Hero: 9 to 5…it’s all enormous boobs and nob gags, right?

The awesome Mauro Barbosa returns to Alpha Gods, colouring this page from the new and revised prologue to the upcoming Markosia edition of Alpha Gods: Emergence.

Hero: 9 to 5

Written by Ian Sharman, art by David Gray, colours by Yel Zamor.

Welcome to a world where being a super hero is just another job.

A world where the rich can afford comprehensive hero protection policies that ensure that the best heroes will come to their aid in an emergency. The poor, however, have to make-do with protection from government sponsored agencies with limited resources whose staff are…shall we say…a little less heroic.

Jacob Reilly, aka Flame-O, is just one such hero, an everyday guy who just happens to be able to shoot flames from his hands. He didn’t want to be a super hero, he wanted to be a musician, but he wasn’t good enough to make a living at it. So he ended up getting a job at “Heroes For Zeros,” a government sponsored hero agency. So, Jacob clocks on, works nine to five and fights z-list villains for a pathetic pay cheque.

Despite being a super hero, Jacob has all the problems of regular folk – an irritating boss, bills to pay, professional jealousy, and also certain problems that are unique to his profession…like the fact that his girlfriend is also his alter-ego’s nemesis, Frostica (and she’s insanely jealous of his teenaged sidekick, Pink Girl).

“Sci-Fi had Douglas Adams, Fantasy has Terry Pratchett…it’s a damn good attempt to do the same for comics!”
Hypergeek

“The writing is witty and sarcastic and the art style pokes fun at busty heroines and ripped heroes wearing skin tight costumes. With the superheroes and villains destroying everything in sight you can’t help but chuckle at how annoyingly accurate some of these parodies are.”
No Ratings

“Sharman keeps a good balance between the classic superhero dust-up and the realities of everyday life. There are a few pages where the genre is really scrutinized both in the text and the composition of the artwork and they work well. The coloring is always punchy and consistent with the mood and action of each page.”
Shadowlocked

“Considering the strong female characters and the almost feminist polemic at the finale…these are political boobs and not titillating ones.”
365graphicnovels

“Refreshing, original and really funny.”
Liam Nicholson, Amazon review.

“The book is both a love letter to, and an utter demolition of, the modern superhero team book. I just wish I’d thought of it first.”
Cy Dethan (Cancertown, Slaughterman’s Creed, Starship Troopers).

“Genius.”
Mike Carey (X-Men, Hellblazer, Lucifer, The Unwritten).

With the new volume of Hero: 9 to 5, Quietus, imminent, many of you, presumably, might be interested in picking up the hugely successful and critically acclaimed first volume of Hero: 9 to 5. But what’s the easiest way to do that? The easiest way is probably to order the book through Amazon, but the operative word here is “through” and not from. What do I mean by that? If you want the book then your best route is to get it through the Amazon marketplace. If you’re not familiar with the Amazon marketplace then here’s how to order from it:

First, here’s a link to the book’s listing on Amazon.co.uk.

It’s also available on the various international Amazon platforms, including Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Amazon.es, Amazon.ca, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it and Amazon.jp.

Okay, when you click through to Amazon, you’ll see that big yellow “add to basket” button on the right. Completely ignore that. The book’s not in stock at Amazon and for various complicated and boring reasons, it never will be.

Instead look for the New and Used section and click on the “New” link. Here’s a screen cap to show you where to find it:

When you click that, you’ll go through to this page:

As you see, you can buy the book from a variety of third party sellers (if you scroll down you’ll see the Amazon listing included, again ignore this, they don’t have the book). Look…you can get the book for as little as £5.84 plus p+p! And, hey, if you click the Used tab then you can get a used copy for as little as £3.40 plus p+p!