Excerpt from Grimm Comics

Gorilla Comics' Empire will ship in April 2000 and will feature a special five page prequel to the next Gorilla comic, George Perez' Crimson Plague. Empire will be Gorilla Comics first series launch.

Kurt Busiek, Tom Grummett, Joe Kelly, Karl Kesel, Barry Kitson, George Pérez, Mark Waid, and Mike Wieringo, whose work all regularly tops industry sales charts and Top Ten lists, have joined with eHero.com, the Internet start-up, to create what Busiek calls, "a treehouse full of creativity, teeming with savage jungle fun."

The titles will be published by eHERO.com and released through Image Comics. The announcement ends months of rampant Internet speculation and rumor in the comics industry.

Excerpt from Wizard

Gorilla Comics, the new creator-owned imprint formed by Kurt Busiek, Tom Grummett, Joe Kelly, Karl Kesel, Barry Kitson, George Pérez, Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo announced today that they have reorganized into a self-publishing group imprint, severing ties with the Internet startup company that was to be financially backing the comics line. Gorilla Comics will continue to be solicited and published by Image Comics.

More titles were announced from Gorilla Comics. This June, George Perez will redebut his Crimson Plague series. Following that same month will be Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett's Section Zero.

CRIMSON PLAGUE

George Pérez’s CRIMSON PLAGUE is set for an extra-length, bargain-price first issue, and is on track to be in stores before Father’s Day weekend in June.

"Going on with CRIMSON PLAGUE without a backer was no real problem for me," Pérez confirms, "since I'd already gotten so much of it written and drawn. In fact, the 16 new pages I had drawn for the first issue I did without upfront pay anyway in order to keep the cover price of the 64-page package as low as possible. As it stands CRIMSON PLAGUE #1 will contain a 48-page lead story (with the original 32 pages that were printed in 1997 being totally re-lettered and color corrected), a new cover, some pinups, a photo-feature about the real-life models, and the 5-page preview for SECTION ZERO, all for only $2.95! Now, how big a bargain is that! If that doesn't show our commitment to the readers and retailers, I don't know what does! I'm already one-quarter into the third issue, which on our bimonthly schedule won't be coming out until October. I've worked hard these last couple of years to restore reader and retailer confidence in me, my work and my reliability and CRIMSON PLAGUE is another step in that direction. I'm just as jazzed now as I've ever been and with my wonderful color artist Tom Smith applying his multi-hued genius to every page, I just couldn't be prouder to be a citizen of the Ape Nation."