Rafer Roberts and Mike Norton Reteam for “Grumble”

In an interview with CBR, writer Rafer Roberts and artist Mike Norton have announced they will collaborating on “Grumble,” a supernatural comedy series starting at Albatross Funnybooks this November. The comic follows Tala, a young woman pursued by the S’Taera — interdimensional beings who believed she does not properly observe the “purity” of magic – who turns to the one person her mother told her could help: Eddie, a talking, cigar-smoking pug.

Norton said the series was conceived after scheduling problems caused plans for him to pencil DC’s “The Hellblazer” last year to fall through. He pondered, “‘What if John Constantine was Howard the Duck?’ And [so] ‘Grumble’ was born.” Roberts, who previously collaborated with Norton on Valiant’s “A&A: The Adventures of Archer & Armstrong,” explained he just had to join the project “when Mike asked if I’d be interested in writing a book about an amoral, magic-using conman who gets turned into a pug by an evil wizard, and his psychic, take-no-nonsense sidekick!”

This is Norton’s second project starring a pug, following his webcomic “Battlepug.” Roberts said he chose the form of a pug for Eddie because “he likes them, they’re funny, and they’re the least harmful animal on the planet.” Head on over to CBR for interior artwork, Roberts and Norton on the book’s Baltimore setting, how the story resembles Paper Moon, and working with Albatross publisher Eric Powell (“The Goon”).

“Grumble” #1 is out in November and is now available to preorder.