NYCC '08: THE DARK HORSE PANEL

[MattBrady]

Reporting by Michael C Lorah

Though the over-crowding led to some difficulties for fans trying to get to the panel room, Dark Horse’s spotlight panel on Saturday afternoon at the New York Comicon ended up presenting to a two-thirds full room. Moderated by Dark Horse’s Director of Publicity Jeremy Atkins, accompanied by writer/artist Rick Remender (Fear Agent, End League), writer/artist Eric Powell (Goon) and Scott Allie, who edits The Goon among many titles. “You have no idea how much that series along keeps him up at night,” Atkins joked.

While waiting to clear up technical difficulties and for the crowd to filter in through the security cordon, Atkins lead the crowd through a rendition of “The Greatest American Hero” theme. After the crowd settled into their seats, Atkins thanked them for their patience and dedication.

Although only a handful of readers in the audience raised their hands to acknowledge having read The Perry Bible Fellowship, Atkins expressed Dark Horse’s excitement about the growth of online comics, and confirmed the company’s dedication to getting “their favorites [online series] into print.” Dark Horse’s commitment to webcomics dates back years, to MegaTokyo, he reminded, showing the first slide of the panel, the cover of Chris Onstad’s The Great Outdoor Fight. Other webcomics that will reach print this year from Dark Horse include Basic Instructions, Nothing Nice to Say and the first six months of Dark Horse Presents on MySpace. DHP generated a nice round of applause, prompting Atkins to acknowledge, “It’s a lot of comics.” DHP vol. 1 arrives in stores in September.

The Umbrella Academy, Allie said, will be collected in trade paperback in July. All six issues of the first miniseries, plus the Free Comic Book Day story, the two-page short from DHP and an extensive sketchbook from artist Gabriel Bá and writer/creator Gerard Way. “Those of you into the behind the scenes stuff,” he added, this book “really reveals the process of two artists developing the characters.” After the trade paperback, Dark Horse is planning a deluxe hardcover edition for later in the fall as well, though the full details are still being confirmed. A second Umbrella Academy series is in works, beginning with another MySpace story in July, about The Kraken and Vanya in a punk band called The Primates, and their foster dad winds up becoming really upset about their “political overtones.” The title of new series will announced by San Diego’s Comicon International, but Allie confirmed that the first issue will be 32 pages, no ads, and ships the last week of November. It will pick up where first series left off. The final tease offered was that “Space boys gets really fat because he watches too much TV.”

The movie poster for 30 Days of Night got a great reaction from the crowd, which Atkins used to segue into a set of covers from 30 Days creator Steve Niles’s noir-thriller series Criminal Macabre. Although Niles was unable to attend the convention, Atkins announced the upcoming storyline Cellblock 666 later this year, which follows “bizarre detective” Cal McDonald “who more or less investigates the unknown with the help of the unknown.” Readers looking for a taste of Criminal Macabre can read several free short stories on Dark Horse Presents on MySpace, Allie added.

The crowd, particularly Remender and Powell, absolutely freaked out (their words) when it was announced that Kevin Nowlan would be inking Mike Mignola on upcoming BPRD covers. After the current flashback miniseries, 1946, concludes, artist Guy Davis returns for The Warning. Allie said that the mini “messes up the BPRD forever, but everything that’s been teased for the last three to four years will culminate in the next eighteen issues.” The mysterious character with the snakes will have his secret exposed. “Liz hits rock bottom. The Plague of Frogs comes to explosive head,” Allie told everyone.

In Hellboy proper, Allie admitted that the big news is the feature film Hellboy 2 in July. Hitting comics shops at the same time, a new miniseries titled The Crooked Man has Hellboy caught in “twisted folk tales about Appalachia.” Hellboy hangs out and sees weird stuff in the woods in the south. Mike Mignola writes, with horror legend Richard Corben illustrating. Corben is “a legend and we’re lucky to work with him,” Allie gushed.

After The Crooked Man, artist Duncan Fegredo returns for a direct sequel to the hit Darkness Calls mini. The eight-issue Wild Hunt debuts in October, and will include back-up stories illustrated by creator/writer Mike Mignola and BPRD’s Guy Davis. Wild Hunt takes Hellboy’s confrontation with the witches to a climax and again forces him to confront “the whole Beast of the Apocalypse thing.”

Atkins gave one more Hellboy 2 pitch, teasing that the “movie comes out July 11, one week before Batman [The Dark Knight], so you have plenty of time to see it.”

Eric Powell confirmed that he is committed to putting out The Goon monthly now. However, he gave fans a much bigger thrill when he let them know that “a lady brought me a bottle of vodka and a box of cupcakes. I still have some cupcakes.” After an initial hesitation, several fans quickly snapped up the sweets. One girl, too slow to get to cake in time, settled for the paper box, which Powell signed for her. It’s a “pretty big storyline I’m trying to wrap up now,” he said of The Goon. “Everything will be wrapped up by the end of 2008,” but then everything is going to change. Laughing, Powell said that he’s “trying to do actual plots now, but hopefully it will still be wacky and funny. Are you still liking it?” The audience hooted approval.

Atkins agreed that it’s a “great time to start reading the Goon.” “Thanks to Dave Stewart,” Powell deadpanned, praising the series’ new colorist. Atkins also noted that Chinatown is a perfect place to pick up the series without needing to read any previous stories, “though we encourage you to pick up all the trades.” Powell added, “You can even buy two.”

When showing the Rex Mundi slide, Atkins joked, Here’s a series, “like Fear Agent, we stole from Image.” Rex Mundi is currently being developed as a movie, Atkins announced, with Johnny Depp producing, but not starring in the film. As the original comic book storyline was mapped out as 36 issues, Allie observed that the series is “heading into final six issue.” To celebrate, several guest-artists will be contributing covers to the series, including Guy Davis on #13, and Eric Powell, Gerard Way, John Cassaday and Jo Chen among those contributing as well. The series, Allie explained, is a quest for Holy Grail set in a murder mystery. It has echoes of The DaVinci Code, though Rex Mundi debuted before Dan Brown’s bestseller. It’s ”really smart, not rock’em sock’em robots like The Goon,” Allie remarked, joking with Powell, “Your book’s stupid.”

“Speaking of stupid,” Remender chimed in, as the cover of his new Fear Agent story arc, I against I was displayed. Remender called his series a “wacky sci-fi time travel adventure” and all the storylines to date “all culminate in this arc.” “Even things that don’t seem connected are coming together.” He then admitted that he and artist Tony Moore, who is returning to the series to draw the arc, had actually invested in a plot prior to starting the series.

Teaming with his Strange Girl colleague and artist Eric Nguyen, whom Remender called “an amazing artist,” Remender announced a new series Gigantic. “We wanted to do something with giant robots and monsters,” he said. The series is about a guy in giant armor showing up in San Francisco, and all the problems that would really come along with such a scenario. John Rausch is coloring the book, using digital paints. Remender said, “The point of Gigantic is a big art book where we can do schlocky, B-movie sci-fi.”

With a positive reception for Frank Cho’s cover, editor Scott Allie announced the next stage in the life of Robert E. Howard’s Conan. The title has “been really, really successful for us,” Allie said, noting that everyone at Dark Horse was very excited about “what’s been done so far.” Writer Tim Truman returns for a new series, now titled Conan the Cimmerian chronicling the next stage in Conan’s life. While the first fifty issues charted Conan’s introduction to civilization after leaving Cimmeria, the new series will follow “his career as a mercenary.” Joining Truman will be interior artist Tomàs Giorello, who illustrated the final four issues of the Conan series, with flashbacks by Richard Corben and covers by Frank Cho. Joe Kubert will also provide variant covers for the first three issues. The title is changing to mark a new direction for the ongoing monthly title, which will lead into Conan’s relationship with Beliz and his pirate days.

Growing their relationship with the estate of Conan creator Robert E. Howard, Dark Horse also announced Kull: The Warrior King, by writer Arvid Nelson and Serenity artist Will Conrad, as well as covers by Andy Brace. Howard’s Solomon Kane also gets a series, written by Scott Allie. Dave Stewart will color the series, which will feature covers by John Cassaday. The first issue has a variant cover by Joe Kubert, which was shown at the panel.

“This isn’t a comic book,” Allie said when an image showing Buffy the Vampire Slayer was displayed. As the editor of Buffy comics “since the beginning,” Allie said that he’s always wanted to do a Buffy tarot deck. Teamed with Rachel Pollack, who’s written award-winning tarot books, Dark Horse will be releasing a full 78-card tarot deck this coming fall. Fully painted by Paul Lee, who has “done an enormous amount of Buffy work,” Allie said, the deck will be fully functional. Every character may not be depicted in the set, and some are shown multiple times if their character is relevant to the card’s meaning, but it was important to Allie that the deck be an accurate tarot deck, rather than simply an art showcase. Cards from the deck will be previewed once a month, concurrent with the release of each issue of Buffy: Season Eight, on Whedonesque. He estimated that a half dozen cards depict Buffy.

Additionally, as a follow up to the Hellboy Talking Board, “not a ouija board,” Atkins clarified, “because somebody owns that,” there is a Buffy Talking Board coming.

As for the comics themselves, since beginning of Buffy: Season Eight, fans have been asking for Buffy vs. Fray. Though “we played coy,” Allie said, the crossover was something “we knew we were going to do.” Joss Whedon will be writing the four-issue arc himself, with Fray artist Karl Moline handling the art. “The first two issues are done,” Allie told the crowd. The arc begins with Buffy stuck in the future and confronting Fray. Involving tons of characters from Buffy and Fray’s supporting casts, the arc will also create some “big changes for Dawn.”

After Fray’s crossover, writer Jeph Loeb comes aboard for a special one-shot issue, which will revisit the concepts for the proposed Buffy animated series, which would’ve been co-produced by Loeb and Whedon. With Georges Jeanty handling the “regular sequences,” Herobear artist Mike Kunkel will draw the bulk of the issue. Then five writers will each write a single issue, starting with Jim Krueger, the continuing with four writers from the television series: Jane Espenson, Doug Petrie, Drew Greenberg, and Steven DeKnight. “The world of Buffy is going to change, for the worse,” Allie explained. “If the Slayers are terrorists now, it will be much, much worse after #21, Jane’s issue. Season Eight explodes in fiery death.”

Atkins then asked if anybody realized that Dark Horse “publishes comics from this little country called Japan.” 2008, he announced, is the 20th anniversary of Dark Horse’s incursion into the manga market. After mentioning recent series like Blood+ and the upcoming Gantz, Atkins told the audience that Dark Horse will be working directly with manga legends CLAMP to launch Mangettes next year. Early 2009 will see a 512-page, including a 32-page color section, omnibus collection of the CLAMP series Clover. All four volumes of the series “in one great package.” The new collection is edited by Carl Horn. When the audience showed no recognition of Horn’s name, Atkins smiled, “He’s a celebrity to me.” With a $20 cover price, Atkins called Clover “lots of material for a very, very low price.”

Opening the floor to audience questions, a reader immediately asked if Dark Horse has seen a shift in the feedback since Buffy #12 was actually published. Buffy editor Allie quickly explained that in Buffy #12, Buffy slept with a fellow slayer. After pausing a moment, he added, “Oh yeah, all slayers are girls, so Buffy slept with another girl.” He compared the situation to when the television series had Willow and Tara become a couple. As creator Joss Whedon said, if people are upset, “those are the people I was probably supposed to make mad.” However, after people read the issue, most didn’t thing it a big deal. The majority of the negative reactions came out before the issue actually came out, and after reading the comic “I think people saw that story was about bigger things. After it came out, we got more response about Dracula and how cool he was conveyed,” Allie said. He then mentioned that if any fans wanted to kill twenty minutes, there is a hilarious article about the issue on ABC.com.

Allie told the audience that Castle of the Devil will be adapted in the first five issues of the new Solomon Kane series. He said that he expects to ultimately adapt everything. Part of the pleasure in writing Solomon Kane is that a “fairly large number of stories are just fragments,” which makes it fun for Allie to figure out where Howard was going.

Dark Horse has looked into the rights to reprinting the manga series Fist of the North Star, “but nothing happening right now,” Atkins said. In other manga news, Akira will be coming back into print very soon, Atkins confirmed. He also suggested Akira Club as “a great source for the entire series.”

Mangettes will be simultaneous released in American, Korea and Japan. CLAMP is incredibly secretive about what they’re working on, “and we don’t much about the story at all,” Atkins said, adding that he’s “poking, bugging, pulling while trying to get answers about the storylines.” He could say that Mangettes will be shorter books, around 80 pages, but will come out with greater frequency.

Speaking of the horror elements in The Umbrella Academy, Allie believes that “sometimes less is more.” Horror elements will be present “in at least one flashback in the second series,” but “we really want to let the horror cook some more.”

A fan asked if Eric Powell’s Satan’s Sodomy Baby will ever be collected. Powell joked that he’s working on Satan’s Sodomy Baby 2: The Rape Show. He then said that the one-shot will not be reprinted. The disappointed fan told Powell that the issue was “the first Goon thing I read, which got me into the series.” Slack-jawed, Powell could only reply, “Wow.”

Dark Horse has two main methods of finding new talent, Allie told the crowd. One their MySpace page, the publisher has an initiative to publish first-time cartoonists, giving those creators their first paid work. Dark Horse also has a yearlong program called New Recruits, which is only open to people who have never been published. At the end of every ear, the Dark Horse staff review offerings that came in through the New Recruits program. One winner will be selected and published the following year.

Return to the NY Comic Con mini-site

[scarlettspiderg]

Was there no Star Wars news? I'd have thought the Comicon would have been a great place to update fans on whats happening in "Vector" and talk about upcoming SW arcs.

[Jmacq1]

I'd imagine Star Wars comic news was probably wrapped into the Star Wars presentation that Steve Sansweet does at pretty much every major convention, teasing and promoting all the stuff that's going on for that year.

[Beetle Bomb]

Howard’s Solomon Kane also gets a series, written by Scott Allie. Dave Stewart will color the series, which will feature covers by John Cassaday. The first issue has a variant cover by Joe Kubert, which was shown at the panel.

D'OHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I really want to see this! Done right, Kane is a great read. I loved the old 6 issues Marvel mini-series!

[jza1218]

Originally Posted by MattBrady

Although Niles was unable to attend the convention, Atkins announced the upcoming storyline Cellblock 666 later this year

I could have sworn I saw Niles there.

Oh well, guess I was wrong

[ShinAkuma666]

Excellent report and panell, thank you !

-Akira Club is a fantastic book for those that loved Akira, glad to see they will bring the books back in print again.

-Will get the Dark Horse Presents tpb, anthology books are great for their diversity.

-More Conan is awesome, Kull should be great and I will wait to see how is Solomon Kane, since I am not familiar with the character at all.

-Fear Agent is a very interesting book and cant wait for the first tpb of the End League to come out !

-Will be picking up the new edition of the Perry Bible Fellowship (announced a few months ago) coming out soon.

-I really need to sample The Goon, Hellboy and Criminal Macabre since I dont know them well.

Go Dark Horse ! one of my favorite company; diversity and quality.

[grphxkindaguy]

I just finished reading the Umbrella Academy mini this past weekend and I really enjoyed it. I may pick up the tpb just to get the bonus material stated...

Tim Truman's writing the next Conan title? He drove the current series into dullsville (he's a better artist IMO), so I won't be returning for vol 2...

nothing else mentioned remotely interested me...

[Mendoza]

I would love to see them put out Fist of the North Star. I hope they do what they need to get it comming out in the states. Since its unlikely the show will ever get a real release stateside, it would be nice to be able to read the original source material.

[DaVeO]

I really should be getting more Dark Horse. Well, the trades are generally better anyhow. Really excited about all the Hellboy/B.P.R.D news and looking forward to the Umbrella Academy trade. And look, they are releasing the hardcover BEFORE the softcover. Thank-you Dark Horse.

[dwf]

There's lots of great stuff here!

I'm reading DH's reprints of Akira through the library, and they are very well done. The standard US comic size is good for the art. It's good to see they're coming back in print. Will it have the same price point ($24.95)?

Not to hate, but is Conan the Cimmerian really a great title? Conan was nice and simple, but if it needs to be changed, I think it would do better with a descriptor like Barbarian, Destroyer, Crushinator, whatever.

Is there any way to know what will be in the Hellboy trades before I get the single issues? It always kills me when there's new story in the trades. If I knew what was or wasn't coming, it would definitely affect whether I purchase the single issues.

Anyway, great job, Dark Horse! You put out some fantastic stuff!