Dark Horse Announces Frank Miller’s 300 Prequel & Xerxes Fine Art Litho

Dark Horse Comics proudly announces that master storyteller Frank Miller will examine the life of a key player from one of his most acclaimed works in Xerxes, the much-anticipated prequel to Miller’s award-winning opus 300.

Xerxes is slated for publication in 2011, but Miller’s fans will get a taste of it sooner when Dark Horse offers a special Xerxes Fine Art Lithograph in the July issue of PREVIEWS, offering a first look at the subject of Miller’s upcoming comics prequel to his record-breaking 300. The litho is colored by Eisner Award–winning colorist Dave Stewart and is sold exclusively through Dark Horse Comics.

Packaged flat against a backing board and shrink-wrapped in plastic, this 24" x 36" collector-quality, fine-art piece is priced at $25 and presented on acid-free paper with two special types of coating to enhance the art’s gold tones and background color. It’s also available in an ultra-limited edition of 100 signed and numbered copies, priced at an MSRP of $100.00 each, which includes a special certificate of authenticity. Both lithographs will ship in October; orders on the limited edition may be allocated.

Xerxes rose to power in fifth-century-BC Persia and became known as “The King of Kings,” eventually raising and leading a massive army intent on ruthlessly destroying the hated Greeks who killed his father. Xerxes seeks nothing less than to become a god himself – and achieves his wish!

As a graphic novel and a major film, 300 (HC: STAR10465V, $30; Art of the Making of 300 HC: SEP060021V, $24.95) drew millions of readers and viewers into the Battle of Thermopylae between the Spartans and the Persians. Xerxes – the Persian “God-King” at the battle – was one character that captured imaginations worldwide, and Miller’s new story should provide retailers with a bestseller to satisfy curiosity and complement the evergreen sales of 300.