Robert Rodi

There are two sides to every story. You've heard Thor's - now it's time to hear Loki's Odin's least favorite son rewrites Asgardian lore from his perspective, featuring the breathtaking painted artwork of Esad Ribic (SECRET WARS). In this tale, Loki's insatiable lust for power will take on new meaning - as will his conflicted sentiments toward Sif, his antipathy toward Balder and his deep-seated feelings of longing and resentment toward his older brother Thor and uncaring father Odin. And if that's not enough, just stare at the lush painted art by Ribic, presented larger than ever before - you won't be disappointed Plus: The first appearance of the Trickster God, a classic Tale of Asgard that reveals Loki's awesome origin and more Collecting LOKI (2004) #1-4, THOR (2007) #12 and material from JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (1952) #85 and #112.

13th century England. Robert Godwinson, former lover of King Richard, lives with his band of Merry Men in Sherwood Forest, away from the watchful eye of Prince John, who has outlawed homosexuality. Though isolated, the men live in peace—that is, until a stranger enters their camp seeking aid for a nearby town besieged by the Sheriff of Nottingham. Robert—nicknamed Robin—is reluctant to help, but equally eager to get rid of this perplexing stranger... and to put his formidable bow-and-arrow to use. It's Robin Hood like you've never seen him before, based on scholarly speculation about what's really behind the outlaw's legend.

Sigurd Dragonsbane, one of the greatest creations of legendary comic book writer/artist Jack "The King" Kirby, returns in an epic tale of valor and victory! When the Fell Mists, which have shrouded the borders of Valhalla for time immemorial, rise to expose other Mythlands beyond his own, Sigurd and his brethren Balduur, Honir, and Heimdall revel in the knowledge that they may once again ride abroad into unknown lands, lending arms to those in need. Tahmina, a princess imprisoned by fearsome dragons in distant Persia, sends a psychic projection to Valhalla, requesting their aid. Across strange summits and seas, they rush into adventure... facing witches, hulking beasts, and fiery she-demons along the way!

Robert Rodi's follow-up to THE SUGARMAN BOOTLEGS once again finds him mixing lethal social satire and nail-biting suspense, in the classic Alfred Hitchcock tradition. When financial collapse hits Marcus Hyde - a fussy, high-end art dealer - he's forced to give up his spacious apartment and move in with his sister Pamela, who's large, slovenly - and titanically pregnant. But there's even worse in store for Marcus when Baby is born. He's never seen anything more horrifying than this scarlet, steaming, shrieking lump of raw greed and unchecked will, with yellow eyes and fingernails like teeth. And when things start happening - terrible things; deadly things - Marcus alone understands why. And Marcus alone realizes that for his own safety and sanity ... Baby must go. A wry, wicked tale of psychological (and biological) horror, BABY is endlessly addictive - a postmillennial mash-up of "Rosemary's Baby" and "Psycho." Hommages Alfred is a series of novels inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock, incorporating mystery, menace, murder, and mordant wit.

When two friends discover old video footage of an unknown saloon singer, they try to pass it off as bootlegs of a long-lost cabaret legend. But their prank backfires when the viral sensation takes on a vivid - and lethal - life of its own...and as its fame increases, so does the body count. Scaldingly funny, brutally unsentimental, nerve-shreddingly suspenseful - and featuring a mid-story switcheroo on par with Hitchcock's "Psycho" - THE SUGARMAN BOOTLEGS reads like the bastard child of "All About Eve" and "Frankenstein." It's a highly addictive cross-cultural mash-up as only Robert Rodi (FAG HAG, BABY) could do it. Hommages Alfred is a series of novels inspired by the films of Alfred Hitchcock, incorporating mystery, menace, murder, and mordant wit.

The riotous follow-up to Rodi's cult hit Fag Hag, Closet Case turned the genre of the gay coming-out story inside-out and upside-down. Long out of print, this 1993 comic tour de force now returns to delight and enlighten a whole new generation. Lionel Frank is a workaholic account executive at an upscale advertising agency, in charge of the ber-masculine All-Pro Power Tools account. But Lionel has a secret life-one spent huddled in his car, dialing phone-sex numbers like 1-800-BOY-TOYZ, or lurking in the shadows of gay strip clubs with his flamboyant hairdresser friend, Ton . When continued professional success forces a choice between his two lives, Lionel decides to bury his sexuality forever...a task easier said than done. His increasingly calamitous cover-ups finally reach critical mass at a client's retreat on a Wisconsin lake, where Lionel-who's always said he'd rather die than come out-finds himself facing a situation where the choice is exactly that. "A joyride of a book...infectious...hard to put down." - Boston Phoenix "Utterly hilarious...You'll experience anew what it's like to laugh with a book." - NewCity Chicago

An immediate cult sensation when it was first released in 1992, Fag Hag gave birth to a genre that later reached mainstream popularity in "Will and Grace." Long out of print, the novel finally returns to shock and delight a whole new generation. Natalie Stathis is a big, flamboyant girl with a big, obsessive crush on a gorgeous gay artist, Peter Leland. She's managed to become his best friend and constant companion, and gleefully uses her influence over him to poison every one of his budding romances-on the principle that when he's run through all the men in town, it'll finally be her turn. But when Peter finds true love in the unlikely arms of Lloyd Hood-a taciturn, gun-toting survivalist-none of Natalie's usual plots and stratagems can separate them. She's forced to throw caution to the wind and discretion out the door, and begin a campaign to win back her man that is actively, even dangerously, criminal. Brazenly irreverent, hilariously caustic, and grippingly suspenseful, Fag Hag is a novel you won't easily forget."Absorbing and powerful...Larger-than-life...A one-two punch of outrageous humor and sobering pathos...Succeeds admirably both as satire and as flat-out entertainment." - New York Native

Read Robert Rodi's posts on the Penguin Blog. "A charming, hilarious look at a little-documented world." -- People In dog years, Robert Rodi is 350. Age, however, couldn't possibly have prepared him for his experience with canine agility-the athletic cousin to best-of-breed shows. Rodi, an epicure and urban intellectual, picks up agility with aspirations for blue ribbons. His dreams of glory quickly fade when faced with the competition: hearty Midwestern handlers and their ferociously fit pups, who annihilate scrawny, scruffy, Dusty, Rodi's rescue dog and would-be champ, in the ring. The duo is utterly lost in the agility circles, but as in the best human/pet stories, they forge an everlasting bond to carry them through. Combining the wit of Christopher Guest's Best in Show and the charm of Marley & Me, Dogged Pursuit is an uproarious account of a neophyte's year in the dog show world that abounds in humor and warmth.

Over the past several years, "the American in Tuscany" has become a literary subgenre. Launched by the phenomenal success of Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun, bookstores now burgeon with nimble, witty accounts of this clash in cultures-Americans trying to do American things in Italy and bumping against a brick wall of tradition. Before this subgenre exhausts itself, it's only fair that we hear the other side of the story-that of a native Tuscan and of dozens of Americans who have stormed through his life and homeland, determined to find in it whatever they are looking for, whether quaintness or wisdom, submission or direction. There is no one better to provide this view than Dario Castagno. A Tuscan guide whose client base is predominantly American, Dario has spent more than a decade taking individuals and small groups on customized tours through the Chianti region of Tuscany. Reared in Britain through early childhood, he speaks English fluently and is therefore capable of fully engaging his American clients and getting to know them. Too Much Tuscan Sun is Dario's account of some of his more remarkable customers, from the obsessive and the oblivious to the downright lunatic. It is also a primer on Tuscany--its charms and its culture. Structured around a typical Tuscan year, Dario takes us through the sights, smells, and sounds of Chianti during each of the twelve months, including the festivities and pageantry that accord with the season, most notable the Palio-the bareback horse race that consumes the social energies of the people of Siena for all of July and August. Dario also intersperses an account of his own life and times-that of a transplanted British "little lord" who learns to love the wilds of Chianti; of his discovery and adoption of abandoned peasant farmhouses; of his apprenticeship in the wine industry; and of his arduous transformation from bohemian layabout to thriving Tuscan guide. But the bulk of the book is devoted, with humor and affection, to the Americans he has met-the vain, the silly, the ignorant, the ambitious, the horny, the condescending, the charming, and the outright pathological. Some of them have made his life hell and live in his nightmares; others became lifelong friends.