TOP SHELF PROJECTS

Following are upcoming key Top Shelf projects, with information coming from the company.

THE KING

By Rich Koslowski.

From the award-winning creator of Three Fingers, comes an all-new pop-culture adventure/mystery. The King is an offbeat tale of one very enigmatic Elvis impersonator that's taking the Vegas strip, and the world, by storm. Shrouded in mystery with the shining gold helmet that covers his face, his performances are mesmerizing, and many fans are starting to believe that he really is Elvis. Through a series of thought- provoking interviews and investigative reporting, a journalist makes it his personal mission to find out who The King really is. And along the way he discovers a lot more than he bargained for.

208 pages, $19.95.

TRICKED

By Alex Robinson.

From the Eisner award-winning creator of Box Office Poison comes the highly anticipated original graphic novel, Tricked. Four years in development and clocking in at 320-pages, Alex Robinson has created another tour de force. Tricked follows the lives of six people -- a reclusive rock legend, a heartbroken waitress, a counterfeiter, an obsessive crank, a lost daughter, and a backstabbing lover -- whose lives are unconnected until an act of violence brings them spiraling in on each other. Combining intriguing characters with a story structure that is both complex and innovative.

320 pages, $19.95.

BOX OFFICE POISON

By Alex Robinson.

Sporting a brand new cover, the award-winning and long-out-of-print Box Office Poison is back! This 608-page epic story of Sherman, Dorothy, Ed, Stephen, Jane, and Mr. Flavor is a true comics masterpiece. Alex Robinson's completely natural and inspiring knack for dialogue makes this story of dreary jobs, comic books, love, sex, messy apartments, girlfriends (and the lack thereof), undisclosed pasts, and crusty old professionals one of the most delightful and whimsical graphic novels to hit the stands in years.

608 pages, $29.95.

SPIRAL-BOUND

By Aaron Renier.

With an ensemble cast straight from a box of Animal Crackers, this delightful tale of ambition, morality, and self-discovery is the first major work by extraordinary newcomer Aaron Renier. Drawn in a decidedly beautiful fashion, reminiscent of Richard Scary and Lewis Trondheim, Renier has given us a fully-realized and compellingly adventurous narrative, at once both achingly naive and profoundly worldly. This tightly crafted, two-color graphic novel is the real deal, and will charm your socks off. A remarkable debut.

144 pages, $14.95.

THE SURROGATES #1

By Rob Venditti and Brett Weldele.

The year is 2054, and life has been reduced to a data feed. The fusing of virtual reality and cybernetics has ushered in the era of the surrogate, a new technology that lets users interact with the world without ever leaving their homes. It's a perfect world, and it's up to Detectives Harvey Greer and Pete Ford of the Metro Police Department to keep it that way. But to do so they'll need to stop a techno-terrorist bent on returning society to a time when people lived their lives instead of merely experiencing them. Welcome to The Surrogates, a daring, five- issue, full-color miniseries coming this July.

32 pages, $2.95.

WORLD WAR 3 ILLUSTRATED #36: NEO CONS

Edited by Peter Kuper and Ryan Inzana.

From attacks on SpongeBob, to fake newscasters, to nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, to tax cuts for the rich, Neo Cons are everywhere! As the Bush administration rewrites the constitution, the artists of World War 3 draw the line and demonstrate that a picture is worth a thousand WMDs. For a quarter century, World War 3 has been on the cutting edge of political comix, and this 25th anniversary edition continues with a line up of today's sharpest talents, including: Spain, Joe Sacco, David Rees, Steve Brodner, Barry Blitt, Eric Drooker, Sabrina Jones, Ryan Inzana, Seth Tobocman, Peter Kuper, and a wraparound cover by Sue Coe. World War 3 is the antidote to complacency.

64 pages, $5.