WONDERCON: ONI PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO -- Emboldened by the recent debut of the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World trailer, Oni Press staged its panel at WonderCon on Saturday.

Panelists included Cory Casoni, Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth and Ted Naifeh

* The panel started with the Scott Pilgrim trailer, which crashed the Apple website and three others when it debuted last week.

* Casoni announced that Spellcheckers -- by Jamie S. Rich, Nicolas Hitori and Joelle Jones -- will premiere at C2E2.

Jam! Tales from the World of Roller Derby will be releaed in June.

* Mondo Urbano is a comic book originally published in Brazil. It is described as having "an old Oni school feel."

* There be more Blue Monday or Hopeless Savages. Rucka said that his wife, Jennifer Van Meter, has two Hopeless Savages stories in the work.

* Frenemy of the State, a five-issue mini-series, launches on May 12. The series is the brainchild of Rashida Jones and is written by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, with art by Jeff Wamester. It is an action comedy featuring Ariana Von Holmberg, an heiress who becomes a CIA operative.

* The Sixth Gun, a supernatural western by The Damned's Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, is Oni Press' Free Comic Book Day offering. Hurtt is coloring for the first time. The first two issues will both go on sale on July 12.

The Oni Press Free For All! is Oni's other FCBD offering. It features new eight-page stories of Oni's all-ages properties, The Crogan Adventures, Possessions and Salt Water Taffy.

Preview art from Super Pro K.O.! was shown, featuring a wrestling match between Yoko Nono and Tomahawk Slamson. The book will be featured at Comic-Con International.

* Oni begins collecting Guerillas, formerly published by Image Comics, in October.

* Petrograd will also be in October.

Past Lies: An Amy Devlin Mystery will be retreated in a format duplicated for future editions.

* Rucka explained that each four issues of Stumptown will be a complete case. He said there were some snags with delays for the first arc, but they will not be repeated in future arcs.

"This is not limited, this is ongoing," Southworth added.

"Baby in the Velvet Case" is the title of the second Stumptown arc, Rucka revealed.

The first issue is in its second printing and the second issue is almost gone.

Rucka and Southworth revealed that #7 will be a car chase, with draw bridges in the book's setting of Portland making it a natural.

"Stumptown is my big, sloppy wet kiss to The Rockford Files," Rucka said.

* Polly and the Pirates will return for a second volume, and in a rarity, Naifeh is having someone else -- Robbi Rodriguez -- draw his writing. Naifeh said when Rodriguez provided the cover, he became sure he found the right artist for the job.

In the second volume, Polly realizes she will have to leave her boarding school soon and "that scares the hell out of her," Naifeh said.

* In terms of Courtney Crumrin, Naifeh said there will be six total volumes, plus some tie-ins with extra characters. "I have a very specific ending in mind," he said, "that's going to apocalyptic and tears before bedtime."