I wouldn’t describe Shooters as a comic that’s an easy read.

I don’t mean that in the sense that the words on the page are too difficult to read, or the panel structure is too complex or that it has narrative problems in any way. In fact that’s far from the truth. What I mean to say is this – the emotional content displayed throughout Shooters isn’t easy to handle.

And that’s a damn good thing.

I’ve been excited for Shooters for a while now.

The story looks to be a compelling read: set in the early days of the Iraq War campaign, featuring a troubled protagonist dealing the real consequences of waging war, the book has been on my radar for quite some time now, but it doesn’t appear that others are paying attention.

Perhaps that’s the reason why the creative team of Eric Trautmann, Brandon Jerwa and drawn by Eisner Award-winning artist Steve Lieber, have launched an “unofficial” official site for Shooters, providing new content (every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) leading up to the book’s release. It’s the perfect resource to get any and all the information needed before the April 18th release.

After the jump, we’ve got the official description for the book, but don’t linger here for long – head over to the site and do some digging for yourself. Shooters looks to be one of the year’s most talked about books and it’s worth it to be informed now, instead of later.

William sits down to chat with friend of the show, Eric Trautmann, to talk about his upcoming Flash Gordon series from Dynamite.

You can stream the episode or subscribe in iTunes.

Hit the jump for the show notes.

Much like the last artist we spotlighted in Sketchbook, we’re huge fans of Eric Trautmann and all of his writing work. This afternoon, Eric tweeted Noah Salonga‘s opening pencils for Red Sonja #56. The page maybe looks to be a recap page of sorts, but is absolutely stunning. We’ve included the piece in all its glory after the break and we highly encourage you to check it out.

William and Dane are joined by Eric Trautmann and Marco Rudy, the creative team behind “The Shield” to talk all about the history of one of our favorite comics in this extensive discussion.

Thanks again to Eric and Marco for joining us, and a special thanks to Marco for providing the art to make the above title card.

You can stream the episode here, or subscribe in iTunes.

What did you think of the episode? Sound off in our comments!