The final effort in the “Fear City” triad was “Deadbeats,” an epic soap opera chronicling the war between two bands of the undead played out in the small-town setting of Mystic Grove, Connecticut. Originally a grudge match between the title group of vampires and their opposite number, King Hermano, the philosopher-king of the eternals. Over time, loyalties shift, turns twist, and fatalities rock both sides of the conflict, as well as–naturally–the mortals caught in the middle. The “Deadbeats” series boasts some of the most singular, most colorful, most distinctive characters in comics: Hermano; his kind-hearted, brainy young squire Mason Collier; Mason’s righteous big brother Kirby and his brave girlfriend Jo; deteminedly sequipedalian Dr. V. V. Ralston; and flamboyant monster hunter Dakota Kane.
The story and art for all eighty-two issues of “Deadbeats” (with the exception of a few short-story modules along the way) have all been the work of the writer/penciller and inker team of Richard Howell and Ricardo Villagran . Between them, they’ve produced hundreds upon hundreds of pages of dense, decorative, moody, character-rich moments in the sweeping, interlocking storylines that “Deadbeats” incorporates. Richard’s active, personable touch with character interaction and differentiation of facial and body types is ideal for a series with such a large cast, and Ricardo’s illustrative approach brings a classical beauty to each 
panel.
The “Deadbeats” story begins with the arrival of teenage Kirby Collier and his younger brother Mason to Mystic Grove, the town in which the boys’ grandparents still run the town diner. The same night, the Deadbeats slaughter four beach-partying teenagers and begin the town’s long nightmare. Soon, the town’s self-declared defenders (Drs. Ralston and Powell, and schoolteacher Christine Robbins) team up with the Collier brothers and Jo and mobilize to combat the undead marauders and extend their efforts so far as to enlist freelance monster hunter Dakota Kane–who travels with his mother, the psychic Madame Melina. Kirby and Jo encounter the mysterious King Hermano in the caverns under the city, which leads to Kirby’s being present at the ultimate combat between Hermano and the Deadbeats’ champion, Southie.
After that initial stage of the war, the stakes escalated, eventually encompassing not only Kirby’s and Mason’s returned-to-town adventurer father Adam, but also various time periods and bands of alternative time. In a particularly compelling story arc, Kirby travelled to the other-dimensional “World of Vampires” and fought his evil, undead counterpart. Then Kirby was swept into the 
Mystic Grove of the near future, after a horrible devastation had been visited about the town and the present-day children had grown into the town’s defenders. After that, the path back to the present led Kirby to the somewhat-recent past, during which Kirby met his parents during their wild teenage years. Finally, Kirby returned to the present in time to see King Hermano slay the Chronovore, the beast who threatened every moment of a billion, billion bands of time.
With a scope that’s both dimension-spanning and amazingly intimate, with moments of shocking violence and stirring sensuality, “Deadbeats” has garnered a militantly loyal readership, and the title of “Comics’ Premier VAMPIRE EPIC.”
The “Deadbeats” series ran from 1993-2007, with a total of 82 issues, 1/2 of a Free Comic Book Day flip book, and three trade paperback compilations with new covers, one by Richard Howell and Ricardo Villagran , one a painting, and one by Richard Howell and Louis Lachance.
The “Deadbeats” series continues as an Internet comic, with new episodes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, beginning on April 30, 2007. All are invited to follow the ongoing saga here.
Although Claypool Comics earned an enthusiastic and loyal following, we continually struggled to find placement on the shelves among the prodigious amount of other comics-related product being churned out in the present market. Ultimately, Claypool never made a large enough impact on the market to be considered a strong-selling line, and eventually the three series were dropped by Diamond Comics Distribution , the only extant distributor to the comics specialty store circuit. This effectively removed Claypool’s only route to reach any readership (other than our subscription base) and made our continuing to publish our comics an impossibility. Diamond was 
good enough to allow Claypool to continue publishing for an additional six months after the decision was made, enabling us to alert our freelancers, publish a good deal of editiorial material that was already purchased, and bring the ongoing continuities (in “Soulsearchers and Company” and “Deadbeats” ) each to conclusions.
All of the printed issues (with the exception of the licensed “Elvira” ) continue to be available through the Claypool website, and “Deadbeats” continues via its Internet webcomic. Although the company is clearly “in transition,” Richard and Ed remain hugely proud of the achievement of Claypool’s 14-year output, over 350 issues of “Comics for People Who Love to READ COMICS!” 
The second of the “Fear City” series was a transplant. Before Claypool began, Richard Howell and Peter David had put together a series concept for Marvel featuring a team of ghostbusters led by two already-extant, already-married characters. Marvel passed on the offer, so Richard and Peter refashioned the cast to make the property creator-owned, then began it from scratch, at Claypool The group’s members included: the fiery former Olypmic gymnast Bridget Lockridge; her foil (and eventual husband) Baraka, the fire demon from an Arabic Hell, the apprentice witch Kelly Hollister; Janocz, a shape-changing gypsy boy; Peter P. Peterson, an accountant with a magic bag (out of which he can produce–apparently–anything); and the business’ original leader, the acerbic talking prairie dog Arnold Stanley. In later years, the centauress Hot-2-Trot would join the ranks, then leave. Also signing up was Gabriel, a local Mystic Grove boy who was gifted–by Nadine the ditzy angel–with a gun that disabled evil supernaturals. Naturally, a concept like this required some specialized art to make it work, and Richard and Ed were each delighted to recruit the then-lesser-known Amanda Conner (whom they’d known for years). Amanda’s big breakthrough was still a few years away, but she sharpened her skills markedly on the “Soulsearchers and Company” feature, bringing a complex sen
se of fun and a multiplilcity of tone to the series’ many demands. Original series inker Jim Mooney gave weight and depth to the pencils and was instrumental in making the drawings work in black-and-white.
Over the years, the “Soulsearchers and Company” feature shifted art teams frequently, eventually showcasing the talents of not only Amanda and Jim but also Dave Cockrum, Marie Severin, Dan Spiegle, Gordon Purcell, Neil Vokes, Al Bigley, Kim DeMulder, and Chris Marrinan , among others. As the series progressed, it stabilized artistically with a lengthy run by John Heebink and Al Milgrom , then a slightly shorter one by Joe Staton and Milgrom. Amanda Conner remained as cover artist for the series’ entire run, mostly inked by Steve Leialoha.
Over their fourteen-year run, the Soulsearchers discovered plenty of amusing weirdness in their path, including: The Grand Guignol and his Pinocchio Patrol, Sleep-Wanker the master of daffy dreams; the roving gypsies of Pastramia; the Toadies and their cult of Drek; the Scream Queens; the time-warping Apocrypha; authoress Ramona Cleff; mad sorceror Willem Haggard (Arnold’s original partner in SS & Co.); and the Ex-Nihilio, Lucifer’s executive board. They participated in a cat-and-mo
use game with the spy queen Offa Trollez, investigated a monastery full of mimes, got in between a pair of warring angels (Nadine and her nasty sister Vanessa), found the underground laboratory in which a mad scientist was creating dinosaurs, fought the greedy pig Sooey Generis, got outlawed from Mystic Grove, battled the Witch-Tracker, attended a snooty, aristocratic British (also cursed) house party, and ran afoul of the Cantrip mob family of half-demons.
The “Soulsearchers and Company” series ran from 1993-2007, with a total of 82 issues, 1/2 of a Free Comic Book Day flip book, and two trade paperback compilations with new covers by Amanda Conner (one inked by Steve Leialoha , one a painting). 
ED VIA
Ed is an investor who resides in Virginia. He’s a lifetime comics enthusiast and collector.
JOSEF RUBINSTEIN
Joe emigrated to the U.S. from Israel when he was 5 years old. His American cousin had a bunch of comic books Joe was fascinated by. Since Joe didn’t speak the language, he was attracted to the pictures and, like all kids, he drew his own comics. Eventually he wanted to be an artist. At age 11 he attended classes in New York (where he lived) at the Arts Students League. His art teacher was Arthur J. Foster, son of the great Hal Foster (creator/artist of “Prince Valiant,” one of the most highly-regarded comic strips in history).
Josef’s idol at the time was Neal Adams whom he met at a comic book convention when he was 13 years old. Josef asked if he could work at his and Dick Giordano ‘s new studio, Continuity Associates. About 1971 or 1972 Joe became their assistant.He met and assisted many legendary artists while working there, including Wally Wood, Russ Heath, Gray Morrow, Jim Starlin, Jeff Jones, Bernie Wrightson , and Klaus Janson , among others.Then when Josef was 17 years old, he became a freelance artist and that was 32 years ago. He has worked for every major comics company and has the Guinness record for having inked more pencillers than any other inker–because of his inking “The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe” on and off for 20 years.
Joe is also an award-winning portrait artist and illustrator.
He can be contacted through that site.
For Claypool Comics, JOSEF RUBINSTEIN has inked stories in “Elvira” #142-4, #147, 155, 157, 160 , and #162. He also inked the covers of “Deadbeats,” issues #77 and #82 (the final printed issue).
NEIL VOKES
“I’ve been telling stories in comic books professionally now for 23 years. I started at Comico Comics in 1984, on the Japanese cartoon based Robotech Masters. This eventually led to co-creating the black-and-white comic, “Eagle,” in 1986. Through the following years I’ve drawn: “Superman Adventures” with the legendary Terry Austin; “Tarzan the Warrior” with old friends Mark Wheatley and Marc Hempel; Douglas Adams’ “Life, the Universe and Everything”; “Adventures of the Mask” with that demi-god of inkers, Jay Geldhof; “Untold Tales of Spider-Man,” with writers Kurt Busiek and Roger Stern (and Jay again on inks); “Jonny Demon” with Kurt; “Congorilla” (yes, I said Congorilla) with Steve Englehart; “Ninjak” with Kurt and li’l bro’ Mike Oeming ; “TeenAgents” with Kurt at Topps Comics; “Parliament of Justice” with Mikey; “The Black Forest” 1 & 2 and “The Wicked West” 1 & 2 with good friends Todd Livingston and Bob Tinnell …I’ve left quite a few out due to space and humility…well, okay, just space. For Claypool, though, I worked on many “Elvira” stories and several issues of “Soulsearchers and Company,” plus I inked one “Deadbeats” cover.
I have several more projects coming up,including a very dark horror story based on one of the many screenplays Bob has written, called “The Voice” –then a return to my favorite creator-owned character “Eagle” and eventually a fun double-feature comic with our Brit mate Adrian Salmon called “Baron Frankenstein/Count Dracula.” Then,assuming I haven’t had a stroke by the end of ’07, I may be adapting a few stories by a famous English writer with noted author Denis Meikle (whom I worked with doing several chapter illos on a book called “Vincent Price/The Art of Fear” ).
It has been an honor and a privilege and a pure, unbridled joy to be a storyteller/artist all these years. I hope that I’ve been able to share a little of that joy with all of you.
That’s All,Vokes
NEIL VOKES drew the lead features in “Elvira” issues #2, #3, #13, #26, #50 , and #70 plus a chapter in #42 , also Neil’s drawn “Soulsearchers and Company” issues #9 (part), #10 (part), #11, #12, #39, #46, and #50-2 . The issue of “Deadbeats” which cover he inked was #28 .
JOHN HEEBINK
Former “Elvira” and “Soulsearchers and Company” penciler John Heebink divides his time between storyboarding for http://www.expressvisuals.com and teaching about comics and perspective drawing at the Academy of Art University. Aside from an in-progress proposal with the brilliant Jason MacNamara and Tony Talbert and occasional freelance coloring, John’s out of comics for the moment. His most recent job was coloring Ronn Sutton ‘s gorgeous cover for “Vampira the Movie.” He and the rest of the creative team for Rick Remender ‘s “Doll and Creature” are weighing returning to that Image series. John’s work can be seen at http://www.heebink.com and http://www.expressvisuals.comJohn’s dance card for commissions is full for the foreseeable future, but the patient and optimistic can reach him through his site, http://www.heebink.com
JOHN HEEBINK drew many “Elvira” stories in its long run, beginning with #12’s “Mummy Dearest!” Other high points include #18-23 ‘s Agatha Christie parody “The Host Dangerous Game!”, #32-4 ‘s “The Perils of Elvira!”, his work on the “Historical Babes!” serial ( #63-7 ), “Elvira Meets Splendidman!” ( #71 ), “The Seven Deadly Dwarves!” ( #79 ), and the “Tele-Castaways” serial ( #107-111 ), plus various lead features, such as #45, #46, #54, #57, #72 (the “Dawson’s Creek” parody), #95, #104, #124, #164 ‘s “Enigma Don’t Pay the Rent!” (with longtime pal Mike Manley ), #163’s “Division of Loveliness!” , and inking Ronn Sutton ‘s pencils on #157 ‘s Doc Savage parody “Death Cargo of Doom!” John also pencilled the final three issues of “Phantom of Fear City” and contributed to many issues of “Soulsearchers and Company,” including #14 ‘s “Star Trek/X-Files” parody, #16 ‘s comics convention spectacular, #44-5 , #59 , and an extended run on #62-73 (plus the Free Comic Book Day flip book).
RICHARD HOWELL
publications “Adventure Illustrated” and “Fantasy Illustrated” (which, among other accomplishments, initated Englehart/Ditko/Leialoha’s “The Djinn” and Doug Wildey’s “Rio.” ). Richard then (in 1982) segued into the world of the top-level comics companies, with credits in scripting, pencilling, inking, lettering, and coloring features like “All-Star Squadron,” “Hawkman,” Vision and the Scarlet Witch,” “Jonny Quest,” “Power Man and Iron Fist,” “Iron Man,” “D.N.Agents,” “Firestorm,” “Rick Jones,” “Wolverine,” “Patsy Walker,” “Green Lantern,” and “Willie Lumpkin,” among many others. Richard also colored many stories for Marvel’s first round of “Marvel Masterworks” (including the controversial “Daredevil” volume) and lettered for “Epic Illustrated.” He’s also been published as a columnist and/or cartoonist in “T.V. Guide,” “Soap Opera Weekly,” “Dig,” and “Sci-Fi Magazine,” and has written introduction/analysis pieces for many publications, including “Real Love: The Best of the Simon & Kirby Romance Comics,” (which he also edited), “The Art of Nick Cardy,” “The Newspaper Strip Art of Nick Cardy,” “The Dark Shadows Comic Strip Book,” and the current reprint series of “On Stage.” With co-editor Jesse Reyes , he presided over the successful relaunch of “Vampirella” at Harris Comics, then co-founded Claypool Comics (with Ed Via ) and served as Editor during Claypool’s fourteen-year run of publishing Peter David ‘s “Soulsearchers and Company,” Steve Englehart ‘s “Phantom of Fear City,” the licensed adventures of “Elvira® Mistress of the Dark(TM),” and writing and pencilling his own vampire epic “Deadbeats.” Currently, “Deadbeats” continues on the Internet (at claypoolcomics.com), comicdom’s longest-running vampire soap opera. Recently, Richard resumed contributing to DC Comics, where he’s co-plotting and designing layouts for “Superman” and “Wonder Woman” stories with long-time collaborator Kurt Busiek. Richard is a part-time singer/musician and lives in New Jersey with his three cats Sam, Ryan, and Calista.
Richard has occasional openings in his schedule, and is available for commissions when those happen. Anyone interested can contact him through the claypool website. RICARDO VILLAGRAN
Born in the small northern city of Correntes, Argentina in 1938, Ricardo, a natural artist and eldest of three brothers and one sister, was already drawing by the early age of four. After finishing high school, he entered into the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes inBuenos Aries.
While still in school, Ricardo started accepting freelance work for various advertising companies, printers and comic publishers. He continued to take freelance assignments during his compulsory service in the Argentine Army.
After receiving his discharge from the military, and returning to civilian life, Ricardo quickly put his full effort back into working as an illustrator. His list of clients grew to include most of the big advertising agencies and printing houses in Argentina. He quickly established himself as one of the top illustrators. In constant demand for his draughtmanship and speed, Ricardo spent several years, accepting top commissions.
In 1969, Ricardo returned to the field of comics. He worked for Editorial Columba (Buenos Aries, Rio de Janeiro, Lima, Caracas, Asuncion, Montevideo, Santiago) Codex Ediciones, Guisa (Spain), Eura (Rome), Fleetway (London). He illustrated numerous covers and stories covering every subject from barbarians, romance, westerns, to science fiction.
In 1970 Ricardo was elected the Vice President of the “Association de Dibujantes,” and co-creator of the ” Association de Illustradores,” in Argentina. The ever-increasing demand for Ricardo’s work led him in 1974 to open his own studio, Nippur Quatro, with his two brothers Enrique and Carlos . At one time the studio grew to employ 20 artists and assistants, producing work for comic publishers in Argentina and Europe. Many of the famous and poplar artist of the time and today, passed through its doors. Many young, up-and-coming artists received the knowledge and experience to go on to successful careers of their own, working under Ricardo’s tutelage and easy manner.
In 1982, Ricardo came to the United States, established contacts in comics. He started working from Argentina, delivering quality work on features such as “Darkhawk,” “Conan,” “Omega Men,” “Solar,” “Vigilante,” “Alien/Predator,” “Atari Force,” “Scout,” “Star Trek” and “Aquaman,” along with Dave Cockrum ‘s “The Futurians,” among other titles. After teaming with writer/artist Richard Howell on a short feature at Harris’ “Vampirella” revival, Ricardo was recruited to be the regular embellisher of Claypool’s “Deadbeats” feature, with which he’s continued for its entire eighty-two issue run. At Claypool, Ricardo has also inked Dave Cockrum, Jim Webb, Dan Day, John Heebink, and Tod Smith (on “Elvira” ), plus Neil Vokes (on “Soulsearchers and Company” ). He has attended and shown his work in many conventions in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Diego and Detroit.
Ricardo’s first love has always been painting. He has had several exhibitions of his work including, Museo del Prado ( Madrid), Municipal De Exhibiciones (Buenos Aries), Museo de Armas, Secretaria de Turismo and many others.
Ricardo now splits his time between Philadelphia and Buenos Aries. He continues to accept illustration and comic assigments, but is now concentrating more on his first love, painting. He’s currently preparing several pictures for future exhibitions.
RONN SUTTON
Hello Claypool Readers,
I hope you’ll remember my pencilling work from ” Elvira® Mistress of the Dark(TM).” I didn’t start drawing stories for “Elvira” until issue #57 , but I drew 46 stories over a 9-year period. I stayed right to the end, contributing the very last “Elvira” page ever–but since that issue is now been drawn and published, I continue to be busy elsewhere. I’ve recently drawn a story for “Tales of the Fear Agent” (Dark Horse, Summer 2007) in collaboration with Hilary Barta.
As well, I’ve drawn nearly 100 pages for an online romance comics website, a short comic to promote the upcoming DVD documentary “Vampira, the Movie,” as well as a 22-page “Liberty Girl” story for Heroic Comics. I still continue drawing periodic magazine illustrations and courtroom drawings for the newspaper and T.V.
You’re invited to view my website at www.ronnsutton.com. There’s about 100 pieces of artwork, including work from “Elvira,” various other comics and animation assignments and more. I’m available for commissions and other projects. You can contact me through the website. I look forward to hearing from you.
JANET HETHERINGTON
Dear Claypool Readers:
I had the pleasure to write stories for “Elvira® Mistress of the Dark(TM)” since 2000, inluding both back-ups and leads. Those scripts were most often lively screwball parodies of movies, T.V. and other media — with Elvira as the star, of course! — and they were always fun to write.
Nowadays, I’m working as an Editor with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and continue to freelance. I have written a romance comics novella, “Dangerous Seductions,” for www.MyRomanceStory.com , articles on visual effects, animation and comics for Animation World Network (www.awn.com and www.vfxworld.com) and illustrated the poster artwork for “My Dead Girlfriend,” a Canadian idie horror flick.
In addition, 2007 marks the 10th anniversary of “Eternal Romance,” the supernatural romance comic series that I created, wrote, and drew in 1997. For the first time, the “Eternal Romance” stories–featuring Destine the lovelorn vampire, Ankh the wise-cracking cat, and a host of other characters–appear in color in serialized form online at: www.MyRomanceStory.com.
I continue to write, draw and I do commissions. Along with Ronn Sutton, I continue to attend conventions and appear in artists’ alley. To find out more, please visit www.best-destiny.com.
Cheers,
Janet Hetherington
Hi, Richard & Crew
Just wanted to drop a quick note before the final issue of “Elvira” hits the stands. Even though I’ve bashed the comic here and there in the past, I am going to miss it. It was the only regular dose of Elvira that the long time fans could count on.
I will miss the covers most of all. You’ve certainly pulled out all of the stops in regards to the covers the last 6 issues or so. You managed to use some never before seen shots and I really appreciated the two artwork covers! You always managed to do a great job with them with great color choices melding well with the photos making familiar photos seem fresh again.
The lead story in issue #165 was a lot of fun and made for a great “JUMP IN” issue for new fans. All three of the “JUMP IN” issues you’ve done so far have ranked among my top 10 favorite stories ever done. They are always well researched with nuggets of info that hard core fans can appreciate. The art team on that story (Tod Smith and Al Vey) did a great job as usual. It has been a fun 14-year journey and I thank you. I hope everyone’s stay in the unemployment line is a brief one.
Marc Cawiezel
Hello, it’s us again. We were broken-hearted to find out that you would no longer be printing comics. Your books were one of the few things that we could look forward to and know that our daughter would thrill to read when she was older.
However, we were so excited to find out that you would be continuing the Deadbeats online. Your comics have always been full of creative storylines, fantastic artwork & humorous & excellent storytelling. We are so happy that we will be able to continue to enjoy the Claypool line, if only online.
Have no doubt though that if you had not been able to continue online, Claypool comics would never have been forgotten. Thanks to your “Elvira” letter column, Brian and I met…and had our beautiful daughter (which was supposed to have been an impossibility). See the truly amazing things that Claypool has been able to accomplish?
The story of how we met will always be passed down through our family in addition to our Claypool comics collection. But the kids won’t get the collection until after we’re long gone. I’m sure they’ll understand as some things are worth the wait.
Thank you for the wonderful stories that you’ve given us & for the ones that you have yet to tell.
Sincerely,
Brandy, Brian, and Jenna O’Keefe
p.s. We loved your work on the “Vision & Scarlet Witch” series! 🙂
Richard,
A few months back, when I was telling my roommate Alan about “Deadbeats’ “ impending cancellation, I commented, half-joking, that one way to quickly wrap up all the long running plotlines in the series would be to have a “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” ending, i.e. all the main characters go charging forward against some unbeatable enemy, presumably rushing towards their imminent deaths. But, well, I wasn’t really expecting you to actually do that–kill everybody, that is.
So now the apocalyptic future previously visited by Kirby appears to be an inevitability. Which leads to the key question: was there ever a chance for Kirby to change the future, or was it preordained? The fact that you previously established that theere are an infinite number of parrallel bands of time would appear to suggest that the future is in flux. Yet at the same time, as we saw, all of Kirby and his allies’ efforts to avert the oncoming apocalypse instead seemed to become part of the very events that led to that terrible outcome.
Speaking of changing history, I *thought* that the entire Woodstarke clan was wiped out in “Soulsearchers & Company”, which, as V.V. Ralston pointed out, appeared to be an early indicator that the current timely was diverging from the one Kirby visited. But now in “Deadbeats” #81, an apparently very much alive Andreas Woodstarke shows up in the company of Lara Lamar and Evan Southland, leading one to conclude that the three will form the dictatorial council seen during Kirby’s visit to the future. Where did Andreas come from? Did I miss something from the last couple of issues of “Soulsearchers”?
Too bad you didn’t have that classic blurb “This Issue: Everybody Dies!” on the cover, as popularized by “Uncanny X-Men” #142. It would have been apropos, as Kirby did have his own “days of futures past” experience, witnessing the dystopian future fate of Mystic Grove during his time travels…that, and for once it would have been completely accurate, since more or less everyone did actually shuffle off this mortal coil in the pages of issue #82.
So now what? One more issue to go, and I have no idea what to expect. The town is destroyed, everybody is dead, and the future looks very dark indeed. As the revived Kirby said on the last page, “Aw, man!”
Ben Herman
Andreas Woodstarke returned to the mix in the final issue of “Soulsearchers and Company,” just in time for the Fall of Fear City–also, to speculate that “the future is in flux” is a massive understatement. We hope that you’ll be following the “Deadbeats” Internet saga, accessible from this very site.
REAL REVIEWS (from the Claypool retailer pack)
“Claypool publishes modern twists on classic horror and has garnered a group of long-time fans.”
Rich Johnston, Lying in the Gutters
“Give Claypool credit. For over ten years, they’ve consistently put out quality comics, ON TIME.”
Doug Giffin, Digital Webbing
“Claypool publishes light entertainment that is fun to read and easy on the eyes.”
Michael Vance, Suspended Animation
"DEADBEATS"
“Filled with action and character development.”
DJ Anderson, Snark Free Waters
“Great characterization, deep plots, ever-building mysteries. What’s not to love?
Nick Alhelm, Helm’s Deep
"SOULSEARCHERS AND COMPANY"
“A screwball team of psychic investigators…witty, barbed, and very funny.
Gary Scott Rowland, Amazon.com
“A comedy adventure series that is genuinely and consistently witty.”
Peter Sanderson, IGN.com
“Peter David‘s long-time scripting has preserved a high standard…Delicious.”
Maggie Thompson, Comics Buyer’s Guide