Media Release -- Growing Gold: A Continued Celebration by Johnny Hart has been announced as the first title under Checker's new worldwide distribution agreements.

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Media Release -- In the comic book industry there is one company which dominates distribution. That company is a privately held firm. The owner is a gentleman named Steven Geppi. Despite protests to the contrary for business purposes Geppi is Diamond Comics, and Diamond Comics is Geppi…period. Checker BPG became aware of extensive legal actions against Mr. Geppi in the Spring of 2009 to our extreme dismay. The frequency and number of the lawsuits is staggering and I list them simply for factual underlying basis for our separation from Diamond Comics, Inc. of Timonium, Maryland:

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Suspended Animation Review

Sigil: Death Match V. 5 (containing the never-before-published issues 27-32)/198 pgs. & $17.95 from Checker Books/words: Chuck Dixon; principal art: Scot Eaton/sold at book stores, comics shops & www.checkerbpg.com.

What is the value of seeing only the last ten minutes of a movie or reading the last five pages of a book?? Well, one might learn that the movie or book wasn’t worth watching or reading. ? Sigil: Death Match publishes the last six, unpublished issues of an epic, SF comic book series released several years ago and cancelled before those issues made it to book and comics shops.

You might ask: “okay, Mr. Big Tease Comics Reviewer, are you hinting that this isn’t worth reading?”

I’m glad you asked.

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ComicList Critiques by Charles LePage

Milt Caniff's Steve Canyon 1947
Checker Book Publishing Group
Milt Caniff

You will find no finer piece of literature in the world of comic strips or comic books than STEVE CANYON. Sadly, I started reading this strip in its waning years, as the Vietnam war was ending, and newspapers and readers starting turning away from what was a patriotic and military oriented story. However, we can recapture the magic of the strip's early years in this fine trade paperback series by Checker BPG.

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Suspended Animation Review

Scion V. 6 (reprinting CrossGen issues 34-39)/153 pgs. & $17.95 from Checker Book Publishing, principal artist, Jim Cheung; Ron Marz, writer/sold in comics shops and at www.checkerbpg.com.

Imagine the 'knights and damsels' comic strip Prince Valiant sprinkled with pseudo light sabers and aliens and you've pictured Scion, a comic book series that ran for thirty-nine issues before its original publisher went out of business.

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ComicList Critiques by Charles LePage

Star Trek The Key Collection Volume 1
Checker Book Publishing Group
Nevio Zaccara, Alberto Giolitti

Collecting the first eight issues of the Gold Key Star Trek comic book series, this trade paperback certainly is an affordable means of owning and reading these stories. There wasn't much in the way of explanation, however, for anyone new to these comics.

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Dayton, Ohio- Attention all comic strip fans! Here is your chance to meet the creative genius who, for over half a century, has made millions of people all over the world laugh with the shenanigans of the United States Army's laziest private. Mort Walker will be joining the Checker Book Publishing Group staff at the 2008 New York Comic-Con. Walker will be at Checker's exhibition booth from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday April 19th signing autographs and talking to fans to celebrate the upcoming release of Checker's newest book, Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey 1950-1952.

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Dayton, Ohio- Checker Book Publishing Group is excited to announce that the adventures of U.S. Army’s laziest private will soon join their collection of titles. Checker is partnering with King Features to publish a book, entitled, Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey 1950-1952. The book will feature the Beetle Bailey daily and Sunday comic strips, syndicated by King Features, which were published between when the comic strip first appeared in September of 1950 and December 1952.

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