For the first time, Steve Rude, known as a cover and interior artist and co-creator of Nexus with Mike Baron, is both writing and drawing a new Nexus series, which will be bracketed by collection releases. Rude’s art will be old school hand-drawn comic storytelling, with Rude providing both pencils, inks, and some colors, plus colors by Glenn Whitmore.
The series, Battle for Thuneworld, is planned as a bargain-priced five-issue weekly in May. The first issue is priced at $.50, and issues 2 through 5 will be priced at $1.00 each. The first two are 24 pages, and issues 3 through 5 will be 32 pages.
The storyline follows the narrative in The Coming for Gourmando, by Mike Baron and Steve Rude, which was just released in a new Rude Dude Productions edition this month. In the first issue, Nexus is facing the reconstruction of his planet after the events in the previous volume while his longtime friend Dave is missing and as he deals with Earth journalist Nipsey Conniption, who’s determined to disgrace him. In future issues, Dave returns and the pair heads to Thune, when they confront a monstrous being who’s inflicting tyrannical misery on the planet.
The Battle for Thuneworld comic series pricing and schedule is designed to boost readership and attention to a trade paperback collection slated for a July 31, 2024 release, and an Oversize Artist Edition to come.
Rude Dude Productions also plans the release of The Art of Steve Rude 2024, a 176-page 8.5” x 11” softcover, with studies, commissions, tutorials, personal sketchbook pages, and select published pages from the previous year. MSRP is $24.95. The volume will be offered on Kickstarter in January, and through Diamond Comic Distributors for April 24 release.Source: ICv2
