Slugfest | ‘Titans: Beast World’ has giant starfish and lenticular covers

Plus more news and announcements on Canto, Nomads, Batman, Blue Book, Star Wars and more.

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

DC has released a preview of the upcoming Titans: Beast World miniseries, which was announced this past summer. The crossover event will feature a main series by Tom Taylor, Ivan Reis and Danny Miki, with various tie-ins throughout.

The story centers on The Necrostar, a giant space starfish that rivals Starro and who the Titans, along with the rest of the DC Universe, team up to fight. Along the way, they somehow end up being turned into animal versions of themselves. Beast Boy, in fact, will show that it takes a giant starfish to stop a giant starfish, as he transforms into a version of Starro himself.

Here’s a preview, along with a look at the main cover, which is by Ivan Reis, Danny Miki and Brad Anderson:

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Marvel announces ‘Star Wars: Visions’ series by creators from around the world

The series of one-shots will kick off in November with Peach Momoko.

Marvel and Lucasfilm will bring the Star Wars: Visions series to comics with a series of one-shots by comic creators from around the world — starting in November with Peach Momoko.

If you aren’t familiar with Star Wars: Visions, it’s an animated TV series on Disney+ that has featured cartoons by creators from around the world, each bringing their own style and vision to the Star Wars universe. Given that she’s already re-envisioned the Marvel Universe in her Demon Days series, Momoko seems like a natural choice to kick the initiative off.

“I really enjoy thinking about how to tell my own version of Star Wars, while keeping in mind the concepts of the original universe,” Momoko told StarWars.com.

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A new D-Squad assembles for the ‘Dark Droids’ Star Wars event

Marc Guggenheim, Salva Espín and David Messina will pit R2D2 and a squad of droids against the Scourge.

Marvel’s upcoming Dark Droids crossover event will resurrect a concept from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series — the D-Squad. Marc Guggenheim, Salva Espín and David Messina will enlist a group of droids to help R2D2 battle the Scourge, the virus spreading through the galaxy’s droid population that’s making them turn homicidal.

While Dark Droids has been billed as a horror story set in the Star Wars universe, Guggenheim says the D-Squad miniseries will have a different tone.

“It’s high adventure mixed with as much humor as I could conjure. I approached it like the first Avengers movie, but with droids instead of superheroes,” he told StarWars.com.

The original D-Squad was a group of astromech droids, which is the type of droid R2D2 is. This time around the squad will feature several different types of droids, including two bounty hunters.

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‘Star Wars: Dark Droids’ kicks off in August

The crossover event introduces a droid virus that corrupts their programming and spreads like wildfire across the galaxy.

Both the Empire and the Rebel Alliance will face dire consequences when their droids break bad during an event that will run through Marvel’s Star Wars titles starting in August.

Announced during the Star Wars Celebration event earlier this month, Star Wars: Dark Droids will introduce something called the Scourge that will spread through the galaxy. It’ll infect everything from Lobot to a squad of Clone War-Era Prototype Battle Droids, bringing a sense of dread and horror to the Star Wars line.

The event kicks off in Star Wars: Dark Droids #1, which comes out Aug. 3 from writer Charles Soule and artist Luke Ross, before spreading through the other Star Wars titles. Here’s the rundown …

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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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Slugfest | Rounding up news from ComicsPro

Find out what Marvel, Mad Cave, BOOM! and more revealed to retailers this week.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Today we take a look at several projects announced this week during the ComicsPro meeting. Hit the links for more information.

This week’s ComicsPro meeting in Pittsburgh — that’s the retailers’ industry meeting where publishers present their plans to them, among many other activities — brought news from DC, Marvel, Skybound and several more publishers. We already covered DC’s new crossover series, Knight Terrors, and their manga news, as well as the new shared universe coming from Skybound. But there was a lot more revealed at the meeting.

It’s interesting to see what the ComicsPro meeting has evolved into over the years. There was a time when the meeting was pretty clandestine, as publishers talked directly to retailers, and journalists and bloggers would try to suss out what was revealed because press weren’t invited to the meeting. Well, except one — Matthew Price, who wrote about comics for the Oklahoman, is also a comics retailer, and I’d remember, when I was at Blog@Newsarama and maybe even Robot 6, following his writing to see what came out of those meetings. (Nowadays we get multiple press releases, and keynote speeches are regularly posted online — here’s this year’s).

I mention this because this week was also Price’s last week at the Oklahoman; here’s his final farewell letter for the publication, where he worked for more than two decades. Best of luck to him as he focuses not only on Speeding Bullet Comics but also his Substack, where he’ll continue to write about comics.

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Slugfest | Gustavo Duarte’s ‘Speechless’ arrives in print in April

Plus: Jimmie Robinson, Mecha Archie, Sins of Sinister, Dead Romans and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you from comics creators, publishers and more. Hit the links for more information.

DC Comics will release a print collection of the digital series Speechless by cartoonist Gustavo Duarte in April.

The series has been appearing on the DC Universe Infinite app, with three issues featuring Harley Quinn, Cyborg and Superman appearing thus far. Like much of the Brazilian creator’s comics, each chapter is wordless.

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It’s Vader time in the latest ‘Black, White & Red’ anthology from Marvel

The four-issue anthology miniseries will launch in April.

Darth Vader joins the likes of Elektra, Deadpool and Wolverine later this year as the Star Wars villain headlines in his own Black, White & Red miniseries.

Marvel’s Black, White & Red series feature stories by a variety of creators told in three colors. Luckily Vader’s lightsaber fits the theme.

“This is a project we’ve been waiting to do for a while and we’ve got more amazing talent lined up that I can’t wait to announce,” Editor Mark Paniccia told Marvel.com. “It’s such a thrill to use this unique storytelling approach on one of the greatest villains in the galaxy.”

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Dark Horse reveals details on three ‘Star Wars High Republic’ titles

Dark Horse heads back to the Jedi Council’s past for several new all-ages adventures.

Dark Horse has revealed details on three new Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures titles they have in the works.

Dark Horse announced they had picked up the license to publish all-ages Star Wars titles last year, a license previously held by IDW Publishing — and one that’s distinctly different from the publishing license Dark Horse had in years past, the one now held by Marvel. Earlier this year Dark Horse released Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories, their first foray back into the Star Wars universe.

The three new titles are set during the High Republic timeline, which is many decades before the stories told during the Skywalker saga films. So far the stories have spanned novels and comics, and focus heavily on the Jedi Council.

Here’s a look at the three new titles:

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Slugfest | Harley Quinn, San Starros and more from NYCC

Check out a round-up of recent announcements about ‘Batman,’ Jonathan Hickman, ‘West of Sundown’ and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you from comics creators, publishers and more. Some of these are from this weekend’s New York Comic Con, while some are from before. Hit the links for more information.

DC held a panel focused on the Batman titles yesterday during New York Comic Con, revealing some new artwork and one new project — Multiversity: Harley Screws Up the DCU. It’s by Frank Tieri and Logan Faerber, both of whom have worked on the character before.

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Starring in own miniseries, Yoda is

The 10-issue series will chronicle key moments in the Jedi master’s life..

Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim has brought news that Lucasfilm and Marvel plans to publish a 10-issue series about the life of Yoda.

The comic will be told in three arcs by writers Cavan Scott, Jody Houser and Marc Guggenheim and artists Nico Leon, Luke Ross and Alessandro Miracolo. It’ll be set moments before Yoda’s first appearance in Empire Strikes Back, as the ancient Jedi master reflects on key moments in his life before he meets Luke Skywalker.

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Marvel, Lucasfilm announce two new ‘Star Wars: The High Republic’ titles

The new titles were announced during this weekend’s Star Wars Celebration.

Marvel and Lucasfilm have announced two new comics set during the Star Wars: The High Republic timeline that was first announced back in 2020.

The High Republic has, so far anyway, been a publishing initiative for Lucasfilm, spanning novels and comics, and telling the story of the Jedi Knights many decades before the Skywalker saga. It’s introduced several new characters, in addition to using a younger Yoda in the stories.

A second volume of the ongoing series Star Wars: The High Republic will be written by Cavan Scott and drawn by Ario Anindito, who worked on the first volume. In addition, Marvel will publish Star Wars: The High Republic – The Blade, a four issue miniseries by Charles Soule and Marco Castiello.

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