At The Hollywood Reporter, reporter/humorist Hart Seely has founded a new comic book publisher, AHOY Comics. AHOY (Abundance, Humor, Originality and Yes) intends to focus on “comic book magazines,” including back-up material like cartoons, prose and even poetry with regular comic book stories. Seely said, “I’ve come to believe you can speak truth through the fundamental telling of stories, and that’s what AHOY is going to do. I believe we can take the best of literature and the best of comics, put them in a blender and come up with something new, exciting and — most of all — true.”
Former DC Entertainment writer and editor Tom Peyer will be AHOY’s editor-in-chief, and write its first two miniseries, both starting in September. First up is “The Wrong Earth,” a six-issue miniseries by Peyer and artist Jamal Igle (“Black”), about two versions of one superhero (“one an adventure-loving crimefighter with a kid sidekick, the other a ruthless vigilante”) finding themselves stranded in each other’s reality.
Back-ups include prose stories from Grant Morrison, and more from cartoonist Shannon Wheeler, columnist Paul Constant, and author/artist Frank Cammuso.
Then there’s “High Heaven,” an adult-aimed five-issue book by Peyer and Greg Scott (“The X-Files: Year Zero”) about “a chronic malcontent finds himself in an afterlife where everyone hates a complainer.” It will also have a prose back-up from Grant Morrison, cartoons from Wheeler and Rick Geary, and a back-up strip by Peyer and Chris Giarrusso (“G-Man”).
October will see the launch of “Captain Ginger,” a four-issue comic about a spaceship piloted by cats folllowing the extinction of the human race, written by Stuart Moore (“EGOs“) and illustrated by Power Pack co-creator June Brigman. Moore, another former DC editor, is also acting as AHOY’s “dark ops” manager. The first issue will similarly include a prose story by Morrison, illustrated by Phil Hester (“Shipwreck“), and a cartoon from Wheeler.
October will also mark the start of the six-issue anthology “Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror,” which is “described as a cross between Drunk History and Tales from the Crypt.” The first issue will feature contributions from Peyer, writer Mark Russell (“The Flintstones”), and cartoonist Hunt Emerson.
Other creators who will publish work at AHOY include Ann Nocenti (“The Seeds“), Peter Milligan (“Kid Lobotomy“), IDW editor Mariah McCourt, Rachel Pollack (“Doom Patrol”), Gary Erskine (“Judge Dredd”) and Roger Stern (“Amazing Spider-Man”). Peyer said, “I only wish Chester Gould were alive to join us. I’ve always loved a generous page count, and I think the addition of fiction, poetry, humorous prose, single-panel cartoons–and maybe someday even a crossword! — make every AHOY Comic a more filling meal than we’re all used to getting. And a much funnier one.”
It all kicks off with “The Wrong Earth” on September 12. The first issue of each comic will be 40 pages long. In the meantime, head over to Graphic Policy for more artwork from each book.
