There’s a reason why I waited until after lunch to post this North 40 sneak peek. Nothing really does a number to your appetite more than a mouth full of maggots, y’know what I mean?

Few artists make the disgusting look so good like Fiona Staples does. North 40 #4 hits stands next week.

Brian K. Vaughan took some time to answer some of Things from Another World’s questions about the influences and final arc of Ex Machina. Check out the full interview over here.

io9 has an exclusive preview of November’s Victorian Undead, by Ian Edginton and Davide Fabbri. Click through for some grotesque zombie goodness.

The extremely talented Ryan Sook was kind enough to supply commentaries for his amazing WildCats covers. Over the next couple weeks we’ll share these here one the blog.

From Ryan:

WILDCATS #13 - this cover was the beginning of a motif for
wildcats that i thought would be interesting. having a character or
two in front of a design element linked to the character (s) and do it
with the characters in a complimentary color to the background to
really make them pop. i.e. the green foreground figures against the
red background. then further, the idea was to run this series of
covers in a rainbow spectrum to link them all the way through. so 13
is a red background, 14 is orange, 15 is yellow etc. at first i
thought this would just look good, then it also seemed to become a
secondary element to the design in that we see the whole “spectrum” of
characters separated from cover to cover but linked by the color scheme!
this was the first in the series and one of my
favorites because the boys just look ready to let all those bullets fly!

WILDCATS#14 - this second cover of the six i did follows
in the color scheme and design motif. it is however the only one that
breaks form having only one character. Tao’s “all hell’s gonna break
loose any minute now” kind of attitude manages to come across fairly
well in an other wise quiet cover. also, definitely my favorite
collage to compose of all the backgrounds done in the series.

Art by Chris Sprouse.

With Dark Age Book 3 wrapping up last month, fans won’t have to wait long for an Astro City fix. Astra Special #1, the first of a two-part series will hit on Wednesday.

Speaking of Wednesday - tune in next week for a special Astro-centric post from editor Scott Peterson.

Publishers Weekly Comics Week has conducted a great interview with David Tischman and Philip Bond, the creators of our new series, Red Herring. This piece has a great focus on how the project came together:

PWCW: Artistically, Red Herring is very meticulous. Is this due to a refined, detail-packed script?

DT: I’ll let Philip speak to this—but I will say my scripts are filled with every detail I think that page of that scene needs to have. Sometimes that’s a lot more than it needs. It’s something I need to do, for me. Because once that script leaves my desk, it’s out of my hands. And out of my control. My guess is, Philip just goes through them and picks out what he needs and rolls his eyes about the rest of it. Which is okay.

PB: That’s in part due to my refined, detail-packed mind trying to make the real-world Washington DC a solid place. It’s also part of the Red Herring-ness too - I tried to pack in lots of little details because you never know what’s going to be significant and what’s going to be a false lead.
You can read the full interview here.

North 40 continues to see a lot of love, especially from our friends in the horror blogosphere. I know I’ve been raving on here about it a ton, but if you can’t trust my word on it…

“So horror fans, if you have been looking for some new comics to check out, keep your eyes out on this one. It’s Heroes meets Evil Dead II, My Name is Earl written by H.P. Lovecraft. Either way, for me, it’s looks like some damn good horror.” - The Dreamin’ Demon

“It’s a really amazing thing when a comic comes along that is the perfect fusion of storytelling and originality. In those cases, you get classic books like The Walking Dead or 30 Days of Night, and joining those series now, North 40.” - Brutal as Hell

“North 40 flips the black flavors of American Gothic’s relationships and characters, salt’s them with the simplicity of The Walking Dead’s direness, and then runs amok with monsters, mayhem, and a Stephen King’s worth of darkness stretching across the landscape. And with all of this powered by Lovecraft’s leviathan from the stars, the reading experience is exhilarating.” - Zombo’s Closet of Horror

“Finally, a REAL Horror Comic” - Vault of Horror

“I suggest you jump on board now before it’s too late.” - Cinema Suicide

“You can’t not like a comic that opens with a giant stepping on a bug-man.” - Blood Lines

“A creepy, funny thrill ride!” - Comic Attack

“Cthulu in the midwest – what’s not to like?” - Mad Gadabout

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Dukes of Hazzard.” - High Five Comics

You get all of James Robinson’s classic WildCats run in one fat volume. Need another reason why this is worth picking up? Really?

How about a cover and pin-up gallery in the back pages, including art by Travis Charest, Jim Lee, Barry Windsor-Smith, Mat Broome, Tom Raney, Larry Stroman, Salvador Larocca, Jason Johnson and Scott Williams?

Who is this Ghost? Between the first two comic covers and the game trailer that’s practically been playing on repeat on my 360, I’m really itching for November to get here already.

Art by Federico Dallochio.