MILWAUKIE, Ore., (July 12, 2019)-- “You know how people say ‘Someone should do something about that’?...Well, I’m that someone,” says Anthony Harken, the wandering assassin in Burden’s new series.
After losing his soul in a card game, a wayward, young Anthony Harken takes up with a crew of vagabond serial killers roaming America, administering one of the last surviving rituals of the Spanish Inquisition: avenging the wrongfully slain, and freeing their souls to pass on and find peace. He is the Hitman For The Dead!
Hitman For The Dead is a radically different new series, not only for writer and artist, Bob Burden (Flaming Carrot, MysteryMen), but as a new departure for the comic world. “Comics are about heroes and villains. My protagonist is a more ordinary person – and more complex, with character flaws and occasional flashes of exceptional endeavor. He is thrown into a grim fate by his own poor life choices but mans up, without getting bitter or whiney about it.”
An all text, limited “beta” version of the first Hitman For The Dead episode, has been printed in time for SAN DIEGO COMIC CON and will be for sale in a vintage paperback format at the Dark Horse Comics booth.
On the inception of the supernatural detective story, Bob Burden had this to say:
“This paperback project started out as a strategy to promote the new 400-page Flaming Carrot Omnibus that we have coming out in September from Dark Horse. Unlike Flaming Carrot, people instantly get what Hitman For The Dead is about, and I feel it has a very viral potential. Doing a text story was an experiment as was the path I took with the story’s tone. I wanted to change directions, blow out the pipes so to speak, and do a down-and-dirty hardcore thriller/horror/detective thing that would diverge from my humor stuff.
“I wrote it quick. I had a completed comic book script from a few years back – a good, solid story – but could I turn that script into a novel in the few weeks I had left in June and have it ready for SDCC? I had to go for it. Originally called Silence Of Night, Hitman For The Dead was an idea that I had been kicking around for a while. Will it work as collateral promotion for the now obscure and seemingly forgotten Flaming Carrot and get FC on people’s radar screens? It’s an experiment, and we’ll see how it goes.”
Stop by the Dark Horse Comics booth at SDCC 2019 (#2615) to pick up a limited copy of the convention exclusive Hitman For The Dead paperback novella for $10 and get it signed by Bob Burden during his signing. For those fans who won’t make it to SDCC this year, (and for reviewers) Bob Burden will temporarily host a digital version of the book on www.hitmanforthedead.com where it can be downloaded for free. More information and images at hitmanforthedead.com and www.flamingcarrotcomics.com