This year, comic book readers will get a chance to meet the Muppets -- or at least Roger Langridge's versions of the Muppets -- all over again.

Today, Marvel Comics announced that it will soon publish "The Muppets Omnibus" -- a hardcover collection featuring the cartoonist's full range of Muppet efforts. The news was announced in USA Today, where Langridge talked about his work with Jim Henson and company's furry cast of variety show stars.

"There's a kernel of truth around which each character is constructed which keeps them vital and relevant and - despite their flippers, fur, beaks or trotters - very human," Langridge said of the cast. ""Kermit the put-upon guy burdened with responsibility, Piggy the wounded diva, Gonzo the attention-craving eccentric, Fozzie the guy whose station in life slightly outstrips his talent for it, and on and on."

Langridge first came to the characters in a very brief form at the tail end of kids comics digest "Disney Adventures" where he was drafted to tell short comics featuring the Muppet cast. Even though the magazine folded shortly after he started his run, the cartoonist's work with the Muppets led to a regular gig drawing them for BOOM! Studios' line of licensed kids comics. There, Langridge set to creating series including "The Muppet Show," "The Muppet Show Comic Book: The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson," "The Muppet Show Comic Book" and "The Muppets."

The artist told the paper that his attraction to the series was that he'd used so many ideas from the classic '70s variety show which popularized the puppet characters in his own comics work. "The showbiz setting, the opportunity to write tortured doggerel and pass it off as 'musical numbers,' the balance between humor and pathos, the sketch-show format itself - these were all things I was doing independently," Langridge said. "In many ways, The Muppet Show Comic Book fit me like a glove, and I like to think I was well-positioned to do the project justice as a result."

USA Today lists no publication date or month for "The Muppet Omnibus," but stay tuned to CBR News for more on the book as it becomes available.