Venditti, McKinney + Dalton pit six against the apocalypse in ‘Savage Squad 6’

‘… explosive firefights, impossible odds, and heroes who never say die.’

Robert Venditti of Flash and Green Lantern fame will team with co-writer Brockton McKinney (Jenny Zero) and artist Dalts Dalton (Heavy Metal) for Savage Squad 6, the story of an “elite team of post-apocalyptic soldiers undergoing the deadliest mission of their lives.”

They’re joined by colorist Geraldo Filho and letterer Micah Myers on the four-issue miniseries coming from Dark Horse Comics.

“Brock and I have been writing together for years, and we’ve been friends even longer,” Venditti said. “For the first McDitti collaboration, we wanted to bring all the fun and abandon of ‘80s-‘90s action films to comics. Savage Squad 6 is everything we love about explosive firefights, impossible odds, and heroes who never say die.”

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Jaxxon returns in a new Star Wars annual from Dark Horse

The limited release comic will only be available at select conventions and directly from Dark Horse.

It’s becoming tradition for Cavan Scott to write a new story every year starring Jaxxon, the green rabbit who first debuted many moons ago in Star Wars #8 by Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin. He was one of the first characters created outside of the movies themselves, and somehow has not shown up in a film or in his own Disney+ series yet. To which I ask, why???

Luckily, even after decades of inactivity, Jaxxon has returned in recent years thanks to Scott, who brought him back in the pages of Star Wars Adventures Annual in 2018, to be followed by additional stories and even an action figure since then. And this week brings more news about that wascally wabbit: he’ll appear in Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories Annual—Jaxxon 2023, which will only be available at conventions and directly from Dark Horse.

It’ll come in a variety of covers for different event; here’s the first one by Mike Mignola:

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Dark Horse will publish ‘The Unlikely Story of Felix and Macabber’ this fall

Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou and Juni Ba team on the all-ages graphic novel.

Acclaimed letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou will write (and letter!) the new graphic novel The Unlikely Story of Felix and Macabber, joined by Juni Ba (Djeliya, Monkey Meat) as the artist and colorist. Dark Horse will publish the all-ages graphic novel this October.

“With Felix and Macabber, Juni and I wanted to explore the idea of doing whatever it takes to become something great,” the writer said. “Who are the role models that people look up to? And how do the pressures on your own life change the way we understand those role models? Which all sounds quite serious, but it’s also a great excuse to let Juni’s imagination loose on these wonderful weird monster designs and big, bombastic fight sequences – which he’s a master at. We’re really excited about readers meeting our cast of monster-characters, from the big guy himself to his arch-nemesis, to the big dog that lives in a cave and creates knights-in-armor from his own saliva. Yep. You’re going to love it.”

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Oeming + Santos go gonzo in conspiracy-filled ‘Project Monarch’

The new graphic novel arrives from Dark Horse in September.

Michael Avon Oeming (Powers) and Victor Santos (Polar) are pulling out all the stops in their new graphic novel Project Monarch — a story that will involve fake moon landings, the Illuminati, child stars turned assassins and a film that can control minds.

It sounds bonkers and like a lot of fun.

“This story was born in a time when we needed to deal with uncertainty everyday,” said Santos. “So this is a book about embracing chaos and living nonetheless, and I can’t imagine a better partner for this crazy trip than Mike Oeming.”

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Slugfest | Scholastic outlines their plans for the new ‘Dog Man’ book

Plus: The Oloris, Poison Ivy, The X-Cellent, Whistleblowers, Patrick McDonnell and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

The graphic novel phenomenon Dog Man will return at the end of the month with a new book, Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea, continuing the adventures of our hero, Li’l Petey, 80-HD and the rest of the gang.

Scholastic has announced their promotional plans for Dav Pilkey’s latest, which include a Free Comic Book Day issue, the return of Dog Man: The Musical and Dog Man Day celebrations.

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Sunday Comics | Several Tapas series will come to print via Dark Horse

Plus webcomics by Reimena Yee, Kazu Kibuishi and more.

Here’s a round up of some of the best comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

Dark Horse Comics and Tapas Entertainment have announced a new partnership that will see the longtime independent comics company bring the webcomics platform’s comics to print.

Much like their deal with Comxiology, Dark Horse will collect titles like Animalheads, Signals, The Flying Ship and Tomahawk Angel, with the first collections due out in October.

“We couldn’t be more excited about this partnership,” said Alex R. Carr with Tapas Entertainment. “Seeing these creators and their stories in the Dark Horse pantheon is a dream come true for all involved.”

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Dark Horse will publish Caitlin Like’s debut graphic novel ‘The Hundredth Voice’

The new graphic novel will hit stores in October.

Dark Horse Comics has announced plans to publish The Hundredth Voice, a graphic novel by a new voice, Caitlin Like.

The Hundredth Voice was written for kids getting into bootleg musical theater and trying to communicate with ghost,” Caitlin said. “It’s about being an artist, especially the serious resolve that feels like life or death when you’re young and told you’re gifted- that fear that you’re going to run out of time, even when you’re still a kid.”

While this is Like’s debut graphic novel, it’s far from her first comics work. She’s the creator of the webcomic Maiden of the Machine, and she also drew Dark Horse’s collaboration with Portland General Electric, a comic called Climate Keepers: Agents of Project Zero. But what really caught my eye on her website were the Supernatural fan comics she did.

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Celebrity chef Kim-Joy teams with artist Alti Firmansyah for the OGN ‘Turtle Bread’

The graphic novel arrives on digital from Comixology Originals in May and in print from Dark Horse this fall.

The Great British Bake Off finalist and bestselling cookbook author Kim-Joy is collaborating with Alti Firmansyah on her first graphic novel, Turtle Bread: A Graphic Novel About Baking, Fitting In, and the Power of Friendship. The project will arrive on digital via Comixology Originals in May, to be followed in print from Dark Horse Comics in October.

They’ll be joined by letterer Joamette Gil, designer Cindy Leong, and editors Felix Horne and Allison O’Toole for a project that explores not only friendship and baked goods, but also mental health issues.

Turtle Bread is a book about self-awareness,” said Kim-Joy. “It’s about that feeling of loneliness, of not fitting in or feeling good enough, of self-criticism, and the path towards self-acceptance. This is explored through baking, and in particular, the symbolism of the turtle–coming out of its shell and moving forward; however slowly that may be. Hence: Turtle Bread! (And yes, there’s actual turtle themed bread! Plus loads of other recipes). It’s NOT a magical story about how baking and friendship fix everything, but a story about the small steps forward (and sometimes sideways and backwards) gradually adding up.”

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Alaska battles a supernatural invasion in ‘Survival’

Dark Horse Comics will publish the new miniseries by Sean Lewis and Bryndon Everett.

With the release of Dark Horse’ solicitations for May 2023 comes word of a “new political horror-action comic” called Survival by Sean Lewis and Bryndon Everett. It’s about Russia invading the United States, specifically Alaska, with supernatural forces.

Survival was written years before Russia invaded Ukraine,” Lewis said. “Some would call it prescient, but it seemed obvious—old empires don’t like to fall. Survival merges a social aspect with a very fun, very pulp story of vampires and machine guns, survivalists and invaders.”

Natalie Barahona provides colors, while Ed Dukeshire is lettering the project.

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Bendis + Oeming’s ‘United States of Murder, Inc.’ returns with a new title

‘Murder, Inc.: Jagger Rose’ will debut in May.

Dark Horse has announced the next project coming from Brian Michael Bendis’ imprint, Jinxworld — Murder, Inc.: Jagger Rose, a title that may sound familiar to longtime Bendis fans.

Bendis announced last year that the United States of Murder Inc., his series with Powers co-creator Michael Avon Oeming, would return, but with a shortened title. (United States of Murder, Inc. was a mouthful). Taki Soma and Carlos Mangual round out the art team.

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Jesse Lonergan joins Mike Mignola on ‘Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea’

The new Mignolaverse title will launch from Dark Horse Comics in May.

Hellboy creator Mike Mignola has recruited the artistic talents of Jesse Lonergan (Hedra, Planet Paradise) for a new miniseries set in the Mignolaverse — Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea. They’re joined by longtime Mignolaverse letterer Clem Robbins.

If you aren’t familiar with Lonergan, he turned a lot of heads with his unqiue approach to comics in Hedra and Planet Paradise, both of which are the type of comic that reminds you of what’s possible in the medium.

“I fell in love with Jesse’s stuff the moment I stumbled across it, but it took a long time for me to wrap my head around a way we could work together,” said Mignola. “His storytelling is so great but amazingly unique and I’m such a control freak when it comes to how to pace a story—I didn’t want to tie his hands with the way I structure things. But he is just so good… Eventually I came up with the idea for Miss Truesdale (an odd one, even for me) and just couldn’t think of anyone better to draw it. We met, we talked, and I think we settled on a way to collaborate. It meant writing a plot that was tight in some places and very, very loose in others. I had to trust Jesse to work his magic—and for me it’s hard to really trust an artist I’ve never worked with, even one as good as Jesse—but I did it and he did what he does and I couldn’t be happier with the results. I think this ends up being one of the most unique extensions of the Hellboy Universe, and after almost 30 years (and some very odd stories) that’s saying something.”

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Tyler Crook’s ‘The Lonesome Hunters’ returns with a sequel in May

Howard and Lupe encounter a magical wolf in their next adventure.

Dark Horse Comics has announced that Tyler Crook’s excellent miniseries, The Lonesome Hunters, is getting a sequel later this year, subtitled “The Wolf Child.”

Crook wrote, drew and lettered the first miniseries, which introduced us to an elderly monster hunter named Howard and the young girl, Lupe, who he has to help defend from the Magpie Queen. This next miniseries sounds like it picks up right after the events of the first one.

“I’m super excited to be continuing the story of Howard and Lupe,” said Crook. “The Lonesome Hunters is the most personal and emotional story I’ve ever worked on, and the way readers have reacted to the story and connected to the characters has been amazing.”

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