NYCC '08: THE BOOM! PANEL

[MattBrady]

by Vaneta Rogers

The BOOM! Studios panel took place right in the middle of the time period Saturday evening when the New York Comic Con staff closed off the panel area to con guests. As a result, the panel's main presentation was given twice just to accommodate all the late-arriving guests who had to wait for security guards to allow them to pass before they could get to the panel.

The biggest news for comic fans attending the panel was that BOOM! just landed a licensing deal that will allow them to publish a new Farscape comic book series based on the television show. The comic will be released as a series of four-issue mini-series, with each four issues collected into trade upon completion. No creators have been announced yet, but BOOM! is hoping to have a series started by the end of this year.

Chip Mosher, marketing and sales director for the company, shared a two cover images that have been approved by The Jim Henson Company, which holds the license for the series. Farscape, which ran on Sci-Fi Channel, is no longer on television, but has a legion of loyal fans. BOOM! is hoping those fans will follow the series to print.

Mark Waid, E-i-C for BOOM! Studios, said there will be more Potter's Field stories coming out -- "so we'll have enough for a trade paperback," he said of the series, which was originally just three issues.

When asked about more Hero Squared, Waid said: "I have three plots in from J. Marc DeMatteis." He said the series will be called Hero Squared: Love and Death. "Joe Abraham is going to start drawing it Monday," he said. Mosher said the series will be six issues and will be collected in a trade paperback. Volume 2 of Hero Squared is in solicitations this month. "After we finish wrapping it up, there will be three trades plus Planetary Brigade," he said.

BOOM! also talked about other series that would soon be released by the publisher, including:

- Challenger Deep, a comic by BOOM! co-founder Andrew Cosby about a nuclear submarine that has gone down on a patch of explosive methane-gas-infused ice and the subsequent attempts at rescue.

- Fans will see a relaunch of the Fall of Cthulhu horror series by Michael Alan Nelson. The current series will end with Issue #14, and a new four-issue series titled Fall of Cthulu: God War will follow.

- More Warhammer fantasy comic books will be released. Mosher pointed out that the new Condemned By Fire comic series has a scratch-off that reveals a code giving readers a 1-in-5 chance of entry into the Warhammer Online beta test.

- Scream Queen, the new mini-series by Brendan Hay, a Simpsons writer, which begins in May. The series is a horror comedy about Wrighty, a lonely, hulking psycho who falls in love with Molly, a sweet girl who has no idea why all the people around her are being killed.

- High Rollers by novelist Gary Phillips, the author of Bangers, Shooter's Point and High Hand, about a hitman in an L.A. gang. The series is solicited to begin in June.

- Station, the "space noir" story by Johanna Stokes, which had been solicited last year but fell behind in issues, so the publisher waited to release it. "All issues are in the can now," Mosher said.

- Schmobots, the publisher's first original graphic novel, by Adam Rifkin and Les Toil. The story, which solicitations call a dark comedy, focuses on a world where man needs robots to do menial labor.

- Zombie Tales, which relaunches this month with stories by Steve Niles, Mark Sable, William Messner-Loebs, Joe Landsdale and Brian Augustyn.

Look for a video interview with Mark Waid soon here on Newsarama about the latest BOOM! Studios news, as well as his upcoming gig on Amazing Spider-Man.

[Juss]

FARSCAPE as a comic! Short of new television episodes, or the start of a film franchise, for me there could not be better news. FARSCAPE is my favorite scifi series of all time.

[K-DoG7p7]

Originally Posted by Juss

FARSCAPE as a comic! Short of new television episodes, or the start of a film franchise, for me there could not be better news. FARSCAPE is my favorite scifi series of all time.

then i guess you must have geeked out over the last 2 seasons of Stargate SG-1 and Arc of Truth :P

[librarykat]

Originally Posted by K-DoG7p7

then i guess you must have geeked out over the last 2 seasons of Stargate SG-1 and Arc of Truth :P

My older son definitely did! I've got to tell him the news, he'll love it!

[jccalhoun]

There are also allegedly some sort of Farscape webisodes in development. They haven't released any details about it yet though.

[magnificent8]

About time that there was news about Hero Squared, I've been waiting for too damn long

[Lay109]

Interested in Hero Squared and Planentary Brigade but hope they can get the lateness squared away