Mark Millar's inaugural Kapow! Comic Con was by most accounts a good time for professionals and attendees, and naturally came with some juicy announcements of new projects. Among them, Nick Spencer and Emma Rios on a new Cloak & Dagger series for Marvel, and no less than four new creator-owned series from Millar, including a Hit-Girl spinoff and a new superhero book with Frank Quitely.


Surprising no one but delighting many, Mark Millar is working on a Hit-Girl ongoing series, a spinoff of his and John Romita, Jr.'s mega popular Kick-Ass comic book. Millar gave Comic Book Resources an exclusive first look at artwork from the Icon series, which will be drawn by Leandro Fernandez and debut in September.

I found that as I was writing the 'Kick-Ass' comic, Hit-Girl would almost take it over because she was so much fun to write. When I was writing 'Kick-Ass 2' I found myself just desperate to write Hit-Girl, but I had to force myself to give Kick-Ass as many scenes as possible because it was his book. So since I had so many ideas for Hit-Girl that I couldn't fit into one book, so I've just spun it off into a solo title. It made perfect sense. Everyone coming out of the movie or reading the comic just wanted more Hit-Girl, so you needed more stories of her.

Also coming from Millar is Supercrooks, which the writer described as completing a trilogy of supervillain projects that also includes Wanted and Nemesis. Illustrated by Leinil Francis Yu and tentatively scheduled to launch later in 2011, Supercrooks is the story of frustrated villains who leave America for Europe, where there are no superheroes to foil their plans. The series will also come through Marvel's Icon imprint.

Curiously, Image Comics, not Icon, will publish a presently untitled superhero epic from Millar and Frank Quitely, who previously worked together on Wildstorm's The Authority. Expected to launch in January 2012, Millar described the series as "massive."

Frank Quitely's a guy who you don't always get to work with. He's not just an average artist, so it should be something special when you work with him, and it's been ten years since he and I worked together. So I wanted to give him something really, really good. I created this thing that was a huge superhero epic with a mythology as rich as 'Lord or The Rings' or 'Star Wars' but along the lines of 'Crisis On Infinite Earths.' It's a whole cast of 100 characters in a big epic together. It'll be like a Marvel or DC summer event but with new characters and with the gloves off. All the things you can't do in Marvel and DC books, we'll be able to do.

Finally, Millar confirmed he is working on a project with legendary comics artist Dave Gibbons (Watchmen, Martha Washington). However, nothing else is known about the project as the creators are concerned about a trademark issue that must be cleared up before promotion can begin in earnest.

In other Kapow! news, Marvel announced a new Cloak & Dagger miniseries from Morning Glories and Iron Man 2.0 writer Nick Spencer, who recently signed an exclusive work-for-hire contract with the publisher. The book will be drawn by Osborn artist Emma Rios and explore the relationship between the two characters, who were most recently members of the Dark X-Men.

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