Official Press Release

Some ideas are just too good to let die. Which is why

artist and idea man Mario Ruiz decided he couldn't

stay away from the drawing board for very long. The

founder and former driving force behind Metron Press,

publisher of the critically acclaimed Samson: Judge of

Israel and Testament, had found himself without a

creative home after editorial differences with his

former company forced him to rethink his situation.

His vision for telling important and entertaining

stories just wouldn't die. Which is why he decided to

form his own publishing company, Valor Comics.

"I took some time to regroup and gather my thoughts. I

even distracted myself for a while with fishing and

playing semi-pro football, the latter not being the

safest thing to do." the artist stated recently in an

interview at his home in Upstate New York, "I had

created in my head and heart a set of stories that

just had to get told. I created Valor Comics as a

place where I could let these stories out." So Ruiz

put pencil to paper and began sketching what would

become the Jesus Christ: Son of Man trilogy. Using the

Bible as his inspiration, the artist created a unique

world, a place where the Roman Empire had never

fallen, where Jesus had not yet been born. "I was

looking for a way to tell these stories with

a modern, relevant edge to them. In the case of the

Jesus Christ: Son of Man trilogy, I decided to do it

by showing readers what it would be like if the events

of 2000 years ago never happened. Basically, I wanted

to take the greatest stories ever told and present

them in a way that would make them exciting and real

to people today, to people who might not otherwise

give God, the bible or history a second

thought."

With his ideas and designs in hand, Ruiz then went

looking for a writer who could help him bring his

stories to life. Fortunately, Jerry A. Novick, his

storytelling partner on Samson: Judge of Israel, was

available. "I remember that when we were working on

Samson, Jerry said he wanted to do something that was

different than the things he had worked on before,

that were more than just comic book superhero

stories," Ruiz recalls." When Mario told me he was

putting his efforts into a new publishing house, I

knew I wanted to get on board," Novick said. "And when

he told me his ideas for the Jesus Christ: Son of Man

trilogy, I knew it was something different, a type of

story that nobody else had tried to tell before."

Currently Ruiz and Novick are fleshing out the art and

script for all three books in the series-Magdalene,

Jesus Christ: Son of Man, and The Revelation of John

Devine. Each will be presented in graphic novel format

with full color art. The first, Magdalene, tells the

story of a young woman whose

desperate circumstances lead her down a dark path.

Jesus Christ: Son of Man, the centerpiece of the

trilogy, relates the coming of a charismatic preacher

who turns the life of a Roman general on its head. And

in The Revelation of John Devine, Ruiz and Novick

follow a detective as he tries to hunt down a brutal

killer who is bent on unleashing Hell on earth.

Look for all three books starting in the summer of

2005 at comic book shops and specialty bookstores. For

more information visit www.valorcomics.com