Velvet 1

ED BRUBAKER and STEVE EPTING redefined Captain America with the 'Winter Soldier' saga... and everything they've done so far has been leading to VELVET! When the world's best secret agent is killed, Velvet Templeton, the Personal Assistant to the Director of the Agency, is drawn off her desk and back into the field for the first time in nearly 20 years... and is immediately caught in a web of mystery, murder and high-octane action. Sexy and provocative, with a dark twist on the spy genre, this EXTRA-LENGTH first issue by two of the industry's best-selling creators will knock you out!

Orphaned before she was seventeen, aspiring designer Caitlin Holte is saved from a supernatural force by Adrian, her "bad-boy" neighbor who, she learns, is a half-demon vampire willing to serve as her bodyguard, but unable to protect her heart when Caitlin falls in love with him.

The second arc of BRUBAKER and EPTING's best-selling spy comic concludes with a bang! Velvet finds some of the answers she's been hunting, and a knife in the back!

Jesus, matadors, panthers, bandits, Indians, movie stars, waifs, and, of course, Elvis are recognized icons of the oft-despised, uber-kitsch art form of black velvet painting. In Black Velvet Art author Eric A. Eliason and photographer Scott Squire present a comprehensive overview of this covertly-loved and overtly-reviled tradition. In cooperation with a network of artists, collectors, importers, and gallery owners in Tijuana, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Calgary, this book draws from the largest survey of velvet painting ever undertaken. The book traces velvet's historical development as a folk art shaped by both indigenous traditions as well as Western consumer expectations in such markets as the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, and particularly the U.S./Mexico border and the black velvet capital of Tijuana. In black velvet, class and taste challenge art as a consumer phenomenon, democratic spirit faces down elitism, reproduction questions originality, and sexuality seduces and provokes religiosity. What is most significant about black velvet art to many Americans is its signaling of the nadir of bad taste. Black velvet is the "anti-art" in many ways. Eliason seeks to explore how and why black velvet serves this function and to examine ways it deserves a glowing redemption.

Collects VELVET #1-5. From the bestselling creators of "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" comes this smash-hit spy thriller with a unique new twist! When the world's greatest secret agent is killed, all evidence points to Velvet Templeton, the personal secretary to the Director of the Agency. But Velvet's got a dark secret buried in her past...because she's also the most dangerous woman alive.