Brian Wood’s first comic book after he moved from his work at Rockstar Games and graphic design was the monumental Channel Zero. With a visceral take on the future of our country which would go on to be a thematic precursor to his work like DMZ, the five-issue mini remains one of Wood’s most critically acclaimed works, and Wood’s first and only solo book. It featured one sequel and two spin-off art/graphic designs from Wood and put him on the map for all of us to discover.
Channel Zero has been in print from AiT/Planet Lar since 2000, but still remains fairly difficult to find despite that, most accessible at cons directly from Wood himself. In March 2012, the book will be reprinted in its entirety — both Channel Zero and Jennie One, a graphic novel prequel illustrated by Becky Cloonan — from Dark Horse Comics, home of Wood’s new creator-owned ongoing. The collection will also include bits from Public Domain, the art books, and tons of extras, and if it’s not something you own already, it assuredly needs to be something you pre-order.
The solicit information is as follows:
Brian Wood (W/A/Cover) and Becky Cloonan (A)
On sale May 30
B&w, 296 pages
$19.99
TP, 7″ x 10″A blistering take on media control in a repressive future America! DMZ and The Massive creator Brian Wood launched an all-out assault on the comics medium in 1997 with Channel Zero, an influential, forward-thinking series that combined art, politics, and graphic design in a unique way. Touching on themes of freedom of expression, hacking, cutting-edge media manipulation, and police surveillance, it remains as relevant today as it did back then.
The Channel Zero collection contains the original series, the prequel graphic novel Jennie One (illustrated by Becky Cloonan), the best of the two Public Domain design books, and almost fifteen years of extras, rarities, short stories, and unused art. Also featuring the now-classic Warren Ellis introduction and an all-new cover by Wood, this is the must-have edition. See where it all began!
“It’s about anger as a positive force of creation . . . Someone’s remembered what comics are for. Meet Brian Wood.”–Warren Ellis
The original version of Channel Zero‘s collection goes for upwards of $60 to almost $200 in brand new condition, so that alone should give you some thoughts on the value of this book. If you don’t own the book already, make note to add this to your March pre-orders. If you’ve checked out even some of Wood’s work since this was originally published in 1997 and found yourself a fan, then you’re going to need this in your collection.
