As foretold in a tweet a few weeks ago, Brian Michael Bendis’s Jinxworld line of comics has a new home — and this time it’s Dark Horse. As reported in The Hollywood Reporter, the move will include reissues of previous Jinxworld titles, including Powers, and a new title, Joy Operations. 

Other titles moving to Dark Horse include Pearl with Michael Gaydos, Cover with David Mack, and The Murder Inc., from Michael Avon Oeming and Taki Soma. Alex Maleev and Jacob Edgar are also expected to work on the line.

Joy Operations is co-created by artist Stephen Byrne and is described as a science fiction tale set 55 years in the future centering on Joy, a special agent for the Jornado Trust who is urged to betray her corporate masters by voices in her head.

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“I am so proud to call Dark Horse Comics home! From Dark Horse Presents all the way up to Black Hammer, Dark Horse has been at the forefront of the kind of creator-owned comics I personally adore and aspire to. This partnership has been brewing for a very long time,” Bendis said in a statement. “Mike Richardson, Daniel Chabon, and everyone else at Dark Horse has welcomed us with open arms and it’s very exciting to start rolling out our brand-new epics like Joy Operations and reintroduce you to some of our classic Jinxworld titles like PowersTorso, and Jinx. Any of my friends will tell you  To the future!”

Despite Bendis’s Dark Horse wishes, it took a long time for Jinxworld to get there. The line started out in the ’90s with such titles as Goldfish, Fire, Jinx and Torso — some of them drawn by Bendis, who started his career as a writer/artist — and published by Caliber Comics. In 1997, Bendis moved the line to Image, with Powers starting in 2000. The line moved to Icon, Marvel’s creator-owned line, in 2004 as Bendis became a major architect of their entire line. With Bendis’s move to DC in 2017, Jinxworld reemerged there, only to end when Bendis’s exclusive contract came up.

But everyone is happy for the line to have a new, unified home.

“Brian Bendis is one of the comic industry’s premier talents and we are so excited to welcome him here to Dark Horse,” Dark Horse Comics president and founder, Mike Richardson said. “As Brian can confirm, I’ve been chasing him for a very long time. Not only will Brian be bringing new stories here for his many fans, but we will be re-releasing new editions of his existing work for a whole new generation of readers.”

“I am so happy to be working with Brian, Alisa [Bendis, Jinxworld publisher], and their roster of insanely talented co-creators on these upcoming Jinxworld stories,” said editor Daniel Chabon who will edit the titles. “We have some really amazing books in the works right now and I can’t wait for folks to see what we have in store from them and Dark Horse’s expanding creator-owned universe.”
Joy Operations #1 launches on Nov. 17.  The Pearl Vol. 1 trade paperback hits stores in March 2022,  and Powers: The Best Ever trade paperback slated for Jan. 26, 2022.

“I am so happy to be working with Brian, Alisa [Bendis, Jinxworld publisher], and their roster of insanely talented co-creators on these upcoming Jinxworld stories,” said editor Daniel Chabon who will edit the titles. “We have some really amazing books in the works right now and I can’t wait for folks to see what we have in store from them and Dark Horse’s expanding creator-owned universe.”

Joy Operations #1 launches on Nov. 17.  The Pearl Vol. 1 trade paperback hits stores in March 2022,  and Powers: The Best Ever trade paperback is slated for Jan. 26, 2022.
One assume the digital vesrsions of Jinxworld titles will also be available once again via comiXology’s Dark Horse line.

The Jinxworld move is yet another example of the rapidly shifting comics landscape, with people and lines moving even as new distribution channels open up, and distribution itself is in flux. Exciting times!

Given the number of homes the line has had, it also led to some humor on Twitter: