You can visit Com.X’s website for more information, and check back here for interviews with the creators as their book  release dates approach.

Passions Requiem-Written by Brian Cowden with art by Jonathan Lam and music by Rolfe Kent.

You read the above right, this comic book comes with its own soundtrack! Passions Requiem explores new areas of comic book publishing.

Sarah’s life is safe, structured, and unfulfilled. Following a brutal assault, she meets Adam, a mysterious loner. Their meeting releases emotions in her she never new existed as he takes her on a fantastic intense journey, which awakens and unleashes their deepest passions.

Post Mort’em- Created and written by Andi Ewington with concept art by Ivan Koritarev.

Sometimes even Death needs a vacation.

What if Death decides he needs a vacation…and takes it by inhabiting the body of a recently deceased superhero?

Death decides he wants to try saving souls instead of reaping them. Along with his trusty sidekick, a back-talking Skull called Seymour, Death attempts to help people in his own ‘doesn’t quite get it’ way, leading to often-unpredictable results. I mean, how do you rescue someone when your very touch is death?

“I’m delighted that com.x has seen the potential in my inane ramblings beyond my work on ‘45’ and its spin offs,” said creator Andi Ewington.

Average Joe – Written and created by long time Ain’t It Cool News team member Rob Patey, with art by Stephen Andrade.

In 1938 an alien known as “The One” landed on Earth, infecting humanity with powers beyond our wildest imagination and irrevocably changing the course of history. Forty years later he left as abruptly as he arrived; leaving a legacy no one can escape from.

Now in 2011, whilst The One’s children have become slaves to their powers, a threat looms from beyond our galaxy, and one cop from Philadelphia needs to decide whether he will continue to be an Average Joe or accept that even with marginal power comes the greatest responsibility.

“When I started reviewing for Ain’t It Cool about three years ago I noticed a prevailing and worrisome trend in the medium; imagination was being heavily sacrificed for the all mighty dollar. Less and less I see creators asking how fantastic can we make a piece, for, will this piece translate well into other mediums?’ said Rob Patey. “Average Joe is my answer to creating a great comic first and then letting the other mediums figure out how it will translate. To keep the comic medium alive we must allow our imaginations to trump what can be done with computer generated graphics. Com.X shared that same vision, so when it came time to choose my publisher, that shared vision made it no choice at all.”

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45 (An interview with 45 Creator Andi Ewington)

45 Review

45 is told in a new and unusual way. Each of the 45 interviews is told in transcript form with a page of artwork accompanying it. Each piece of artwork is illustrated by a different artist.

I have to admit the format of 45 is unique and takes some getting used to, but by the 3^rd interview I was engrossed in the story. The world of 45 takes place in the present, in a reality where comic book heroes exist…as fictional characters, whose copyrights make it difficult for the real heroes to come up with decent names. 45 also gives us it’s original take on world events.

I really enjoyed the fact that the story is told through so many different perspectives. There are interviews with Super-S (people born with super-powered abilities), 2^nd degrees (people who gain their power through circumstance), Norms (people with no abilities) who have a loved one with an ability, Vaders (Super-S or 2^nd degrees who prefer evil ways) are also interviewed, along with active and retired heroes.

The interviews feel more like short stories than transcripts, and there is something for everyone… stories of heroism, greed, envy, regret, love, and loss.

Andi really knows how to tell a story. I felt as though I was reading a movie script and I could see each scene play out in my mind, and the artist’s interpretations are amazing. I loved looking over the artwork to try to gain some insight of what I was about to read. After reading each interview I looked over the artwork again, and in a weird way it was like looking at it for the first time…I could see the story unfold in the illustration. It was a new and satisfying way to read a comic.

45 will be released in comic book shops within the next couple of weeks. Keep your eyes out for it; it is a definite must read!

If you want to know more about 45 check out our interview with Andi.

45
Written By: Andi Ewington
Art Work By: Liam Sharp, John Higgins, Sean Phillips, Charlie Adlard, Jock, Lee Garbett, Admira Wijaya, Carlo Pagulayan, Rodin Esquejo, Matt Timson, Neil Edwards ,Trevor Hairsine , Andie Tong ,Rufus Dayglo , Dom Reardon ,Sally Hurst ,Andrew Wildman, Stephen Thompson ,Jeff Anderson, Frazer Irving , Ben Oliver , EduardoFrancisco , Dan Brereton, Barry Spiers , Robert Atkins , Fiona Staples , Bob Wiacek , Boo Cook, Gary Erksine , Ross Dearsley , Lee Carter , Sean O’Connor , Kevin Kobasic , Dave Ryan, Randy Green ,Tim Vigil ,Simon Coleby , Calum Alexander Watt, Steve Sampson , Kit Wallis , Anthony Castrillo ,Seb Antoniou, Dan Boultwood, Dan Fraga, Kenneth Rocafort
Published By: Com.X

“45″ has some amazing artwork (as you can see from the images at the end of the interview).  Liam Sharp, Kenneth Rocafort, Trevor Hairsine, Sean Phillips, Jock, and Steve Sampson are just a few of the talented artist that contributed to the book.

What makes “45″ so different? The story is original and fresh, but what really makes you stop and take notice is the fact that 45 different artist each illustrated a page of the book.  We got the chance to ask 45′s creator Andi Ewington a few questions about his unique project.

CG: Can you explain “45″ to our readers?

AE: It’s a story of a journalist who, after finding out his wife is expecting their first child, decides to forgo a test that would determine if his unborn child is carrying a super-s gene that would change their lives forever. Instead, he decides to find out for himself what lies in store if his child is born with super-powers by interviewing a whole spectrum of superheroes from different walks of life. Along the way he becomes the focus of a sinister organization called XoDOS. Each interview is illustrated by a different industry artist, and they have been given the freedom to visually interpret their interview as they see fit.

CG: How did you come up with the concept?

AE: The real drive comes from a shared experience with the main protagonist, in that my wife and I were, at the time I created the story, expecting our first child. We had just come back from our 12-week scan and were bubbling with excitement. I was searching for the right story to pitch to Com.x and I knew they were looking for something innovative. I had a germ of an idea that focused on a father trying to find out what to expect from a child with superhero powers. I pitched it to them and the project evolved from there.

CG: There are 45 different artists on the project, how did you choose what artist you wanted to work with?

AE: It was initially through Eddie Deighton & Ben Shahrabani’s recommendations that I started to build up a reputable artist list. Once several established comic industry names were on board I found that I could approach virtually anybody, safe in the knowledge I would be taken seriously. I was also put in touch with other top artists through artists already attached to the project. That really helped to drive the project forwards.

CG: How did you decide what page in the book to give each artist?

AE: That decision was left totally to each individual artist. They were given the interviews/transcripts to read through and chose the one that resonated most with them. I didn’t influence the artist’s choice in anyway. The only decision I made was to pick up the phone or email them to offer them a position on the book. The story did the rest.

CG: How much direction did you give them?

AE: Very little – I would advise them if the page was a sequential or a splash and if there were any style guides that would need to be applied to the characters that appeared on their page that had appeared elsewhere, but other than that I let the artists do what they do best.

CG: Some of the pages are splash images and some are sequential sequences…how exactly is the book laid out and how many pages total is the book?

AE: Forty-Five is a departure from the usual comic fare of sequential art following sequential art. The format we have taken for each interview is a double-page spread where the left-hand side is dedicated to the art (be it a splash page or sequentials) and the right-hand page holds the transcript of the interview in a question and answer style. We’ve been careful to ensure that the splash pages and sequentials have been equally balanced out throughout the book so that you don’t get the repetition of too many of one type of layout together. We have also added lots of cool concept pages at the back with lots of extras, which brings the whole novel in at 132 pages.

CG: Where can our readers purchase 45/when will it be released?

AE: It will hit the shops early December 2009. The Diamond code is: OCT090823 – 45 (FORTY-FIVE) GN

CG: What other projects are you working on?

AE: I’m currently writing a second book that I pitched to Com.x only last week. They love the idea and have already offered me the contract. I’m actually co-writing it with Eddie Deighton and we have a fantastic artist on board already!