Letter 44

This year we're celebrating fifty years of Star Trek, and as part of the celebrations there's not only a brand new film in cinemas now, but Bryan Fuller is also working on a new television series titled Star Trek: Discovery, due out next year. Star Trek's vision of the future can represent the very best of who we can be as a species, but often it shows how easily it is to become corrupt. We've selected five of the best independent sci-fi comics to check out after seeing Star Trek: Beyond in the cinema. Love that? Try this!

In Letter 44, new President Stephen Blades steps into office after America has suffered eight years of a substandard Presidency. Picking up a letter left by his predecessor, however, he learns that much of what went wrong in America – money being pumped into the military rather than in services at home, pointless wars which killed thousands of troops – were actually part of a longer-term plan to deal with a far bigger problem. Specifically: aliens are out there, and they may or may not be planning to invade Earth in the near future. Writer Charles Soule and artist Alberto Alburquerque handle the fallout of that letter across a bulky first trade, collecting the first six issues together. What becomes apparent pretty quickly, though, is that this is a series which isn’t particularly interested in telling contained arcs, or telling stories for a trade. Instead, this is a proper ongoing series, in which the last issue of this trade feels like just another step towards a bigger picture, rather than a wrap up of everything that’s come before.

By the end of 2014, it might be tough to name a comics publisher that hasn't offered up a Humble Bundle deal. Oni Press is the latest publisher to join the ranks of the Humble Bundle crowd (others include Top Shelf, Valiant Comics, and Boom Studios), though it's put a bit of a spin on its offering of 24 titles and more than 2,500 pages of comics. Buyers can choose to donate the proceeds from their purchase to the charity Direct Relief, an organization helping to treat and contain the Ebola outbreak in Africa, among other humanitarian causes.

The San Diego Comic-Con is only a week away, and the reveals of convention exclusives just keep coming. Today, it's Oni Press, offering up a roster of special items and unique covers that you can only grab at Booth 1833, including a full-color hardcover edition of Scott Pilgrim v.5 that comes complete with a pair of Kim Pine's drumsticks. Other con-exclusive items include a mask and print for Paul Tobin and Benjamin Dewey's I Was The Cat, a patch for Charles Soule and Alberto Jiménez Alburquerque's Letter 44, an exclusive cover for Princess Ugg that crosses over with Battle Pug, and more.

This TV season is already overflowing with new TV shows based on comics, with Gotham, iZombie, Powers, The Flash, and more on the way, but SyFy announced this week that it's adding even more to the list. Keeping in line with its return to science fiction and fantasy programming (though it's keeping its oddly spelled name, it seems), the network is launching a huge slate of new shows, including fou

We've been pretty intrigued by Charles Soule and artist Alberto Alburquerque's upcoming sci-fi drama Letter 44 since snagging a black and white variant of the first issue at SDCC this past summer, but it seems publisher Oni Press has plenty left to show us on the road to the book's October release. On top of sending CA a press kit complete with promo materials and a cryptic signed letter from the

Fans who can't wait until the official October launch of Letter 44 will have an early opportunity to snag the first issue of Charles Soule and artist Alberto Alburquerque's sci-fi series this week at San Diego Comic-Con. Following its initial announcement at Emerald City in March, publisher Oni Press has decided to whet fan appetites a little early with a convention exclusive black and white editi

From The Sixth Gun to Helheim to Wasteland, Oni Press has had its supernatural adventure comic bases covered for a bit now, but this October writer Charles Soule and artist Alberto Alburquerque will be bringing some sci-fi into the fold in their new series, Letter 44.