This week in Super Folk, Publishers Weekly’s column on superhero comics, an abundance of new series are announced at Image Expo (Including a new Grant Morrison), rumors of writer changes at Marvel while Avengers vs. X-Men looks to be its biggest publishing event in years and DC Comics pushes The Flash into the spotlight amid more teases of its crossover series and new titles.
A slew of new titles debut at Image Expo
Image Comics and publisher Eric Stephenson made some waves this weekend at the first ever Image Expo in Oakland, California, unveiling a number of new titles from some high profile creators along with more details on some of the publisher’s previously announced major releases for this year.
The biggest announcement was a new title called Happy!, written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by Darick Robertson. Almost nothing, save a logo accompanied by the image of fallen feather and a Christmas release date, about the series was divulged, but Morrison, an industry legend in his time who has been writing exclusively writing for DC Comics (most notably Batman and Superman) for the last few years did admit (in a brief interview with iFanboy) that Happy! would mark a genre he has “never really tackled before.”
The next big announcement was for a new installment of Phonogram, the cult hit from Keiron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, to be released this year. While a teaser image promising “One More Time” appeared earlier in the week, the new six-issue miniseries, titled Phonogram: The Immaterial Girl, was officially announced with great aplomb following the creators denying the prospect of any future Phonogram plans in 2010. The series takes aplace iun a world where music = magic and Brit Pop hits affect more than just the sales charts.
Also teased last week and officially announced was Bedlam, a new ongoing series beginning in October from writer Nick Spencer and artist Riley Rossmo. Bedlam centers around Philip Press, a consultant for the police on serial killers, who is also secretly Madder Red, the exact sort of psychopathic murderer he studies.
Then there’s Mara, a new six-issue series written by Brian Wood and Ming Doyle and illustrated by Jordie Bellaire. The series focuses on Mara, a volleyball prodigy in a world dominated by sports, whose cherished life begins to unravel after she begins exhibiting superhuman abilities.
Writer Steve Niles had two 2012 titles announced, Chin Music (with artist Tony Harris) and Crime and Terror (with Scott Morse). The former is a gangster horror story set amongst the noirish backdrop of the 1930s, while the latter will contain standalone stories in a variety of genres (such as science fiction, horror, noir) and formats (prose with spot illustrations).
The other series reveals were for Black Kiss II, the sequel to creator Howard Chaykin’s erotic thriller from the 1980s, and Think Tank, a four-issue science and technology-inspired miniseries by Matt Hawkins and Rahsan Ekedal about a “slacker genius” researcher.
Image also provided some updates on some of its previously announced releases for 2012 including Saga, Brian K. Vaughan’s return to comics (drawn by Fiona Staples), Hell Yeah, Joe Keatinge and Andre Syzmanowicz’s story of privileged super kids, Jupiter’s Children, Mark Millar and Frank Quitely’s story also about privileged super kids, The Manhattan Projects, the story of a secret program that the first nuclear bomb was a front for from The Red Wing team of Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra, Secret, also written by Hickman and with artist Ryan Bodenheim, a political thriller about series of seemingly unrelated occurrences around London, America’s Got Powers, written by British TV host Jonathan Ross and drawn by Bryan Hitch (The Ultimates, Fantastic Four) about an American Idol type show but with superpowers instead of singing, and finally the print release of Planetoid, the popular online comic by Ken Garing about a space marine who gets stranded on an alien planet.
IDW, Archie and Avatar Press
Despite most of the press focusing on Image Expo over the weekend, a number of other new series appeared on the radar, staring with a new Godzilla ongoing from IDW simply titled Godzilla. The new series, by Duane Swierczynski and Simon Gane, will be a sequel to the current Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters title.
Archie Comics pulled the curtain back on its new digital superhero title, New Crusaders. The series fstars the Red Circle line of characters which first saw publication in the early 1940s with characters like The Shield. While the Red Circle line had a short-lived stint at DC Comics a few years ago, this iteration will directly link to the original timeline. A more detailed look at New Crusaders and its creators can be found at Comic Book Resources.
On Monday Avatar Press announced Dan the Unharmable, a new no-holds-barred crime series from writer David Lapham and artist Rafael Ortiz, about an invulnerable amnesic gadabout and all the misadventures he becomes involved in.
DC Comics touts The Flash, Sneek Peaks
In what was seemingly an unusually slow news week for DC Comics, the publisher continued to preview its “Night of the Owls” Batman crossover on its blog, The Source. Like in the previous week, sketches for the nefarious Court of Owls champion, Talon were on display, this time by artists such as Rafael Albuquerque (American Vampire), Kenneth Rocafort (Red Hood and the Outlaws), Moritat (All-Star Western) and more from Batman artist Greg Capullo.
After revealing a variant cover to its anticipated Earth-2 title (by James Robinson and Nicola Scott), DC gave a look at a Batman sketch from superstar artist and DC Co-Publisher Jim Lee. The sketch, of a more armored, baton-weilding Batman, was accompanied by a promise from editor Pat McCallum of a “different kind of Dark Knight,” one who’s “more ruthless, dangerous…” and “a Wayne under the mask.”
One of the titles to receive little to no change in DC’s New 52 was The Flash. The series, which had not too long ago began again at #1 in 2010, has been one of DC’s top selling titles in the New 52. The man behind The Flash, writer/artist Francis Manapul, discussed the new storyline that began in The Flash #6 with CNN’s Geek Out and PopMatters, and introduced the new Captain Cold and Trickster, two of the Flash’s most well-known nemeses, as well as the return of the simian criminal mastermind, Gorilla Grodd.
Finally, DC Entertainment won big at Diamond’s annual Gem Awards for 2011, winning eleven out of twenty-one categories including Best Publisher (both Comic Book and Backlist), Best Comic Book (Batman #1 for under $3.00 and Justice League #1 for over), Best Original Graphic Novel (Batman: Noel), Toy Manufacturer (DC Direct) and more.
Marvel: Spider-Man in Space, Brian Michael Bendis, The Avengers
Marvel Comics continued its hyping of the upcoming “Ends of the Earth” event which is sending Spider-Man into space to face off against newly outfitted versions of his worst foes. Just which enemies exactly is the question Marvel answered with a string of teaser images, one for each of the “Sinister Six” (comprised of Doctor Octopus, Electro, Mysterio, The Sandman, Rhino and The Chameleon). “End of the Earth” begins in Amazing Spider-Man #682 this March. See all the teasers here.
Marvel followed up its “Ends of the Earth,” with a pair of artist changes coming soon to the Ultimate Spider-Man and Daredevil. Beginning with issue #12, fan favorite artist Chris Samnee (Captain America and Bucky, Thor: The Mighty Avengers) will draw Daredevil, joining writer Mark Waid and co-artist Paolo Rivera while replacing artist Marcos Martin. David Marquez (Fantastic Four: Season One) will be the new regular artist on Ultimate Spider-Man, beginning with issue #9. Ultimate Spider-Man made headlines last year when it revealed the new Spider-Man as a biracial boy named Miles Morales. Marquez will join series writer Brian Michael Bendis, who has gotten a bit of press the last few days concerning his future plans at Marvel. Announced in December, the Marvel "Architect" and Avengers writer/overseer is leaving the franchise later this year after helming the series since 2005. What he’s going to do with all this extra time has been the subject of speculation, especially after comic book news site Bleeding Cool intimated that Bendis could be taking over the X-Men franchise (using the upcoming Avengers vs. X-Men as a transition). Bendis later admitted to “sitting back and laughing” about the rumor, but also promised that after AvX he’d be working on something “so much more…”
The final word is on Avengers Vs. X-Men, and Marvel’s unprecedented marketing blitz including print ads, online advertisement, television spots and more. While speaking with ICv2, Senior VP David Gabriel claimed that the marketing behind the event is the “biggest…investment [they’ve] ever put into a series or event,” and that the marketing campaign would last throughout the entirety of the series. Since then sales estimates are already projected to break 200,000 units (the mark of a blockbuster in recent years) and Marvel is boasting a record 1,100+ retailers taking part in a launch party (complete with Marvel supplied party kits) on April 3, the eve of issue #1’s release.
