Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Dark Horse announced several new projects and release dates at the New York Comic-Con, including the eagerly awaited The Umbrella Academy, which is being written by My Chemical Romance front man Gerard Way with art by Gabriel Ba and colors by Dave Stewart. The first issue has been announced for a September release, but the story will be previewed in the Dark Horse Free Comic Book Day special. Way is currently busy touring, which is cutting into his time available for comics scripting, but according to editor Scott Allie, he’s giving as much attention as he can to the series.

The Free Comics Book Day issue will also preview two other series: Zero Killer by Rex Mundi’s Arvid Nelson and artist Matt Camp. It’s a dark futuristic tale set in a New York City filled with preying gangs. The third story is Pantheon City, by Ron Marz and Clement Suave, another SF tale.

The upcoming Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 comics, written by Joss Whedon, is poised to be a huge seller. Initial orders for the first issue are 80,000, and sales should easily go above the 100,000 mark. The series is being promoted on MySpace with a contest where fans get a chance to be an extra in the series. Dark Horse is also planning another Serenity series by Whedon.

Buffy Season 8 will continue with an arc by Brian K. Vaughan with art by Georges Jeanty. The story focuses on Faith and Giles.

Conan continues to be a big seller for Dark Horse, and they are planning a series based on other Robert E. Howard characters such as King Kull and Solomon Kane. Pigeons from Hell, a rather offbeat Howard creation, is being adapted by SF writer Joe Lansdale, who is putting his own spin on the property.

Dark Horse is also releasing Conan the Phenomenon, an in-depth history of the character in all his incarnations, with a spotlight on Frank Frazetta and a biography of Howard.

On the Hellboy front, The Hellboy Companion is due in June, featuring a complete guidebook to the history of Hellboy’s world, with character histories, obliquely told by creator Mike Mignola, now laid out in greater depth; for instance, Abe Sapien’s origin will be spelled out. The entire book has been supervised by Mignola.

On the reprint front, the Star Wars Omnibus series will continue reprinting several mini-series in a single oversized color volume. Buffy will also get the collected treatment with The Buffy Omnibus, due in July, which will reprint various mini-series in chronological order.

Finally, the first new Grendel Story by creator Matt Wagner in many years is in the wings, with a preview due for San Diego. The series of Harvey Comics reprints that began with Casper will be followed up by volumes collecting the adventures of Richie Rich and Hot Stuff.