It’s still weird to think that there will be a 9th season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This isn’t some kind of thing where I’ll segue into saying “9th season in comic form, that is” or something like that—it’s just genuinely fascinating to me that the movie that failed to light up the box office years later becomes the little TV series that could, gains a loyal following, changes networks, survives that transition, then years later still finds another life on the comic shelves. I say this with all respect to the incredibly rabid Firefly fans, but this is likely the show that Whedon will be long remembered for.

Also, for your extra does of feeling the absolute slippage of time, next year will mark the 15th anniversary of the show first hitting the screen.

So, yeah, there will be another season of Buffy comics, and more Angel comics as that property makes the leap from IDW over to Dark Horse later this year. Dark Horse editor Scott Allie explained that both series would be getting new #1’s—Angel in August and Buffy in September. Production is well underway for both titles with Whedon still actively involved despite the huge time-sink involved in the making of the Avengers movie.

Allie noted that he and the rest of Dark Horse continued to be thankful for the series creator’s continued involvement, in spite of the demands of big-budget Hollywood productions. Allie said that instead of being an obligation, shepherding Buffy’s stories along seem to be a kind of catharsis for Whedon, who is ultimately responsible for deciding the plotting of the seasons. Read more...

Tags Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dark Horse, Joss Whedon, Scott Allie

March 16th saw the release of the tie-in comic to this summer’s sword and sorcery comedy, Your Highness. Titled, Your Highness: Knight and Dazed the one-shot was written by one of the film’s stars, Danny McBride (Eastbound and Down, The Foot Fist Way, Pineapple Express, and also the co-writer of his latest film along with Ben Best), and is being released through Dark Horse Comics with art by Sean Phillips.

The book was inspired by his love of classic tie-in comics like Star Wars during the Marvel days, allowing him to parlay his film and writing experience into a new medium. McBride appears to be something of a lapsed comic fan who’s rediscovered his passion for the output of the big two and the indies, pointing to his Hot Rod co-star Bill Heder as the reason he returned to reading comics. Read more...

Tags Danny McBride, Dark Horse Comics, Sean Phillips, Your Highness: Knight and Dazed

This year at C2E2 Dark Horse made it pretty clear they’re getting serious about the whole digital comics thing. We’ll soon be able to catch up with Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. right in the palm of our hand with the new Dark Horse digital comic’s app for iOS devices!

Dark Horse developed the upcoming app in-house and I have to say it looks great on the iPad. The storefront lays out a cover for each series available -- when you click on one, all the books in that series pop up. It looks like most books will cost $1.99 through the app and users will also be able to make purchases from digital.darkhorse.com. Purchases made on the web will sync up with your iPhone or iPad so they're always available.

Reading through comics works just as it does on similar apps, we can go page by page or frame by frame. However, there are some pretty cool features Dark Horse has added. First there's the page scroller. Slide it like you would to turn up the volume on a song and it shows you what page you’re headed to in the lower corner. Another great feature is the archive system. When you finish reading a book you can store it in your "Collection." This frees up space on your device by transferring your digital copy to a magical Dark Horse comic box in the clouds -- it will be safe there until you want to download and read it again.

MTV Geek! is on the floor at C2E2 and had a chance to stop by the Dark Horse booth for a little demo action. Though the app is still in beta form, and won’t be available for another month or so, it's looking good. See it in action after the break! Read more...

Tags B.P.R.D, C2E2, Dark Horse Comics, Digital Comics, Hellboy, iOS, IPad

The big buzz at Day One of C2E2 was the giant Thor hammer at the Marvel booth (the perfect place to snap a photo), Brightest Day action figure exclusives that sold out almost as fast as they were offered, and, as fate would have it -- a debate over Wonder Woman's pants.

Let's start with that hammer.

A giant replica of Thor's hammer was on display at the Marvel Comics booth, promoting of course the upcoming Thor movie. Also in heavy promotion was the Fear Itself event, the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon, and the Captain America movie (which also received a nice huge banner featuring Chris Evans).

A pair of con attendees came up to me with not one but two cameras, asking me to take snapshots of them with good ol' Mjolnir. A popular pose was at the handle, straining to pick the giant hammer up. Read more...

Tags C2E2, Dark Horse, Geek Chic, George R.R. Martin, Mattel, Snoopy, Star Wars, Thor: The Mighty Avenger

Looking around for a "Geek" Chicago reference to start this post about C2E2, I guess I could bring up that old "Is Gotham City New York or Chicago?" debate. According to classic Batman writers Dennis O'Neil and Frank Miller, Gotham is New York (albeit primarily at night) -- but to Batman Begins and The Dark Knightdirector Christopher Nolan, it's definitely Chicago. Whatever the case, the Windy City is the honorary U.S. capital of the comic book world this weekend, as the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo is held at the West Building at McCormick Place. Held by ReedPOP, the same people who bring you New York Comic Con and the recent PAX East, C2E2 serves up to fans a mix of comics, movie & TV, and general Geek happenings and news. Let's take a look at some of the highlights:

The cover for this year's show program features Green Lantern as rendered by Ivan Reis:

Marvel Comics is featuring a whole slate of activities and giveaways at their booth at #411, including "Marvel Super Happy Giveaway Hour,"  the "Marvel Your Universe Game Hour," Marvel Cosplay, and a demo of the upcoming Sega "Thor: God of Thunder" video game. And to keep track of all the Marvel happenings at C2E2, you can download the "Marvel Events App" from iTunes! Read more...

Tags C2E2, Danny McBride, Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, Marvel Comics

In our last FCBD piece, we talked with Criminal Macabre creator Steve Niles about his half of Dark Horse’s flipbook. Today, novelist Christopher Golden tells us about his work with Mike Mignola along artist Ben Stenbeck and colorist Dave Stewart on the Baltimore story on the other side of the book.

Golden is the author of dozens of novels and short stories, including existing franchises like Hellboy and Buffy the Vampire Slayer as well as his own series including The Menagerie and Hidden Cities (and really, the man has a pretty diverse body of work). Chalk this latest Baltimore story into the mix. Titled “A Passing Stranger” it’s a bit of a departure from the regular stories featuring the title character. But enough from me—I’ll let Mr. Golden explain.

MTV Geek: Could you tell our readers a little about Baltimore and his FCBD outing, “A Passing Stranger?”

Christopher Golden: We only had fourteen pages to do it, but Mike and I wanted a story that would accomplish several things at once. First, though Baltimore's nemesis is a vampire, we wanted something that would show readers that there are all kinds of evils in this world. We wanted to paint a picture of what an unforgiving place the world has become, post-war, post-plague (although the plague is still ongoing). And, most of all, of course, we wanted a story that would stand on its own as a chilling horror story, while introducing Baltimore to FCBD readers in a way that requires no knowledge of his history. I have to say, I love the result. The artist, Ben Stenbeck, and colorist, Dave Stewart, have outdone themselves on "A Passing Stranger." It makes me very, very happy that people will have the opportunity to get this glimpse into Baltimore's world for free.

Geek: The vampire infestation in your story is being portrayed as a plague. What’s your approach to vampires in the story—supernatural beings or a type of biological threat?

CG: They're very much supernatural, but not in the way that has become so common in modern fiction. These creatures are an ancient evil. There are new vampires, of course, and lots of them, but Baltimore's nemesis, Haigus, and his kin are practically prehistoric in nature. Once upon a time they were more numerous, and the world changed, and humanity began to spread and evolve, and the supernatural creatures of the world died off or went into hibernation, like Haigus and his clan. The war—all the blood and death and suffering—woke them up, and their evil has been spreading ever since. The plague is both biological and supernatural, but we may never go into the fine details of that. Read more...

Tags Baltimore, Christopher Golden, Dark Horse Comics, FCBD, Mike Mignola

This Free Comic Book Day, Dark Horse is bringing the horror with a Criminal Macabre/Baltimore flipbook bringing together Steve Niles’ whacked-out supernatural investigator with Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden’s WWI vampire hunter.

For those of you who may not read a lot of horror comics (and really, you should be reading more horror comics), Niles is the creator of the runaway arctic vampire hit 30 Days of Night and has seen his writing in comics, film, and video games. And wouldn’t you know, it, he was kind enough to talk to MTV Geek about his work on his FCBD entry, his character Cal Mcdonald and a bunch of other things under the setting sun.

MTV Geek: For readers coming in fresh, what’s Criminal Macabre about?

Steve Niles: The best way to describe Cal McDonald is to explain how he came about. I created him back in the eighties. At the time I was reading a lot of Raymond Chandler and other pulp detective stuff. I started out trying to do just that and quickly found that the old hardboiled didn’t necessarily translate into modern hardboiled, so I made Cal a recovering junkie instead of just a drunk, and added the macabre to make sure he was miserable. I’ve always said Cal is a combination of Chandler and Hunter S. Thompson. Cal is a miserable old soul, but he has a lot of heart and is always looking out for others despite being really grumpy about it.

Geek: Could you tell us a little about how your collaboration with series artist Chris Mitten came about?

SN: All credit for Chris Mitten goes to my editor Scott Allie. Scott has an amazing eye for art. Over the years he has teamed me with Greg Ruth (Freaks of the Heartland) and Kelley Jones, who I’ve worked with since. When Scott showed me Chris, I immediately thought he was perfect, and he is not disappointing. Mitten is the perfect Criminal Macabre artist. He has grit, but he can also be funny and creepy. I love working with Chris and I hope we go on to do a lot of work together.

Geek: Was there a deliberate approach to the visual style of the book you were looking for when initially planning it?

SN: There have been so many artists who have done renditions of Cal, it’s always been a revolving door of styles, which I love. I’m not an artist at all, so I wanted to feel around. I figured when we found the right artist, it would stick, but I always liked trying out different looks. Read more...

Tags Cal McDonald, Chris Mitten, Criminal Macabre, Dark Horse, FCBD, Steve Niles

Dark Horse Comics -- along with LucasArts and BioWare -- will be publishing starting in June a new chapter in the Star Wars: The Old Republic saga, The Lost Suns. Star Wars: The Old Republic acts as a companion series to the upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game of the same name, and BioWare’s senior creative writer, Alexander Freed, will have a story in The Lost Suns that ties in with the game's plot. Read more about The Lost Suns below, and check out the trailer for the Star Wars: The Old Republic video game!

Read more...

Tags BioWare, Star Wars, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Yesterday we profiled artist Guy Davis on his exit from his long-running stint on B.P.R.D. . Today, we’re catching up with the series’ new artist, Tyler Crook, who’ll be joining Mike Mignola and John Arcudi on the upcoming Monsters arc. Check out what Crook had to say about his early career, how he got drawn into the B.P.R.D. universe, and what’s next for him.

Geek: Who is this Tyler Crook character and what’s he been doing up until now?

Tyler Crook: Mostly I've been making video games. I've done some other art and design work – kids clothing, yellow page ads, website design – but the bulk of my career has been as a 3D modeler in the video games industry. For the last two years I've been working on an original graphic novel with my buddy, Phil Gelatt called Petrograd. It's historical fiction about the assassination of Rasputin. I had always had the comic bug and wanted to get into it and after working on Petrograd I knew I had to make comics my full-time job. Read more...

Tags B.P.R.D, Dark Horse Comics, Tyler Crook

It had to come as a shock to fans of the long-running Hellboy spinoff B.P.R.D. that Guy Davis, the longtime artist for the series would be departing at the conclusion of the current "Gods" storyline. It was such an unlikely end to a pairing that brought the artist and series writers Mike Mignola and John Arcudi to the brink of the end of the world in recent months. Davis is taking a break to focus on his own creator-owned project, The Marquis which is being published through Dark Horse as well as another project he's unable to talk about. No, it wasn't some kind of acrimonious split: "As much as I loved working on the main B.P.R.D. book with Mike and John, it was a hectic monthly grind and I realized I just didn’t have enough time for all the projects I wanted to do."

Not to get all cliched, all good things must come to an end, right?

As unexpectedly and quietly as the collaboration ended, its beginning was actually pretty gradual. Prior to joining B.P.R.D., the artist had done work for Vertigo and Caliber and had his own indie project, The Marquiswhich he originally published through Oni. Davis credits a simple meeting with Mignola "at some random con" where they were both guests as the first meeting between the two talents, and from there the duo struck up a friendship.

I would call to talk monsters and catch up and he would always ask what I was working on~ which usually was something work-for-hire that didn’t involve monsters. He would say he never understood how after seeing me doing the stuff I wanted to draw on my own series, The Marquis that other companies wouldn’t hire me for monster/horror type books. I didn’t know why either, but when he mentioned he was thinking of spinning off B.P.R.D. from Hellboy into its own series I jumped at the chance to work with him on it!

Read more...

Tags B.P.R.D, Dark Horse Comics, guy davis, The Marquis