WONDER CON: WILDSTORM PANEL

SAN FRANCISCO -- Ed Brubaker said that his run as writer on WildStorm's The Authority will likely start in October.

Appearing at WildStorm's panel at Wonder Con on Friday, Brubaker said he hopes to keep what he liked in the book from previous creators "and bring some new stuff in, too."

"It goes in a lot of different directions," he said. "It's going to be a pretty unexpected thing for people who have been following the book for a long time. It's definitely The Authority and it follows the continuity, but it goes in a lot of different directions and it's very over-the-top. And it still has that sort of Warren Ellis black humor where you realize that we're making fun of things while doing them. That's one of the thing I've loved about The Authority is that it was making fun of super-hero comics while being the best one out there.

"And then when Mark Millar took over, it was doing all that, but it was making fun of you for reading it. He's got a guy saying, 'Comics are for retards.'"

Brubaker said he couldn't reveal the artist yet.

"I'm really excited about the new artist," he said. "It's someone who's going to have a lot of heat."

Brubaker said there are questions raised in previous Authority stories that have been shunted aside.

"There's a lot of different things that can still be done with these characters that nobody has touched on at all," he said.

Brubaker said the structure of his Authority will be different.

"It's not three four-issue arcs," he said. "It's one 12-issue-long arc. It's going to have a lot of mysteries and misdirection. I've been having more fun with it than anything I've ever worked on probably."

Brubaker's interest in The Authority began when he read the trade paperbacks when he was laid up ill for a few days.

"I always loved The Authority, but after Mark Millar's run I wouldn't haved wanted to take that on because it was so amazingly popular and I didn't have enough of an ego to think that I could followed that," Brubaker said.

"But I read all that stuff and all these ideas started appearing of things they hadn't done and character development stuff that hadn't been brought out. So I called Scott (Dunber, Wildstorm's editor-in-chief) the next day and threw out a bunch of ideas at him and asked if I could be the next writer on the book. And he said, 'Let me talk to Jim (Lee).' And now I'm writing the book."

In other news from the panel:

* The Authority: Human on the Inside is a graphic novel arriving in stores on Sept. 15. In the story -- written by screenwriter and novelist John Ridley, who wrote Three Kings, and illustrated by newcomer Ben Oliver -- the U.S. government decides The Authority has embarrassed our nation once too often. A new plan is put into effect to destroy the team from the inside, while an unexpected threat from the future threatens Earth's very survival.

* Terra Obscura Volume 2 will launch in August. It is co-written by Alan Moore and Peter Hogan, with art by Yanick Paquette and Karl Story. In the story, the heroes have finally adjusted to the society that spent 30-years without them... and now, a mysterious object appears on the edge of their galaxy and is on a collision course with Terra Obscura.

* Promethea #31 in August answers the question: "What do you do the day after the world ends?" The is written by Alan Moore, with and art by J.H. Williams III and Mick Gray.

* An Astro City special by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and cover artist Alex Ross is scheduled for August. After that will be Astro City: The Dark Age a series of mini-series set in the 1970s that tells the tragic tale of the Silver Agent.

* The Authority: Kev will be four issues.

* Editor Ben Abernethy said that artist Tony Harris is already well into Ex Machine, the new series written by Brian K. Vaughan, and the title should maintain a monthly status.

* Absolute Planetary is scheduled for October. The oversized hardcover collects the first 12 issues of the series by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday, as well as the complete script to Planetary #1 and the original preview story.

* Dunber said he hopes to have Planetary on a quarterly schedule, with Cassaday's commitments now to Astonishing X-Men.

* Dunber said work on Global Frequency #12 has been completed and the book will be released in June. Look for filming of the Global Frequency television pilot to start in July.

* Brubaker said that Grifter will be appearing in Sleeper Season Two.

"The first three issues are pretty action-packed, actually," Brubaker said. "I upped the ante and made it a bit more high-octane."

* Dunbier said the Eye of the Storm imprint has basically been dissolved, with all the books folding into the WildStorm line.

* Asked about the future of Gen13, Dunbier said, "We'll see Gen13 again. We'll probably see the old gang. It's something we've been talking about in the office."

* The Humanoids books will be coming out of the WildStorm office. Look for The Technopriests in July and a collection of The Metabarons in August.