Image Comics and Top Cow Productions are celebrating the 15th anniversary of WITCHBLADE with an oversized stand-alone issue by WITCHBLADE team Ron Marz and Stjepan Sejic. To celebrate this landmark and usher the series into a new age of comics, Top Cow and Wowio have teamed up to offer a free digital copy of the 144th issue with each print copy. Participating retailers will receive cards with download codes to distribute with each copy sold which can then be downloaded at Wowio.com.

“The number of comic characters and properties outside of Marvel and DC that have been published uninterrupted for fifteen years is a very exclusive club,” Top Cow Publisher Filip Sablik commented. “We’re incredibly proud of the legacy of WITCHBLADE as an independently published, strong female-driven series and couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate!”

This oversized issue contains a retelling of Sara Pezzini’s origin story for the first time in the series’ history since the iconic heroine was created more than fifteen years ago. WITCHBLADE #144 will also feature two spellbinding covers, including a wraparound retrospective by regular series artist Sejic and an iconic painting by fantasy illustrator Jean-Sebastien Rossbach (Magic: The Gathering). It will also include a backup story by writer and Top Cow Publisher Filip Sablik and artist John Tyler Christopher that promises to reveal the origin of Sara’s partner Patrick Gleason.

WITCHBLADE #144 (OCT100521), a 48-page full color comic that includes a free digital download card will be available in a store near you May 18th for $4.99.