What is Bad Idea? Bad Idea is an exciting new comics publisher made up of the best creators and editorial staff in the industry. What’s so special about them? Well, because I’m lazy, I’ll let their own ad copy speak for them:
Here’s the deal: Beginning in March 2021, you’ll be getting at least one brand-new Bad Idea release per month in a variety of tastes-good, feels-great formats by a fleet of world-class creators, including writers Matt Kindt, Robert Venditti, Marguerite Bennett, and Zeb Wells, artists Doug Braithwaite, Juan Jose Ryp, Adam Pollina, Renato Guedes, David Lafuente and even more yet to come (like Mae Catt, Joshua Dysart, Tomas Giorello, Eric Heisserer, David Lapham, Lewis LaRosa, Jeff Lemire, Peter Milligan, and more).
But before we tell you more about what those books are, here’s a quick refresher on what Bad Idea does best: Comic books, sold exclusively in participating comic book stores. No digital releases. No trade paperbacks or hardcovers. And no variant covers, either. Just super-high quality comics that will always leave you wanting more – because we’ll never publish more than two in a given month.
When it comes to our books, Bad Idea has one pretty straightforward goal: Every single issue we produce has to look and feel special, and earn its place on the shelf. Not only will every Bad Idea release feature audaciously entertaining comics storytelling in a crisply designed, prestige-format package with deluxe matte laminate covers and heavy-duty interior paper stock, but we’ll also be splurging on some enormously extra-long page counts, guest appearances by some of your favorite artists, and even standalone bonus stories in EVERY issue we publish for no extra-added cost. That’s where the next chapter of THE HERO TRADE – our insane series of shorts by creators Matt Kindt and David Lapham – will appear, as well as the birth of Bad Idea’s own subversive twist on what a shared universe can be and do. (Shh, we’ve said too much already.)
Oh yeah, and did we mention? They’re always just $3.99 per issue.
Here’s the kicker: If you want to pick up one or all of them (and we know you do), you’ll have to visit a Bad Idea “destination store” – one of the 100 and counting comic shops around the world that have signed on to join our independent network of direct-distribution retail partners – and buy them on a Wednesday (or simply pre-order them in advance by phone or email and pick them up whenever you’re damn well ready).
Now that we’re up to speed, here’s what you came for: the comics. We’re calling this little publishing soiree our stable of BAD IDEA BEGINS titles, but let’s see if that sticks:
At the height of World War II, the world’s most ingenious minds began a race to create a super-weapon capable of ending the war with the push of a button. One of those projects gave us the atom bomb…and another produced the world’s first supercomputer: ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) – an immeasurably complex mathematical model that targeted the Axis war machine by calculating missile trajectories and troop deployments.
Everybody knows that. It’s real-life American history.
Or so we were told.
On August 6th, 1945, the United States dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima.
Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki… Only President Truman wasn’t the one who gave order.
It was ENIAC.
In the Allies’ determination to end the war, they had accidentally created the world’s first autonomous machine intelligence…which had quickly deduced that one bomb wouldn’t be enough.
But ENIAC’s real plan was only just beginning…
Now, 75 years later, an encrypted countdown has just been detected in Earth’s satellite network and mankind only has three days left before ENIAC launches every weapon in the planet’s nuclear arsenal simultaneously. With few options and even less time, the Secretary of Defense has just given two covert operatives the most important mission in human history: kill ENIAC.
From the minds of New York Times best-selling writer Matt Kindt and incendiary artist Doug Braithwaite comes ENIAC #1, the debut series from BAD IDEA – the disruptive and experimental new comic publisher pushing the bounds of the medium (and your patience) one issue a time. This is no ordinary comic book… This is the long-classified history of an unspoken superpower more formidable than all of Earth’s nations combined…and now its story can finally be told.
Preorders for ENIAC #1 close on January 21st. Don’t miss out!