WONDER CON: DARK HORSE COMICS

SAN FRANCISCO -- A year of anniversaries and several new projects highlighted Dark Horse Comics' panel at Wonder Con on Saturday.

* Panelists included marketing's Jeremy Atkins and editor Shawna Gore. A sideslow glitch limited the visual presentation to mostly images that were shown at New York Comic Con.

Highlights include:

* Dark Horse is relaunching its Aliens franchise for the 30th anniversary. FBCD will be flip book with Aliens and Predator.

AvP will return in the fall.

The Goon is celebrating its 10th anniversary. The anniversary cover will be an updated version of the first cover.

* Usagi Yojimbo is celebrating itsh 25th annivarsary, and Dark Horse will be releasing Stan Sakai's first graphic novel in November.

* Gore said that new Creepy anthology, a quarterly, will launching in July. Gore said that the Creepy and Eerie families will be expanded in one- or two-page stories.

Gore said Angelo Torres will be doing a story for the first issue. Eric Powell will be painting covers for the first four issues in a painted style.

Upcomng stories will be by Neal Adams and Gene Colan.

"There will be a great mix of classic horror and funny stuff," Gores said.

* Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has reached a point where Atkins feels readers can jump on.

* Star Wars: The Old Republic, based on the new game, is a bi-weekly online series online, with new material every Friday.

* Atkins said Star Wars: Dark Times is getting back on schedule.

* Star Wars: Invasion, a new series, follows recognizable characters such as Luke and Leia, along with new characters. "This is going to be a really fun, action-paced series," Atkins.

Tom Taylor is writing, with art by Colin Wilson. Atkins announced Jo Chen will be doing the covers, and showed the cover for the first issue.

* The second trade paperback for Rick Remender's The End League will be released later this year. A new arc of Fear Agent will be scheduled for this year, as well.

* Buffy the Vampire Slayer's next story arc will take place in the context of slayers becoming outlaws because a reality TV show has put vampires en vogue.

* Pixu creators will be doing a Tales of the Vampires one-shot in July.

* Rapture is a new series from husband-and-wife team of Michael Avon Oeming and Taki Soma.

* The second Achewood volume will be released later this year.

* Atkins talked about The Umbrella Academy, noting a movie is in the works, and displayed the PVC set. There will also be a bookend set and a special version of the first trade paperback.

* Joseph MIchael Linsner is the permanent cover artist for Conan the Cimmerian.

* Atkins said momentum on the Mike Mignola books continues, with B.P.R.D.: 1947, featuring art by Gabriel Fa and Fabio Moon on art.

* Sir Edward Gray: Witchfinder and a second Lobster Johnson series are also coming.

* Dark Horse will republish Guy Davis' The Marquis, with a new volume.

* Werewolves on the Moon: Versus Vampires is written by Dave Land, with art by the Fillbach Bros.

* Rex Mundi is entering its last phase, with the series finale scheduled for August.

* Beasts of Burden is written by Evan Dorkin and painted by Jill Thompson and starts in July. "It looks like a children's story gone horribly, horribly wrong," Atkins said.

* Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery is another classic anthology Dark Horse is reprinting. Gore said Dark Horse's archives series has done "exteremely well."

* Emily the Strange will also be getting a movie, with a new four-issue comics series starting in July. It starts on Emily's 13th birthday and readers will meet an Emily who is a shy, insecure girl. "It shows Emily's power and where she came from," Gore said.

A 120-page Art of Emily book will be released later this year, showing the evolution of the character from a skateboard fashion symbol.

* Gore said she has had tremendous reader mail response to The Cleaners, second only to KISS comics that Dark Horse published. Gore said Dark Horse is looking to do a movie, with should help with a second mini-series for the property that could be announced at Comic-Con International.

* Gore said there will be more Dark Horse material from Richard Corben.

* Atkins said he has seen test animation on The Goon movie, which will be produced by David Fincher.

* The 20th anniversary of Dark Horse book will now be retooled to celebrate the company's 25th anniversary.