PORTLAND, OR (March 14, 2024)– Oni Press – the multiple Eisner and Harvey award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comic books and graphic novels since 1997 – is announcing the return of fan-favorite and YALSA-nominated graphic novel Throwdown, Down, Set, Fight! in a brand-new 10th Anniversary edition. The gut-busting, gut-punching tale of football mascots with a score to settle by co-writers Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (Deadpool: Bad Blood, X-Men’ 92) and artist Scott Kowalchuk (Lucha Liberty, Batman’ 66) is back, featuring a new deluxe hardcover edition with all-new cover art punching its way into stores June 25!
In Down, Set, Fight!, “Fearless” Chuck Fairlane was football’s fastest-rising star, but his career came to a screeching halt when he was expelled from the league after going HAM and causing the giant brawl in sports history. Years later, Chuck found peace as a high school football coach until costumed mascots attacked him for seemingly no reason. Before long, Chuck will discover that you can’t run away from the past – but you CAN punch it square in the face!
“Down, Set, Fight! is a father and son story,” said co-writer Chad Bowers. “That’s what connected with readers back then and still does today. Unless I’m out of touch, fighting with your folks is still more commonplace than a knock-down drag-out with a rage-fueled mascot. And not for nothing, but we were way ahead of the ‘ridgeway things to bet on’ curve. Before Draft Kings, there was Down, Set, Fight!”
“Chad and I have written a lot of comics, but very few of them are as personal and driven by an emotional core as this one, where we made Scott draw a man hitting a guy dressed like a bear with a frying pan and then setting him on fire,” said co-writer Chris Sims.
Ready? Break! The Down, Set, Fight! 10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition HC squares off in comic shops and bookstores everywhere on June 25!
PRAISE FOR DOWN, SET, FIGHT!
“With plenty of good old-fashioned fistfight action, tongue-in-cheek humor, and messages about honesty and mentoring, this comic would appeal especially strongly to sports-loving young men, teenagers, and up, who may be reluctant readers. Kowalchuk’s blocky, slightly retro art renders the action with clarity and zest.” —Library Journal
“Kowalchuk’s rock ’em, sock ’em art fits the action, and Sims and Bowers’s slam-bang, slapdash script manages to be both cynical and fuzzily warmhearted.” —Publishers Weekly
“You may never look at a mascot the same way again.” —Las Vegas Weekly
“Down Set Fight! is an action flick in comic form and wears its heart on its (fur-covered) sleeve.” —Den of Geek
DOWN, SET, FIGHT! 10th ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION HC WRITTEN BY CHAD BOWERS AND CHRIS SIMS ILLUSTRATED BY SCOTT KOWALCHUK $29.99 | HARDCOVER | 160 pgs. | FC ON SALE JUNE 25th, 2024 IOC: 4/25/2024 FOC: 6/3/2024
About the Creators:
Chad Bowers is a comics writer and creator from South Carolina. With co-writer, pal Chris Sims and artist Scott Kowalchuk, he created the Yalsa-nominated original graphic novel Down, Set, Fight! for Oni-Lion Forge. With Sims, Chad’s other credits include the fan-favorite Marvel Comics series X-Men ’92, Infinity Wars: Sleepwalker, Guardians of the Galaxy: Monsters Unleashed, and the best-selling original graphic novel, Deadpool: Bad Blood. He’s also written and produced comics for PBS, Image Comics, IDW Publishing, Dynamite Entertainment, and BOOM! Studios. After years of being encouraged by his high school’s coaching staff to join the football team, Chad played precisely two games before everyone agreed that maybe he’d be better off pursuing his passion for making comics. No mascots were injured in either game.
Chris Sims is an award-winning writer and podcaster from South Carolina, where he met Chad Bowers while working at a comic book store. He currently lives in Minneapolis, where the winters do go on for quite some time, with his wife, AC, and his dog, Boberry Biscuit Sullivan-Sims, who is both the best little puppy on Earth and a goblin sent from Hell to punish humanity for their hubris. He can be heard weekly on the War Rocket Ajax podcast, along with what is almost certainly too many other shows.
Scott Kowalchuk is a perpetually award-eligible illustrator and writer. His work in comic books includes Batman ’66, Constantine: The Hellblazer, Atari’s SwordQuest, The Mysterious Strangers, The Intrepids, and Down, Set, Fight! Scott has illustrated for DC Comics, Image Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, and Oni Press.
About Oni Press:
Founded in 1997, Oni Press has a 25-year history as one of the industry’s most respected and acclaimed publishers of award-winning comic books and graphic novels with titles including Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim, K. O’Neill’s Tea Dragon Society, Cullen Bunn & Brian Hurtt’s The Sixth Gun, Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer, Ezra Claytan Daniels’ Upgrade Soul, Brenna Thummler’s Sheets trilogy, and many hundreds more.
In 2019, Oni Press merged with Lion Forge Comics – the Eisner Award-winning independent comic book publisher founded by Academy Award-winning producer and entrepreneur David Steward II – to create one of the largest independent libraries of comics content anywhere in media. The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group is now a publishing subsidiary of Steward’s diversified global media company, Polarity.
The Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group publishes more than 60 original and licensed graphic novels annually, in addition to an extensive list of periodical comics.
