Dark Horse

Yesterday Dark Horse Comics unveiled a short motion comic-style teaser for a new series by Mike Mignola, Chris Roberson, Paul Grist and Bill Crabtree titled The Visitor: How And Why He Stayed. Today the publisher officially announced the series as a five-issue look at with one of the most unexpected mysteries of the Hellboy world.

Without the massive popularity of Osamu Tezuka's trademark creation Astro Boy, the manga and anime industries might look very different today. By taking the hot topic of the time --- nuclear power --- and marrying it with a heroic child character and the influence of the Walt Disney cartoons that were flooding into postwar Japan, Tezuka not only secured his reputation as "the father of manga," but created an enduring icon of action and adventure. The book also had a very specific influence on one of the greatest mangaka of the 21st century, Naoki Urasawa, who retold one of the classic Astro Boy tales in Pluto, but succeeded in making it very much his own.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our years on the Internet, it’s that there’s no aspect of comics that can’t be broken down and quantified in a single definitive list, preferably in amounts of five or ten. And since there’s no more definitive authority than ComicsAlliance, we’re taking it upon ourselves to compile Top Five lists of everything you could ever want to know about comics. Halloween is unquestionably the most wonderful time of the year, but how can we take our love for Halloween and our love for comics and combine them to enjoy at the same time? I'll tell you how. By making a list of the best monster team-ups in comics, that's how. Monsters have always been a great fit for comics and there's nothing like the old comic character crossover/team-up, so this is a real peanut butter and chocolate situation.

There are a lot of boutique toy companies out there, but Super7 has consistently hit that sweet spot of niche properties and clever interpretations. This year at New York Comic Con, the company's ability to balance those elements was on display in full force with new MUSCLE sets, an updated look at 3.75" Hellboy figures, and the grand debut of the Masters of the Universe Classic Ultimate Editions. It's possible Super7 had the best pound-for-pound showing of exciting new toys at NYCC.

For a while there, it seemed like the only sure things in life were death, taxes, and Ron Perlman talking up the possibility of a Hellboy 3. Even just scrolling back through our own archives, you can find multiple attempts by Perlman to either talk up the chances of a sequel or get fans to pitch in on the project. Even after Guillermo Del Toro went dark on the subject, Perlman continued to hold out hope that another film would get made.

In terms of fantasy characters that have made a huge impact in the world of comics, you don't get much bigger than Robert E. Howard's conquering hero Conan. Over the years, the Cimmerian has built up an impressive list of enemies throughout The Hyborian Age, but which one is his most deadly foe?

James Stokoe, the creator of Orc Stain, knows a few things about monsters, so it's apt that he's taking on the Aliens franchise as writer and artist on Dead Orbit, a four-issue miniseries from Dark Horse that launches April 26, 2017.

We've known for a while that Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods is coming to TV in 2017, as a series on the Starz network, but it turns out it's also coming to comics, as a Dark Horse series adapted by P. Craig Russell with art by Scott Hampton and others. The plan is to adapt the novel over 27 issues, which will be collected in three hardcovers (and presumably paperbacks down the road). The story arcs are titled Shadows, My Ainsel, and The Moment of the Storm. Russell will also provide some interior art, as will Walt Simonson, Mark Buckingham, and Colleen Doran.

In June 2017, Dark Horse will publish The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars Part One, the first volume in a new three-part The Legend of Korra graphic novel series that serves as an official continuation of the animated series. Turf Wars is written by Korra co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino, with art by Irene Koh, colors by Jane Bak, and covers by Heather Campbell. Korra co-creator Bryan Konietzko is a consultant.

The question most often asked of the ComicsAlliance staff is a variation of, “Which comic books should I be reading?” or, “I’m new to comics, what’s a good place to start?” The Wednesday deluge of new comic books, graphic novels and collected editions can be daunting even for the longtime reader, much less for those totally unfamiliar with creators, characters and publishers, and the dark mysteries of comic book shopping like variants, pre-ordering, and formats. It’s with these challenges in mind that we’ve created Best Comic Books Ever (This Week), an ongoing guide curated by the ComicsAlliance staff. This is where new comics readers and seasoned Wednesday shoppers alike can find our picks of the best books the medium has to offer.