a society where God and TV are one and the same. What’s amazing about this title is that it was written in the late 90’s and yet feels like it was written post 9/11. This is one of those books that’s achieved cult status and needs to be read by everyone.
Channel Zero was first published with Image comics and is basically a tale of a New York art student living in a terrible version of futuristic America. New laws have changed society and our rights have been torn away. While many are left bloody, tattered and broken, our protagonist Jennie 2.5 wants to wake up the masses and revolt. Though she thinks she’s ready to lead the charge, she’s way over her head and not necessarily free of these post war American values/faults as she think she is.
This series made Brian Wood a star writer. His series DMZ blossomed from Channel Zero. This is the series where he met the amazing Becky Cloonan. They later collaborated with the series Demo and Local. Both major cult hits. Becky’s carreer has blossomed from this series and now she is working with My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way as the artist for his new mini: True Lives of the Fabulous Kill Joys.
Channel Zero hasn’t been in print in a long time and collections of the comic go for almost $70 on amazon. Do yourself a favor and pick this baby up once it is released in May. I promise it will be well worth every dollar.
here is the press release:
DARK HORSE COLLECTS CHANNEL ZERO!
THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION OF BRIAN WOOD’S FIRST SERIES!
December 12, MILWAUKIE, OR – Out of print and unavailable to readers for more than three years, Dark Horse Comics is giving new life to a critically acclaimed classic with the complete collection of Brian Wood’s Channel Zero!
DMZ and The Massive creator Brian Wood launched an all-out assault on the comics medium in 1997 with Channel Zero, an influential, forward-thinking series that combined art, politics, and graphic design in a unique way. Hitting on themes of freedom of expression, hacking, cutting-edge media manipulation, and police surveillance, it remains as relevant today as it did back then.
The Channel Zero collection contains the original series; the prequel graphic novel, Jennie One (illustrated by Becky Cloonan); the best of the two Public Domain design books; and almost fifteen years of extras, rarities, short stories, and unused art. Also featuring the now-classic Warren Ellis introduction and an all-new cover by Wood, this is the must-have edition. A blistering take on media control in a repressive future America!
“Channel Zero is literally the start of my comics career, the first proper comic I ever made, and as such as informed everything that’s come after it, especially DMZ and the upcoming THE MASSIVE.” Tells Brian Wood. “It also put me and Becky Cloonan together, helping build a creative partnership that has lasted a decade. This edition here is the definitive one, including everything worth printing, including a color section that includes the original covers to the single issues.”
Praise for Brian Wood & Channel Zero:
“Wood’s message is clear enough: apathy is the real enemy, and it is harder to fight than any totalitarian government.”—Wired
“It’s about anger as a positive force of creation…Someone’s remembered what comics are for. Meet Brian Wood.”—Warren Ellis, award-winning writer of Planetary
“Dramatic Black and White visuals…Controlled sense of rhythm.” — I.D. magazine
“Your handbook for the media revolution.”—Eyeball magazine
“Strangely prescient… lucid and sharp” – Matt Fraction
“A seemingly endless barrage of powerful art” – Newtype USA
“Fascinating… this is a paranoid future Grant Morrison could not conceive of” – Comics International
The Channel Zero Collection is on sale May 30th, 2012!