Announced today at Newsarama, the Eisner-winning “Itty Bitty Hellboy” will be returning next year as a part of Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani’s monthly all-ages series “Itty Bitty Comics” for Dark Horse. So expect to see more Roger de-pantsed. In fact, expect to see an entire island of de-pantsed Rogers.
This isn’t just Hellboy they’re playing with though. The series kicks off next month with “Itty Bitty Mask,” which will be the next step towards an Itty Bitty Dark Horse Universe, a mix of Dark Horse’s characters and Art and Franco’s creator-owned characters. One of these creator-owned characters will be Grimmiss, a hot-pepper-fueled, Spanish-speaking hero first introduced in Dark Horse’s online anthology series “MySpace Dark Horse Presents” in 2010. He featured in a single eight-page chapter before “MySpace Dark Horse Presents” was canceled, but now he’ll be getting a four-part run in “Itty Bitty Comics.” You can read more about it on Comicbook.com.
And then Hellboy and the gang will be back in “Itty Bitty Comics” #9.
Art and Franco have been enjoying considerable freedom with the characters, saying it’s almost like working on creator-owned projects. They’ve been able to make additions to the cast like Abe’s sister, Eve Sapien, with no pushback and they’re eager to get as close as possible to the line they shouldn’t cross. The work “crazy” was used quite a bit. For now there are sixteen issues of “Itty Bitty Comics” planned, but it’s clear Art and Franco want to take it further, with their ultimate goal being an “Action Cat” and “Itty Bitty Hellboy” crossover.
But for me, the highlight of this news is Kate Corrigan will be joining the cast. Aw yeah!
