To thank its legion of loyal fans for a half decade of support, Dark Descent Records is holding a 5 Years of Death sale from now until Sept. 10.  

Having entered the studio this time last year, Polish death metal squad CALM HATCHERY has finished work on their new full-length, which is now completed and slated for release via Selfmadegod Records.  

This October, James Buchanan Barnes steps into his new role as intergalactic protector in BUCKY BARNES: THE WINTER SOLDIER #1, the out-of-this-world series from rising star creators Ales Kot & Marco Rudy. Following the shocking finale of Original Sin, what has the Winter Soldier more driven than ever before?  

The Beast is back! The original voice of Iron Maiden, and the front man of such bands as Killers, Battlezone and Gogmagog, arises to bring his fans a show of sheer heavy metal brutality! Paul Di’Anno returned to Poland in April to play a string of live shows. One of the shows – at Lizard Club in Kraków on April, 9th – was recorded for the purposes of a live DVD release “The Beast Arises”.  

Creator/writer Joshua Williamson (NAILBITER, GHOSTED), artist Andrei Bressan, and colorist Adriano Lucas team up for the highly anticipated new fantasy series BIRTHRIGHT, from Skybound/Image Comics and reveal an awe-inspiring variant cover by Image Comics partner and Top Cow CEO Marc Silvestri and colored by Sunny Gho.  

As the sixth and final album from Chicago’s infamous AMERICAN HERITAGE, entitled Prolapse nears release this Fall via Solar Flare Records, an official trailer for the release including the newly-released cover art by A.W. Sommers and more has been issued.  

As RINGS OF SATURN‘s disparaging Lugal Ki En encroaches inundating the human population, this week preorders for the album via iTunes are made apparent, following the disbursal of links to the physical manifestation of the album in recent weeks.  

Formed in the Bavarian foothills when the second wave of black metal had grotesquely clawed out of the grave and into the unforgiving light, DARK FORTRESS benefited from the rotten fruits of right place and right time.  For the past two decades, DARK FORTRESS have gone from strength to strength.  

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has made his choice when it comes to playing in the DC Comics movie sandbox. Not that it was any surprise who he would be playing in the up coming and in the long works SHAZAM movie that is sure to be in the slate of all things DC movies…  

For the first time, Wes Craig’s BLACKHAND COMICS will be published in print, in a hardcover edition in October from Image Comics. This trio of tales exploring the fringes of society, the weird, and the macabre, previously published as webcomics, are written and drawn by Craig, artist and co-creator of DEADLY CLASS.  

West Coast gore hounds EXHUMED will take to the streets this Fall on another rash of live incursions with extreme metal technicians Carcass and manic death thrashers Noisem. Slated to kick off on October 24th in San Diego, the Inked In Steel Tour 2014 will trample nearly two dozen cities with additional sonic devourment from death metal legends Obituary and Macabre on select dates. From there the band will march overseas for more onstage devastation with Aborted, Origin and Miasmal. See confirmed shows below.  

2014 is definitely a great time to be a high fantasy fan. Fantasy of all kinds continues to be in vogue in 2014, and that means publishers are going to pull out all the stops running some new fantasy titles to capitalize on this wave of interest. Thankfully for us comic book fans that means some great characters can finally get the attention they deserve! One such character more than deserving of her comeback is Red Sonja.