COMIC-CON: News roundup

By: Patrick Sauriol
Date: Monday, July 21, 2003

The San Diego Comic-Con offers dozens of panels with top talent from all of the major comic book publishers. It's also the place where some surprises are announced, new projects revealed and difficult questions are answered by the creators. Here's a recap of some of the most significant news items from the Comic-Con...

-- NEW X-MEN writer Grant Morrison revealed that his final issue will be #154. He commented to the audience that he's approached writing the book as a fitting conclusion to everything he had to say about the X-Men. Morrison also revealed he had signed a deal making him exclusive with DC Comics and was working on a new project as well as other plans with the publisher.

-- Former FANTASTIC FOUR writer Mark Waid and his artist amigo Mike Wieringo have been hired by DC and are developing secret projects.

-- CrossGen's Marc Alessi made the company's Director of Marketing, Bill Rosemann, nearly have a heart attack by revealing that a company wide event is in the planning stages for CrossGen's line of comic books. Some heroes will die, new characters and books will be introduced and the CrossGen universe will never be the same again. The changes will start to take place next spring.

-- As first revealed by The Pulse website last week, Marvel Comics' Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada confirmed that he will write the new ongoing series NXU. The series examines homeless New York City street kids who also happen to be mutants. It debuts this October.


-- BATMAN: THE LONG HALLOWEEN writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale have inked a deal making them exclusive with DC Comics. Their next project will use Catwoman.

-- A third series is in development for Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN.

-- October will be horror month at Image Comics. No less than five horror-related titles including WALKING DEAD, FRANKENSTEIN MOBSTER and SWORD OF DRACULA will debut.

-- IDW Publishing has picked up the rights to print a series based on the FX series THE SHIELD.

-- BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES creators Paul Dini and Bruce Timm are working on a three-issue comic series starring Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy.

-- THE BOOKS OF MAGIC and HUMAN TARGET are getting new ongoing series while a SWAMP THING mini-series is in development.


Got a scoop? Know something that you need to tell us about? Send it to us!