Rich Douek writes,

About five years ago, I took the Intro to Writing class at ComicsExperience.com, and came away with a five-page script called Gutter Magic. I found and artist to illustrate it, and another to color it, and when the pages hit my inbox, I knew I was hooked.

Fast forward a few months to NYCC, and I had a couple of other shorts completed, and I printed them all up some copies to hand out and sell at the con. Bleeding Cool got a copy, and ran a short piece on it's debut – so it's only fitting that you're reading this here, on a site that's been supportive of us from the start.

It took a lot of time, and a lot of work, but Gutter Magic has expanded from a five-pager to a full fledged, 4-issue miniseries being published by IDW and Comics Experience.

We assembled a great creative team for this book, with Brett Barkley on pencils and inks, Jules Rivera on colors, and Nic Shaw on letters. Between their amazing talent, a ton of great feedback in Comics Experience's Creators Workshop forcing us to always strive to make it better, and support from all our very patient fans, we're confident that we'll be putting out a book you'll enjoy. Our first issue will be on the standsand available for digital purchase off of ComiXology on January 13th.

Comics Experience's founder and publisher, Andy Schmidt, had this to say about Gutter Magic: "I knew Rich was onto something in that very first Writing Course. It's a slick, clean, and daring concept and he's a natural storyteller. And the way Rich developed it within our Creators Workshop community was awesome—both for him and the community itself. We got to watch it take shape before our very eyes. And I'm grateful to be publishing the book now that it's complete."

So, what's Gutter Magic about anyway?

It's the story of our world, forever changed by a World War II that was fought with magic alongside conventional arms. It's set nearly a century after that war, in a New York City that has risen from the ashes to host a new society of ordinary people and magical creatures, ruled by a council of mages.

In the midst of this, is Cinder Byrnes. He should be the heir to a magical legacy, but he can't cast a spell to save his life. So, he's spent that life tracking down every scrap of magic that might alleviate his condition. Along with his partner in crime, the goblin Blacktooth, he's finally stolen the last piece of a spell that should finally fix his connection to the power of magic, and let him finally become a wizard. The only thing he needs to do, is figure out how to cast it before the people he stole it from track him down and kill him.

Since Rich was kind enough to run the first five pages of the original book all those years ago, I wanted to share the first five pages of the new release with you all here. Hope you enjoy them, and remember to ask your LCS about pre-ordering (Use code NOV150341 and NOV140342 for the regular and variant covers)!

If you're interested in learning more about Gutter Magic and Rich Douek, visit facebook.com/guttermagic, or @rdouek on Twitter. To learn more about Comics Experience, its comics courses, creators workshop, and publishing program, please visit www.ComicsExperience.com.