Eric Powell is back on the Goon, and in November fans will get the entire backstory on who is the Goon. The Goon: Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker tells the story of the Goon’s formative backstory in a trade paperback.

“I put my heart and soul into this book,” says Powell. “If you people don’t buy it and love it . . . well, you’re soulless animals. Thanks for crushing my dreams.”

The Goon: Chinatown is due November 21 for $19.95.

via Dark Horse

For those who have been longing for new adventures of Groo, Dark Horse Comics is gearing up for Groo: Hell on Earth.

The end is near. The world is faced with insurmountable disasters—the planet getting hotter, glaciers melting, air becoming unbreatheable—that’s even before Groo gets involved in them. You can imagine how much worse things get with him around. Talk about going from worse to even worse. The only good thing is that Groo is back and celebrating twenty-five years of laughs!

Groo: Hell on Earth is written by Mark Evanier, with art by Sergio Aragones, colors by Tom Luth, and lettering by Stan Sakai and will arrive in stores on October 3 for $2.99.

via Dark Horse

Dark Horse Comics has announced a huge Star Wars crossover event that will spill through the pages of Knights of the Old Republic, Legacy, Rebellion, and Dark Times and will introduce new characters that will tie all the titles together.

When a terrible vision reaching more than 4,000 years into the future alerts the secret Jedi Covenant to the importance of Taris, they activate an operative already on this planet overrun by Mandalorians. There, in the deadly Undercity, a monstrous, ancient threat is unleashed that plunges Zayne Carrick, the Padawan accused of killing his fellow students, into an adventure which will eventually span four thousand years and involve Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, and the principles of the Legacy series!

Star Wars: Vector will launch in January 2008 in the pages of Knights of the Old Republic.

via Dark Horse

Where else are you going to find a lobster fighting a gorilla?

From Lobster Johnson #1 by Mike Mignola and Jason Armstrong. I totally loved this issue that harkens back to the pulp adventures of Doc Savage, the Shadow, and Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher. Love it, love it, love it. And it isn’t a one shot, we’re getting five issues of Lobster Johnson goodness in The Iron Prometheus. Hopefully everyone will go out and buy this series so Mike and Dark Horse will make more.

And yes, I’m aware this panel is from last week, but I just got my “shipment” the other day, so there.  If everything goes as planned, I’ll have another from this week’s haul before the weekend.

Dark Horse Comics has sent Major Spoilers the solicitation information and cover images for titles shipping in December 2007. Take the jump for the complete list that includes all the Indiana Jones you could want in one volume, Mike Mignola goodness, everyone’s favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and Faith too), lots of Conan, and Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars!

(more…)

Or - “My Fair Slay-dy…”

In a very deeply hidden part of myself, I’ve always harbored a secret love for rogue Slayer Faith.  Maybe it’s the dark eyes, maybe it’s her street-smart and sexy facade, maybe it’s just that I’ve always preferred brunettes to blondes, but somehow Faith has managed to eclipse even Buffy herself as my fave-rave Sunnydale character (though Spike runs a close second.)  Add to that the literary stylings of the awesome Brian K. Vaughan, and we’re looking at an issue that I’ve been looking forward to, even given that the first five were pretty awesome in and of themselves.  Where, oh where, has Buffy’s dark shadow been since the destruction of Sunnydale?

(more…)

Dark Horse Comics has announced The Scream by Peter David, with art by Bart Sears, Randy Elliott, and Lucas Marangon will arrive in stores on November 21, 2007.

Take the jump for the solicitation info and the full cover.

(more…)

If you haven’t read Empowered by Adam Warren, then you are missing out one some great satire and great art. Dark Horse let Major Spoilers know the second volume of Empowered is set to arrive September 19, 2007.

Empowered returns for further misadventures as the peril-prone girl-wonder struggles with life on the super-heroic C-list! Clad ¬– or unclad, as fate would too often have it – in her embarrassingly revealing and maddeningly unreliable super-suit, she fights a never ending battle against overly sensitive super-villains, irrationally envious super-heroines, and her own body-image issues! Meanwhile, her boyfriend, Thugboy, plays with fire when he foolhardily attempts to compliment his profoundly insecure sweetheart on the awe-inspiring power of her . . . well, booty. And her often-inebriated gal-pal, Ninjette, pursues a drunken and ultimately disastrous mission to acquire Empowered some respect—by force if necessary! All this, plus crossword-obsessed goons, speech-impaired super-beasts, “Ninjas Gone Wild,” and even a few self-help hints from nigh-omnipotent cosmic overlords!

Take the jump for more info, plus a slew of images of Empowered and her “friends” from Adam Warren.

(more…)

If you consider 8-inches big, then you’ll be happy to know Dark Horse will be releasing Lenore as a vinyl figure in February 2008.

Named after a sonnet to a dead girl by literary luminary Edgar Allan Poe, Lenore has been celebrated as the “it’ girl for the doom generation since just before the turn of the new millennium. She has been featured in her own best-selling comics and graphic novel series (Slave Labor Graphics), and a line of merchandise, including a Zippo lighter, PVC set, journal, and stationery set all by Dark Horse Deluxe.

The Lenore 8-inch vinyl figure will sell for $24.99.

via Dark Horse

The Hollywood Reporter is developing a film called War Monkeys.

Cleve Nettles is writing the horror comedy, based on a story by producer Chris Patton. The story follows a janitor who, during a Christmas holiday, gets trapped in an underground research facility with military-trained Rhesus monkeys.

I know absolutely nothing about this project other than what was described above. Anyone ever read this story?

via Hollywood Reporter

Dark Horse Comics has sent Major Spoilers cover images and solicitation information for titles shipping in November 2007. Take the jump for the complete list including Grendel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Conan, Lobster Johnson and more great titles that will surely find a way to help my bank account dwindle.

(more…)

If you haven’t figured it out already, manga is a huge money maker for publishers. So don’t be surprised to see more companies snatching up manga titles left and right to republish to the English speaking world.

The latest acquisition comes from Dark Horse that announced it will be publishing GANTZ in the United States.

Gantz tells the story of a team of dead people who are forced to take part in a “game” that has them hunting aliens and other creatures who live among the populace of Japan. The story focuses on Kei Kurono, a teenage boy who died saving a homeless man from a train. He, along with a band of others who are recently deceased, is forced to complete a series of dangerous and complicated missions by a strange device called Gantz. On these missions characters can even die again, only to be quickly replaced by others like them. As the plot progresses, so does the intricacy of relationships between characters.

Gantz is expected to be available in the Summer of 2008.

via Dark Horse

Dark Horse Comics has announced Samurai: Heaven and Earth Volume Three series will debut this spring that will continue the tale of star-crossed lovers torn apart by the open sea.

Samurai: Heaven and Earth Volume Three kicks off on the open sea, with star-crossed lovers, samurai Shiro and his love Yoshiko torn from each other’s arms after being reunited at the end of volume two. This time, Shiro crosses the open seas in pursuit of Yoshiko, who has again fallen into the hands of his arch-nemesis, the Spaniard, Don Miguel Ratera Aguilar. The journey takes them to the New World at the dawning of the golden age of piracy. Shiro is now a reluctant crewman on an English privateer during Queen Anne’s War, when colonial powers battled for supremacy in the Caribbean and the Americas. When he hears of a Spanish nobleman with a beautiful Asian woman at his side, Shiro knows his enemy, and his lover, are close at hand.

Samurai: Heaven and Earth Volume Three is a five-issue limited series from Ron Marz and Luke Ross.

via Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics has announced a new ongoing series called The End League. According to the company The End League follows the last remaining supermen and women in a world full of evil, hoping to find the Hammer of Thor - the only thing that can save the world.

The series will be written by Rick Remender will art by Mat Broome.

“I’ve been a big fan of Rick Remender’s work on Fear Agent, and I’ve wanted to work with Mike Richardson and Dark Horse Comics for years on a creator-owned project. This book will set Rick apart from the pack—a Watchmen-sized epic!” said Broome of the team-up.

Take the jump for the full description.

(more…)

Dark Horse Comics announced it would be publishing a new original manga with the minds and talents behind CLAMP.

If you are like me and don’t know what the hell CLAMP is, it is comprised of Satsuki Igarashi, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi and Ageha Ohkawa.—the manga-ka all-female supergroup known to their millions of fans worldwide.

The new manga from CLAMP will be launched in the US, Japan, and Korea at the same time.

The story will come out in a small digest consisting of about eighty pages each, which will then be collected into trade paperbacks with bonus material. CLAMP and Dark Horse are coining the bilingual term Mangettes to describe this innovative new format for manga distribution. This digest format, or Mangette, signifies CLAMP’s personal wish to reach their large international readership by now speaking to them directly as artists through Dark Horse, and on a basis of equality with their Japanese fans.

More word on this series as information becomes available from Dark Horse.