The Atheist #1 In Stores Tomorrow

Posted: Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Posted By: Mike Storniolo

April 13 marks the official release date of the first issue of the new Desperado Publishing series, The Atheist, written by Phil Hester and featuring art by John McCrea. Published through Image Comics, The Atheist #1 is the first issue of an ongoing, bi-monthly black and white series.

Series creator Phil Hester describes his series this way: "Antoine Sharpe is called the Atheist by his fellow employees in the office of the undersecretary of defense for emergent technology, a government team of debunkers. He couldn't give a fig about belief or lack thereof, but his teammates can't get a handle on his relentless skepticism and tag him such.

"The first story arc - "Incarnate" - is about how Sharpe reacts to the first case he can't debunk. It concerns possession, a far-fetched concept, but the case studies Sharpe encounters prove unimpeachable. The possessed haven't been taken over by demons, but by the souls of the dearly departed wishing one more spin in a human body. The dead long to party and they're coming back by the thousands. They don't want to eat brains, but do Jell-o shots and get laid in an intense bacchanalia of fast living, leaving burned out husks behind.

"Sharpe sets out to prove the menace has an earthly origin, but supernatural or not, it's a crisis that threatens to swallow civilization whole."

Retailers can reorder copies of the first issue of The Atheist as well as place an order for issue #2 through Diamond by using these order codes:

The Atheist #1: DEC041513
The Atheist #2: FEB051583

"The Atheist is a vehicle for exploring some offbeat horror and science fiction concepts that don't easily fit into a mainstream comic," Hester said. "I'm trying to introduce a character that doesn't necessarily have an appealing demeanor, but a voracious and uncompromising logic that lets him cut through any problem like a scalpel. A badass Dr. Who. If none of that interests you, at least come check out John McCrea's pretty pictures. He's trotted out a new style that will surprise and please a lot of readers."

To learn more about The Atheist and other Desperado Publishing series, log onto: www.desperadopublishing.com.

About Desperado Publishing:

Atlanta, Georgia-based Desperado Publishing in partnership with Image Comics is set to release a daring line-up containing titles both existing and brand new by some of the comic industry's biggest names. Always a visionary, publisher Joe Pruett is well known throughout comics as one of the finest assessors of talent and has discovered many of today's biggest names. Some of those joining him at Desperado Publishing are Bob Burden, Phil Hester, John McCrea, J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Ploog, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner, Ron Marz, Andrew Robinson, Keith Giffen, Tony Harris, Brian Bolland, Bernie Wrightson, Bruce Jones and P. Craig Russell. A sampling of titles you can expect to see include: Flaming Carrot, Negative Burn, Stardust Kid, The Atheist, Widowmakers, Deadworld, and Dusty Star. More information can be found by logging onto their web site at www.desperadopublishing.com.

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