Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.
Charles Soule and Alberto Jiménez Alburquerque will present the second of seven interconnected miniseries in “The Shrouded College” saga that started with Soule and Will Sliney’s Hell to Pay.
The Bloody Dozen will run for six issues and kicks off in December.
Here’s how Image describes the series:
In The Bloody Dozen, three down-and-out astronauts are tasked with the ultimate heist: springing a clan of deadly vampires from a space prison orbiting the Sun. Apollo 13 meets Blade in this killer thriller!
The first issue will feature variant covers by Alburquerque and Sliney, which you can see above, along with some preview pages from the first issue.
Marvel will publish Star Wars: Revelations in December, which offers a look at what’s to come for their Star Wars titles. It’ll include stories by Marc Guggenheim, Charles Soule, Greg Pak, Alyssa Wong, Ethan Sacks, Cavan Scott, Salvador Larroca, Will Sliney, Marika Cresta, Ibraim Roberson and more.
Skybound has announced a third volume of The Sea Serpent’s Heir by Mairghread Scott and Pablo Tunica. In this final chapter, Aella’s aunt Kiana steals the power of Xir, leading to a confrontation between Aella and the person who taught her everything she knows about magic. It arrives next fall.
“Pirates, assassins, and monsters of all kinds collide as Aella is given an impossible challenge – free the sea god Xir without causing any more death,” said Scott. “But can Aella really afford to show mercy when the world itself teeters on disaster? Or will her kind heart doom them all?”
Dark Horse has announced plans to collect all of the Hellboy stories drawn by the late Richard Corben into one volume. Hellboy Artists Collection: Richard Corben will include more than 300 pages of material, including The Crooked Man.
“Corben was a genius,” said Hellboy creator Mike Mignola. “I was a fan from the first moment I saw his work in Heavy Metal magazine way back when. I never in a million years thought I’d get a chance to work with him, but I did and it remains a highlight of my career. I wrote The Crooked Man specifically for him, and it remains my favorite Hellboy story.”
Marvel will celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first Giant-Size volume, a common find on spinner racks back during the 1970s, by re-releasing the first Giant-Size comic and releasing a new Giant-Size Spider-Man, with more on the way.
Cody Ziglar and Iban Coello will create a new Miles Morales/Venom story for Giant-Size Spider-Man in January, while Giant-Size Super-Stars #1 Facsimile Edition will reprint a Fantastic Four/Hulk story by Gerry Conway and Rich Buckler in December.
Mark Waid will return to the world of Kingdom Come, which he created with Alex Ross back in 1996, in an upcoming arc of Batman/Superman: World’s Finest. It kicks off Oct. 17 with issue #20:
Starting with Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #20, “The Golden Calf” is part one of an all-new story arc, “Heir to the Kingdom.” This five-part arc teams up The Dark Knight and The Man of Steel with a jaded Superman, a broken Batman, a war-hungry Wonder Woman, and the other reimagined super heroes of the 1996 groundbreaking series written by Waid, with art by Alex Ross. In addition, this new arc features the return of Superman’s protégé, Boy Thunder.
You can see all the comic’s covers, including a main cover by series artist Dan Mora; variant covers from Bjorn Barends, David Nakayama, Chrissie Zullo and Daniel Sampere; and a foil embossed variant cover showing off the helmet of Magog, above.
Count Crowley will return in a third miniseries by David Dastmalchian, Lukas Ketner, Lauren Affe and Frank Cvetkovic. Count Crowley: Mediocre Midnight Monster Hunter will run for four issues, with the first hitting stores Nov. 8.
“I am dying for readers to get their claws on Volume 3 of the Count Crowley saga!” said Dastmalchian. “I am finally getting to soak my pen in the blood and guts that I’ve always wanted to splatter on these pages. Pulling inspiration from some of my favorite gore horror in the Stuart Gordon/Frank Henenlotter tradition, as well as the ‘Abduction Panic’ dread of the 1980’s Midwest, I have taken Jerri’s journey to a whole new level of horror. When readers see what Lukas Ketner has achieved in these issues, their eyes will literally pop out of their heads! And just wait until those variant covers are unveiled… It’s going to be a wild ride!”
Dark Horse will bring Blandine Le Callet and Nancy Peña’s Medea to the English-speaking world next year, as they translate and collect all four volumes. Originally published in French, the graphic novel “gives Medea a chance to tell her own story, in her own voice.” Look for it on May 7.
Capwolf, the werewolf version of the First Avenger, was first introduced as a concept back in the early 1990s by Mark Gruenwald and Rik Levins. Marvel’s revisiting the concept, only this time it’s written by Stephanie Phillips and drawn by Carlos Magno, and the story is set during World War II.
Above you can check out the covers for issues #1-2 by Ryan Brown, as well as variants for the first issue by Gary Frank, Declan Shalvey and a “hidden gem” cover by Jack Kirby. The first issue of four arrives Oct. 11.
Crawling out of the Upside-Down the day after Halloween is a new Stranger Things miniseries from Dark Horse. Stranger Things: The Voyage by writer Michael Moreci, illustrator Todor Hristov, colorist Francesco Segala and letterer Nate Piekos will focus on a boat captain returning a group of Russians back to their homeland from Alaska; the trip, as you might expect, doesn’t go according to plan.
The first issue features a cover by Marc Aspinall and variant covers by Kyle Lambert, Diego Galindo and Todor Hristov (seen above).
Daniel Warren Johnson’s new Transformers title is part of Skybound’s new Energon Universe, and the first issue arrives next week. Above is a look at some of Johnson’s work on the first issue, along with variant covers by Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer, Ryan Ottley, Orlando Arocena, Cliff Chiang, Francis Manapul and Ian Bertram.
Speaking of previews, here’s a whole bunch of variant covers and preview art for Spider-Boy #1, which comes out in November. It’s by Dan Slott and Paco Medina, with a main coevr by Humberto Ramos and variants by David Aja, John Tyler Christopher, Skottie Young, Luciano Vecchio and Chris Campana, among others.
Marvel will collect some classic Rom/X-Men stories in December under one cover. The collection will include Rom #17-18, which featured Rom and the X-Men battling Hybrid, and Rom #31-32, which featured the Sisterhood of Evil Mutants — Mystique, Rogue and Destiny — teaming with Rom for another bout with Hybrid.
Marvel has announced a second Star Wars: Visions one-shot, this one featuring Afro Samurai creator Takashi Okazaki. His story is another tale of the mysterious Ronin, a character he introduced in Kamikaze Douga studios’ episode of the Star Wars: Visions animated series.
BOOM! Studios will publish another BRZRKR special this November, by Keanu Reeves, The Batman Part II screenwriter Mattson Tomlin, artist Rebekah Isaacs and colorist Jordie Bellaire. “The lone survivor of Olos, a long-dead–once thriving–empire, tells a tale of B.’s distant past and the death and cataclysm he brought forth.”
Skybound will put the “Ho Ho Ho!” into Ho-ho-horror with the Creepshow Holiday Special #1. The one-shot anthology will include stories by Daniel Kraus, Jonathan Wayshak, James Asmus, Letizia Cadonici and more. Guillem March provides the main cover, with variants by Wayshak and Jorge Corona.
Let’s end things, as always, with a look at some nice art — variant covers, to be specific. The recent Wonder Woman #1 by Tom King and Daniel Sampere has sold out, so DC is doing a second printing featuring the above piece by Jim Lee as the cover.
Image Comics has announced that Local Man by Tim Seeley and Tony Fleecs will get a series of 1990s inspired variant covers over the next four issues, starting with issue #6 in October.
Marvel will release a series of variant covers in October by Ernanda Souza in honor of Hispanic and Latin American Month. They’ll appear on X-Men Red #16 and Avengers #6, shown above, as well as Incredible Hulk #5 and Scarlet Witch #9, shown below.
Here’s another set of those Walking Dead 20th Anniversary variant covers that Image is doing. This round of covers includes Gabriel H. Walta, Jeff Lemire & Jose Villarrubia (on Phantom Road #6), Rafael Albuquerque (on Creepshow #2), Conor Hughes (on Void Rivals #5), Andre Bressan & Adriano Lucas (on Firepower #28), Szymon Kudranski (on Something Epic #6), Roberto Meli (on Purr Evil #4), and James Harren (on The Sacrificers #3):
But don’t think Top Cow’s going to be left out. They have connecting covers celebrating two decades of zombies and misery, on the variant covers for Destiny Gate #1, Antarctica #4 and Haunt You to the End #5:
Peach Momoko has become one of Marvel’s go-to artists for variant covers, so it makes sense they’d give her her own series of them in December, under the theme of “Nightmare variant covers”:
We learned at the San Diego Comic Con this past summer that Greg Capullo is doing work for Marvel again. Here are his variants for Moon Knight #30 and Vengeance of the Moon Knight #1:
Speaking of Moon Knight, Inhyuk Lee is also doing a series of covers — he’s dying, you know, so that means lots of variant covers — that will appear on Moon Knight 28-30:
Now this series of variants I kind of scratch my head at. I wonder if maybe Marvel’s putting out to many fo them when they have to announce “Ski Chalet” variants, featuring your favorite heroes in winter clothing:
Clea apparently didn’t get the memo that this was a winter clothing shoot … these all arrive in December.
Star Wars: Rebels takes the spotlight in January with this series of variants by Caspar Wijngaard, celebrating the show’s 10th anniversary:
Ok, it’s the lightning round … starting with a What if…? Dark: Tomb of Dracula #1 variant by Artgerm, out in November:
Also in November and also by Artgerm is this White Widow #1 cover:
Here’s David Nakayama’s Captain Marvel #1 Foil Variant Cover, out in October:
And here’s a Sensational She-Hulk #1 foil variant by Adam Hughes, which arrives next month:
Kaare Andrews doing a foil cover (wow, those are back, aren’t they?) for Spider–Boy #1:
Finally, we’ll end with something Halloween-ish, given October is almost here. How about a set of Marvel Zombies covers by the publisher’s Stormbreaker artists? Happy Spooky Season, everyone.
