WIZARD WORLD LOS ANGELES: AVATAR PRESS PANEL

LOS ANGELES -- Avatar Press staged its Wizard World Los Angeles panel on Sunday.

Following are live highlights:

* Editor-in-chief William Christensen said Warren Ellis' and Paul Duffield's FreakAngels has been a big success online. "We're planning on doing it for years," he said.

* The first print collection will 144 pages and will arrive in stores in November or December. Christensen said plans are for a trade every six to eight months.

* Doktor Sleepless #1-8 will be collected this summer, and Streets of Glory will be collected this winter.

Christensen said Doktor Sleepless will be monthly again beginning with #9.

* Christensen said Ellis does "scripments" for Gravel, which Mike Wolfer expands. He said the pair has developed a good working relationship.

The monthly Gravel series "launched really well."

* Wolfskin, Ellis' barbarian title, will return with an annual-sized issue in June, leading into a six-issue mini-series this fall.

* There will be another Apparat OGN by Ellis, a "more spiritual successor to Crecy," as a 48-page black-and-white book. The title was not announced, but it will be on this summer. Christensen said the OGN line will expand in 2009.

* Christensen Black Summer is the best-selling Avatar series to date. A trade is due this summer, with #0-7 and backmatter.

* A new Ellis/Juan Jose Ryp project is in the works. It will launch in the summer, and a couple of issues are completed. An announcement, with art, will likely be made in a month.

* Ennis is writing Crossed with artist Jacen Burrows, described as "a really hardcore horror series." "It's Garth going into the darkest places he knows how to," Christensen said.

"It's about the worst that people can possibly be," he said.

Currently planned as 10 issues, it is targeted for an August launch.

* Ennis is doing a sequel to Chronicles of Wormwood for a fall/winter release. "Pope Jacko is going to take over Hell," Christensen said.

* Christensen described 2009 as a big year for Alan Moore projects.

* With the success of FreakAngels, Christensen said it's probable that Avatar will have more webcomics.

* "We are happy to take risks," Christensen said. "We don't want to be boring. I don't care about the latest incarnation of Blue Beetle."

* Most of the projects from Avatar are from Ellis, Ennis and Moore, but Christensen said more talent could be joining the Avatar fold soon. "But it's a really short list," he said. "There are six people I'm interested in bring on board."

* Christensen said Avatar is "not in a rush" for other media. "We're just here to create great comics," he said.

"There are a lot of people who want to work with Avatar. There are a choice few that will."