With the San Diego Comic-Con coming up on July 23-26, we have news and announcements dropping left and right, so here’s an attempt to keep up with it all. Hit the links for more info.
Chef José Andrés is teaming up with the Avengers this October in Meals to Astonish: Avengers #1, the second one-shot from Marvel to highlight World Central Kitchen’s disaster-relief work.
Following his debut earlier this year in Spider-Man: Meals to Astonish #1, Andrés teams with Tony Stark as they travel to Vegas to unveil new disaster relief technology, only for Ultron to interrupt. Steve Orlando and Roi Mercado return for the main story, joined by a new “Jeff’s Table” installment from Paul Eschbach and E.J. Su, plus the debut of Jacob Chabot’s “VenomNom” backup.
“The Avengers have finally met a force that works just as hard to feed the world as they do to save it,” Orlando said of returning for a second chapter, adding that the team is now “dreaming up comic book ways to feed the world.”
Leinil Francis Yu provides the cover for the one-shot, which arrives October 14.
Archie #1 is getting a bigger debut for its Sept. 2 launch. Oni Press and Archie Comics have expanded the first issue of Ben H. Winters and Fábio Moon’s new ongoing series to 40 pages, adding puzzles, pin-ups and previews of the line’s next launches: October’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch #1 by Corinna Bechko and Kano, and Archie in Hell #1 by Patrick Horvath and Tyler Crook. You can check out my interview with all three of the writers here.
The publishers also unveiled a new variant cover for Archie #1 by Travis Charest, his first-ever take on the Riverdale gang, shown above.
Visitors Media is bringing Warrior to readers this fall, an 80-page science fiction adventure originally conceived for Heavy Metal Magazine, written by Hal Jay Greene with art by Joel Ojeda and a cover by Daxiong. The story follows a freighter pilot and her droid companion who pick up a tiny robot claiming to command a race of “great warriors,” a boast they dismiss until a bio-engineered horror starts hunting them. It’s the latest expansion of Greene’s creator-owned Across Space universe.
Greene said his work aims to fuse words and design into something larger than either alone, calling a story that works with or without words “creative nirvana.” The Kickstarter, launching later this fall, will include an exclusive audio adaptation from Soundbooth Theater narrated by Jeff Hays (Dungeon Crawler Carl), along with a rotating lineup of guest-artist variant covers. Fans can get a first look at Visitors Media’s Booth #1630 during SDCC.
Oni Press has signed Christian Ward to a three-book deal, extending their relationship beyond The Forever Home, his upcoming miniseries with artist Sami Kivelä. The three new creator-owned projects, with Ward writing and drawing in various capacities, will begin rolling out in 2027. The Forever Home follows a billionaire who builds a time-dilated luxury bunker to shield his family from an apocalypse outside, only for a mistake to breach its barrier.
“Over the course of almost two decades I’ve been fortunate to have enjoyed working with every major publisher, so it’s with authority when I say Oni Press is one of the very best of them,” Ward said. “This last 18 months working with Sierra, Hunter, and the whole Oni team has been fantastic. Everyone is so passionate about making bold and distinctive comics and the support myself and Sami have received on our book has been second to none. So much so that whilst working on Forever Home I didn’t want my collaboration with Oni to end and I’m now beyond thrilled to be working with Oni Press on three news titles (all just as ambitious and exciting as The Forever Home) for 2027 and beyond.”
Ward will appear at Oni’s “The Loudest Thing in Color” SDCC panel alongside Tyler Crook, Juan Gedeon, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Tradd Moore and Curt Pires, and will sign at Oni’s booth (#1829) during the convention this week.
DC has extended Absolute Green Arrow from six issues to 12, writer Pornsak Pichetshote announced on Instagram. Pichetshote credited series architect Scott Snyder and DC’s editors for the series’ success, saying he hadn’t expected DC to greenlight something this bold based on his time as a company employee.
Justin Jordan and Tradd Moore’s cult-favorite action-horror series The Strange Talent of Luther Strode turns 15 this year, and Image Comics is celebrating with two oversized anniversary releases arriving in October. Fans can pick up an expanded anniversary edition featuring the complete first issue and a gallery of artwork from across the trilogy, along with an oversized treasury edition that presents Luther’s brutal debut on newsprint.
RedOctane Games’ rhythm game Stage Tour is expanding into comics with a one-shot from Dark Horse, debuting at SDCC. The comic, with cover art by Kim Hu, script by Zoe Tunnell, art by Liana Kangas, colors by Diana Sousa and lettering by Comicraft’s Tyler Smith, will be available free to SDCC attendees at the Stage Tour (#2834) and Dark Horse (#2615) booths while supplies last, and later as a bonus with hardware bundle pre-orders.