Dark Horse Comics have landed the publishing rights to Jonathan Hickman, Mike del Mundo, Mike Huddleston, and Nick Spencer‘s sci-fi universe Three Worlds/Three Moons (or 3W/3M.) The setting, which was introduced in the creators’ Substack newsletter in 2021, will debut at the company with the introductory one-shot Foundations, written by Hickman and Spencer, with art by del Mundo and Huddleston, and lettering by Rus Wooton, this July.
Across a distant solar system and countless millennia-long cycles, a war has been fought between the forces of magic and science, and order and chaos. When astronaut and explorer Tajo Vallar undertakes a doomed expedition to a dormant moon full of mysteries, the conflict begins anew, and it will be more dangerous than ever before!
Hickman states, “We are incredibly excited for the opportunity to partner with Dark Horse so that comic stores and comic fans can get to experience this project that has been years in the making.” The creators elaborated on Substack, saying, “It’s been a long time coming. We’re thrilled about the opportunity to reach a whole new audience with what we’ve been building here; this represents a huge part of how we grow and expand from here.”
Three Worlds/Three Moons consists of comics, illustrated short stories, sourcebooks, and worldbuilding documents by the creators, and other contributors like Christian Ward, James Stokoe, Juni Ba, Ram V, Al Ewing, Steve Epting, Stephen Green, Tini Howard, and Phil Hester. These will be released in print and for digital retail by Dark Horse at a later date.
In the meantime, Foundations will be released on July 8, and retail in a prestige, magazine-sized format for $6.99. It will mark the first time Dark Horse has published a comic by Hickman, whose creator-owned work has generally been published by Image. It will also be the first non-Marvel Hickman book to arrive in comics stores since Decorum (also created with Huddleston), which ran at Image from 2020 to 2021.
The creators said of Dark Horse on Substack, “We always knew bringing these books to retail was a part of that next phase. Dark Horse have been incredible partners to us in that effort so far, they care deeply about the quality of these books and making sure they resonate within the market. We couldn’t be happier about this collaboration with them.”
this seems a bit like the the last god: the fellspyre chronicles book one, where PKJ and federici introduced an interesting setting with elaborated lore and gorgeous visuals, but fell short in the storytelling department by getting roped into other projects. years in the making and once they get the ball rolling they turn into GRRM and have their hands full with every other project except this one. i hope to be proven wrong!