Although many await the debut of new Super Bowl for upcoming films and television series, it turns out there's also some significant comics news ahead of the Big Game. American Mythology Productions has acquired the rights to Casper the Friendly Ghost and return the beloved character to comic books in May.

The news was first reported by Bleeding Cool, and then confirmed by writer/artist Mike Wolfer and the publisher.

The covers for "Casper the Friendly Ghost" #1 reveal that Hot Stuff and Wendy, the Good Little Witch are part of the rights deal. Wolfer, who created the variant cover with colorist Ceci de la Cruz, announced he's written a Hot Stuff story for that debut issue.

Created by Joe Oriolo and Seymour Reit, Casper debuted in the 1939 children's book "The Friendly Ghost" before making the leap to animation in 1945 in the cartoon short of the same name. He began appearing in comics in 1952, with Harvey Comics purchasing the rights outright some seven year later.

Wendy was introduced in 1954 by artist Steve Mufatti in Harvey's "Casper the Friendly Ghost" #20, with Warren Kremer's Hot Stuff the Little Devil following in 1957's "Hot Stuff" #1.

"Casper the Friendly Ghost" joins American Mythology's lineup of all-ages titles that includes "Underdog," "Pink Panther" and "The Three Stooges."