Raven Gregory has told us that Zenescope Entertainment is planning a nationwide signing tour this summer to promote series such as Escape from Wonderland and Grimm Fairy Tales!

Raven Gregory, Daniel Leister and Nei Ruffino have reported that they will offer promotional items to any retailers interested in bringing them out to their store.

Zenescope is also planning an Ultimate Grimm-Wonderland signing for a limited number of store locations across the U.S., including the entire Wonderland creative team of Raven Gregory, Daniel Leister and Nei Ruffino as well as Grimm Fairy Tales writers Ralph Tedesco and Joe Brusha and Grimm Fairy Tales & Wonderland cover artist Eric Basaldua.

According to Raven and company, this on a first come, first serve basis.  For more information, e-mail jsibel@zenescope.com.

Raven Gregory, writer of Zenescope Entertainment’s Escape from Wonderland, chatted it up with our very own Lan Pitts over at Shotgun Reviews.

Escape from Wonderland deals with Calie Liddle, the pregnant daughter of the now-insane Alice. Calie has traveled to Wonderland to discover the roots of her mother’s affliction, as she struggles with a decision that could bring madness down upon us all.

Here’s a few highlights from the conversation:

SR: Of all the “fairy tales” out there, what made you think of re-envisioning the Alice in Wonderland stories?

RG: For me, I think a big part of it was the underlining horror of the story. That behind the children’s story there was something incredibly terrifying lying beneath the surface. Reading the book, and watching the films and other adaptations of the novel I always thought how scary this would actually be if it happened to a real person and how that person would react and it all comes across as almost a descent into madness with this disguise on, so that duality really drew me to the story.

SR: Speaking of horror stories, were there any horror movies that influenced the style and look of the book?

RG: A couple big ones that had some influence on the look of the story were “In the Mouth Of Madness”, “Nightmare of Elm Street” (the first one), “Poltergeist”, to name a few.

You can read the entirety of their interview on Shotgun Reviews by clicking here.

Zenescope Entertainment seems to have landed one heck of a coup, based on the art below:

That’s right, Danger Girl artist and Amazing Spider-Man cover artist J. Scott Campbell, now working on a cover for Zenescope’s new series Escape from Wonderland.

The series follows the journey of Alice Liddle, who fell into a rabbit hole and spent years both building a life — and fighting for it — in the magical realm of Wonderland.

By Raven (and Jaylon) Gregory

It was some nineteen years ago, sixth or seven grade, I stumbled upon Watchmen at my local public library and I have to say the first time I read it I absolutely hated it. It was a drag to read but somehow I made my way through this immense piece of fiction and got to the end not really getting it at all but getting the sense that I indeed did not “get it” which explained the lack of enjoyment at the time.

Some many years passed in which I was introduced to X-Men, Hulk, EC Comics, and indie books of all different flavors and eventually Watchmen found its way back into my hands and upon a second reading I was absolutely blown away and have been in each of the eight subsequent readings over the years.

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So, I should start this off with something or the other about how this blog or post or response shouldn’t and doesn’t reflect on the views and attitudes of Zenescope Entertainment?  But in all honestly, that feels a bit pretentious and too similar to the pre-opening credits of the latest offering of DVD/Blu-ray madness that hits the movie rental stands each and every Tuesday.  So casting all that aside and knowing that not everyone will agree or disagree with what I have to say, I’ll just come right out with it.

I could spend the next few paragraphs talking about what Zenescope has planned for 2009 and the great series that we have currently hitting the stands, playing up what has become the norm for the standard in the ongoing Internet hype machine that is comics.  And more than likely, I will a tad bit later, but for now I’d rather talk about other things that matter to me and maybe to you. Things that we can talk about and have a conversation over instead of the regular “look look look and yes, that looks cool or no that sucks.”  And while I may jump about subjects (whether it’s comics I’m reading and digging or music or the economy or whatever floats in my Grey matter at any given time) a bit like a hummingbird on a crack binge, it’ll at least be an interesting couple minutes worth of reading (with pretty pictures of Zenescope goodness) material to pass the time.  So with that said…