Abuse of Playback, the technologically-derived drug made from distilled human memories, is sweeping the world – and Special Agent Fox Mulder learned too late that Playback was put forth on this planet by the Purity, seeking to condition humanity to their rule so as to better combat the Deadite incursion threatening the aliens’ homeworld. Now Mulder is missing, and it falls to his partner, Dana Scully, to re-activate secret protocol LXG-71, the “League of Extraordinary Gentlepersons” (protocol renamed 1993 for “sensitivity reasons”).

Scully swiftly collects Hong Kong Detective-Inspector “Tequila” Yuen, hyperviolent Wiccan practitioner Nancy Downs, the biological experiment/walking weapon known only as “Edward,” and a young high-functioning sociopath named Zack Morris who has the strange ability to stop the flow of time itself. Perhaps it is this last who attracts the attention of an enigmatic man who answers only to “Rufus,” and who asks Scully to “set history right” and see that two young musicians – that, so far as she can tell, never existed – be born anew, so that peace may flourish on Earth. But the Purity have never shown any signs of temporal travel capability… so who, then, altered history?

If you’re interested in checking out other work Davinder and I have done together, you can start with Al’Rashad or, alternately, our “Introduction” strip for Brainiac Five.

For those interested in obtaining a print of this fine piece of artwork, go here.

And of course, all due props to Sims and Shackles.

…is that you get ideas. Or at least I do.

Which, not to belabour the point: anybody out there interested in illustrating an approximately 8-page horror comic I thought of this afternoon (in between bouts of coughing), email me.

(The story is not coughing-related.)

If you aren’t reading John Leavitt and co.’s fun Time 2 Travel tumblr, you should. This was my contribution.

…the answer to the riddle from the Riddler comic I posted last week.

Art of course by my partner in crime, the dynamite Davinder Brar.

Why, yes, there is a riddle (and an answer) contained within the strip. I mean, how can you do a Riddler introduction without a riddle?

And let’s make it interesting: the first comment to give the exact answer to Riddler’s challenge (which of course demands that you first figure out what it is) will get a prize. And not some crappy “the respect of your peers” prize, either, but an actual comical book from my bookshelf.

Art provided by the extremely talented team of Adam Prosser and Ryan Howe.

UPDATE: Man, you spend the day in hospital for stuff and people just get INVOLVED.

googum came closest first, so I think he is our winner, and he shall receive a copy of American Flagg! vol. 1 by Howard Chaykin – the fancy deluxe hardcover edition Image put out a while back. I’ll put up an answer key/explanation later this week.

This one was actually quite difficult, more difficult than I originally thought it would be, mostly because after I had the idea I realized that I was trying to write an introduction for a character who would never, ever explain themselves, their motives or their ideals. And on top of that, the character is pretty laconic. But he’s still one of my favourites, so I went back to the slate until I had something.

Art provided by the redoubtable Griffin Castro.

So a little while back I asked if anybody was interested in a “brief collaboration,” and I got a pretty healthy response. The reason I asked was because of this and this and particluarly this (seriously, I love Kevin’s dialogue there), and I decided that I wanted to do one.

But then a whole a bunch of ridiculously talented artists contacted me (and continue to do so! Because it’s not like I set a deadline on it!), and really, I have never been the guy who only eats one Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup from the package, you know? So a bunch of these are coming up in the near future.

First off, we have Sheli Hay, starting us off with exactly who you think this blog would start this thing.