So in addition to exclusives like Cliff’s Atomic Bombshell Prints, Brian Wood’s SDCC miniprints and sketchbook, you can pick up Willow’s Air and Vixen, Josh Dysart’s Unknown Soldier, Azz’ Filthy Rich, Jason Aaron’s The Other Side, Jock’s Green Arrow, and Peter Milligan’s Greek Street.

Unlike a lot of online warehouses, Khepri is pure mom&pop, selling comics for over ten years to loyal customers like any other LCS.  And of course, you can order any of these titles through the local comic shop of your choosing.

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Friends and colleagues,

As most of you know, the first volume of my comic book series AIR debuted last month. Drawn by the incomparable MK Perker, AIR is the story of Blythe, a fight attendant with a fear of heights who is drawn into the race to develop a radical new form of flight based on Aztec technology. She also falls in love with a guy who might be a terrorist. It’s a look, through a surrealist lens, at the nature of borders, identity and travel in our post-9/11 world. Though fans have been calling the series entertainingly bizarre and unexpected, I feel quite sane when I’m writing it. Who knows what that says about me!

Happily, the trade has been getting good reviews. Two weeks ago, MK and I learned we’ve been nominated for the Eisner Award for best new series. We’re totally psyched; this is a great honor. But I’d still like to kick things up a notch.

Whacky as it is, AIR is a book with a message. So, for every copy of AIR bought this May Day (Friday, May 1st), I will donate $1 to the Koru Foundation, a UK-based charity that helps impoverished communities the world over develop low-cost renewable energy projects, bringing climate-friendly electricity to villages without a single light bulb. Ironically, the people most threatened by climate change are those who had the least responsibility in creating it. I saw this firsthand in North Africa, where desertification is already destroying ancient farming cultures. By acting now, we can help ease the burden on our planet while bringing power to communities without it.

Here is what to do:

1. On Friday, May 1st, click here to purchase a copy of AIR: Letters from Lost Countries from Amazon.com
2. Email info [at] gwillowwilson [dot] com. Write ‘May Day AIRlift’ in the Subject line. In the body of the email, copy and paste your Amazon order number. Do NOT include any financial information, your address, or anything else! Just the order number.
3. Sit back, wait for your book to arrive, and feel good about having done something for our planet.

A copy of this email is available here on my website. Feel free to link to it, forward this email widely and/or post this message to your blogs. I appreciate your support.

All best,
Willow

2:00pm MARVEL: MONDO MARVEL
They come from all corners of the Marvel U to talk to YOU! The most star-studded panel of Emerald City is here. The jam-packed gust list includes C.B. Cebulski (X-Infernus), Brian Michael Bendis (Ultimate Spider-Man), Ed Brubaker (The Marvels Project), Matt Fraction (Uncanny X-Men), Marjorie Liu (Dark Wolverine), Rick Remender (Punisher), Daniel Way (Deadpool), and Jason Aaron (Wolverine: Weapon X) as they discuss everything from X-Men to Ultimate to the Marvel Heroes.

Mine:

Delerium. Yay girlie gothtronica.

VAST. Less girlie gothtronica.

Muse. Supermassive hipsterhole.

Tori. Don’t hate; I wrote a short for the woman’s book.

Swans. My first concert. Tear!

Brian Wood: LOCAL. The best thing I’ve done, and hopefully the first of many Ryan Kelly collabs. And the first NORTHLANDERS book, which not only got me out of my comfort zone but did the same for a lot of people who thought they knew what a comic book about Vikings was.

G. Willow Wilson: I’m proud to have written almost 500 pages in 2008. (AIR, VIXEN, and two drafts of The Butterfly Mosque)

David Lapham: YOUNG LIARS, definitely. Actually this was a huge year for me. Did a ton of work and finally feel like “I’m back” (even though I didn’t go anywhere) for the first time since STRAY BULLETS went on hiatus. YOUNG LIARS was something I had been working on for almost a year and a half before the first issue hit the stand. I felt it evolve from what I thought was going to be a Tomb Raider-esque chick action book to something that was completely twisted, dark, funny, tragic, real, fantasy, and just plain gonzo. It turned into everything I’d like to see in my comics all at once!

Jock: Comics wise I’ve not had much in print, apart from my SCALPED covers. Always proud to be part of that book. Outside of that I did a load of concept art for Pete Berg’s movie DUNE for Paramount, and I’m really proud of a lot of that. Very different to comics work, but very rewarding.

Cliff Chiang: GREEN ARROW & BLACK CANARY #4 came out in early January, and though it was a bear to get through (imagine drawing an issue about a hospital while a loved one is IN the hospital), I’m proud of how it turned out.

Will Dennis: I love all my children equally.

Brian Azzarello: 100 BULLETS lasting 100 issues with the same creative team. The impact JOKER had in not just the direct but the book market too ain’t so bad, neither.

Jason Aaron: The “Dead Mothers” arc of SCALPED. I think it’s the best thing I’ve done on the title, and I’m looking forward to the challenge of topping it in 2009. Also, the PUNISHER MAX CHRISTMAS SPECIAL and GHOST RIDER #26 (featuring the debut of the all-new Orb) were probably my favorite single issues to write.

WHAT WORK ARE YOU THE MOST EXCITED ABOUT FOR 2009?

Brian Wood: A few upcoming NORTHLANDERS one-shots should be excellent, if only for the artists we have lined up coughRissocough. Seeing how the new DEMO books come out, and writing issue #50 of DMZ. 50! Reaching fifty issues of a series is sort of like when I hit 30 years of age. I never thought I’d make it that long.

G. Willow Wilson: I hope not to have to work quite as hard in 2009. But I’m excited to keep writing AIR and branch out into new genres, to be disclosed forthwith.

David Lapham: Sales willing, hopefully a second year of YOUNG LIARS. I have another–still super secret–project coming up from Wildstorm. A big high concept idea I came up with (and I don’t get many of those). I enlisted a young artist to partner with, who I can’t wait for everyone to see his work because he’s going to be a great one. Every page looks better than the one before. As soon as I can I’ll post about it. Stay tuned…

Jock: Drawing SNAPSHOT, a mini series with Andy Diggle, but I’m also looking forward to working with some writer by the name of Jason. Jason Aarskrak or something? Aarnon?

Cliff Chiang: I’ll be finishing the Neil Young epic GREENDALE soon and it should be coming out later in the year. Hopefully, we’ve taken a cool concept album and made some good comics out of it. Also, excited to work with Azz again in 2009.

Will Dennis: I know I said I love all my children equally but that’s a bit of a fib. Cause this year I have two things that stand apart. First up in Feb(ish) is the final issue of 100 BULLETS. Hard to believe. A monumental achievement by any measure. And quite literally I would not have the career I’ve had without the generosity and blind faith shown to me by Brian, Eduardo, Trish, Dave and Clem all those years ago. I was a totally unknown assistant editor who inherited that amazing book. Azz had little to go on other than one night we spent drinking in some divey bars in nyc. It just goes to show that everything yer parents told u about drinking was dead wrong. One good night of boozing can change yer whole life forever. Now nearly 9 years later we have made it to the end. I think we told some pretty goddamn good stories (spent a lot of sleepless nights in that time too!) and I couldn’t be more proud of the work that everyone has done. It’s sad to see it go and I’m humbled by my association with this book

The other big event is the launch of the Vertigo crime line in September. A lot has already been said about this and more will be revealed at NYCC but the first two books are deadly. One is an occult thriller written by international best selling author Ian Rankin called DARK ENTRIES and the other is a nasty noir called FILTHY RICH from the man, Brian Azzarello. They’re about 200 pages each in glorious black & white digest size hardcovers! Hopefully folks will check ‘em out.

Beyond that I have a new monthly that we’re going announce at NYCC as we’ll as the usual goodness from Scalped, DMZ and Northlanders!

Brian Azzarello: I really don’t get excited unless I’m in a stadium. I’m looking forward to the debut of Vertigo Crime, and really proud to be part of it. Also some prose work will be published in the fall…

Jason Aaron: “The Gnawing” in SCALPED, Tony Moore drawing the mother of all trucker horror stories in GHOST RIDER, and the debut of my new WOLVERINE series, plus an as-yet-unannounced super-cool Marvel project.

WHAT’S YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION?

Brian Wood: I don’t make them. Each year, each week, each day I just try to make forward momentum, and improve in everything if only a little bit.

G. Willow Wilson: My New Year’s Resolution is to play more. I’ve gotten too serious.

David Lapham: Kick heroin. After that everything else is easy street.

Jock: I never have them. I’m flawed, but I know it.

Cliff Chiang: 2008 kinda threw me for a loop, but 2009 is all about taking charge. We’ll see where that takes me.

Will Dennis: To never read blogs

Brian Azzarello: My New Years Resolution is to not be so invisible, and post regularly.

Jason Aaron: To make Brian Azzarello post regularly.

Many thanks, Aziz.

Still jet lagged, but here are some pics.

Me and an uncle-in-law:

A mosque in my hood:

No, seriously, we really do ride camels to work:

Also, an AIRlift Update: For various reasons, I have been asked NOT to encourage people to put copies of AIR on bookstore shelves. Consider my wrist slapped.

So we’re taking it to the streets. I’m extending my offer: If you donate your copy of AIR to Operation AIRlift, I’ll send you a signed copy to replace it. This goes for Issues 2 and up as well as for Issue 1. Feel free to get creative about where you leave your copy. (Planes, trains, automobiles?) Feel free to get creative about what you write inside it, but always remember to include the name and address of your local comics retailer.

Good luck, Airmen.

Keep ‘em coming!

Raleighites, this is hiding in your local Barnes and Noble:

Well done, sir. Well done.