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Next week marks the release of the first outing of the Gerard Way-curated Young Animal “pop-up imprint” from DC Comics: the newly revamped Doom Patrol.

While anticipation is high for that new series, right around the corner is the second, the relaunch of Shade, The Changing Man entitled Shade, The Changing Girl by Cecil Castellucci, Marley Zarcone, and Kelly Fitzpatrick, which releases on October 5th.

Check out the preview pages below for sneak peek of what to expect from this new iteration of Steve Ditko’s classic concept, along with some lovely variant covers by Duncan Fegredo and Tula Lotay. Additionally, this issue will feature a back-up by Gilbert and Natalia Hernandez, the latter of which will be penciling as well.

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Also through this weekend, Comixology is running a sale on all issues of the Morrison/Case Doom Patrol and the Milligan/Bachalo (along with Phillips and Case) Shade, The Changing Man. I just dropped about 70 bucks on the whole run of Shade since it was my one big pre-Vertigo blind-spot.

7 COMMENTS

  1. The Young Animal line was suppose to distance itself from Vertigo, the way described it, by not trying to imitate the way various British writers wrote but in Shade the Changing Woman w the writer seems be trying to imitate Peter Milligan’s writing–and not really succeeding. The writer is not really succeeding at being surreal or whimsical–at least to me, but I am probably not the target audience.

    I guess what the opening pages do communicate is that this Shade is going to be a shade for women and will largely appeal to women who are looking for something light-hearted and fun. The Kawaii animals kind of ruin my suspension of disbelief and really seem like something that belong in a children’s illustrated book.

    I’m not sure who the Young Animal brand is aimed at but based on this preview and the preview for Doom Patrol, it might be the most ambitious attempt by Marvel or DC, to tap into this young burgeoning female audience we keep reading about. Dave Carson may be the only comic I think will be read more by men in their mid 20s and up. Why do I believe this? Male lead=male readers and apparently continuity from DC’s previous incarnations of the character may be present. This (probably)= not female friendly.

    The press releases may have presented this as an Indy imprint where creators do their own “thang”, but it is really r&d for DC’s next izombie ,Ubbeatable Squirrel Girl, or Batgirl; characters that they can turn into money making franchises in other media, because it’s clear that their traditional superheros aren’t gaining newer and younger fans.

  2. “I’m not sure who the Young Animal brand is aimed at…”

    I was told by someone it’s aimed at the enormous YA market, hence “Young Animal”.

  3. The “Young Animal” titles are labelled as “Mature” by DC, which I know most retailers are lax about but DC defines as (http://www.dccomics.com/ratings) as 17+. “Young Adult” seems to be a flexible definition, but most sources seem to have it in the range of 12-18.

  4. Kin d of curious about this, but dont know the team behind it.
    The marketing for Young Animal has been abysmal. They dont need to spend too much, just put more images, concept out there for us to chatter about.
    I want to get behind it, but have a tight spending budget and would have to drop titles to get them. so i want to know if its worth while. Doom Patrol is a lock i guess, Carson may be great but not the biggest fan of Oeming, Shade has the kooky concept, but even milligan found it hard to manage in Justice League dark so its wait and see. Mother Courage seems superfluous to the gotham menagerie
    And the whole idea of pop up imprint suggests its all temporary, so are they all miniseries? thats all Way has ever managed to publish thus far. why would i drop an ongoing for a mini? these are what im thinking, but the lack of info doesnt really assist me, sure doesnt intrigue me or whet appitite

  5. And the name “Young Animal” itself is a problem, given the Japanese girly mag of the same name. An image search for art and preview pages doesnt bring up DC material till a ways down.

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