The middle volume of Dante Aligheri’s trilogy of Inferno, (or Hell), has served as bane to college students and inspiration to countless artists in the 700 years since first written, becoming background and foreground to numerous tales and journeys, on screen and on page, most recently in the form of DaVinci Code author Dan Brown’s Inferno.  Now, writer Ron Bassilian is taking a shot at this epic work in his own Inferno Los Angeles, aided ably by the deft artwork of artist Jim Wheelock. 

“The boys have not yet learned how to live, but by God they know how to die.”
-Waffen, SS Officer Kurt “Panzer” Meyer on his Hitler Youth Grenadiers

“Listen, Sugar. Don’t take this the wrong way, but – even though you got some real sweet, real kind eyes . . . you look like a man who’s got some nasty ideas”
-Waitress in Carolina

It’s raining hard as John Summer makes his way south through America’s heartland in 1971 on a mysterious quest, accompanied only by his dog, Sam, a loaded gun and Death.

It’s also raining in Germany, in the last days of World War II, as the Wolfpack of five lost, but determined, Hitler Youth ready to make their stand against the Allies and claim a page of glory in the Thousand-Year Reich.

“You learn something quick in Pariah.  Appearances are deceiving.  Not all come to the boom-town saddled with dreams and hopes.  Some come to escape.  And, some come to prey.”

Hiram Buchanan may look like just another foppish gambler come to make his fortune in Pariah, MO, the last town on the Mississippi before the Mexican border, yet he is anything but.  Working undercover for the mysterious Mr. Pinkerton, he’s investigating the strange undercurrents he’s discovered while waiting for his relatives to join him.

The following is an interview with William Harms, writer of the trade paperback 39 Minutes from Top Cow Productions. In this interview, Fanboy Comics Contributor Tony Caballero talks with Harms about his inspiration for the story, how he got his start in the industry, and where readers will be able to find him next.

This interview was conducted on August 23, 2013.

Take an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, a retired Army Major, and a founding member of the renowned US Navy SEAL Team 6.  Put them in a room.  Throw in one of the most classic films in Japanese cinema.  Add the talents of a brilliant Italian artist.  Mix well, and what do you get?  Something timeless, moving, and chillingly exciting.

A team of ex-Special Forces is raiding small towns in rural America and killing everyone they come across.  In and out in 39 minutes, with clockwork precision. And, after being wrongfully imprisoned in Fort Leavenworth, Marine John Clayton is offered a deal he can’t turn down.  Help the government track down and capture them and receive a full pardon.  The reason?  They’re his former squadmates.  His alternative?  The revocation of his plea bargain and a guaranteed execution for war crimes.

“Can you see the fear . . . the pleading in their eyes? Can you smell the piss running down their leg?  Can you hear their final death rattle?

If you can . . . then your enemy is already dead.  Help them along, as you wish.  Just to be certain of their reckoning with you.”


Lost and hiding in the Harz Mountains of Germany at the end of the war, a group of boys struggle to maintain their balance in the face of the Third Reich’s imminent defeat and their leader's loosening grip on reality.  Alone, desperate, and hungry, they live under the will of an escalating madman, while a lone boy is sent to a distant rendezvous point in the hopes of finding supplies.

In the Internet world, self-publishing is always a crapshoot for both the creator and the reader. You never know what you’re going to get. But, with Twisted Dark, writer/creator Neil Gibson seems to be consistently throwing elevens and sevens. And, while people may say that self-publishing is a vanity thing, this volume is anything but vain. This is a rampaging bull-ride of a talented storyteller, deservedly forcing his way into your consciousness.

Twelve-year-old Jamie Baldwin is having a bad day.

On his elementary school graduation day, the campus is attacked by the Technivore, and he’s rescued by Rocket Girl . . . errr, Queen, only to have her suit shut down by a stray shot and crash land, where he’s forced to reboot her armor by hand, using instructions radioed by his hero, Captain Zoom.

And, what did you do on your elementary school graduation?

Come on, who doesn't love clowns?

With their bulging, maniacal eyes and grotesque, painted-on smiles, their shrill shrieks of delirious glee and their frantic desperate caperings . . . who doesn't like that?

Besides most people with half a brain.  Go to any circus and for every kid laughing with glee, there’s another trying their damnedest to throw mom and dad in front of them and make a mindless escape.  Because let’s face it . . .

Clowns can be freakin’ scary.