Don’t ask why I missed the announcement, I was probably somewhere recovering from Jewish Comic Con! We’re still getting a lot of great press coverage AFTER the con by the way (on Tablet, Bleeding Cool, JTA, JPost and more). Anyhow, Dynamite has revealed the text and cover for INTERTWINED#5! (cue applause).
INTERTWINED #5 (of 6)
Cover: Roland Boschi Writer: Fabrice Sapolsky Art: Fred Pham Chuong
The countdown to the end starts here! As one murder case closes, another one is re-opened! Learn the shocking truth behind the murder of the previous Spirit of the Earth! Juan Jin’s first battle as the new Spirit in town could definitely be his last. He’ll have to really accept to become the hero his peers saw in him and embrace his destiny. An explosive issue featuring a smashing cover by fan-favorite artist Roland Boschi! Written by the co-creator of Marvel’s Spider-Man Noir and Image’s One-Hit Wonder!
There’s more than one story behind this cover. Initially, I contacted Roland Boschi for the Portfolio we’re doing in one of the Kickstarter packages (for those who ordered it and are mad that it’s not there yet, please bear with us, it’s coming, it’s coming). Roland liked the designs very much and he was very pleased to contribute. I really like Roland Boschi. Not just because he’s French like me, but because he’s a true genuine guy. Roland is not a flake or a BS kinda guy. With him, what you see is what you get. And I love that. He was featured in one of the early Comic Box issues I chief-edited, but we didn’t bond at that time. We really got to know each other at a Festival we both attended in the south of France, in 2011, near Toulon. We had a great time. And we stayed in touch. Roland is a terrific artist. He works for Marvel Comics, generally on “street level” characters. My favorites. So for Intertwined, Roland was one of my top choices.
He sent us a black and white version of the piece. It was already beautiful. I smelled a great cover there. Powerful. Dynamic. Poetic. I asked him if we could turn his piece into a cover. He said yes. Initially, we were supposed to run it as the second variant for issue #1. But Dynamite Comics preferred us only doing two covers by Fred. We couldn’t let that beautiful Roland cover go to waste. So I got an idea that I shared with Fred.
As you know, we are contracted with Dynamite for 6 issues right now. Usually, the way the market works in the US, most of the single issues sales are made on the first 3 issues. The retailers, and many customers, are then waiting for the collected edition, “the trade”, to come out. I always found this frustrating. We put a lot of time, energy and talent in making those other three issues so that afterwards… there IS a trade. I told Fred: “we started with your covers. If we use other artists for the covers, artists that people collect, maybe we can get more interest in those 3 issues”. Fred said yes. And we came up with this plan: issue #4 would be covered by Gerald Parel. Issue #5 by Roland and issue #6 by Olivier Coipel. The biggest selling Marvel artist for our last issue, isn’t that cool?
But let’s go back to Intertwined #5. This is a very important issue. As I wrote before, I consider issue #1-3 to be my “New Hope”. And #4 and #5 would be my Empire Strikes Back. The shocking revelation you’ll have with #4 and #5 which are a single issue cut into to be honest, is of “I’m your father” level. Stick with us. Intertwined is going to surprise you until the very end. And #Dontwaitforthetrade!
To be continued,
F.