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AHOY Comics held their annual Comic-Con panel virtually today. Well, they held it a while ago, but it was made available to watch today. Despite the delay there was still some good news to be found and a lot of laughs to be had as always. Writer and AHOY operations manager Stuart Moore hosted the panel, which included AHOY’s editor-in-chief Tom Peyer, Black’s Myth writer Eric Palicki and cover artist Liana Kangas, Snelson: Comedy is Dying writer Paul Constant, Second Coming and Billionaire Island writer Mark Russell, and new project My Bad co-writer Bryce Ingman.
After quick and painless panelist introductions and a quick publisher intro from Moore, Palicki spoke about the recently-launched AHOY Comics title Black’s Myth, which he described as “a punk rock supernatural noir mystery story.” The series is illustrated by Wendell Cavalcanti with covers by Kangas. Moore showed off a new cover for the series by Kangas. The first issue of the series was released the first week of July.
Constant took the floor next to talk about Snelson: Comedy is Dying, his series with artist Fred Harper. The writer described the series as being about a stand-up comedian who “almost made it” in the ‘90s and who is now bitter over his career misfortunes. Constant said the series will parody the alt-right, “memoir culture,” podcasting, and more. “We’re mocking the dying breath of the entitled white male toxicity,” he said, and called the series a response to alt-comics of the ‘90s with protagonists who all act terribly.
Next Moore introduced My Bad, a new series arriving in November co-written by Mark Russell and Bryce Ingman and illustrated by Peter Krause. Ingman said the series started as a text story in a previous AHOY Comics title, Hashtag: Danger, and had been developed as a back-up series for the publisher before becoming its own miniseries. The first four issues of the series will be split, with half written by Russell and half written by Ingman; the fifth issue will bring everything together. Ingman’s half will follow unsuccessful supervillain Emperor King, who is constantly foiled by an alien superhero called The Accelerator. After Emperor King mistakenly captures the wrong superhero, Rush Hour, the two of them become friends.
Russell said his part of My Bad is about a superhero called The Chandelier who, after his secret identity receives a salad shooter for his birthday from Emperor King, becomes obsessed with whether or not the villain knows his secret identity. Ingman said they’re trying to make the series as accessible as possible, and Russell said that it was fun to write, so “if it’s not fun to read that’s on you.” Ingman and Russell both also praised Peter Krause’s artwork on the series, and Ingman said Krause is doing something different for the Emperor King half of the series than he is for the Chandelier half.
Moore mentioned delays with the art on Russell’s other series, Second Coming: Only Begotten Son. The series, featuring art by Richard Pace and Leonard Kirk, returned with its third issue this past week, and the remaining issues will release monthly going forward. A collected edition of the series is due in November. Moore said orders for the series have been steady so people seem to be sticking with it despite the delay. Russell also said he would be writing more Billionaire Island in the second half of 2021, with Steve Pugh back on art for that series.
Jumping back to a late-joining Liana Kangas, Moore asked how she approaches the covers for the series. “I really like werewolves,” she said, and this is the first project she’s been able to work on that involves werewolves. Kangas said the creative team gave her a lot of freedom to do whatever she wants with the covers, and Palicki said every time he receives a new cover from her it becomes his favorite thing ever.
AHOY Editor-in-Chief Tom Peyer took the stage next to talk about both his own projects and all of AHOY’s books, beginning with the collection of Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Blood, which is due in September. A new Poe series is coming in October, with Richard Williams back for covers on the series. The new series will be called Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Death, which Moore said was his suggestion. Peyer said they would change the title with every series, and joked that it’s so people who subscribe to the series through their LCS won’t be able to get it.
The first issue of Snifter of Death will feature another “Cereal Monsters” serial by Russell and Peter Snejbjerg, which Russell described as taking the cereal mascots “too seriously.” He said the whole thing started as a gag on Facebook, with Russell writing short text posts about the cereal monsters. The posts caught the attention of DC editor Marie Javins, who then approached him to write Prez, his first comic book. Peyer said the stories reminded him of Hammer films, which Russell has apparently not watched.
Peyer next talked about The Wrong Earth: Night & Day, his series with Jamal Igle, which has one issue yet to release. The collected edition of that series will arrive in September. The series has followed two versions of the same superhero, the lighter Dragonflyman and the grim ‘n’ gritty Dragonfly, who become trapped on each other’s earths. Night & Day has seen the two heroes team up on a third Earth and encounter another version of themselves, Man-Dragonfly. Moore also mentioned a forthcoming series of The Wrong Earth one-shots by various creators coming in 2022, and Peyer teased that two of the creators were present on the panel.
Moore next went into other titles coming this fall, including a collection of Happy Hour by Peter Milligan and Michael Montenant coming in August, as well as another series coming in the fall that they’re not ready to announce yet, though Moore did show a teaser image for the series, which you can see below.
Moore opened the floor to discussion, and Kangas mentioned that Black’s Myth #1 was the 100th AHOY Comics issue released, which both she and Palicki said was really cool to have. Russell congratulated the team, and Peyer said that ‘obsessive comics counter’ Mark Waid was the one who alerted him that the issue was AHOY’s 100th.
Snelson began its life as a backup series in Hashtag: Danger, and Moore said the first issue is “a little shocking.” Constant said that he and Harper are embracing very dark humor on the series. He said their goal with the book was to channel the extreme sensibility of the ‘90s but to add responsibility and context to it. He added that it’s been tricky working on the series to ensure that it doesn’t come across as endorsing the terrible behavior and ideas being presented satirically. Moore said he liked creative teams who egg each other on.
Russell said of the new series of Billionaire Island that it will follow Business Dog, who is now “the richest mammal left on Earth” and who is stranded on the island now that all of the other billionaires are gone. People will try to get in touch with Business Dog, and a cult will also form around him as the savior of the world. In response to an image of Business Dog driving a boat, Peyer mentioned old DC Comics character Rex the Wonder Dog, who would always be shown doing things dogs cannot do like driving a car and jumping out of a plane with a parachute on.
After some truly depressing jokes about the former president overturning the election results thanks to an audit in Arizona, the panelists decided they couldn’t sink any further, and the AHOY Comics panel officially adjourned.
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