WONDER CON: BOOM! STUDIOS

BY ERNIE ESTRELLA

SAN FRANCISCO -- BOOM! Studios -- represented by Chip Moser, Ross Richie, Matt Gagnon, and Nate Watson -- recapped their most successful year and presented their publishing lineup for 2009 at Wonder Con on Friday. But they lowered the BOOM! when an announcement was made by Mark Waid, via video from MegaCon, of a partnership with film studio Fox Atomic, a division of 20th Century Fox, to co-publish comics together.

Fox Atomic's Eric Lieb reminded the audience that they previously published four original graphic novels through HarperCollins: 28 Days Later, The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning and two Nightmare Factory OGNs. They will look to expand on those previous entities with BOOM! Studios and plan to publish a handful of new titles by this August. No titles were announced in this upcoming lineup on Friday, with announcements pending.

Following are other highlights from the panel:

* In 2008, BOOM! Studios' release of Northwind was the first in-store simul-release in conjunction with Myspace.com Comics and became a model for the company's subsequent releases. Numbers went up from issues 3 to 4, a rarity in comics.

* For 2009 BOOM! plans to be heavily involved with iVerse, who makes comics available through iPhone app stores and Google Android. In the first 48 hours, the new series Hexed was downloaded 10,000 times and since New York Comic Con two weeks ago, numbers have climbed to 20,000.

* Farscape was a big success for BOOM! and there will be two follow up mini-series. Farscape: Strange Detractors and Farscape Dargo's Lament featuring the fan-favorite character. The latter mini-series will see "extra content relating to Dargo that has never been seen before."

* Eureka: Dormant Gene will follow up the first mini-series based on the TV cult-hit. Andrew Cosby and Jonathan L. Davis will write the series, with art by Mark Dos Santos.

*BOOM! has three planed Pixar comics. The Incredibles (written by Waid and art by Marcio Takara), Cars, and Toy Story will be made into comics later this year. The Incredibles will also have an incentive cover by Mike Mignola. Each of these books are reviewed by Pixar before they go to print.

* The first Cars arc will be Lightning McQueen's origin.

* Generating a lot of internet buzz is The Muppet Show comic. Roger Langridge will write and draw the series who was previously most well-known for his indy cult hit, Fred the Clown. "This is the most asked about comic in our booth." Richie said, "We want to incorporate that sense of anarchy seen on the television show into the comic." A follow-up to the Muppet Show comic wll be Muppet Robin Hood.

* Mouse Guard's David Petersen will provide half of the covers for Mr. Stuffins and Muppet Robin Hood.

* Horror comic Fall of the Cthulhu will see its end with the mini-series, Nemisis, the pet cat

* Enthusiasm rose in the panel for Mark Waid's 12-issue series Irredeemable , a new title spun out the Mark Waid is Evil viral campaign Moser thought up by Moser. Irredeemable is the story of the world's greatest hero who decides to become the world's greatest villain. Art is by Peter Krause and covers will be done by John Cassady and Barry Kitson. Each issue will also have a 1 in 50 incentive cover for each issue for retailers that will be drawn by hot new artist Jeffrey Spokes and will spell out the word "I-R-R-E-D-E-E-M-A-B-L-E."

* Following Irredeemable, Mark Waid will write The Unknown, a story centering around the smartest and most famous private investigator who has solved every mystery except for one, the "Unknown." Art will be by Minck Oosterveer and an alternate cover will be done by Paul Pope who describes the series as "the story of Doc Savage as if it were written by David Lynch."