Ten years, and she still looks as fresh as... er...

Lenore celebrates a decade with SLG this year and creator Roman Dirge is pulling out all the stops with a full-color issue of Lenore to commemorate the anniversary.

And keeping with the anniversary theme, issue 13 features a celebration gone horribly wrong: Lenore receives a mismailed invitation to a birthday party and decides to attend. Unfortunately for all concerned, Lenore's idea of what constitutes festive fun is not necessarily the same as the other partygoers'.

Those who know Lenore know what's bound to ensue. For those who don't, Lenore #13 is a great jumping-on point for new readers looking for the perfect blend of comedy and creep. It also features a few turning points, including the departure of an established character and the introduction of a new one -- but will this mysterious stranger turn out to be a friend, a foe, or just another victim to Lenore's unique brand of mayhem?

Dirge has been busy not only with Lenore but also with writing for another SLG project, Peter The Pirate Squid, due out in July. Dirge's accomplishments in the comics industry will be highlighted the month of Lenore #13's release, when he will be a special guest at Comic-Con International, the United States' largest comic book convention, taking place in San Diego from July 26 to 29.

"With Lenore, Roman Dirge helped establish a genre that proved it could be as successful outside the direct market as superheroes are within it," said Dan Vado, president of SLG Publishing.

A decade can be a long time. But when you're dead, one year is pretty much the same as the next -- and so Lenore fans hope for the little dead girl to keep not growing up for at least ten years to come.