Guggenheim + Chaykin re-team for ‘Too Dead To Die’

The original graphic novel will return to the world of Simon Cross, a faux comic published in the 1980s.

Marc Guggenheim and Howard Chaykin, who previously worked together on Marvel’s Blade and Wolverine titles almost two decades ago, will reunite for Too Dead To Die, a new graphic novel coming from Image Comics.

Guggenheim said the story of a 1980s spy set in the world of today is an idea he’s been planning for years.

Too Dead To Die is one of those ideas I’ve been thinking about for years before the COVID quarantine gave me the opportunity to actually write it,” Guggenheim said. “I started off writing ‘on spec’ without any particular artist in mind. But 10 pages in, I realized that all the images I was seeing in my head were illustrated by Howard, whom I had the good fortune to collaborate with on Blade and Wolverine. I was writing with Howard in mind without realizing it. Fortunately, Howard was amenable to coming aboard and I love how he’s brought Simon’s story to life. It’s very exciting to be getting Too Dead To Die out into the world after all this time.”

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Jillian Tamaki + Mariko Tamaki’s 2023 graphic novel gets a name + cover

‘Roaming!” will arrive in the fall of 2023.

Drawn + Quarterly announced a new graphic novel by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki project for 2023, and this week they revealed both the title and the cover.

Roaming!, which is about two best friends going to college in New York, will arrive in stores in fall 2023. Here’s the cover:

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‘Skinner’ crash-lands next May

The original graphic novel about a killer stalking internet celebrities will be published by Dark Horse Comics.

Dark Horse has announced a new horror graphic novel coming your way next year — Skinner, which is written by two video game veterans, Micky Neilson and Samwise Didier.

“Sam and I are both huge horror fans,” Neilson said. “Skinner is our love letter to the genre.”

They’ll be joined by the art team of Piotr Kowalski, colorist Dennis Calero and letterer Frank Cvetkovic. Didier, who is currently Blizzard Entertainment’s senior art director, drew the cover:

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‘Hotel REM’ awakens at Dark Horse next year

Zack Keller, Gabriele Bagnoli, Valerio Alloro and Frank Cvetkovic check into a hotel for dreams in March.

Former Unikitty! and Telltale Games writer Zack Keller will team with artist Gabriele Bagnoli, colorist Valerio Alloro and letterer Frank Cvetkovic on Hotel REM, an all-ages graphic novel coming from Dark Horse in 2023.

The fantastical Hotel REM is the place your dreams go when you’re awake. It’s run by Rembrandt Somner, who runs into problems when a difficult celebrity guest arrives.

“I have literally been dreaming about this story for over a decade so I’m thrilled readers can finally come visit this wild and wonderful hotel in book-form thanks to Dark Horse,” Keller said.

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A new ‘Dog Man’ book will arrive in March

The 11th volume of the popular graphic novel series by Dav Pilkey arrives next year, along with a special anniversary edition of the first ‘Captain Underpants’ book.

Dav Pilkey’s world-conquering Dog Man series will return to shelves next March with its 11th volume — Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea.

This will be the first new Dog Man volume since 2021, when Mothering Heights was released. But Pilkey hasn’t been resting — several volumes of his Cat Kid Comic Club series, a Dog Man spinoff, have filled in the gaps, with the fourth volume, Collaborations, set to arrive in November.

“I am humbled and grateful to do what I love for a living,” Pilkey said in the press release. “Since the pandemic began, I have been inspired to create even more stories and to learn and grow as an artist–from experimenting with various mediums to make comics using photography, poetry, and calligraphy, to building character models and sets by hand, as well as exploring different themes and storylines. My hope is that my books foster creativity and imagination, and instill a lifelong love of reading.”

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Dark Horse brews an ‘Elixir’ for next year

Frank J. Barbiere, Ricky Mammone and Victor Santos bring a new graphic novel that mixes technology and magic to Dark Horse.

Frank J. Barbiere, Ricky Mammone and Victor Santos will team up on a new graphic novel, Elixir, that’s set to be published by Dark Horse Comics next March.

The dark fantasy story combines magic with modern technology, as the daughter of a druid seeks an artifact known as the “Elixir.”

“I began my career in Europe doing fantasy comics but basically I am known in the USA as a noir-crime author,” Santos said. “Thanks to this new collaboration with my partner Frank Barbiere and with the addition of the talented writer Ricky Mammone, I have had the chance to build a world with all the elements and aesthetics I loved reading as a teen but with my experience as a creator and a more modern point of view of what a good fantasy story should be.”

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Dark Horse will release out-of-print + new material from Richard Corben

The publisher announces a partnership with Fantagor Press to publish old material and as-yet-unpublished comics by the legendary creator.

Iconic comics creator Richard Corben passed away in 2020, leaving behind a body of work that spanned multiple decades and publishers. The Eisner Hall of Famer and Grand Prix winner at Angoulême may be gone, but Dark Horse has entered into a partnership with Fantagor Press to ensure his legacy will endure.

Starting next year, Dark Horse will kick off an exclusive line that will reprint Corben’s long-out-of-print work with new material in deluxe hardcover editions.

“I’m so pleased and proud to share Corben art and stories with the world,” said his wife, Dona Corben. “It means so much to me to make his early works available in print again; and, I’m excited to share his new story that he poured all of his imagination and artistic vision into. I’m incredibly proud of him as an artist and a person, and touched that his work means so much to so many.”

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Before Dracula, there was ‘Carmilla: The First Vampire’

Amy Chu and Soo Lee bring the original bloodsucker back at Dark Horse.

A 19th century queer feminist murder mystery sees the sunlight again in Carmilla: The First Vampire. This new contemporary retelling set in 1990s New York Chinatown is crafted by writer Amy Chu  (Red Sonja, Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death, Netflix’s DOTA: Dragon’s Blood) and illustrator Soo Lee  (Ash and ThornStillwater: The Escape, Vampirella Fairy Tales).

The trade paperback will be published by Dark Horse Comics’ Berger Books imprint and available in January 2023.

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Fantagraphics will celebrate 40 years of ‘Love & Rockets’ with a slipcase edition and more

Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez will attend Comic-Con International this week to celebrate the anniversary.

Fantagraphics has announced their plans for the 40th anniversary of Love and Rockets by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez. Those plans include a slipcase edition of the first 50 issues of the groundbreaking title.

The Brothers Hernandez self-published the first issue of Love and Rockets back in 1981, which was re-published by Fantagraphics in 1982 with a color cover. The series would continue through 1996 and issue #50, the final issue of the first volume. Since then, the series has returned for three additional volumes, as well as countless spinoff series featuring the characters from L&R.

“When I read Gilbert and Jaime’s stories in Love and Rockets for the first time their work looked to me, miraculously, like the artistic future of comics — and so it was,” said Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth. “It has certainly been a high point of my career (and my life) to have known and published these brilliant cartoonists over the last 40 years, and I look forward to publishing them another 40. Well, OK. Maybe 30.”

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North + Henderson are back together for ‘Danger and Other Unknown Risks’

The young-adult graphic novel about the end of the world arrives next April.

Ryan North and Erica Henderson, who cracked people up with their work on Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, will reunite for a new graphic novel titled Danger and Other Unknown Risks. The young-adult title is due out in April of next year from Penguin Teen.

The publisher describes it as “a twisty, spellbinding adventure about a girl and her dog who want to save the world.”

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Robot love: Dark Horse announces ‘War Birds’ by Parkhouse + Wessel

Two drones on opposite sides of a war fall in love in the new graphic novel.

Geoffrey D. Wessel and Steve Parkhouse will tell the Romeo + Juliet-esque tale of two war robots in War Birds, a new graphic novel coming from Dark Horse Comics next year.

It’s “the story of two drones in love in the midst of endless war,” according to the writer, with Parkhouse both drawing and lettering it. And providing the cover:

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I.N.J. Culbard will write and draw ‘Salamandre’ graphic novel

Dark Horse will publish the graphic novel through their Berger Books imprint in November.

Dark Horse Comics has announced Salamandre, a “uniquely evocative” graphic novel written and drawn by I.N.J. Culbard coming later this year from their Berger Books imprint.

“Writing what you know is really about writing what you think you know,” said I.N.J. Culbard. “Instead of what really happened, a confabulation grows with each retelling—a story, transforming a factual truth into a universal one. I took an event from one hot summer afternoon in my own life, made it the finale and then worked backwards through my story, using the jigsaw puzzle of my own memories growing up on both sides of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War as a foundation for this world—that is a little off-kilter to our own.”

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