"Over the course of the next few months, we're going to see how the popularity of vampires leads to the unpopularity of slayers and makes things even harder for Buffy and friends," said Allie, who noted the book would take a skip month to catch up in June (hence the "Tales" one-shot) and that a new in-continuity MySpace story would surface before the end of the year - all playing on the series' new status quo.Many other longstanding projects saw new information released in New York, including word that Guy Davis' "The Marquis" would land at Dark Horse with new material -- including a 40-page sketchbook -- in July, followed next year with a new OGN. Dark Horse will also continue its prolific webcomics-to-print model with a hardcover of strips from the popular online feature "Sinfest." Artist Joseph Michael Linsner will return as cover artist for "Conan" this spring, and issue #14 will feature interiors by writer Tim Truman and the legendary Joe Kubert. In other Robert E. Howard news, Dark Horse will publish a follow-up to their current "Kull" series by writer Arvid Nelson and artist Will Conrad sometime in 2010, and Mike Mignola will cover the trade for the publisher's "Solomon Kane" comic book. Another adaptation of an unfinished Howard Kane tale in the works.In Mignola news, Allie confirmed there will be a publishing break in the most recent "Hellboy: The Wild Hunt" series, between the upcoming issues #4 and #5 to accommodate the creative team, although the editor said that a fairly natural break in the 8-issue story meant that fans wouldn't be left hanging too badly. Issue #5 will ship in July. The B.P.R.D. return to their past again with the upcoming "1947" miniseries, which explores a vampire epidemic in Europe. Brothers Bá and Moon will draw the series interiors together. The perennially popular Lobster Johnson should return with a second miniseries, hopefully by end of year, which will be titled "The Burning Hand."
Mid-way through the panel, cartoonist Evan Dorkin joined the crew on stage to announce that he and Jill Thompson will take their Eisner-winning horror stories of neighborhood dogs investigating ghosts into a four-issue miniseries called "Beasts of Burden." "Dozens of people know me for my humor work," said the "Milk & Cheese" creator. "I've always wanted to do some horror books because I like horror books. The first story was an eight-page, self-contained strip about a haunted doghouse [for an Allie-edited Anthology]... I hadn't seen anything quite like it in comics." When it came up that two of the original four short stories won Eisner's, Dorkin added, "I have more Eisner's than the Hernandez Brothers, so that makes no sense. Any award where that happens has problem."Dorkin continued, "We always wanted to do a series about this, but Jill was very busy having a career, and I was very busy playing video games, but now we've got an issue in the can. I've written the second script and am working on the third." Later, while discussing the makeup of the all dog cast and a bit of what happens to them in the story, Allie warned Dorkin about spoilers to which the writer said, "Spoiler warning: we're bringing The Flash back. It's Barry Allen. It's a coup. DC doesn't know we're doing this because Dan DiDio is busying ruining something." Dorkin also said that he's still at work on new "Milk & Cheese" stories, but at the pace he draws, fans shouldn't get their hopes up for a new full issue any time soon.