The News Blog of Comics Culture
Tweet Brendan Wright has been upped to associate editor at Dark horse where he’ll work in various capacities on Conan, Creepy, Eerie, and Usagi Yojimbo and his own titles, MIND MGMT; Archie Archives; Jughead Archives; Tarzan Archives; Korak, Son of Tarzan Archives; The Curse of Dracula; Men of Steel; and several others. What does an [...]
Tweet It’s always hard to know what graphic novelist Bryan Talbot is going to be up to — will it be a crazy imaginative story of English history and dimensional travel like Luther Arkwright? Or a sensitive, heart-rending story about child abuse like Tale of One Bad Rat? Or something else entirely? One genre Talbot [...]
TweetBy Steve Morris More Jane Espenson! Dark Horse Comics have today been discussing Espenson’s upcoming issue #14 of their Buffy Season 9 comic, in which she introduces a new character to the series. Called Billy, this character is notable for being the first gay male vampire slayer, taking the basic idea that Buffy is about [...]
TweetBy Steve Morris More Jane Espenson! Dark Horse Comics have today been discussing Espenson’s upcoming issue #14 of their Buffy Season 9 comic, in which she introduces a new character to the series. Called Billy, this character is notable for being the first gay male vampire slayer, taking the basic idea that Buffy is about [...]
In a post on her artistic techniques, Colleen Doran reveals that she’s working on a graphic novel with Neil Gaiman, to be published by Dark Horse. The two previously collaborated on issues of THE SANDMAN.
What??? Hellboy isn’t dead????
There’s an absurd number of great comics out today but here’s one that hasn’t had too much advance buzz—maybe because author Gilbert Hernandez is SO DARNED PROLIFIC. Anyway, FATIMA: THE BLOOD SPINNERS #1 is his take on zombies, with an eyeball-squeezing mix of a deadly femme zombie hunter and mindless violence. It’s a four-issue miniseries and it also features alternate covers by Peter Bagge.
From the gory, lurid world of pre-Code comics….Dark Horse is putting together some kick-ass collections — in fact, you’ll soon be able to read the insides of all those comics that we post whenever we’re sick or late or whatever. ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN indeed.
The LA Times handed out its book prizes at the LA Times Festival of Books this weekend, and the winner in the Graphic Novel category was Carla Speed McNeil for FINDER: VOICE. The other nominees were:
Emerald City was mostly Marvel and DC lite, so the announcements are very indie/creator focused. And here they are, with a corresponding Pants Peeing Index ®, as in how likely this news is to make you pee your pants in excitement on a scale of 1-5.
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How dangerous or offensive were pre-code crime comics – really? Most of us probably agree that the anti-comics hysteria of the early 1950s was ludicrously overblown, and can probably also think of a few current issues that are similarly hyper-inflated by reactionary gasbags. Dr. Fredric Wertham’s claims (enshrined in his ridiculously titled pseudoscientific 1954 screed Seduction of the Innocent) about the ill effects of comic books on easily-corruptible young minds probably said more about Wertham’s Germanic way of seeing the rest of humanity than they did about observable reality. But how do these Golden Age crime comics look to contemporary readers? A couple of new releases collect some of the best pre-code crime comics and prove that they still pack a wallop, both in terms of their swift, punchy visual storytelling, and in their ability to deliver real shocks.
Twin press releases today that Dark Horse’s digital comics offering are coming to B&N’s Nook and the Kobo Vox, a lesser known but respected platform. Popular titles like MASS EFFECT,HELLBOY, STAR WARS, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, SERENITY, and SIN CITY will all be available for both platforms. DH was already on their own store and via various Apple platforms.
Although we’re used to those strategic “print run sellout” press releases coming from publishers at a steady clip, it’s less often that comics publishers tout topping the BookScan sales chart, which tracks sales in bookstores, and other non DM outlets, for the week. However, Dark Horse notes that Avatar: The Last Airbender—The Promise Part 1 “soared” to the top of the BookScan chart last week. This is the Gene Luen Yang-penned bridging story between the popular TV show and the eagerly awaited sequel, Legend of Korra. The art is by the Japanese team Gurihiru.
The video game company behind the popular PROTOTYPE series — NOT the comics company. Dark Horse will create a three-part story bridging the gap between the original Prototype and PROTOTYPE 2 which comes out this year. The series will be released digitally, starting February 15th.
Creators include Paco Díaz, Chris Staggs, and Victor Drujiniu.
After a look week, we’ll leave you with a smile and this announcement of a Conan/Groo crossover in a four-issue miniseries brought to you by the Eisner Award–winning team of Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragonés, Thomas Yeates, and colorist Tom Luth. Groo was created as a parody of the sword-and-sorcery genre as exemplified by the lamentation-loving Cimmerian, so this is a natural.
The first issue goes on sale on April 18, 2012.
This was alluded to in our 2011 Survey, but now it’s official: the great Peter Bagge has a new series coming out from Dark Horse in April. Called RESET, it’s about a man who has a second chance at living his life. Will it get better or worse?
AWESOME BONUS SAUCE: Variant covers by Matt Kindt!
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