NYCC '07/D3: DARK HORSE PANEL

[MattBrady]

by Michael C Lorah

As they gallop into their third decade as one of world’s top comic book publishers, Dark Horse Comics gathered fans on Sunday afternoon at New York Comic Con to answer questions about their past and their future.

On the panel were Dark Horse publicist Jeremy Atkins, writer John Ostrander (Star Wars: Legacy), penciler Jan Duursema (Star Wars: Legacy), editor Randy Stradley, writer Arvid Nelson (Rex Mundi), and editor Scott Allie.

Atkins opened the panel by telling the audience that Gerard Way, frontman for the band My Chemical Romance, is writing The Umbrella Academy for Dark Horse. Way, who once interned at DC Comics, is actually a huge comic fan and brought the project to Dark Horse himself. Atkins called the series a “really weird take on superheroes … a very twisted take on it.” It tells of a group of young super-beings who were adopted and raised by a bad father, and consequently they now hate each other, but find that they must work together to save their own lives. It will debut on Free Comic Book Day and features art by Gabriel Bá.

Zero Killer, Arvid Nelson’s new series, was developed as part of the deal to bring it Rex Mundi from Image to Dark Horse. Nelson explained that Zero Killer is post-apocalyptic sci-fi that he developed when thinking how the world would be different if the atom bomb had not been dropped in World War II. In this alternate world, there was a nuclear holocaust in 1973, which caused the bedrock of New York City to become molten and the city to sink into the Hudson. Now, survivors battle in warring factions across the tops of the ruining buildings that remain. The lead character is a bounty hunter on fringes of society who hopes to discover the whereabouts of “Africa,” a land that escapes the ravages of the atomic war.

On the Hellboy front, Allie announced two new miniseries, starring Lobster Johnson and Abe Sapien respectively. Also, starting in March, BPRD will be monthly. The upcoming storyline will be set in the present, but will feature Abe digging up answers about his past “from before he was transformed into a fish.” The following BPRD series, Killing Ground will have monsters attacking the BPRD’s headquarters, turning their homes into killing ground. After that, a flashback to Professor Broome and the earliest day of the BPRD will pit the professor against Russian occultists in an occult cold war.

Lobster Johnson’s five-issue miniseries will start in September. Set in the 30s, it will be like to The Shadow or early Batman, with Lobster as a dark crime fighter. Allie described the series as, “really fast paced and really wild.”

Abe Sapien’s miniseries will be set in the early 80s, so it will not reveal anything more about his past. It tells of Abe’s first solo mission for the BPRD, a simple mission that goes “terribly, terribly wrong.”

Speaking about Star Wars: Legacy, Stradley said that he wanted to get out in front of the continuity curve, because Del Ray always had the lead with their novels, so Dark Horse’s comics became “the tail being wagged by their dog.” Working with Ostrander and Duursema, they decided to jump 140 years after the Battle of Yavin (Star Wars: Episode Four – A New Hope) so that they could comfortably tell their own stories without limiting Del Ray’s ability to tell their stories that they wanted to tell in novels.

Ostrander explained Legacy’s set-up, “We wanted a new Empire, we wanted lots of Sith, and we wanted Jedi on the run because Jedi are more fun when they aren’t in control.” They felt that they had to have a Skywalker, because the Skywalker family is central to the whole Star Wars epic, but they didn’t want “any Skywalker you’ve seen before.” “What if Han Solo had had a lightsaber?” Ostrander mused, in explaining the creation of Legacy’s protagonist, Cade Skywalker

Duursema described Cade as “not very Jedi-like, not always a good boy.” Ostrander added that they felt the heroic Skywalker model was done as well as can be in the original movies, so they wanted to create a bad Skywalker. “Scruffy” was his description, “but scruffy in a more dangerous 2006 sense.” The hero needs somewhere to go, he said, so when the series first starts, Cade is as low as he can go. He’s not using the Skywalker name or the powers, and is only now admitting who he is and what his legacy might entail.

Speaking briefly of the other Star Wars titles, Stradley said that they needed to revamp the entire line, get away from random miniseries, and focus on different periods that they could explore properly. He offered the following on the other Star Wars comic series:

Dark Times takes place right after Revenge of the Sith. The Jedi are destroyed or on the run, and the galaxy is feeling the grip of the Empire. He said there are, “bad times for everyone – horrible, and about to get worse.”

Rebellion is set in the classic era and mines the territory between Episodes Four and Five. It features new characters because so many stories have already been told about the classic cast. It is “time for fresh blood” and seeing that “there are lots of other things going on in the galaxy.” The classic Star Wars cast will be seen in supporting roles, which should also allow them their appearances to have impact.

Knights of the Old Republic is an earlier era, opposing Legacy’s later timeframe. People who are familiar with the games will recognize the characters and times, but everyone should be able to enjoy the stories.

As previously announced, Buffy the Vampire Slayer will tell season eight, picking up from the finale of the television series, in comic book form. Buffy editor Allie joked, “Joss has threatened lots of things” if he gives too much away, but explained that they originally ended original Buffy monthly when the TV series ended, because they “didn’t have a direction without Joss telling us where to go.”

With Whedon busy with Serenity, the project was never prioritized. While working on the Serenity comic book series, Allie received an email from Whedon, which an attachment he expected to be Serenity’s script. It was the script to Buffy #1.

Whedon called and said that he had an idea for Season Eight and wanted to do it as a comic series. It was originally going to be around 20 issues, Allie reported, “but now has spread out to about 30.” Whedon is writing the first five issues, plus another four next year, and then will write the finale.

Whedon will be re-introducing the characters slowly, with only Buffy, Dawn and Xander in issue one, but the others are coming, Allie assured everyone. Whedon will be taking his time and laying the groundwork for future writers in the first few issues.

Drew Goddard, from the television series, is writing the third arc.

Also, with Whedon getting into comics and making friends in the field, he wanted to pull in some great comics writers. Thus, Brian K. Vaughan is writing second arc, as a sort of trade for Whedon’s writing Runaways, Allie said. Vaughan’s arc will focus on Faith, in England avoiding her responsibilities, when Giles finds her and needs her to deal with a rogue slayer.

Jane Espenson and Jeph Loeb are also contributing. Allie said that an artist has not yet been chosen for Goddard’s storyline, but revealed that it will be set partly in Japan.

Arvid Nelson gave a quick recap of his series Rex Mundi, saying it is set in Paris in 1933, but history progressed differently in that world. Martin Luther was assassinated before the Protestant reformation, so the Catholic Church and European aristocracy are still huge provincial powers. And magic real. The protagonist, Julian, is a doctor, and a priest friend of his has several scrolls stolen from his possession. The mystery has to do with the origins of Christianity and reveals a secret society working to undermine the institutions of the church and aristocracy. The first arc is like “a Raymond Chandler murder mystery,” although the second will resemble a breakneck Indiana Jones adventure. Nelson said that the series is just getting to the good parts, and he’s excited to have Dark Horse’s editorial oversight to make the story as good as it can possibly be.

Atkins talked about Rick Remender and Tony Moore’s Fear Agent, saying that it is about the last of a race of alien exterminators. When man first went to the stars, the Fear Agents protected everyone from alien incursions, but now man has lost the war.

Atkins then asked the audience, “Who likes extreme violence?” When the reaction was not up to his expectations, he deadpanned, “Don’t be so shy; everyone here wanted to raise their hands.” He then told readers about MPD Psycho, a manga series that is so violent and so extreme that nothing anyone has ever seen will compare. He added that the series is highly requested, but “none of the other publishers would touch it.” It is a compelling story that people need to read, with lots of blood and gore, he concluded.

Allie announced that Joss Whedon and Bret Matthews are writing, and Will Conrad penciling, a new Serenity comic series. The first script is in, he said, and the series will debut in “probably September or October.” It takes place early in the series, before the movie, so “everyone is still alive.” The crew finally score that one big job that could set them up for life, but they don’t know how to deal with that potential success

Tying in to the release of LucasArts’ The Force Unleashed video game, Stradley told the audience to expect a graphic novel of the same name. He has been to LucasArts and seen the work being done on the game, and called it “mind-boggling.” He said that there are three programs running to make the characters and backgrounds react “on a level far more than anything you’ve ever seen in video games.” The characters “almost look like real people,” he enthused, before, “I want to play it, and I don’t play many games.”

The story is huge, Episode 3.5, and is going to make readers and gamers rethink everything they know about Star Wars.

Haden Blackman, who wrote the game, is writing the graphic novel, and he is still polishing the script. The book will be out in September.

“LucasFilm will literally kill me if I say anything more,” Stradley laughed, opening up the panel for audience questions.

Eric Powell’s Satan’s Sodom Baby has been pushed back, but only because Powell is working on his Chinatown graphic novel, which reveals the Goon’s early life and parallels the current storyline. It will be 120 pages, hardcover, and shipping in the fall.

On the subject of Satan’s Sodom Baby, both Atkins and Allie said, “Believe the hype. You will avert your eyes.” Atkins added there is, “no violence, but something else I’d see less hands go up for.” Powell still has to ink and color the book.

Although Powell intended it as the next issue of The Goon, it doesn’t fall into continuity and stands apart from The Goon. Dark Horse felt that they needed to make sure that retailers would understand exactly what they were selling, because Dark Horse gets many letters from eight and twelve year-olds who are Goon fans. “I’m not going to recover anytime soon from anything I’ve seen so far,” Allie said in conclusion.

“We are expanding our online presence all the time,” Atkins told a questioner. In addition to the website, Dark Horse has podcasts and initiatives on YouTube and MySpace. He said that there will probably be exclusive content for MySpace later this year and asked that readers friend request Dark Horse. “Because sooner or later we’re going to move and can use lots of help,” Stradley called out.

Atkins mentioned that readers can currently win a chance to be drawn into the Buffy comic from a contest on their MySpace page Otherwise, Dark Horse is “always developing new, exciting content for the website,” including seeing the process of creating comics, from script and pencils to finished art and lettering. As different creators have different processes, each book gives different insights. They also have “lots of previews,” including recently a 2-page Umbrella Academy teaser.

Asked about Dirty Pair re-issues, Atkins mentioned Empowered, Adam Warren’s new book. Empowered is about a superheroine whose powers are contained in her suit, and “in the sexy tradition of Dirty Pair, she loses her clothes “in a very PG-way.” Atkins added that it is “really a very funny story” about self-discovery and finding the power in oneself.

Unfortunately, there was nothing to report regarding reprints of The Dirty Pair, he concluded.

Asked about Legacy, Ostrander said that it is important to capture the feel and excitement of the movies, but make the series accessible to readers who haven’t read every single page of the Extended Universe material. “If you’ve only seen the movies, you can follow this,” he said, announcing that the first trade paperback will be out in April.

Allie said that Conan Properties has finally obtained the rights to the entire Robert E. Howard library, so it is “all back together again under one company,” and they want Dark Horse to do al the comics.

Kull will get a series of miniseries, written by Arvid Nelson, “who is a great world builder,” Allie gushed. He called the series “politically elaborate,” but still a character-driven story that doesn’t bog down in the background material. It will be five issues and hit stores toward the end of the year.

Solomon Kane will be follow, but nothing will be definite until Kull is up and running, and an anthology book will eventually follow to showcase the more minor characters. Will Conrad will be drawing Kull.

There will another edition of Star Wars: Panel to Panel, coming in May. The first one was created to showcase all the great Star Wars art that has been done over the years, Stradley explained, and with successful Alien and Predator volumes last year, they wanted to do another Star Wars book.

To make the book unique, Stradley decided to “focus on the characters that Dark Horse has added to the Star Wars mythos.” Initially, he wasn’t sure that he had enough to fill a book, but soon realized that he had enough for “about three books.” The second Panel to Panel will still feature the movie characters, but will show more of the Extended Universe.

Allie regrets that Dark Horse has been unable to reproduce covers from the original Marvel Conan comics, but the materials don’t exist. The collections would have to show the original logos, blurbs and bar codes, and Allie doesn’t feel that doing so would represent the artwork appropriately. He also added that they might have to scan the artwork of Savage Sword in order to collect it, but “that is no way to treat that artwork,” so Dark Horse is still searching for better reproduction methods.

A reader asked how much time it takes for Dark Horse to develop a series and why so many announcements are projected to come out in fall or later. When Dark Horse started up, Mike Richardson felt, at the time, that there just wasn’t anything – even the best books in his store – that were up to the standards he thought comics were capable, Stradley related. Although their first comic came out in July 1986, work began in September ’85. Star Wars: Legacy started development a year before the first issue debuted.

Ostrander explained that he was still finishing work on Republic, and the groundwork on Legacy was very involved, as he had to establish the political history and worlds of Star Wars far into the future.

Duursema added that the development artwork was quite involved, mentioning that most of her art that didn’t get into issue #0.

Allie also told the audience that Whedon turned in the script for the upcoming Buffy #1 in February 2006. Different projects need different lead times. Ostrander compared it to his experience at other companies by noting that Dark Horse “goes all over the place” and “there is no set ‘this is what we do,’” so projects have very different development times. Stradley concluded the discussion saying that it takes nine months from start to publication on an average comic

Dark Horse really likes the characters Skull Boy and will be releasing a vinyl figure later this year, but nothing definite is coming up in comics form.

Asked about The Hellboy Companion, Allie called it the “handbook to the Hellboy universe. Mike has just picked the art from the old books” for the handbook. It will be text, with illustrations from Mignola, including old art and a dozen new pieces. The Hellboy stories will be explored in an essay format, and there will be some literary analysis and an explanation of where Hellboy fits into literary traditions. “Hot to be too high falutin',” Allie laughed.

With time running out, the final question was about Dark Horse’s popular Omnibus format. The Buffy Omnibus will run approximately seven volumes and is modeled after the Star Wars Omnibus volumes. Allie said that everyone at Dark Horse really enjoyed the fatter collections being done at other companies, but they wanted “really good design, god production, on good paper” for their stories. The Buffy Omnibuses will collect all of the non-Whedon Buffy comics in chronological order, beginning this summer. The second volume will be released next winter.

New York Comic Con 2007 coverage brought to you by Comicraft's ELEPHANTMEN #7, on sale right now from Image Comics!

[hadez]

Yay for Buffy and Hellboy

Oh, and since it's the first time for me, I gotta say it:

First Post!

[cook]

Answering my own previous question: Mike Mignola writing and Jason Armstrong drawing the Lobster Johnson mini.

I love Lobster Johnson. He's such an insane, ridiculous character, but he's worked so very, very well in the few appearances he's made thus far.

[ShinAkuma666]

Nice article, thanks.

I cant wait to get Empowered by Adam Warren, the pages I saw in Previews a while back reminded me of his great Gen 13 specials so I just had to put it on my list.

MPD Psycho looks like something I could be interested in and with everything I have heard about Fear Agent and having just bought The Last Christmas (but not read yet) I will give it a try and get the first tpb.

[astronato]

I am in for Kull, Solomon Kane and any other Robert E. Howard stuff Dark Horse puts out.

[BlueThunderArmy]

Oh, Buffy, it won't be long now...

[grphxkindaguy]

I've recently got into reading the Chronicles of Conan tpbs, reprinting the classic Marvel run, and was curious as to WHY DH didn't include the covers as well?

Now I know...

I would've looooved to be at this years NYCC, just to get Ostrander and Duursema to sign my Legacy #1...

Dark Horse continues to kick @$$ and take names, IMO. I'm really enjoying their Star Wars line, Conan and Goon books (and forthcoming Fear Agent). Keep up the good work guys!!!

[Funkytable]

Originally Posted by ShinAkuma666

with everything I have heard about Fear Agent and having just bought The Last Christmas (but not read yet) I will give it a try and get the first tpb.

You won't regret it, the only problem is you will have to join the fans in waiting for the new series to come out. :-(

[deathshead2]

“really weird take on superheroes … a very twisted take on it.” It tells of a group of young super-beings who were adopted and raised by a bad father," So its doom patral?

[DaVeO]

Glad to hear the crew of the Serenity will be back. But is it ongoing or another mini? If Joss were to handpick the writers I'd love to have an ongoing. This leaves it open for Joss to write a stroryline whenever he has time but also gives us a regular dose of the 'verse.

[Hellblazer]

On first glance, Buffy, Hellboy, Empowered & Umbrella Academy for me.

Those Buffy omnibus volumes sound interesting, but price is key.

[hellboy666]

Looking forward to all of the Hellboy and Buffy stuff!

[Ben Akers]

All the Robert E. Howard books sound especially great. Pretty soon I'm only going to be getting Dark Horse titles.

[ShinAkuma666]

Originally Posted by Funkytable

You won't regret it, the only problem is you will have to join the fans in waiting for the new series to come out. :-(

I am used to wait, since I get almost everything in tpb or hardcover, but I know what you mean, its not fun waiting for a title you love to come out.

[R. Edidin]

The title of the upcoming Eric Powell project is Satan's Sodomy Baby, not Satan's Sodom Baby.

[jedifish]

Originally Posted by DaVeO

Glad to hear the crew of the Serenity will be back. But is it ongoing or another mini? If Joss were to handpick the writers I'd love to have an ongoing. This leaves it open for Joss to write a stroryline whenever he has time but also gives us a regular dose of the 'verse.

I thought they were talking about the Serenity mini-series that came out with the movie, not new Serenity stuff.

[EMeadow]

Originally Posted by Hellblazer

On first glance, Buffy, Hellboy, Empowered & Umbrella Academy for me.

Those Buffy omnibus volumes sound interesting, but price is key.

$24.95 each. In color.

If I didn't already own the series, I'd be getting them this way myself.

[EMeadow]

Originally Posted by DaVeO

Glad to hear the crew of the Serenity will be back. But is it ongoing or another mini? If Joss were to handpick the writers I'd love to have an ongoing. This leaves it open for Joss to write a stroryline whenever he has time but also gives us a regular dose of the 'verse.

The next Serenity story will be another mini.

[firewhale]

Dark Horse and Powell's handling of the Satan's Sodomy Baby issue has been so hilarious. Kudos to a publisher willing to take a concept this far and totally buy in to the creator's vision.

SATAN'S SODOMY BABY MUST BE SEEN!

[Hellblazer]

Originally Posted by EMeadow

$24.95 each. In color.

If I didn't already own the series, I'd be getting them this way myself.

Ah, thanks !

[Hellblazer]

Has the promised sequel to the Devil's Footprints come out yet ?

[Wormie]

Although Aliens Omnibus Volume 1 wasn't mentioned, I think it's very disappointing that it appears it will include the remastered versions of the first three series. The original versions included the characters of Hicks, Newt and Ripley, but after they were killed off in Alien 3, DH redid the books and substituted other character names so as to fit in with the movie continuity. Lame!

[Derf]

I'll be camped outside the shop waiting for them to open so I can get my hands on Buffy #1 . It's also great to hear that the new Serenity mini-series we've been hearing about for so long finally has a more concrete release date. Finally I'll definitely be getting the Buffy Omnibus's asI hadn't started reading comics when the original Buffy series was published.

[skl183]

How much gas does Star Wars seriously have left in the tank?

Other than trumping the movies every now and then for influences. This new character, Kade Skywalker is a mishmash of Han Solo and Luke, a jedi rogue. Sounds like something that came out of Lucasfilm Marketing.

We can always have stories that took place in between the movies so the novel and comic book writers can get us a different perspective of famous events, but the originality is severely lacking here.

[R. Edidin]

Originally Posted by firewhale

Dark Horse and Powell's handling of the Satan's Sodomy Baby issue has been so hilarious. Kudos to a publisher willing to take a concept this far and totally buy in to the creator's vision.

SATAN'S SODOMY BABY MUST BE SEEN!

I assure you that it is every bit as vile as it promises. Possibly more.