Jeremy Atkins, head of publicity, opened the Dark Horse panel at WonderCon on Saturday afternoon which he co-hosted with Editor Shawna Gore.

Atkins began the panel discussion by asking the audience if they were reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was met by applause. Some of the upcoming Buffy plans include Drew (Cloverfield, Buffy) Goddard writing the new arc beginning in March; the next trade shipping in June (which collects the Brian K. Vaughan arc); and a major, although unnamed Buffy and Joss Whedon bit of news coming in July, perhaps during Comic-Con International.

2008 will be a big year for Hellboy, Atkins then said, with a lot of publishing to support the upcoming movie sequel, and two new series coming at the end of the year - a three issue series set in Appalachia, and a six issue Hellboy: The Wild Hunt, which Mike Mignola was working on at the same time he was scripting the second movie with Guilermo del Toro. Speaking of the movie, Atkins said that it will completely satisfy fans for everything they want from Hellboy, as well as what they may be looking for from Pan’s Labyrinth.

In teasing the upcoming Serenity mini-series, Atkins said, “Just imagine what would happen if one of their big deals actually paid off.”

Gore then took over the presentation, and spoke about the upcoming Creepy magazine collections. “It’s known as a horror anthology, but it’s really one of the greatest art anthologies to ever be presented in any medium,” Gore said. The original material will not be shrunk to fit the collections, and Dark Horse will collect the entire 20 year run in either 13 or 14 volumes. None of the original artwork will be altered in the new collections, Gore stressed. The first volume will come out in July, and three volumes a year are planned, with Eerie due to start next year.

In connection with this, Gore said, Dark Horse will produce a new Creepy anthology which will be in comic book format. The series will be black and white, and feature well-known writers and artists from many genres.

Gore then announced that she and Dark Horse have reached an agreement with Bernie Wrightson to reprint his 1983 version of Frankenstein. The Dark Horse 25th anniversary edition of the illustrated novel will be in hardcover, Gore said.

Gore also announced that Dark Horse will collect The K Chronicles in an omnibus collection of the first four collections by Keith Knight. The collection will be 8 ½ x 11” and over 500 pages long. The collection will feature an introduction by Kyle Baker.

Atkins then said that Dark Horse will be re-publishing the first volume of The Perry Bible Fellowship with new material in a new reprint edition. The collection, Atkins said is another step in Dark Horse’s initiative to collect high quality webcomics, and will be collecting both Achewood and Wonder Mart later this year in a similar format to Perry Bible Fellowship.

Moving back to movies, Atkins said that Dark Horse will be doing new Indiana Jones comics starting in June entitled Indiana Jones and the Tomb of the Gods, along with the film adaptation coming in May.

Dark Horse’s Star Wars Vector will continue throughout the year, Atkins said. The crossover storyline will tie all the titles together in continuity – though Atkins was mute on how it will all work out, and admitted that he was originally skeptical about the storyline being able to do it, but it does.

Moving to Conan, Atkins said that Dark Horse will continue with the character in Conan the Cimmerian #0 in June. Conan #50 in March will be double sized “with a couple of surprises,” Atkins said. Dark Horse will also be relaunching many of the other Robert E. Howard characters in the coming months, Atkins said, including Kull and Solomon Kane, both launching this summer.

Dark Horse manga will launch Gantz in June, Atkins said.

Moving to their own online comics, Atkins discussed Dark Horse Presents which appears online at MySpace.com. The “book” will continue on for another year, Atkins said. Shaman Warrior will be appearing every Friday online, chapter by chapter, until the first volume is complete.

The second series of Umbrella Academy is in the plans, Atkins said, but a launch date has not been set.

Moving back to her horror titles, Gore said that Steve Niles’ Criminal Macabre will be moving online in Dark Horse Presents with an eight page short in April, and another in May, both drawn by Kyle Hotz. A collection of Criminal Macabre: My Demon Baby will be coming this summer.

The second collection of Emily the Strange will be coming in the fall. Gore said that another “Emily” based announcement will be coming later this year – “Something which may not have to do with the comics, specifically.”

Gore announced that she’s also shepherding a new horror series entitled The Cleaners which focuses on trauma scene cleaners who are called in to clean up cases that the police don’t want people to know about…things that could not, or should not have happened and border on the supernatural. Gore said she was pitched the series by Mark Wheaton and Joshua Fialkov, and fell in love with it immediately. The artist for The Cleaners is Rahsan Ekdal, a newcomer who first showed Gore his portfolio at last year’s WonderCon. “He draws like if Geof Darrow and Kevin O’Neil had a little love baby.”

Atkins then opened the floor to questions from the audience.

The first volume of Creepy should be released by Comic-Con: International. Gore clarified on the collection process, saying that the volumes will not collect the reprint stories that appeared later in the run.

Currently, there are no plans for any Dark Horse/DC crossovers. “When it makes sense, we’ll find ways to make it work, for sure,” Atkins said.

Asked about how Dark Horse will deal with Solomon Kane, given that he is shown to have some beliefs that are very not politically correct, Atkins said about the character who is something anachronistic, that Dark Horse want to remain true to the vision of the character, but not focus on Kane’s moral values that are somewhat disagreeable.

No artist has been named for Solomon Kane, but Editor Scott Allie will write it.

Dark Horse has a one shot graphic novel for Star Wars: Unleashed which will tie into the game. The OGN is due in late summer or fall.

Asked if any more 13th Son projects coming, Gore said that Kelley Jones has a story in mind for it, but is also working on Supernatural Freak Machine with Steve Niles, and Gore wants him to finish that before moving back to 13th Son.

No new Aliens vs Predator projects are planned, Atkins said, but the property has a lot support in the Dark Horse offices.