After months of self-promotion on my part, the wait is over: Skullkickers #6 is out in comic book stores today!

This issue acts as a break between story arcs — the first one just wrapped up and will be available in a $9.99 trade paperback soon — by offering up four standalone stories by four different creative teams! My story with the phenomenal artist Joe Vriens, “Blood Curse of the Amazombies” is actually the book’s lead, which I’m pretty proud of, considering that the other teams include Brian Clevinger, Ray Fawkes, and Adam Warren.

Here’s the first page:

Pick it up today at your local comic shop, and if you’re in Columbia, don’t forget that I’m doing a signing at Heroes & Dragons on Saturday from noon to 4 PM. If you’ve got any questions on it, give ’em a call at 803-731-4376 for more info.

I’m in New York again right now. It’s snowing, which from what I know about New York means that someone has opened the Casket of Ancient Winters.

It’s the time of the month when the solicitations for next month’s Previews start cropping up on the web, and this time around, there’s one that’s pretty important for all of us:

SKULLKICKERS #6
story Brian Clevinger, Ray Fawkes, Chris Sims and Adam Warren
art Jeffrey ‘Chamba’ Cruz, Scott Hepburn, Joe Vriens and Jim Zubkavich
cover Chris Stevens, Edwin Huang and Saejin Oh
FEBRUARY 23
32 PAGES / FC
$2.99

“FOUR TAVERN TALES”

The Skullkickers find some time to kick back and relax… and by “relax”, we mean “mash more monsters”.

This issue is a Skullkicking short story smorgasbord by top flight comic talent Brian Clevinger (Atomic Robo), Ray Fawkes (Possessions), Chris Sims (The Invincible Super Blog), Adam Warren (Empowered), Jeff ‘Chamba’ Cruz (Street Fighter), Scott Hepburn (Star Wars), Joe Vriens (Darkstalkers) and Jim Zubkavich (Oh yeah, an actual Skullkickers guy).

That’s right: Someone was crazy enough to actually let me write a story in their comic.

In this case, that someone was Skullkickers writer/creator Jim Zubkavich. If you haven’t been reading Skullkickers, you may know Jim from his work as an editor at Udon Studios and the writer of the recent (and awesome) Street Fighter Legends: Ibuki, the latest in what’s probably the most enjoyable series of video game comics ever printed. He’s a great writer and we’ve been online pals for a while now, and I was honored that he picked me to write a story for him.

Especially given the company I’m keeping in that issue. Brian Clevinger, writer of Atomic Robo? Ray Fawkes, writer of Apocalipstix? Adam Freakin’ Warren, who’s been a hero of mine since I was a teenager?! A roster like that, I’m pretty sure the only way anyone’s reading my story in this thing is by accident.

Either way, it’s a pretty big deal for me: It may only be six pages, but it’s the first six pages I’ve ever written for a major publisher by myself — and as readers of Monster Plus have already figured out, Chad’s the talent of the Action Age. And to cap things off, my story’s going to be drawn by the phenomenally talented Darkstalkers artist Joe Vriens Fortunately, Kevin Church was there to talk me off the ledge every time I started shouting about the world inevitably discovering I’m a fraud, but I assume that because he’s planning on shoving me off himself when he determines the time is right.

As for Skullkickers itself, it’s a hoot. It’s set in a fantasy world where a Human and a Dwarf — as yet unnamed — cause widespread destruction with their promise to kill anything for two copper pieces. Jim and artists Edwin Huang and Misty Coats are able to throw in violence, comedy and violent comedy to make something fun that reads like that one D&D game every player’s had where a couple of guys got way too jacked up on Mountain Dew and ended up punching Accerak so hard he exploded. Except way more hilarious.

And really, is there any better title for a comic I’ve got a story in than Skullkickers?

It’ll be solicited next month — and rest assured, I’ll be reminding you at every opportunity — but if you want to start bugging your retailer before he can do anything about it, the Diamond order code is DEC100492.

Deadpool Team-Up #888 hits the stands today with a story about the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing stepping into the wrestling ring to battle an alien courtesy of Cullen Bunn and Tom Fowler, and if you grab the issue — and you should — you may notice a few familiar faces in the background. Or, since we’re mostly known for text and audio, you probably won’t.

Point is, Euge and I are in the crowd! He’s on the left with his official Adam WarRock Fade, while I’m on the right, unshaven, shouting, and about to spill my drink, which is pretty much my default state. This marks my second appearance in a Marvel book (look closely in the backgrounds of Captain America #28 and you’ll catch a SHIELD agent reading the ISB) and my third overall (the second being in The Batman Strikes alongside Rachelle Goguen and other comics bloggers), and I’m pretty sure that means that if I get one more, they are legally required to put me in the Handbook.

It’s only a matter of time before the fact that I have the strength of a normal man who engages in infrequent light exercise before getting bored with it and going to play video games is enshrined in the Hallowed Halls of the House of Ideas.