FRESHMEN II HITS IN NOVEMBER FROM TOP COW

[MattBrady]

Press Release

A new semester will bring all-new experiences for freshmen everywhere-and all-new adventures for Freese College's The Freshmen.

Top Cow Productions is reuniting with co-creators Seth Green and Hugh Sterbakov for a new Freshmen comic series in November, 2006. The six-issue series will hit stores as the highly anticipated sequel to Freshmen, Top Cow's 2005 smash hit about a group of incoming college freshmen who acquire amazing-and sometimes hilarious-superpowers. Art chores on the new series will be handled by Will Conrad (Buffy, The Vampire Slayer). Uproarious humor will still be the order of the day in Freshmen II: Fundamentals of Fear, but new elements will be introduced as well.

"Freshmen II is going to be darker and scarier than our first series. We have a great new villain in Mr. Fiddlesticks, a character from a series of childrens' books, who is haunting our heroes, and a couple new romances to stir things up,” said series writer Hugh Sterbakov. “There's a great twisting mystery at the heart of this series, which will further explore some of the threads we set-up in the original, like Annalee's father's interest in the Ax-Cell-Erator, the device that created our team. Also, some characters who were in the background of the original series come to the fore, like the Green Thumb and the Drama Twins. I looked to one of my favorite sequels of all time, The Empire Strikes Back, for inspiration, and Rodolfo Migliari's fantastic cover reflects the direction of the next series perfectly. I can't wait for November!"

Co-creator and Buffy and Austin Powers actor Seth Green is similarly jazzed. "In the midst of trying to absorb the overwhelming response to the first series, Hugh pitched me the plot and secrets for Freshmen II,” Green said. “After I collected myself from the knockout punches, I called Top Cow and begged and screamed until they promised to let you guys read it. They said I could stop calling, because they already agreed to do it. And here it is: Fundamentals of Fear! Stuff blowing up! Hearts getting broken! Abuse of powers! And a talking Beaver! Are you seriously not reading this book yet?

The Freshmen vol. 1 paperback is currently on-sale, and available with Diamond order code: FEB061821 D*

[BlueThunderArmy]

Awesome. Just, awesome.

[Sean Walsh]

Cool. It's not Leonard Kirk, but it's still very good art.

And is it just ironic that a former BUFFY artist is pencilling a comic co-created by a former BUFFY actor?

[grphxkindaguy]

Originally Posted by BlueThunderArmy

Awesome. Just, awesome.

ditto!

loved the first mini (which I didn't think I would), can't wait for more Freshmen goodness...

[BamaRainbow]

While the first mini-series was pretty good overall, the last two issues sort of left me a bit reluctant to read any future "adventures". Once the story went into the pretty standard "new heroes vs mad scientist" plot, it just felt so "been there, done that" and I didn't feel any sense of urgency to read those last two issues; I just felt like I'd already invested the time for the first 4 issues, I might as well finish reading it. I will, however, wait for the solicitation (and, with any luck, there'll also be a 3-to-5 page preview) before making any firm decision.

[HughSterb]

Originally Posted by BamaRainbow

While the first mini-series was pretty good overall, the last two issues sort of left me a bit reluctant to read any future "adventures". Once the story went into the pretty standard "new heroes vs mad scientist" plot, it just felt so "been there, done that" and I didn't feel any sense of urgency to read those last two issues; I just felt like I'd already invested the time for the first 4 issues, I might as well finish reading it. I will, however, wait for the solicitation (and, with any luck, there'll also be a 3-to-5 page preview) before making any firm decision.

Thanks for the kind words, folks. We're thrilled to be back, and very excited to see what Will Conrad does with the book.

Bama, I'm really surprised to hear you say this... I definitely hear where you're coming from with issue #6, where I had to wrap up things with a physical confrontation between the kids and the frat guys, but issue #5 was pretty much a complete psychological battle between The Seductress, Paula, and her inner demons. It was a heavy girl who was uncomfortable with her looks coming to terms with herself and an awful thing she'd done. I think you should read #5 and get back to me on whether you think it was standard plot.

That having been said, I think you'll dig Freshmen II-- I'm working hard to keep it fresh and fun, and propel the story through the characters. Every issue will be narrated by a different character again, and we've got a pretty neat villain this time around, complete with a mystery surrounding him. He'll also take some pretty cool turns-- including a massive left turn toward the end that I *promise* you won't see coming.

Give the book a shot, and if it disappoints you, come after me on our messageboards at www.freshmencomic.com. But I bet it won't.