Slugfest | Dark Horse resurrects ‘Lester of the Lesser Gods’

Plus: The Winx saga continues, Usagi turns 40, the Dreadnoks return and more!

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

Lester of the Lesser Gods, which was originally published by Albatross Funnybooks, is finding new life at Dark Horse this year.

Written by Eric Powell and Lucky Yates, and featuring artwork by Gideon Kendall, Lester began life as unproduced animated short before finding its way to comics.

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Titan will revive ‘Savage Sword of Conan’ in all its bloody, black-and-white glory

The magazine-format title will launch sometime next year.

With just a little more than a week left before Titan’s first issue of Conan the Barbarian lays siege to comic stores, the publisher announced today in San Diego plans for another Conan title — Savage Sword of Conan.

Yes, Titan will revive the magazine-sized format title that Marvel published from 1974 through 1995. The black-and-white stories were “untethered from the bounds of the restrictive Comics Code Authority” at the time, according to Titan, and featured more adult-oriented stories about Conan by Roy Thomas, Neal Adams, Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Walter Simonson and more.

“Ever since we announced the launch of this new comic book line, fans and creators alike have been clamoring for the return of this iconic title – ONLY if it was in its original B&W anthology magazine format,” said editor Matt Murray. “It’s been a really tough secret to keep that we at Heroic Signatures and Titan Comics have actually been planning on that all along, but it can be a tough skull to crack on a few levels. We hope that we can live up to the expectations, as well as the legacy of the classic book, and think that with the writers and artists we already have on board (and those we’re still talking to) we can forge a new and exciting chapter in Conan’s savage story.”

Here’s the teaser they released:

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King Arthur meets noir in ‘The Cold Ever After’

Jeremy Whitley and Megan Huang’s new graphic novel, which has been years in the making, will arrive from Titan Comics next year.

Jeremy Whitley and Megan Huang will combine Arthurian fantasy with a dose of detective noir in The Cold Ever After, a new graphic novel announced by Titan Comics this week at the San Diego Comic Con.

“Longer ago than I’d like to admit, I had this idea. I was stumped for a new idea for a story I wanted to tell, but I had all these genres I loved. So I thought, what if I combine a couple of very disparate genres and see what I can make out of that? One was ‘Arthurian Noir,'” Whitley, the co-creator of Princeless, said on Twitter. “Arthurian Noir really stuck with me, and I thought: the noir detective and the disgraced knight are really compatible ideas that I really like together, but also I’m really tired of Lancelot stories. I wanted a beautiful queen and a stalwart knight I had never seen so that’s how we ended up with Noelani. She was taken from her home by the church based on a holy test and trained to be the king’s Holy Champion for years. Shown no love or care, just training, until she was sent on a dangerous mission to retrieve the would-be queen.”

Huang said the idea predates her first published comics work. “This OGN was a pitch even before my first big comics work. So it’s amazing to finally talk about it,” the artist of Jia and the Nian Monster said on Twitter.

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Matt Groening’s ‘Disenchantment’ comes to comics

An ‘Untold Tales” volume will collect previously created by as-yet-unreleased material based on the Netflix show.

Disenchantment, the animated Netflix series from Matt Groening that’s run for four seasons (with a fifth on the way), will come to comics later this year courtesy of Titan Comics.

Disenchantment: Untold Tales Volume 1 will collect two limited-release comics as well as bunch of previously unreleased material featuring Bean, Elfo, Luci and more. Titan plans two additional volumes as well.

According to the publisher, only the first two issues of these comics were ever released as a convention exclusive in 2019. Meanwhile, 500 pages and 17 issues of original strips with new stories were left unpublished. The first graphic novel will also feature exclusive content from the show’s creators.

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Titan confirms their new Conan creative team

Jim Zub, Roberto De La Torre and José Villarrubia will tell new stories about what is best in life.

Titan Comics have confirmed via press release what we learned earlier this year — Jim Zub will write their upcoming Conan title. He’ll be joined by artist Roberto De La Torre, who drew the preview art that was revealed this summer, while José Villarrubia will provide colors.

All three creators have worked on Conan before. Zub’s written many issues of the title for Marvel over the last few years, while Torre has done a couple of short stories featuring the character. Villarrubia probably has the most Conan on his resume, having worked on the character for multiple publishers, as well as doing illustrations for Robert E. Howard’s Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, a role-playing game released a few years back.

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Quick Hits | Rachel Pollack hospitalized

Rest in peace, Lily Renée. Plus news on IDW Media, censorship in Missouri, Paul Allor and more.

Creators | Former Doom Patrol writer Rachel Pollack has been hospitalized and is currently in the ICU, according to a GoFundMe page started by Patricia Nolan. The page is seeking financial help for Pollack’s health care. “If she is able to go home, she will need 24-hour care. Up to now, we haven’t needed your help. It is time now,” the message reads. Pollack, who is also a novelist and Tarot expert, in addition to writing comics, most recently worked on the Comixology Originals title The Never Ending Party.

Passings | Lily Renée, who worked as a penciller and inker on titles for Fiction House and St. Johns Publications back in the 1940s and 1950s, has passed away at the age of 101. Trina Robbins reported the news on Facebook after hearing from Renée’s son Rick. “She died peacefully at home, as was her wish, yesterday after living a full life of more than 101 years. There is a time for all of us and her death comes on the heels of the birth of her third great grandchild earlier this year,” he said in his message.

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Jim Zub will write Titan’s upcoming Conan comic

The new series will launch in May of 2023.

During the Conan the Barbarian 90th Anniversary panel at Comic-Con International this week, Titan Comics announced that Jim Zub will write their upcoming Conan comic.

Zub has plenty of history with the character, having written the character at Marvel. Zub’s run will launch with a story during next year’s Free Comic Book Day, with the first issue coming in May of next year as well.

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Titan Comics will publish new Conan comics starting next year

Titan and Heroic Signatures announce they are teaming up for new comics featuring Conan and other Robert E. Howard characters.

Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures have announced that Titan will publish comics featuring Conan the Barbarian and other Robert E. Howard characters starting next year.

Titan and Heroic plan to launch a new Conan the Barbarian ongoing series in May of 2023, along with miniseries featuring “Robert E. Howard’s rich tapestry of iconic heroes.” The deal also includes the Conan omnibus program that Marvel was publishing.

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Titan Comics will adapt David Bowie’s ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’

Dan Watters and Dev Pramanik will adapt the classic science fiction story into a graphic novel.

Titan Comics has announced plans to adapt the 1976 British science fiction film The Man Who Fell to Earth into a graphic novel by writer Dan Watters and artist Dev Pramanik.

The film starred rock icon David Bowie as an alien searching for water to save his planet, and finds wealth and fame on Earth — a parable about the current climate crisis.

The Man Who Fell to Earth is a masterpiece of a film with an awful lot to say; about men, about the Earth, and lots of things in between,” Watters said. “There are ideas in the film, about climate crises and corporate greed, that are more relevant now than they were when Nicolas Roeg set out to make it. And now here we are. I think it’s high time to look at the world through Thomas Newton’s mismatched eyes all over again. Perhaps he’ll see something we’ve been missing.”

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Free Comic Book Day 2022 Gold titles revealed

Diamond Comics Distributors has revealed the 11 gold-tiered titles you can get for free next May.

Diamond Comics Distributors has revealed the 11 “gold sponsor” titles that retailers will have available on Free Comic Book Day 2022, which is scheduled for May 7.

“This year’s lineup of titles has something for every kind of comic fan,” said Ashton Greenwood, Free Comic Book Day spokesperson. “We’re excited for FCBD to return to the first Saturday in May, and we can’t wait to celebrate the day with another incredible line up of comic book titles. We hope fans will safely visit their local comic shops to celebrate and to pick up a few of the great titles available this year.”

Free Comic Book Day returns to its traditional May date next year after a couple of years where the pandemic caused a bit of a shuffle — but what’s new, right? This past year the event was held in August, while in 2020 the date went through several changes before ultimately being cancelled — but comics were still delivered to retailers for distribution as they saw fit during the summer.

Here’s a look at the Gold Sponsor titles; the Silver titles will likely be announced soon as well. Also, there are no DC titles on the list, since they no longer use Diamond, but it’s a safe bet they’ll have free comics available in May as well.

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Titan to publish a ‘Cowboy Bebop’ comic that ties into the Netflix series

Dan Watters and Lamar Mathurin will bring the infamous space cowboys to comics in December.

Netflix is adapting the worldwide anime phenomenon Cowboy Bebop into a live-action series this November, and Titan Comics has announced they’re doing the tie-in comic — along with a prequel novel and an art book.

Cowboy Bebop: The Comic Series will be a four-issue miniseries by Home Sick Pilots writer Dan Watters and artist Lamar Mathurin. The first issue debuts in December, with a trade paperback collection following next May.

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A pair of Doctors return in ‘Doctor Who: Empire of the Wolf’ this November

Jody Houser, Roberta Ingranata and Enrica Eren Angiolini will tell a story featuring the Eighth Doctor, the Eleventh Doctor and Rose Tyler.

Titan Comics will bring Doctor Who — specifically the Eighth Doctor and the Eleventh Doctor — back to comics this November in Doctor Who: Empire of the Wolf.

Jody Houser, Roberta Ingranata and Enrica Eren Angiolini will reunite for this new story, which also includes the popular Doctor’s companion Rose Tyler.

“It’s always a blast to get to dig deeper into elements of the Whoniverse that we’ve only seen a bit of or haven’t seen in a while. It’s such an expansive playground to explore and tinker with,” Houser said.

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