Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.
Farscape, the Australian-American science fiction television series created by Rockne O’Bannon and the Jim Henson Company that ran on SciFi, will return to comics in August courtesy of BOOM! Studios, who published the previous Farscape series.
The 25th anniversary special one-shot will be the first Farscape comic published since 2010, and it’ll feature stories by Keith R.A. DeCandido, who wrote many of BOOM!’s previous Farscape comics, along with Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly, Sarah Gailey, Sina Grace and more.
Steve Morris provides the cover for the first issue, seen above, which will also come in several variant flavors by Vincenzo Riccardi, Ariel Olivetti and a photo cover featuring members of the cast. The Farscape 25th Anniversary Special will arrive in stores on Aug. 28.
Image Comics has revealed more details and some preview pages for Remote Space, a four-issue miniseries written and drawn by Cliff Rathburn that begins this week. It’s about an Earth whose humans split along two different evolutionary paths — a cybernetic-enhanced path to adapt to space travel, and a genetically-modified path to adapt to the climate crisis. In the miniseries, the two paths collide.
Check out the preview above, along with a look at Ryan Ottley’s variant cover for the first issue.
The Department of Truth by James Tynion IV and Martin Simmonds returns later this month with a new story arc — one that will see the department’s secrets going public and a return to where it all started, in Dallas 1963. Check out Simmonds’ cover and some preview pages, along with variant covers by Alex Eckman-Lawn and Sebastián Fiumara, for the conspiracy-filled issue #23 above. Because of course it had to be issue #23 …
DSTLRY will publish Life, a new six-issue miniseries in their trademark oversized prestige format beginning in August. Life is written by Stephanie Phillips and Brian Azzarello, and will be a “flip book” featuring artwork by Danijel Žeželj. The comic is “anchored by two violent stories that collide on a desolate prison planet.”
“World building on Life has been immensely rewarding, allowing me to approach this brutal ecosystem from two very different angles. DSTLRY’s oversized format allows so much more freedom to accomplish that feat,” Žeželj said.
Dark Horse and Asmodee Entertainment, one of their sister companies within the Embracer Group, have teamed up for a new four-issue miniseries based on Asmodee’s Arkham Horror line of games.
Arkham Horror: The Terror at the End of Time is about a private investigator and a socialite who team up to rescue the socialite’s sister from a cult, and it’s by writer Cullen Bunn, artist Andrea Mutti colorist Valerio Alloro and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. The first issue arrives in August.
Fantagraphics has released their Fall 2024 catalog, which will include comics, books and graphic novels by Olivier Schrauwen, Carol Lay, Laura Pérez, John Kenn Mortensen, Julia Gfrörer, Josh Simmons and more. It also includes several new collections for Peanuts, Disney, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Macanudo and others. You see find the complete catalog as a PDF here.
Dark Horse has announced a new Minecraft graphic novel for October — Minecraft: Heart of Cobblestone Volume 1 by Andrew Clemson and Jeremy Lawson. Set in the world of the popular game, it’s about a farmer who tires of his neighbors so he starts building a tower into the sky, which he makes his new home.
Scholastic has announced another new Dog Man book for later this year — Dog Man: Big Jim Begins. It follows The Scarlet Shredder, which was released in March, and it’ll tell the origin story of Big Jim.
“With this new book, I wanted to share the origin story of my characters, as readers get to know more about Big Jim—a character who is playful, kind, overly optimistic and often misunderstood, and who sometimes gets into trouble despite having the best intentions,” Pilkey said. “Since the pandemic, I’ve been writing and illustrating books in the Dog Man and Cat Kid Comic Club series which has been a satisfying yet solitary experience. I’m grateful to all my readers—kids and their families as well as educators–who have sent me letters and messages of encouragement. Their support and enthusiasm have inspired me to keep making books. I am truly humbled and honored.”
Look for it to arrive on store shelves on Dec. 3.
A popular Spawn character’s origin will be told in August as Todd McFarlane Productions has announced Violator: Origin. Manhunter writer Marc Andreyko will work with six different artists on the series: Piotr Kowalski, Kyle Hotz, Jonathan Wayshak, Gianenrico Bonacorsi, Cully Hamner and Von Randall.
“Strangely, that in the 30 year history of the Spawn-Universe, we have never written the origin story of one of the main characters of this mythology,” Spawn creator Todd McFarlane said. “So now, after such a long wait, Marc Andreyko and his crew of artists have delivered a story that is a multi-era spanning telling of how this villain came to be Spawn’s main antagonist. Since his first appearance way back in 1992, I’ve been asking writers to think about doing this story. Luckily Marc has enthusiastically jumped on that request.”
The first issue of six comes out Aug. 14, with covers by Piotr Kowalski and Francesco Mattina, seen above, along with some preview art from the first issue by Kowalski.
Dark Horse will release Summer Shadows, a four-issue miniseries by John Harris Dunning, Ricardo Cabral, Brad Simpson and Jim Campbell, beginning in September. It’s about a man looking for his missing ex-boyfriend in Greece, where he discovers multiple men have gone missing and a jet-black super yacht, the Nyx, is somehow involved.
June’s Blood Squad Seven #2, which continues Joe Casey and Paul Fry’s 1990s-influenced superhero story, will feature a guest appearance by Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon. Above you can see Jim Rugg’s variant cover for the issue, as well as covers by Fry, Chris Cross and Elizabeth Torque, and some preview pages from the issue.
Dark Horse will bring Yojimbot Volume 1: Metal Silence by French writer and artist Sylvain Repos to the U.S. in December. The post-apocalyptic dystopian story, translated and localized by Matt Maden, features a world where robots reign supreme, and one samurai-reenacting robot—a Yojimbot—makes the choice to help a human boy in danger.
Chip Zdarsky’s Public Domain will return at Image Comics in July with not only a new story arc, but also with a spinoff series called The Domain. While Public Domain is about a creator and his family getting the rights back to a popular comics character he created, The Domain, the spinoff is a five-issue series that details what the in-universe reboot of that series looks like once they do. It features artwork by Rachael Stott and Eren Angiolini:
Public Domain #6 and The Domain #1 both arrive in stores July 10.
Dark Horse is working with game designers Housemarque on Returnal: Fallen Asteria, a graphic novel adaptation of the game of the same name. Look for it in October.
Ok, let’s jump now into some variant covers, starting with Marvel. I’ll warn you that they’re all mutant related and most of them featuring Wolverine and/or Deadpool, for obvious reasons. Let’s with this one for August’s Wolverine: Revenge #1 by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau:
In July, Marvel’s Stormbreakers variant covers will feature Wolverine and Deadpool engaged in all sorts of shenanigans:
And if you get tired of seeing Deadpool with Wolverine, never fear — he’s also on a line of covers with other Marvel characters, the Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe variant cover line:
I’ve featured some of the variant covers for July’s Phoenix #1 before, but Marvel has added a few more to the pile, by Erica D’Urso (featuring Alien) and Peach Momoko:
That same month, X-Men #1 arrives, and it will feature some additional variant covers that spotlight Magik, by John Tyler Christopher and Peach Momoko:
September’s Exceptional X-Men #1 will have variants by David Baldeón, Joelle Jones and Elizabeth Torque:
Storm #1, which comes out in October, will arrive with variants by Jeehyung Lee, Jerome Opeña and Lucas Werneck:
And finally, back to Wolverine — his new ongoing series begins in September and will feature variants by Patrick Gleason, Kaare Andrews, Clayton Crain, John Tyler Christopher, Peach Momoko, Felipe Massafera, John Romita Jr. and Mike Zeck:
