About Comics collects Messner-Loebs' "Welcome to Heaven, Dr. Franklin"

About Comics will bring a classic Messner-Loebs comic, "Welcome to Heaven, Dr. Franklin," back to print in February. The comic, written and drawn by William Messner-Loebs, ran as a back-up in Cerebus in its early days.

Per the press release: Benjamin Franklin dies, and that's just the start of his amazing adventure in Welcome to Heaven, Dr. Franklin. Where he expects to find G-d he instead finds an ancient Roman emperor, and the crazy conflict that ensues could only spring from the mind of Bill Messner-Loebs. This lost classic is collected for the first time in February in a twenty-fifth anniversary one-shot from About Comics.

The informed and demented view of history that Messner-Loebs used when writing Epicurus the Sage and Journey first came to light with Welcome to Heaven, Dr. Franklin, which was serialized in Cerebus issues 34 through 38. Messner-Loebs drew the first installment in 1981, making 2006 the 25th anniversary of this work.

Welcome to Heaven, Dr. Franklin (ISBN 0-9753958-7-4) is a black-and-white one-shot with color covers, priced at $2.95. Per the release: The story contains non-erotic nudity, a non-dogmatic view of heaven, and a character named "Sunshine Aquarius". It is not recommended for people who are offended by such things.

More information: http://www.aboutcomics.com/PRESS/drfranklin.html