Sunday Sunday Sunday! Alive but a little delerious, The Comics Beat is sitting in the Jacob Javits Center to bring you the latest news from the Lion Forge panel where the company is slated to make some major announcements about the future of their lineup.
Guests at this panel include Rich Johnson (VP of marketing), Geoff Gerber (Lion Forge president), Mark Smylie (Lion Forge Executive Editor), Joe Illidge (Lion Forge Senior Editor), Mike Kennedy (Magnetic Collection), and Andrea Colvin (Roar Senior Editor).
Lion Forge is currently publishing a Voltron: Legendary Defender comic based off of the Netflix series. The “goal of the comics is to act as a continuation” of each Netflix season, so there will be a miniseries of Voltron comics for each season of the cartoon. The current arc is slated for five issues with the collected trade edition of those books releasing in January, right before the second set of cartoon episodes begin.
The conversation turned to Roar comics, Lion Forge’s kids imprint. Roar is now officially dividing into two imprints, CubHouse and Roar. Roar will now focus on YA and teenage books while CubHouse will be for comics and “comics inspired illustrated work” designed for readers preschool-aged up to 12 years old. The goal is to do ongoing serialized books and graphic novels. They teased an upcoming Roar title, MER, which was described by Colvin as “TWILIGHT with mermaids.” That book will release on April 19th of next year.
The company heavily advertised their submissions portal: www.lionforge.com/submissions, where artists and writers can submit their work for consideration to the company. In particular, Roar and CubHouse are looking for new creators.
Then, the conversation moved to the Magnetic Collection, where Magnetic’s founder Mike Kennedy spoke about the journey he took putting Magnetic together. He said that at its core, Magnetic was always about the book as an object, making a product you were proud to keep on your shelf. Mark Smylie at Lion Forge noticed the work he and his employees were doing and introduced him to the Lion Forge pride. Mike promoted a number of the line’s titles including GOLEM, LOVE: THE LION, and Buno’s LIGHT.
The conversation turned to Joe Illidge, who announced Catalyst Prime, a new superhero lineup from Lion Forge. The line will start in May 2017 where a one-shot will tell the origin of this new universe. We’ll see seven new books roll out about what follows “the event.”
Creators include Amy Chu (POISON IVY: CYCLES OF LIFE AND DEATH). Chu was very “excited” to be a part of the project because she gets to be a part of a new universe at “ground zero.” Writer David F. Walker (POWER MAN AND IRON FIST) and Dr. Sheena Howard will be working on the line as well with artist Chuck Collins (BOUNCE). Writer Alex De Campi (NO MERCY) will be joining the line as well. Joe Casey (ROCKSTARS) will be working with Ramon Govea. Finally, Illidge announced that Christopher Priest, co-founder of Milestone Comics and writer of DEATHSTROKE, is joining the lineup.
Other creators working on books for Catalyst Prime include Marco Turini. The one-shot that introduces the universe will be written by Priest and Illidge with art by Turrenni. Brandon Thomas will also be joining the line, working with artist Ken Lashley. Joe Casey will be writing three books for Catalyst Prime, working with Daniel Scott (co-creator of Cassandra Cain), colorist Jon Rouch, and letterer Janice Chang. Casey and Ramon will be working with artist Larry Stromen. Jefte Palo will be the artist on Casey’s third book. De Campi will be working with illustrator Pop Mhan. Chu will be working with artist Jan Duursema.
The panelists accidentally leaked something about the Priest/Illidge/Turrenni one-shot that was quite a shock!
Illidge concluded the panel with one final announcement. He’s bringing an editorial assistant into the lineup– Desiree Roderiguez of Nerds of Color.
Good to see illidge doing something about the comic industry’s lack of poc, instead of bemoaning about it every week on cbr.
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