Dark Horse and Nickelodeon Launch AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER Publishing Program

Following the breakout success of last year's Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Art of the Animated Series, Dark Horse is proud to collaborate with Nickelodeon on a comprehensive publishing program built around this beloved and exciting Emmy-winning animated series!

The first installment of this new series will be released on Free Comic Book Day, May 7, with two introductory short stories - including the unpublished tale "Relics" and the iconic Dirty Is Only Skin Deep... This free comic will be packaged with Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The Clone Wars in a special flip-book comic, available only at your local comic book shop.

Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Lost Adventures will be released TK. This all-new 240-page comic book contains over 70 pages of never-before-seen material in addition to long-out-of-print comics previously published in Nickelodeon Magazine. With 26 stories set in Airbender continuity and created by a host of top-notch talent, many of whom worked on the original animated series, this is an essential addition to any fan's bookshelf.

Additionally, Dark Horse will create all-new Airbender stories that will be published as digest-style original graphic novels-conveniently sized paperback collections-in early 2012. Picking up where the season three finale left off, this new series will follow the further adventures of Aang and his friends, as they help to rebuild a world torn apart by 100 years of war.

"We had a great experience collaborating with Dark Horse on Avatar: The Last

Airbender - The Art of the Animated Series," series co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino said. "We are excited to work closely with them once again to bring the further adventures of Avatar Aang and his friends to the comic world."

Fans are invited to sign up for additional news at our official website:

http:///digital.darkhorse.com.

About Dark Horse Comics

Since 1986, Dark Horse Comics has proven to be a solid example of how integrity and innovation can help broaden a unique storytelling medium and establish a small, homegrown company as an industry giant. The company is known for the progressive and creator friendly atmosphere it provides for writers and artists. In addition to publishing comics from top talent like Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Neil Gaiman, Gerard Way and comics legend Will Eisner, Dark Horse has developed such successful characters as The Mask, Timecop, and SpyBoy. Additionally, their highly successful line of comics and products based on popular properties includes Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Aliens, Conan, Emily the Strange, Tim Burton, Trigun, Serenity and Domo. Today Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent comic-book publisher in the U.S. and is recognized as one of the world's leading publisher of licensed comics material.

About Nickelodeon Consumer Products

Nickelodeon Consumer Products manages the world's third largest licensing business, representing leading properties such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer, and managing merchandising for Nick Jr., Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTVN International, and Spike TV.

Nickelodeon, now in its 31st year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in more than 100 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for 16 consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B).

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