Hey there, Action Agents! We’ve been busy bringing you Awesome Hospital, Monster Plus and a few other great comics for a while, but there’s a story we promised you a long while back that we’ve never been able to deliver — until now!
That’s right, everybody: After four years since we started working on it, we’re finally offering up The Hard Ones #1 to you, right here at the Action Age of Comics! Before now, you could’ve only seen it if you managed to catch us at a convention, but you can download the entire thing right now for free!
Faced with a budget crisis and super-hero activity that leaves them as a glorified clean-up crew, the Worldwide Extranormal Incident Response Directorate decides to outsource their activities to two independent operators who built their reputation taking on the most dangerous jobs for $10,000 a pop. It’s high-kickin’, hard-drivin’, hell-raisin’ excitement in the Affably Awesome Action Age manner when The Hard Ones set out to Get Lucky!
THE HARD ONES #1: Get Lucky! (28 Pages + Cover, CBZ Format, 9.13 MB)
Story by Chris Sims and Chad Bowers
Art by Rusty Shackles
Letters by Benjamin Birdie
Color Covers by Steve Downer
Rusty Says: ‘Like the story itself, working with Chris and Chad was fast, furious, a lot of work, and a helluva lot of fun.”
September 24th, 2011 at 11:44 pm
Well, that was worth the wait. Ace job, guys.
September 25th, 2011 at 1:15 am
Not kidding you guys: If I had bought this at my comics shops, I would have broken photons getting to my phone, calling them up to put it on my pull list. Magnificent stuff.
September 25th, 2011 at 3:03 am
[...] for you to read: The Hard Ones, with cowriter Chad Bowers and artist Rusty Shackles, is available right here for free [...]
September 25th, 2011 at 7:23 pm
I would gladly pay $3 or even $4 dollars for this.
September 25th, 2011 at 7:26 pm
In fact, I just did!
September 26th, 2011 at 12:58 am
Shockingly good. You’re usually good, but this exceeds expectations.
September 26th, 2011 at 12:18 pm
I loved it. It struck me immediately how fun and funny it was. I would highly recommend it for anyone who has a soul, because I can’t imagine who wouldn’t be deeply amused by this comic.
September 26th, 2011 at 4:06 pm
This was awesome. I would love to see a television show of The Hard Ones every week.
September 26th, 2011 at 5:44 pm
HOLY FREAKING FREAK!! THE HARD ONES?!?! But the world doesn’t end until NEXT year, Actioneers! Well, you won’t catch me complaining! Seriously, STATUS: 28 pages of pedal-to-the-metal awesome. Come home, Rusty, we miss you.
September 26th, 2011 at 5:46 pm
I almost forgot: Until Dr. Socrates mixes up a batch of his special Hemlock-tinis… Make All My Pages Action Age’s!
September 27th, 2011 at 4:11 am
Great over the top action. I would have paid for it for sure.
September 28th, 2011 at 10:56 am
Great work! This would work great as a weekly webcomic, if there are no print plans!
October 9th, 2011 at 2:53 pm
[...] Check out a free digital comic by Chris Sims and Chad Bowers! [...]
October 9th, 2011 at 4:30 pm
[...] Hard Ones is available at Action Age Comics for free and should be read by anyone who loves gender role humor, references to Detroit [...]
October 11th, 2011 at 9:41 am
[...] “Hard Ones” number 1, [...]
November 8th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
[...] comics, so we went from just pitching stories to each other over lunch to actually writing them. The Hard Ones, a 28-page comic we did with Rusty Shackles, that we just put up for free on ActionAgeComics.com, [...]