Fun in Baltimore Part 2 of 5

Its time to move on to one of the best parts of the Summit, the "Vendor" presentations. "Vendor", in this case, refers to the companies such as Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and the rest. The reason they don't call them publishers is because they also have presentations from Diamond Select Toys (BSG fans - watch for ship replicas coming this winter, they're sweet), WizKids, and Wizards of the Coast. To be honest, I didn't really take that many notes during those, because, well, we don't really carry that stuff. Sorry. But I did take many notes on the comic guys.

First up was Dark Horse. Bunch of interesting stuff coming from these guys in the next year, but you almost couldn't concentrate on what they were saying because of Eric Powell's viral marketing campaign for The Goon. As soon as one of the guys would start, Eric would come up, take the mic away and start talking about The Goon. He held up posters in front of them, pretended to be a retailer asking questions from the floor, among other things. But a few nice things did pop out, so here they are:

- There will a line wide cross over for the Star Wars comics called "Vector". I don't really have any details, I did ask though, but somehow it will crossover through all of the books, even though they're set thousands of years apart.

-Dark Horse will be publishing Indiana Jones again. There will be an Omnibus collecting the old stuff, including material published by other companies. There will also be a new series to go along with the new movie

-This May Conan is going to be relaunched as Conan The Cimmerian. The current series will be ending with issue 50.

-Also coming soon will be Kull the Conqueror and Soloman Kane

-Joss Whedon will be returning to Buffy next year for issues 16 through 19. They have the story for this season all finished (they still have to write it, but they know what it will be) and already working on Season 9.

-Also for next year, Whedon will also be doing a second Serenity mini-series. It should come out sometime in the spring, and will be set in the same time period as the first, in between the show and the movie. They are already in talks for a third.

- Not much on this one, but Rick "Fear Agent" Remember will be doing a new series called End League. Super-heroes in a post-apocolyptical world. Nice, I always say we don't get enough post-apoclypse fiction. Though Y and Zero Killer are both good exceptions.

-DH will also be publishing new manga, starting with Blood+ and Gantz

-Behold the Devil will be written and drawn by the esteemed Matt Wagner. Guess what it's about? Yeah.

-The Scream will be coming back to comic shops the country over courtesy of Mr Peter David. The Scream is actually on of Dark Horse's oldest properties and it should be a hoot to see it back after so long.

-The Goon will be going MONTHLY in 2008, with Dave Stewart on colors.

Last but not least

-The second Hellboy movie will be coming out next July, so DH has a few things lined up. First up will be the "Libraries". These will be oversized hardcovers (similar to the Invincible HC's). They'll be Fifty bucks and contain two trades each in them. Also coming soon will be an Abe Sapiens series/mini-series(?), I'm not sure which, as well as a BPRD origin book. Probably what I'm looking forward to the most. And Dark Horse will be doing another Hellboy comic for Free Comic Book Day next spring.

Ok, that's it for now, check back Monday for more goodies.

-Dan