Posted in: Comics | Tagged: halloween, Halloween Comic Fest, pokemon, shiver, viz media

Trick Or Treat? Viz To Hand Out Pokemon And Shiver Manga Samplers For Halloween ComicFest

Published Thu, 26 Oct 2017 18:00:42 -0500

Trick or treat! Smell our feet! Give us something good to eat! If you don't, we don't care, we'll pull down your underwear!

You know what, that children's rhyme is a hell of a lot more problematic than we remembered it.

Nevertheless, the question remains: if, instead of a delicious candy bar, you were handed two free manga samplers from Viz Media, would you consider that a trick or a treat? If you fall into the latter category, then you'll definitely want to stop by your local comics retailer on Saturday, October 28 to get your hands on the free samplers of the upcoming books SHIVER: Junji Ito Selected Stories and POKÉMON OMEGA RUBY • ALPHA SAPPHIRE.

A pair of press releases provide info on both books, starting with SHIVER:

SHIVER will be released in a deluxe hardcover edition by VIZ Media on December 19^th under its VIZ Signature imprint. The manga anthology includes nine of Junji Ito's best short stories, as selected by the author himself and presented with accompanying notes and commentary. An arm peppered with tiny holes dangles from a sick girl's window… After an idol hangs herself, balloons bearing the faces of their destined victims appear in the sky… An amateur film crew hires an extremely individualistic fashion model and faces a real bloody ending… An offering of nine fresh nightmares for the delectation of horror fans.

Manga creator Junji Ito made his professional debut in 1987 and has gone on to be recognized as one of the greatest contemporary artists working in the horror genre. His critically acclaimed titles include TOMIE and UZUMAKI, which were adapted into critically praised live-action films, as well as GYO, which was adapted into an animated feature film. TOMIE, UZUMAKI, GYO, and Ito's celebrated manga short story anthology FRAGMENTS OF HORROR are all published in English by VIZ Media in deluxe hardcover editions available under the VIZ Signature imprint. Ito's influences include classic horror manga artists Kazuo Umezu and Hideshi Hino, as well as authors such as Yasutaka Tsutsui and H.P. Lovecraft.

And of course, we all know what Pokemon is, even if that knowledge is something we regret every day of our lives. Still, we could use a little bit more padding on our word count:

Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald face a new crisis of epic proportions in the latest POKÉMON manga adventure: a giant meteor hurtling toward the planet! Years have passed, and now Sapphire and Emerald are training in the new techniques of Mega Evolution. And they'll need Ruby's help! Searching for a way to change the meteor's course, Ruby journeys to the Sky Pillar to earn the trust of Zinnia, the Lorekeeper of the mysterious Draconid tribe. Does she have the key to saving the world? And what does all this have to do with Legendary Pokémon Rayquaza?

POKÉMON is one of the most successful international entertainment franchises of all time. More than 290 million POKÉMON video games and over 23.6 billion Pokémon Trading Cards have been sold in more than 74 countries in addition to substantial publishing and merchandise sales. VIZ Media is the official North American distributor for a wide variety of POKÉMON home media releases including animated series and films and also publishes a variety of POKÉMON manga graphic novel series including POKÉMON ADVENTURES, POKÉMON ADVENTURES: FireRed & LeafGreen, POKÉMON ADVENTURES: EMERALD, POKÉMON ADVENTURES: DIAMOND AND PEARL/PLATINUM, POKÉMON ADVENTURES: HeartGold & SoulSilver,POKÉMON ADVENTURES: BLACK & WHITE, POKÉMON X•Y, and POKÉMON OMEGA RUBY • ALPHA SAPPHIRE.

Halloween Comic Fest is basically like Free Comic Book Day in the Fall, except your shop will probably have a bunch of candy to give out too, so don't miss out unless you're a jerk who hates free stuff and candy!

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