Following on from the recent revival of Dark Horse Comics’ titles “Ghost” and “X”, it was announced at Thursday’s NYCC Diamond Comic Distributors’ retailer breakfast that the next book to reinvigorate “Comics Greatest World” would be “Catalyst Comix”. Written by Joe Casey with art by Dan McDaid, Paul Maybury and Ulises Farinas, the book is set to be an anthology title with an eye on revamping Dark Horse superheroes Amazing Grace, Titan, Rebel and Warmaker, amongst others.
Casey explained his vision and reasoning for the book in an interview with CBR:
“Catalyst Comix” is kind of a whacked out anthology book, completely written by me, drawn by artists Dan McDaid, Paul Maybury and Ulises Farinas. I wanted to see these guys in particular drawing superheroes. My pitch to Mike (Richardson, Dark Horse Comics Publisher) was, “Look, DC Comics will put a guy like Paul Pope — a singular, visionary artist by anyone’s standards — on a special ‘Batman’ mini-series but would never in a million years put him on the monthly ‘Batman’ title (for now, let’s just ignore the fact that Paul probably has no interest in that gig).” For DC, having an artist that’s so unique and individualistic as the “public face” of one of their IP’s is, for them, a step too far. It’s too weird for them. It’s much safer to have someone with a more “mainstream” style (in other words, a style that can be easily copied by other artists) because it maintains brand consistency. But, for me, superhero comicbooks need the exact opposite. They need to be weird and unique and dangerous-looking. On the other side of the street, Marvel will hire Benjamin Marra to do a USAgent strip in their “Strange Tales” anthology but they’d never hire him to write and draw “Captain America” monthly.
Cover artists lined up for the opening salvo of issues include Rafael Grampa, Paul Pope and Brendan McCarthy.
Rumors that “Catalyst Comix” is my New Favorite Comic are as yet unconfirmed.
