Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers | Tagged: bad idea, bad idea comics, comic shops

Comic Stores Give Bad Idea Their Five Best Customers – Are You One?

Bleeding Cool has been talking about Bad Idea, the new comics publisher from Dinesh Shamdasani, Hunter Gorinson, Warren Simons, and Joshua Jones for what seems like ages now, spinning out of the buyout of Valiant by DMG. A direct-tot-retailer publisher, eschewing digital and trade paperbacks in favour of one-cover one-per-person comic book sales from big comic book names.

And now getting comic book retailers to choose their own five favourite customers, a nationwide network of Eltingville clubs.

Every Bad Idea destination store is sending us a list of THEIR FIVE BEST, MOST PRIZED, AND UNFLINCHINGLY LOYAL CUSTOMERS* — in short, they're sending us their whales.

In turn, Bad Idea will be personally reaching out to each name on those lists with an individually personalized, hand-scripted invitation to the must-attend comic book event of the century – the launch of Bad Idea on March 3, 2021 – in a tasteful, black-and-white package that's really going to class up the whole experience.

So how will you know if you have been deemed "whale worthy"? You won't — until you see this little black invite turn up in your pull stack in early January:

Pre-ordering with a Bad Idea destination store is the only way to guarantee that you'll get your mitts on Bad Idea's comics each time a new one drops. Which means that the best option to preserve your elevated status as one of the most elite comic shop subscribers in your zip code will be to a) accept Bad Idea's gracious invitation, then b) pre-order the whole Bad Idea line before other comics fans even have the good sense to know what is happening, and, finally, c) constantly mention to your friends and family that you're a comic shop whale and nothing they say or do can ever change that.

This is going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship, we can feel it.

Will you get your invite?

Here is a look at those Bad Ideacomic books in question again.

ENIAC #1 (of 4)
** MATT KINDT (writer) **
** DOUG BRAITHWAITE (art) **
** DIEGO RODRIGUEZ (colors) **
** LEWIS LAROSA with LAURA MARTIN (covers) **

Seventy-seven years ago, the United States unlocked the key to defeating the Axis powers, but, in their desperation to end the war, created a far more powerful threat: ENIAC (Electronic Numerator Integrator and Computer), the world's first supercomputer. ENIAC's calculations proved vital to turning the tide against Germany and Japan – until it ordered the second atomic bomb to be dropped on Nagasaki without any human order or approval. America had inadvertently created the first artificial intelligence without ever realizing the full extent of its abilities…or its ambitions. For the more than 50 years that followed, ENIAC manipulated global affairs from the shadows, waging a cold war that pitted spy against spy, nation against nation…until it went dark and disappeared from view. Now, years later, an encrypted countdown has just been detected in Earth's satellite network and mankind only has three days left before ENIAC executes its endgame. With few options and even less time, the Secretary of Defense has just given two covert operatives the most important mission in human history: kill ENIAC…before it kills us.

From the minds of New York Times best-selling writer Matt Kindt (Mind MGMT), incendiary artist Doug Braithwaite (Justice), and colorist Diego Rodriguez (X-O Manowar), Bad Idea's long-awaited debut starts here with a science-fiction thrill ride that will send shockwaves for decades to come.

** FOUR ISSUES // MONTHLY // BEGINNING MARCH 2021 **

Preview art by Doug Braithwaite with Diego Rodriguez

TANKERS #1 (of 3)
** ROBERT VENDITTI (writer) **
**JUAN JOSE RYP (art/covers) **
**JORDIE BELLAIRE (colors) **

The CEO of global energy conglomerate Greenleaf Oil has just discovered a terrifying secret: the planet only has a decade or less of petroleum left before it's gone forever. But he has a plan to make sure his great-great-grandchildren can continue to generate maximum shareholder value – and secure his own legacy in the process. Rather than develop a game-changing renewable energy source through the power of corporate innovation, Greenleaf has perfected the next best thing – time travel (duh) – so that a team of six field-rat contractors armed to the teeth in individually customized mech suits can go back to the Cretaceous Period, tweak the trajectory of the meteor that killed the dinosaurs, and give mankind another 500 millennia worth of oil reserves. What could go wrong? Only all of human history, of course – because when Greenleaf's team of Tankers come home, they'll discover that not only did the dinosaurs never die out, they've kept evolving for another 60 million years…and they're more pissed off than ever.

Bone-shredding destruction! Wanton corporate malfeasance! Reckless use of industrial machinery! And lots and lots of ammunition. Like a Saturday morning cartoon that's run irresponsibly overbudget, New York Times bestselling writer Robert Venditti (Justice League), blockbuster artist Juan Jose Ryp (Wolverine), and Eisner Award-winning colorist Jordie Bellaire (Pretty Deadly) are here to take all of our insecurities about mankind's most self-destructive impulses and turn them up until the knob snaps off with THREE DOUBLE-SIZED ISSUES shipping BI-MONTHLY (that means every other month, don't look it up).

** THREE ISSUES // DOUBLE-SIZED // BI-MONTHLY // BEGINNING APRIL 2021 **

Preview art by Juan Jose Ryp

WHALESVILLE #1
** MATT KINDT (writer) **
** ADAM POLLINA (artist/cover) **
** MATT HOLLINGSWORTH (colors) **

You never thought you'd see a Bad Idea like this! From the limitless imaginations of New York Times best-selling writer Matt Kindt (Mind MGMT), veteran artist Adam Pollina (X-Force), and Eisner Award-winning colorist Matt Hollingsworth (Hawkeye) comes a very special whale tale for all ages (and species) in the tradition of Hayao Miyazaki and Pixar!

When young Wawae – the seaborn son of a whaling captain – is thrown overboard and swallowed whole by a whale, he knows his father will relentlessly pursue revenge against the creature that stole away his boy. What he didn't expect, however, is what he's about to find inside: the town of "Whalesville" – a colorful, cobbled-together village inhabited by an astounding collection of talking sea creatures, including a crab named Caleb, an angler fish called Angela, and a seadragon that prefers to go by Lilly. But, to Wawae's new friends, Whalesville isn't just their home, it's the whole world – and they don't understand the danger that now pursues them from above the waves or that they are even inside a whale at all. To rescue his new best buddies, Wawae will have to convince them of the truth…and save Whalesville before his own father sends them sinking into the inky depths forever.

** WHALE-SIZED ONE-SHOT // ON SALE MAY 2021 **

Preview art by Adam Pollina with Matt Hollingsworth

THE LOT #1 (of 4)
**MARGUERITE BENNETT (writer) **
** RENATO GUEDES (artist/cover) **

In 1970, legendary filmmaker Oliver Larsen began production on his latest horror masterpiece on the lot of Los Angeles' famed Cloverleaf Studios. Obsessed with bringing authenticity to the genre, the director insisted on casting real-life occultists to perform a genuine Satanic ritual live on camera – until something went horribly wrong. In the bloody aftermath, the production was shut down, the footage was confiscated, and the soundstage was forever shuttered.

Until today.

On the heels of a promotion that's just made her the youngest studio chief in decades, Aviva Copeland is planning to overhaul Cloverleaf's fading image for the 21st century – starting with the prime piece of California real estate that's gone unused for 50 years: the very same lost soundstage where Larsen filmed his doomed masterpiece. But, as Aviva will soon discover, this corner of the lot may have been closed for a half-century, but it's far from empty…and the evil that lives within its haunted walls will soon seize its chance to kill again.

New York Times best-selling writer Marguerite Bennett (Animosity, A-Force) and artist Renato Guedes (DCeased: Hope at World's End) present a terrifying vision of horror and Hollywood in the boldly bloody Bad Idea manner!

** FOUR ISSUES // MONTHLY // ON SALE JULY 2021 **

SLAY BELLS #1
** ZEB WELLS (writer) **
** DAVID LAFUENTE (artist/cover) **
** ULISES ARREOLA (colors) **

You've heard of black comedies? Well, this is the first one that's not just black, but red and green and covered in reams of extremely flammable tinsel that's already been banned in Canada!

Every Christmas Eve, little Bobby Hamilton and his father rise at dawn for an early morning hunting trip. It was their favorite tradition – until they accidentally killed a certain red-nosed reindeer. They should have known better. They shouldn't have tried to cover it up. Because Santa Claus knows that they've been naughty – and, now like so many fragile Christmas ornaments violently shaken free, the yuletide peace of a quaint Midwestern farming hamlet will forever be shattered as Old Saint Nick comes to town to reap the sweetest gift of all: vengeance.

This July, Emmy Award winner Zeb Wells (Hellions, Robot Chicken), mischief-making artistic all-star David Lafuente (Ultimate Spider-Man), and colorist Ulises Arreola (Action Comics) are ready to ruin Christmas a solid six months in advance with the only thing we really wanted this year, anyway: another king-sized Bad Idea one-shot that will soon go down in infamy!

** SANTA-SIZED ONE-SHOT // ON SALE JULY 2021 **

Preview art by David Lafuente

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