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DC REVEALS NEW 2001-2002 PLANSEarlier this morning, DC Comics held a presentation to members of the retail community at a "Retail Round-up" weekend conference held in Dallas, TX. The slideshow presentation presented several new projects on the publisher’s schedule, and the following are some of the highlights…
DC officially announced six new ongoing DC Universe titles, including the previously announced Doom Patrol series by John Arcudi and newcomer Tan Eng Huat, Suicide Squad by Keith Giffen and Paco Medina (stemming out of the Our Worlds at War event) and the new Legion ongoing series by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Olivier Coipel.
New to the list is a Hawkman ongoing series by Geoff Johns, James Robinson and Rags (Hourman) Morales; a Deadman ongoing series by writer Steve Vance and another newcomer, artist Josep Beroy, and The Power Company, about a "superpowered law firm" by Kurt Busiek and Tom Grummett.
In news of existing series, Joe Kelly and Dough Mahnke have been officially confirmed as the new JLA creative team as of issue #61, and it was announced Kevin Smith and Phil Jimenez will both continue on their runs on Green Arrow and Wonder Woman respectively, beyond their initially-announced one-year arcs.
Speaking of the JLA, a series of prose novels are in the works, each starring one of the team’s ‘Big 7’. First up will be Batman, written by Alan Grant. Each will sport a cover by Alex Ross.
Over in the Wildstorm Universe, the publisher finally confirmed long-standing rumors that once writer Mark Millar completes his run on The Authority with issue #29, the series will relaunch in 2002 with a new #1 as a Mature Readers title, under the creative team of Brian Azzarello and Steve Dillon. But not before a special two-part story arc between Millar’s last issue and the new series, by the creative team of Garth Ennis and some guy named Bryan Hitch.
Speaking of the The Authority, writer Ian Edginton’s new spin-off ongoing series has been officially title The Establishment and will be illustrated by Charles (Codeflesh) Adlard.
And readers still waiting to complete their collections of Authority precursor, Warren Ellis’ Stormwatch, a trade paperback collecting the last story arc of that series is in the works, including the Wildcats/Aliens crossover one-shot with Dark Horse Comics that sent the bulk of the team to baritone section of the choir invisible.
Later this year, DC will be taking a shot at attracting new Batman readers by offering a full-length, in-continuity one-shot by Greg Rucka and Rich Burchett entitled Batman: The 10 Cent Adventure… and yes, DC says the comic will actually sell for 10 cents and will tie into an important upcoming Batman storyline called Bruce Wayne: Fugitive.
It was reported that Alan Moore is now two-issues into the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen sequel, is working on his Comet Rangers graphic novel drawn by Jim Lee, and has plans for a mini-series starring Solomon, Tom Strong’s simian companion.
Vertigo Group Editor Karen Berger revealed that Neil Gaiman was "committed" to writing a new hardcover anthology starring The Endless (after the release of his upcoming American Gods novel), which will be illustrated by the industry’s biggest and best-known artists.
Other high-profile offerings include a Star Trek one-shot by science-fiction author David Brin, a Jim Lee-drawn special based on the online role-playing game Everquest, new original graphic novels by Will Eisner, Kyle Baker, Paul Pope and four new "World War II inspired" Vertigo one-shots by Garth Ennis.
Newsarama is working to bring you more news from the entire morning program and more details on these new projects later this afternoon in this week’s Newsarama Weekly.
Damn...big stuff. More info comes out today, it says...