AdHouse, Paul Pope Plan San Diego THB

by Calvin Reid, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 5/29/2007

Richmond indie publisher AdHouse Books will publish THB: Comics from Mars#1, Paul Pope's acclaimed science fiction epic about life on Mars, as a 32-page limited edition exclusive for this year's San Diego Comic-con. AdHouse is also publishing Pope's much-anticipated Pulphope: The Art of Paul Pope, a combination artbook (including erotic works), memoir and comics manifesto due out in July.

Pope and AdHouse publisher Chris Pitzer are quick to emphasize that THB: Comics from Mars is strictly a San Diego show exclusive and AdHouse is not publishing the entire THB series. Pope said the THB show exclusive will include "all new and never-before-seen material," including about nine pages from the series' new opening sequence in addition to four new and unpublished short stories. And like so many of Pope's publications, the show exclusive will include material on Pope's work as a designer, a prelude to a forthcoming piece on Pope and "Future Tech" design that will run on the technology and design Web site Gizmodo.com.

Pope, who has received two Eisner nominations this year for writing and drawing DC's Batman Year 100, described the THB exclusive as "an addendum to the Pulphope book and a sort of experiment for us to see how the show exclusive goes." Pope has been working on THB and self-publishing different versions of the series for more than 15 years. He also worked for Japanese manga publisher Kodansha for five years before rethinking and completely redrawing THB. In interviews he has called THB "a canvas to understand the mechanics of manga" and "a laboratory, an experiment in comics."

Pope told PWCW that he decided to publish a THB show exclusive "to get some of this THB stuff out there—I'm tired of sitting on it." He also said he was in early discussions with Pitzer about "follow-up projects to Pulphope, which might well include a new graphic novel." Pope said there will also be advance copies of Pulphope available for sale at this year's MoCCA Art Festival in New York City, held June 23–24 at the Puck Building.

Pitzer called the THB series "one of the great independent publishing stories of my generation. I've always loved the extras within the comic. His writings, photos, song lists, all of these things help you to possibly understand the birth of this comics creation. Getting a chance to help bring to life a small part of the THB mythos is the icing on my Paul Pope cake."