Awesome Announcements from NYCC

Photo from comicsalliance.com

One of the bigger comic conventions around was held this past weekend in New York City.  NYCC is one of those conventions where publishers actually make big announcements for things that are down the road, and after a San Diego Comic Convention where almost nothing interesting was announced,  I was happy to see that some exciting news come out of NYCC.

Up first is the most promising tid-bit, and one that soothes the pain of Sweet Tooth having only two issues left...

Vertigo announced a new Jeff Lemire series titled Trillium.  It's plugged as "The last love story ever told", and since it is written and drawn by Jeff Lemire, that means it will be poignant, heart wrenching and will probably make me cry.

It follows a space-botanist from the far future and an explorer from the 1920's who manage to fall in love despite the separation of space and time. Trillium is set to be a ten issue series, which is good news given that there'll be a gaping hole left in my comics reading when Sweet Tooth comes to an end.  I'll be hard up for some new Jeff Lemire comics come 2013, but I do wish this was an ongoing rather than a limited series...either way, it sounds awesome. This one is published by Vertigo and is set to hit the shelves sometime in 2013.  I'll be there for it.

Photo courtesy of comicsalliance.com

Next up is another Vertigo title, this time from two of the comics industry's biggest up and coming dudes, Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy.  The Wake is a sci-fi horror epic which begins when something terrifying is discovered in the depths of the ocean.  (My fingers are crossed for Cthulhu!)  Snyder and Murphy have worked together before on an American Vampire mini-series.

I personally have fairly limited experience with these two creators.  I've read a year's worth of Snyder's DCnU Batman, but I recently gave that title the drop when DC announced that there'd be a giant sprawling crossover story with the Joker where I'd have to buy a shit load of other Batman-family books just to keep up.  I've also read the first five issues worth of American Vampire, and wasn't that interested, but that's likely more due to that fact that I'm bored by vampires. Anyway, I've only been moderately impressed with Snyder's writing, but I'm willing to give the guy another shot.  He seems to be writing everything these days, so hopefully he isn't spreading himself too thin, and can put together a good run on The Wake.

The big draw here for me is that fact that Sean Murphy will be doing the art.  I have to give a lot of credit to Murphy, his art on Joe the Barbarian was a big reason I got back into reading comics as an adult.  To put it simply, the guy is a phenomenal artist, and I can't wait to see what he does with a sci-fi horror story.

The Wake is set to hit shelves in Spring of 2013.

Photo courtesy of http://scottkowalchuk.blogspot.com/

Last up, comes a slew of announcements from Oni Press.  The publisher who brings me my monthly dose of The Sixth Gun announced a whole bunch of stuff that has me excited.  First off, in January, Oni Press will relaunch it's website and feature new webcomics serials.  Once these webcomic serials finish up, they'll be collected in print as graphic novels.  One of these webcomic serials will be Down Set Fight which will feature the art of Scott Kowalchuk, an artist I'm a big fan of, and a guy who was cool enough to create this sweet birthday commission for me a year ago.  I've been wondering what the dude has been up to for a while now, it's all been a secret, so I'm happy to finally have something tangible to look forward to.

Also on the webcomic-serial front, Oni has a science-fiction-romance meets Blade Runner story
 coming from Jamie S. Rich and Natalie Nourigat. It features the rather drab title, A Boy and a Girl.  Nourigat got her start writing and drawing her bio-comic Switching Gears, and I really like her art, so I'll be checking this one out as well.

photo courtesy of
comicsalliance.com

Rounding things out come two announcements regarding Cullen Bunn, the writer of The Sixth Gun.  Up first is a spin off of that very same series titled The Sixth Gun: Sons of the Gun.

This six issue mini series will feature origin stories for General Hume's four lieutenants from the series' first story arc.  I have always hoped for more Sixth Gun material featuring these villains, and I'm finally getting my wish.  These four were some bad-ass dudes, so this should be one dark and compelling story.  I always like a story about villains.  Also, it should be cool to learn more about the guns of power and the effect they have on their owners.

Brian Churilla will be handling the art for this one.  He's pretty much an unknown for me, but that teaser image looks pretty cool, so hopefully he can do justice to the series and the material.

photo courtesy of
comicsalliance.com

The other Cullen Bunn related piece of news regards another six issue mini series.  Helheim is a dark fantasy featuring Joelle Jones on art.  Bunn describes the series as "Frankenstein in the viking era".  The story follows a hero who is brought back from his peaceful and honorable death and thrust into a war between two witches.

Based on the strength of The Sixth Gun I'll be more than willing to give this series a shot.  Bunn has impressed me with his ability to deliver some awesome fantasy elements in The Sixth Gun, so I'll be interested to see what he does in a more standard fantasy setting.

Jones is another unknown artist for me, but her art from the teaser image looks pretty cool.  It reminds me a bit of Becky Cloonan, which definitely isn't a bad thing.  I'll be looking forward to this one.

Judging from all these great announcements, it looks like 2013 is shaping up to be a solid year on the comics front.  Lots of cool new stuff to check out.  I'm sure most, if not all, of these comics I mentioned above will get some attention here in the future.  Keep an eye out.



Also, this post would not have been possible with out the continually amazing comics coverage of http://www.comicsalliance.com.

Lastly, thanks to Scott's Snazzy Sketchblog for the Down Set Fight art.