Hide anything that’s not stuck to the seat, fight your sex surrogate back into the dumpster and cancel your subscription to “BEAUTIFUL WORCESTER” because America’s favorite EQUAL OPPORTUNIST EXPLOITER has finally made its way to the interwebs, … ROUGH HOUSE PUBLISHING is in the, um, …HOUSE. Heh. You’d better up your antivirus software now because when we’re done with you, you’ll be asking your hard drive to “Show us on the Derek Rook doll where the Rough House made reading GRAVE again!”

SAY GOODNIGHT TO THE WORLD!

ROUGH HOUSE PUBLISHING is a brick and mortar, do-it-yourself production company of the infamous “Not-So-Funny Books, Music & Pulp Media”, launched in 2011 by Comic Book artist DEREK ROOK. Here we invite you to kick off yer stinkers and make yourself at home. And while you’re here, ...blast our ORIGINAL MUSIC, read our NEWS, watch our VIDEOS, listen to PODCASTS, keep up on our CONVENTION APPEARANCES and purchase all the ROUGH HOUSE BOOKS, PRINTS, ORIGINAL ARTWORK and all other SURPRISES you can get your dirty little digits on. Interlope at will!

THE FIRST ROUGH HOUSE PUBLISHING LOGO SKETCH. DECEMBER 2011. BRICK & MORTAR INCARNATE!

PASS THE GUN AROUND!

So who are these bastids, and why should we care?

Welp, ...DEREK ROOK was born and raised on comic books, 70’s exploitation films and has been working as a professional artist since 1997. He’s either slashed pencil marks, strewn ink or published (in no particular order) for such notable intellectual properties such as THE OMINOUS REPULSIVES, ZOMBIE, GATES OF HELL, PHANTASM and HALLOWEEN and has a side hustle delivering vigilante justice in his hometown of Worcester, Massachusetts.

After an eight year hiatus, ROOK launched his new publishing label, ROUGH HOUSE PUBLISHING, with fellow pariah and former FANGORIA writer and HORRORHOUND contributor, MIKE “CORPSE MONGER” WASION after both did a short but memorable stint with CALIBER COMICS Publisher GARY REED providing art for his newest title, VOICES FROM THE DEADWORLD.

To round off this rogue trio of comic book outlaws, was the “SO MUCH MORE THAN THE GIRL NEXT DOOR” Model/Actress SARAH MICHELLE, who's sales and promotional prowess made even the most stingy of convention mainstays stand up and scream, "TAKE MY MONEY!”

And speaking of money, ROUGH HOUSE began it’s mighty crusade literally with none. Not a dime. Not one penny. (Even this website that you gaze your filthy stare upon was made from scratch, in house, without any outside assistance or prior knowledge on how to build the fucking thing … in short, we winged it!)

With their first acquisitions, ROUGH HOUSE utilized social media and crowd funding crusades and knocked down the doors of every magazine, website or podcast that would help spread the word, making their first publications rare gems.

Each project was produced with a very organic DO-IT-YOUR-EFFIN-SELF type of business model, effectively demonstrating to fellow artists, writers and creators, a new approach to comic book entrepreneurship.

And like with any other punk rock outfit, they got in the proverbial van and made their way down the ROUGH HOUSE ROAD! Parts Unknown.

2012 provided a warm up gig for the newly formed breach birthed, self-publishing entity, when ROUGH HOUSE teamed up with independent film studio, FAT FOOT FILMS and PICK YOUR POISON, to produce a uniquely disturbing, psycho-erotic all demonic pin-up girl calendar, appropriately titled, LOOKS THAT KILL, which regardless of the day, month or year, has been the bludgeoning gift that keeps on giving for many collectible fans worldwide! Don’t believe us? Check out the accompanying video produced by FAT FOOT FILMS, entitled “BEFORE YOU DIE”, performed by the lunatic progressive, metal band, HELLITOSIS, and featuring many of the deadly calendar beauties in all their go, go, gory action glory! CLICK BELOW and don't get any on ya!

In 2015, ROUGH HOUSE PUBLISHING released their first official title, THE DEAD-OMNIBUS, a GIANT 296 page epic graphic novel, deemed by fans and detractors as THE MOST VIOLENT ZOMBIE COMIC BOOK EVER MADE! THE DEAD-OMNIBUS was a compilation of 8 issues of the critically infamous comic book series, THE DEAD, originally published through ARROW COMICS back in 1993, by series creators RALPH GRIFFITH and STUART KERR (of DEADWORLD fame). The Omnibus also included a complete cover gallery (of both published and unpublished covers), a previously unpublished "lost" issue from 1994, a faux WALKING DEAD parody, a new prologue and epilogue by CANNIBAL CORPSE artist VINCE LOCKE, loads of production and pin-up art dividing up each chapter. In addition, select copies of THE DEAD-OMNIBUS were released with a 12 song original synth soundtrack score

by Dublin's own sonic mad-genius, SURGERYHEAD, a monogrammed barf bag, a limited edition THE DEAD news-paper, and a numbered slip cover. A true collectible for hardcore fans of the original series. It remains ROUGH HOUSE's most ambitious and sought after release after quickly selling out of its initial print run.

And that was just the beginning!

Hot off the release of THE DEAD-OMNIBUS, ROUGH HOUSE PUBLISHING continued its resurrection brigade of old indie comic books with the notorious 80's horror anthology series, GORE SHRIEK, with a 48-page brand new volume appropriately titled, GORE SHRIEK RESURRECTUS, released in 2016 under license of original series creator and FANTACO ENTERPRISES founder, TOM SKULAN! This eviscerated volume would eventually kick off a NEW ONGOING SERIES of the same name, with all new stories, all new (and some returning) artists with the same splatterpunk feel that made the series famous over its 30 year print run.

The one/two punch of 80’s comic book revivals has compelled the ROUGH HOUSE to open up the attic and sic the rest of the creator-owned bats onto an unsuspecting public! All of which you will see blacken the sky in the very near future! Sorta.

ROUGH HOUSE IS IN YOUR FIST!

ROUGH HOUSE PUBLISHING is a different kind of comic book company …mainly because we’re not just comic books. We make "TANGIBLE AWESOME", in all shapes, sizes, genres and formats. Every one of our products will have its own unique look and feel and will fit grudgingly under your basement mattress (dead hooker’s aside) or up on the top shelf, pressed between a stolen hotel bible and your copy of “What Your Poo is Telling You.”

**ROUGH HOUSE PUBLISHING PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT! …ALL FOUR FEET OF IT.**

**From (L) to (R): Mark Bloodworth, Stuart Kerr, Derek Rook and Sarah Michelle at the 2016 ROCK AND SHOCK convention in Worcester, MA.**

Most of all, we want to show everyone that in an age where all forms of of artistic expression have become increasingly devalued, defunct, defiled and ultimately digitized and downloaded for free, ... WE came out of the rubble to remind everyone that when the rubber hits the road, ...NOTHING beats that hard to find, limited edition collectible, made by fans, for the fans, ...or more appropriately...

For the ROUGHIANS!