"After the 1997 Dark Horse Presents Annual failed to arrive in comics shops until early 1998, you'd think we would have learned our lesson," said returning DHP editor Randy Stradley. "But you'd be wrong. Instead, we climbed right back on that horse and scheduled another DHP Annual for this summer. And damned if it didn't buck us right off again. Fortunately, we did learn a few things -- at least about falling."

Stradley says that this year's DHP Annual may ship a few weeks late, and there may be a few changes to the announced line-up, but it's still going to be a big event. "The book will still feature Mike Mignola's Hellboy, the comics debut of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Matthew Burke and John Bolton's "Infirmary," Andi Watson's Skeleton Key, and Steve Weissman's Phineas Page. But it will also contain the first installment of Mark Verheiden and Ron Randall's new sci-fi/horror story "The Ark,," plus one or two other surprises. Anybody who loves good comics won't be disappointed."

Stradley, who helmed the first eighty issues of comics' longest-running anthology, has once again taken over the editorial reins, and promises to take the book in new directions, with new stories and new creators. "Mainly I'm thinking about taking the series one hundred eighty degrees in the other direction -- back to its roots, and back to the days when Dark Horse Presents was the real flagship of the Dark Horse line."

The 1998 Dark Horse Presents Annual is 64-pages of black-and-white comics mastery, available for $4.95, shipping in August . . . or maybe September.

For more information, contact anybody but Randy.