Here’s a roundup of more IDW news announced at the San Diego Comic Con this afternoon.
Bat Boy is Back!
One of the strangest bits of stuff I was exposed to when working late-night radio was reading a copy of The Weekly World News that featured Bat Boy on the cover. Over the years, the Bat Boy mythos grew until the fictional character took on a life of its own. Bat Boy has been pretty quiet these last couple of years, but IDW Publishing is resurrecting the character in comic book form.
The series will be written by IDW’s Publisher/Editor-in-Chief and Eisner-nominated writer Chris Ryall (Groom Lake, Zombies vs Robots), with art by Alan Robinson (Terminator Salvation Movie Prequel). Robinson will also be contributing covers that emulate classic Weekly World News covers, and artist Joe Corroney (Star Trek) will be providing special variant covers for the series. Each issue will also contain classic newspaper stories featuring these characters as back-up material, too.
The Weekly World News comic book version will be a 4-issue mini-series that kicks off in January 2010 and features a cover price of $3.99. Lord help those that have not experienced the big blue eyes and gaping mouth full of teeth that is Bat Boy.
Even musicians can make comics
Billy Martin, guitarist for the band Good Charlotte, is taking a turn at comic book artist with Vitriol the Hunter.
Set in the fictional city of Basilika, Vitriol the Hunter chronicles our hero’s journey as he encounters government-bred werewolves, hordes of hellions and other walking myths. The series is slated to run for six issues.
The series will be written by Brent Allen.
“Billy and Brent have created a great story in Vitriol,†said IDW Publisher/Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall in a prepared statement. “The book takes the best parts of monster movies and epic journeys does things with them that can only be done in comics. Martin’s art really shows his love of these concepts as well as comic books.â€
Transformers movie-inspired mini-series hits in 2010
The company also announced Transformers: Nefarious, a six-issue mini-series that follows the adventures of the recent Transformers movie. It’s written by Simon Furman, with art by Carlos Magno.
“The latest TRANSFORMERS movie added several very cool elements to the tapestry—SOUNDWAVE and RAVAGE being my favorites—and we’re keen to explore them,†said Andy Schmidt, IDW’s TRANSFORMERS editor. “Our story tracks a new organization with ‘nefarious’ designs on the robots in disguise. Their technology gives them a tactical advantage not yet seen in the films.â€
No set release date for the kick-off of this series, but we do know it will be in early 2010.
