That’s right, folks:  The men behind the Action Age–the ones who do the writing, anyway–are heading to Charlotte, North Carolina this weekend for the fantastic HeroesCon show!

Unfortunately, the Action Age doesn’t have a table this year (but we will in 2010, we promise!), but you can find Chris Sims (of The Chronicles of Solomon Stone and the upcoming Woman of A.C.T.I.O.N.) wandering around the show for all three days, and Chad Bowers (of Impossible!, Danger Ace, and our latest smash-hit, Monster Plus) will be on the floor on Saturday and Sunday!

Plus, we’ll be hanging with some great friends of ours, like Jim Shelley and Trey Causey of The FlashBack Universe, Rachelle Goguen of Living Between Wednesdays, Dr. K, and Chris Haley of Let’s Be Friends Again!

So if you’re planning on hitting the Southeast’s greatest comic book show, take this chance to meet the creators of Tyrannosaurus Hex and Hitlerfist and maybe, just maybe get a look at some upcoming projects from the Action Age of Comics!

We’ll see you in Charlotte!

This awesome, Mignola-esque take on the newest star of the Action Age of Comics comes from Chris Haley, who spends most of his time drawing the incredible webcomic Let’s Be Friends Again!  Check him out there to catch one of the best new webcomics going, and who knows?  This might just be the first of many times you see him here at the Action Age!

Thanks, Chris!

The latest star of the Action Age of Comics has arrived!

Click the image above to get started with the first issue of Monster Plus on the web now!  Just click each page to go to the next, or click below to download the issue to enjoy at your leisure!

• Download the CBZ!
  
• Download the PDF!
  

It’s twelve jam-packed pages of Monster Mash-Up Fun by Action Age Co-Founder Chad Bowers with the art team of Nathan Kroll and Andrew Kjelstrup, all capped off with a pin-up by Solomon Stone’s Matthew Allen Smith!

It’s the wildest ride of the 27th Century when President Mark Darke’s sinister plans are interrupted by a vampire werewolf zombie Frankenstein witch doctor from Mars and his gang of unlikely teenage sidekicks!  But Darke’s got an ace up his sleeve, and it might just be the greatest villain in comic book history!

Give it a read, Action Agents, then come back here to let us know what you think, and if you want to see more of the comic that’s everything you ever wanted from a monster comic–and everything you didn’t too!

You read it right, folks:  on Wednesday, June 3, the Action Age thunders into the year 2666 with our next Instant Classic, and we promise:  you’ve never read a monster comic like this one!

Mark Darke thought he had it all under control, but his plans didn’t account for the return of a Mummified Werewolf Zombie Vampire Frankenstein Witch Doctor From Mars and his gang of teenage sidekicks!  Now, he’s throwing everything he’s got at bringing M-Plus down, up to and including a guy that we’re pretty sure will live in infamy as one of the greatest villains in comic book history!

It all comes from the mind of  “Rad” Chad Bowers, with Nathan Kroll on pencils and Andrew Kjelstrup providing the color, and it all jumps off next week, right here  on the Action Age of Comics!

But for those of you who can’t wait, here’s a taste of what’s to come:  a pin-up by Impossible artist Chris Nye!

Be here next week for the full 14-page story, complete with another pin-up from Action Age mainstay Matthew Allen Smith!

And in the meantime, get ready with Chad’s other hits:  Danger Ace and Impossible!

One of the reasons we like Solomon Stone and Exterminape artist Matthew Allen Smith so much is that when he’s given the chance, he’ll totally draw half-naked amazon warriors and dinosaurs!   Truly, his is the spirit of the Action Age!

We took the last week off here at Actionopolis to recover from getting Danger Ace #0 ready for Free Comic Book Day, but now we’re back with a look at the concept sketches behind Woman of A.C.T.I.O.N., the upcoming hit from Chris Sims and Chris Piers!

This is one of Piers’s first concept sketches for Penny Devlin, the titular Woman of A.C.T.I.O.N.!  Initially, Woman of A.C.T.I.O.N. was set to be drawn as a manga-style adventure by the UK’s own Kate Holden (of Batman-With-Nunchuks-Made-Of-Sharks fame), but when a scheduling conflict arose, Piers came in to take over!  With Penny, both artists tried to capture the ’60s-style pop-spy aspect of her character–hence the Emma Peel-style belt!

As for the player on the other side…

…meet Dr. von Killswitch, Agent of D.E.A.T.H.!

As one of the top scientists of A.C.T.I.O.N.’s opposite number, the brilliant and criminally insane Dr. von Killswitch has crossed Penny’s path a few times in the past… and he’s out to make sure this time is the last!

But really, all that matters is that he’s awesome enough to have wrist-rockets and a monocle.

Heck, he’s even got his own henchmen!

The Agents of D.E.A.T.H. might just look like faceless servants of a terrorist organization, but they’re actually… well, that’s pretty much exactly what they are.  But there’s a lot of ‘em, and at least one wants more from Penny than just her name, rank and serial number!

As for the identity of the guy in the bowler hat peeking on the right of the picture, well, we’ve gotta save some surprises, right?  So keep your eyes peeled for Woman of A.C.T.I.O.N., Coming Soon to the Action Age of Comics!

It’s the first Saturday in May, and that means that it’s Free Comic Book Day all across the world! So if you haven’t already, you can head out to one of over two thousand comic book stores and pick up comics from a ton of different publishers for free, all designed to spread the love of comic books.

Now, we here at the Action Age offer up our comics for free every day of the year, but if there’s one thing we’ve got in abundance, it’s a love of comic books.  So today, we’re proud to present our Free Comic Book Day offering:  Danger Ace #0!

Originally released as part of the Small Press Idol competition a few years back, Danger Ace flies through the pulp-style excitement of the ’30s as an Adventurer-For-Hire!  But now, after a long career of defying death, not all is as it seems, and the Ace is up against the biggest mystery of his career:  His own murder!

This story–the aptly named Return of the King–was released locally, but for the first time ever, the Action Age is proud to present the Never-Before-Seen Special Edition of Danger Ace #0, with newly remastered script and lettering by our own “Rad” Chad Bowers and art by “Jazzy” Jerry Hinds, with a bonus pin-up by Impossible’s Chris Nye!

• Read it online now!
• Download the .CBZ!
• Download the .PDF!

As always, click each page to read the next, then come back here and let us know if you want to see more of The Danger Ace!  Then spread the word to your friends and head out to celebrate another great Free Comic Book Day!

Tonight, we’re proud to announce the next Instant Classic of the Action Age of Comics!

Woman of A.C.T.I.O.N.!

As one of the highly trained agents of the Advanced Counter-Terrorist Intelligence Operations Network,  Penny Devlin might just be the world’s best line of defense against renegade techno-villains bent on world domination.  Or at least, she would be, if she could just stop blowing things up.  Plagued by the worst luck in the spy game and struggling in the shadow of a brother whose career is marked by a string of effortless successes, she’s had a pretty rough time…  but it’s never been as bad as this!

Now, in the wake of a scandal involving the destruction of a national landmark, she’s found herself on an enforced vacation with nothing to worry about… except the other side’s latest maniacal scheme.

It’s a thrill-a-minute pop-spy adventure as you like it, because when it all comes crashing down, the world needs a Woman of A.C.T.I.O.N.!

Woman of A.C.T.I.O.N. is coming soon with a story by our own Chris Sims, with art and color by Action Age newcomers Chris Piers and Steve Downer!

Jon Wolter celebrates the release of The Chronicles of Solomon Stone #1 with a pinup of the World’s Greatest Half-Vampire Private Detective Skateboard Champion punching the living crap out of Hitler, and that’s something that we here at the Action Age can always get behind!

Thanks, Jon!  And if you haven’t already, check out Solomon Stone #1!

• Download as a PDF!
• Download as a CBZ!
• Read it online!

Here it is!  The final chapter of The Chronicles of Solomon Stone #1!

Just click the image above to start reading Sims, Smith and Birdie’s climactic final chapter, or for those of you just joining us, start here to read the entire senses-shattering saga from beginning to end, then head back here to let us know what you think!  And don’t forget to keep going after the end of the story for our letter column, Written In Stone, and a full-color pin-up by Dan McDaid and Tamas Jakab!

Heck, you can even take it with you by downloading The Chronicles of Solomon Stone #1 in CBZ or PDF format to enjoy again and again.

And speaking of things you can enjoy again and again, we’re celebrating the completion of another Action Age classic with a second pin-up by Dan McDaid!  Check it out!

We hope you’ve enjoyed The Chronicles of Solomon Stone #1, and if you have, why not consider chipping in with a donation using the button to your right?  It doesn’t just help pay for Smithy’s art supplies and Chris’s $3,000 a day cocaine habit car payment, it also gets us closer to making a printed Action Age Comic a reality!

Either way, thanks for reading, and come back next week as we announce Chris Sims’s next thrilling project for the Action Age of Comics!