One of the more informative industry panels at this year’s Long Beach Comic Con was that of Aspen MLT’s. Aspen has had a strong tie to the Long Beach convention since it’s inception, and this year the panel delivered a bounty of great news about the companies upcoming year of publications. Many of the news pieces covered at this show had already been touched on at conventions like San Diego Comic Con and New York Comic Con, but in lesser detail. Never-the-less, the Aspen guys and girls still kept their panel quite laid back and humorous.
On panel for this show were Aspen co-owners, Peter Steigerwald and Frank Mastromauro, the companies Editor-in-Chief, Vince Hernandez, and creators David Wohl, JT Krul, Beth Sotelo, Josh Reed, Jonathan Marks, and Mark ‘The Roz’ Roslan. As the panel began their seemed to be a little disarray as the guys tried to attach their laptop to the convention’s projector, but this only added to attendees’ enjoyment as JT, David, and Peter all went back and forth ribbing one another and making jokes much to the audience’s amusement. This fun and familiar atmosphere is quite common amongst Aspen panels, as they truly attempt to make their fans like family in familiarity and relaxed, friendly interaction. Once the laptop was all set up, Peter dragged artist Lori Hanson (Executive Assistant Assassins) out of the audience to help start off the panel in normal Aspen tradition, with a big ALOHA! shouted by everyone in the room.
After everyone on panel was introduced, Frank Mastromauro began discussing the companies current releases and upcoming projects. One notable topic was that of the upcoming Executive Assistant event, Executive Extinction. Masterminded by David Wohl, Executive Extinction will run across both the on-going Executive Assistant Assassins, and David Wohl’s new Executive Assistant Iris volume 3, coming out in December.
The biggest news of the panel, however, all revolved around next year’s 10 for 10 initiative. 2013 will mark the 10th anniversary of Aspen MLT (as well as the 15th anniversary of Michael Turner’s Fathom series, which started out at Top Cow) and to celebrate they will be offering 10 new #1 issues over 10 months for just $1 an issue. The initiative starts next February with Legend of the Shadow Clan by David Wohl, Cory Smith (Broken Pieces), and John Starr (Soulfire), which you can read a little more about here. Following in March is the return of Shrugged for it’s second volume. Volume 2 of Shrugged is written solely by Frank Mastomauro, who seems quite excited about its release, and features art by Jonathan Marks (Soulfire: Despair). Micah Gunnell, Shrugged’s previous artist for volume 1, will be providing some covers for the upcoming volume as well, which you can see below. Many of the other titles in the initiative have yet to be officially announced, so we can’t actually share them with you, but we can easily say it would be safe to assume Fathom and Soulfire will certainly be back for new volumes and readers of Charismagic vol.1 #6 are obviously aware that volume 2 has already been announced for next year. That said, expect news on famed Aspen comic writer, JT Krul, having a new comic out sometime in April, to coincide with the pushed back release date of Aspen’s first prose novel, also by Krul, entitled The Lost Spark, which was originally solicited for January.

There is much more news to the 10 for 10 initiative beyond just simply 10 amazing new comic series coming out from Aspen next year. In fact, Mastromauro and crew have some great plans to help drive customers into comic shops throughout 2013, picking up all the great new Aspen books. First off is their new ‘Reserved Edition’ variants available for all the upcoming 10 for 10 #1 issues. These variant covers are available for fans who pre-order or subscribe to Aspen series at their local comic shop, and are orderable for retailers without any ratios, just like the direct covers. They feature very stunning single figure art pieces done by the series’ artists and will be great collector’s items for Aspen fans. You can see the first Reserved Edition cover, belonging to Legend of the Shadow Clan #1, directly below. Best of all, for big Aspen fans and readers willing to give the entire 10 for 10 initiative a try (which shouldn’t be hard, costing only $10 to pick up all ten #1 issues), retailers will be given a special Aspen 10th anniversary jam poster to give away to fans who grabbed the entire set of Reserved Editions! We have the censored version of the Jam poster at the bottom of this article, with many of the characters silhouetted until their series announcements later this year. That said, keen eyed readers might have noticed the poster in the background of our panel picture at the top of the page, with one more character revealed. This is because fans in attendance of the Long Beach Comic Con Aspen panel were treated to the announcement of the final 10 for 10 initiative comic…or should I say comics?

The tenth release for Aspen’s 10 for 10 initiative has actually not yet been decided on, and fans will be the ones making the choice! Starting in December, on a specialized facebook page, fans will be able to vote on whether they want the 10th new Aspen book of 2013 to be either Awaken Skies or Overtaken. Both books are written by Frank Mastromauro, with Awaken Skies dealing with a girl who suddenly gains wings and the ability to fly, while Overtaken is a story of aliens with a supernatural style twist. Check back soon for more information on both titles. The nice thing about this vote for the tenth book of the tenth anniversary is that it seems to bring full circle the selection of Aspen’s first new title as a company back in 2003, which saw fans vote between Soulfire and Ekos.

Around this time in the panel a mysterious knocking began on the back door of the convention’s panel room. After a few confused looks were shared between both audience and panelists, Scott Lobdell burst in the room to join in the fun. JT Krul and him exchanged their usual joking quips, amusing the audience to quite a degree, before the panel got back under way. New Aspen apparel was announced to be on the way along with the Aspen Matthews’ necklace from Fathom, set to go up for sale sometime in early 2013.After Q&A, the Aspen group added a surprise twist to the end of the panel with an impromptu trivia contest, where winners were given Fathom mini-busts as prizes. But as this was an impromptu trivia contest, even many of the panelists were caught off guard when asked to provide questions for the audience. The trivia ended up ranging from “what is your favorite vegetable?” to “What was Scott Lobdell’s first comic at Aspen?” Still, everyone seemed to have a great time and 10 fans walked away with brand new Fathom statues of Aspen Matthews in her Black armor. ALOHA!