For our readers in the Northern Hemisphere at least, those long, lazy days of late summer are just around the corner-those days where nothing beats finding a comfortable spot beneath a shady tree and passing a few sweet hours with some great comic books. In preparation for those days, we at Dark Horse have been hard at work making this year's batch of under-the-tree-comics.

From the mind of a single dangerous genius spring two wild, hip, and perfectly askew takes on traditional comic-book superheroes. The visionary I refer to is, of course, the creator of the Flaming Carrot, Bob Burden, and the comics are Bob Burden's Original Mysterymen and the comics adaptation of The Mystery Men movie.

Bob Burden's Original Mysterymen is pure, unfiltered Burden at his finest-combined with talented artists Christian Almay, Steve Sadowski, and Chris McLoughlin. Whether it's riding with The Strangler, the Metro Marauder, and The Spleen (with The Hummer passed out drunk in the backseat) to take on a monster in a shipyard; discovering the mysterious secret origin of The Amazing Disc Man-construction worker turned superhero; or hanging with super-villains who always get the girl, you're guaranteed that Bob Burden's Original Mysterymen will take you to places you never expected and leave you breathless and smiling when you return.

The comic-book adaptation of the second most-anticipated film of the summer (after that little independant movie from Lucasfilm that came out in May), Universal's The Mystery Men, features the work of Bob Fingerman, Chris McLoughlin, and Steve Moncuse and tells the story of the struggle to glory by wannabe heroes Mr. Furious (played in the film by Ben Stiller), The Shoveller (William Macy), The Bowler (Janeane Garofalo), the Blue Raja (Hank Azaria), The Spleen (Paul Ruebens), and others against the diabolical forces of Cassanova Frankenstein (played by Geoffrey Rush). Despite being upstaged by the charasmatic Captain Amazing and having derision heaped upon them by their less-than-adoring public, the Mystery Men persevere. So what if your only claim to fame is being able to unfailingly knock down a 1-10 split or that certain of your bodily functions can have a toxic affect on the bad guys? As Bob Burden's official Mysterymen slogan says, "Live to rule, rule to live!"

You can find out more information about Bob Burden's Original Mysterymen and The Mystery Men movie adaptation, as well as Dark Horse's many other great summer comics at www.darkhorse.com and you can meet Bob Burden, as well as the Dark Horse Convention Crew, at Dragon-Con in Atlanta July 1-4!