There’s a brash new comic book publisher in town and it’s BAD IDEA, the brainchild of Dinesh Shamdasani. The concept is to provide only one or two high quality titles sold exclusively at comic book shops. It’s a direct to market approach that has got a lot of comics insiders all excited and talking. Seriously, it’s an awesome way to pay tribute to all the amazing comics retailers out there, like POP ROC, in Rochester, New York. Basically, it’s a publisher approaching retailers in the same way as a scrappy independent comics creator does, one store at a time. BAD IDEA’s business model is essentially what indie cartoonists have been doing all along but on a much grander scale and that, in and of itself, is a refreshing concept for a publisher to emulate. BAD IDEA’s flagship title, launching an impressive upcoming roster of talent, is ENIAC #1 – a 40-page “prestige format” debut by New York Times best-selling writer Matt Kindt (Mind MGMT), artist Doug Braithwaite (Justice), colorist Diego Rodriguez (X-O Manowar), and Harvey Award-nominated cover artist Lewis LaRosa (Punisher MAX) – which arrives on comic book retailer shelves on May 6th, 2020.
The story revolves around a nightmare scenario worthy of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. There’s a doomsday machine out there that has calculated that it’s time to wipe out the human race. Our crack special ops team has one mission and one mission only: Kill ENIAC! Truth is stranger than fiction. It turns out that part of the race to end World War II actually did involve the creation of a supercomputer which was dubbed, ENIAC. Our story has ENIAC gone loco a la HAL from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. I’m seeing a real Kubrick pattern here, a comic that borrows from two Kubrick all-time classics. Anyway, it sounds pretty wild and right up there with the weird and goofy spy thriller stuff that fascinates writer Matt Kindt. I’m predicting this one to be well worth a look. The business of selling comic books, particularly action themes, comes down to a crisp elevator pitch and compelling artwork and this title appears to have figured that out. If you like quirky comics, and Stanley Kubrick, you’re going to love this one. And how exactly is it that an old supercomputer is on the loose? You’ll have to wait and find out.
As BAD IDEA states in its PR copy, its whole “raison d’être is to make the best monthly comics possible and sell them exclusively in comic book stores.” So, be sure to ask for BAD IDEA comics at your local comic book shop and be sure to seek out ENIAC #1, which debuts on May 6, 2020.
This looks really good! I love the artwork.
Yeah, it does stand out.