Monday, July 28

Hellblazer News from San Diego

Simon Oliver (The Exterminators) will be taking over writing duties on Hellblazer with issue #275; Leonardo Manco will continue as series penciller.

There will be 2 original graphic novels next year starring John Constantine. Dark Entries, by Ian Rankin and Werther Dell'Edera, will be released under Vertigo's black & white graphic novel imprint, Vertigo Crime. The plot revolves around a television show called "Haunted Mansion" that goes "horribly wrong." Dark Entries is expected in June of 2009.

Hellblazer: Pandemonium will be written by series creator Jamie Delano and drawn by Jock (The Losers, Green Arrow: Year One). The OGN celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Constantine character with the return to Constantine by series originator Delano. "When members of the Iraqi insurgency are found to be demonically possessed, intelligence specialists smell a supernatural rat. As parallels are drawn between the seemingly supernatural violence, ancient Babylonian legend and a remote, heavily guarded desert temple, it soon becomes clear that no one in the agencies is qualified to handle this problem: a private contractor must be employed. Databases identify only one potential candidate: John Constantine."

Vertigo News from Comic Con

There will be a new line of Vertigo Comics, "Vertigo Crime," which will specialize in black & white noir-ish OGNs. The first two will be Dark Entries by Ian Rankin and Werther Dell'Edera, and will star John Constantine; and Filthy Rich, by Brian Azzarello and Victor Santos. More titles will be announced later this year.

The classic DC series, The Unknown Soldier, will have a new ongoing series later this year. The new Unknown Soldier will be a man born in Uganda but raised in America who returns to his native country to help his people. Another revamp of a classic DC title, The Haunted Tank, is expected later this year as well, from creators Frank Merraffino & Henry Flint. The spirit of JEB Stuart will be haunting a tank in modern-day Iraq.

Other announcements include a second volume of Demo from Brian Wood & Becky Cloonan; hardcover collections of Swamp Thing & Preacher; Sandman: The Dream Hunters comic adaptation; The Compleat Death hardcover collection, collecting all of the Death mini-series and stories from various anthologies; Grant Morrison's WarCop, "slightly futuristic tale about a soldier stuck in a war"; Madame Xanadu by Matt Wagner; a 10-issue limited series by Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon called Daytripper; and Greatest Hits, Vertigo-style superhero story.