wildstorm posts

The comic book industry is buzzing today on the news of major changes at DC Entertainment, the Warner Bros-owned subsidiary that includes both the DC Comics and Wildstorm Comics brands. Today it was announced that the comic book division will remain in New York while other aspects of DC Entertainment's business, including its PC and console game licensing group, will be moved to a new location in Burbank, California near Warner Bros' offices by the end of 2011.

One of the consequences of the changes is that the Wildstorm Comics brand will be shut down. The last comics under that brand will ship out in December. Wildstorm published and continues to release a bunch of game-related comic book adaptations. However those comics, which include current and near future titles based on World of Warcraft, Kane and Lynch, Assassin's Creed and End of Nations, will continue under the DC Comics brand.

Last December, DC Comics' Wildstorm division abruptly canceled their monthly comic books based on World of Warcraft and StarCraft. At the time Wildstorm said they planned to release original graphic novels based on Blizzard's big game franchises instead. Well it looks like plans have changed yet again as Wildstorm has just announced plans for a new World of Warcraft five issue mini-series title Curse of the Worgen.

Written by Blizzard's own writers Micky Neilson and James Waugh, the mini-series is aiming to explore the lore of the game's werewolf-like race the Worgen. The first issue of the mini-series, which will be drawn by Ludo Lullabi and Tony Washington, is scheduled for release in November which should be around the time the expansion pack World of Warcraft: Cataclysm ships out.

While Ubisoft announced earlier this year its plans to release a comic book mini-series based on its Assassin's Creed action game franchise, there was no word on who would actually be publishing the comic. Now DC Comics' Wildstorm division has been confirmed as the publisher for the comic which is now titled Assassin's Creed: The Fall.

As previously revealed the three issue comic will be co-written and co-drawn by comic book veterans Karl Kerschl and Cameron Stewart and focuses on Russian assassin Nikolai Orelov in 19th century Russia (with a modern day connection as well). The mini-series begins in November which is also the same month that Ubisoft's game Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is scheduled to be released.

DC Comics' Wildstorm division is the undisputed king of the video game comic book adaptation with a number of mini-series under its belt. Today IGN revealed the latest such project from the comics publisher as it will release a one-shot comic based on Ubisoft's Driver driving-action game series.

The one shot comic, which doesn't have a release date yet, will bridge the gap between the crappy Driv3r and the upcoming (and hopefully much better) Driver San Fransisco. The comic will be written by David Lapham with interior artwork by Greg Scott and a cover by Jock. Jock will be signing a preview copy of the Driver comic at the San Diego Comic-Con this week at both the DC Comics and Ubisoft booth.

Last month we reported that DC Comics' Wildstorm division would be releasing a four issue mini-series called The Telera Chronicles that would serve as a prequel story to Trion Worlds' upcoming fantasy MMO Rift: Planes of Telera. Today Trion Worlds sent over word that the other major MMO game it is publishing, the RTS title End of Nations, would also be getting its own Wildstorm produced comic. The comic, due out later this fall, will be written by Ricardo Sanchez and drawn by Yvel Guichet with covers by Chris Sprouse and is based on the game that's being developed by Petroglyph.

Trion Worlds will be giving out free "0" issues of both The Telera Chronicles and the End of Nations comic at the DC Comics booth during the San Diego Comic-Con next week. The "0" issues will only be available during Comic-Con.

[Via email press release]

Once again the worlds of games and comic books are merging. We have seen a ton of games adapted into comics recently and this week DC Comics' Wildstorm division announced plans to release a four-issue mini-seres based on Rift: Planes of Telera, the upcoming fantasy MMO from developer Trion Worlds.

The mini-series is titled The Telera Chronicles and will tell the story of Asha Catari. a warrior who has to deal with the lands of Telera which are being ravaged by dimensional rifts in the space-time continuum. Look for the prequel comic book to begin its run in September.

Developer Io Interactive's Kane and Lynch action game gets a sequel in August in Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days and a movie is scheduled go into production this year as well. Now it looks like the duo is getting to start in their own comic book mini-series. Publisher Square Enix announced that Wildstorm Comics, who has published many other game-based comic book series in the past, will release the first issue of the Kane and Lynch comic in August. There's no word yet on how many issues the series will last.

Comic book veteran Ian Edginton will write the comic book with Chris Mitten handling the interior artwork and Ben Templesmith illustrating the covers for the series. It will apparently examine some of Kane and Lynch's criminal past but there's no other details of the comic's storyline.

DC Comics' Wildstorm division has been handling a monthly comic book series based on Blizzard's World of Warcraft and StarCraft franchises for some time. However, word from IGN is that the publisher has decided to cancel both of these monthly comics in favor of a series of original stories in a graphic novel format. The publisher feels that such a format "will give our artists and storytellers more room to explore Blizzard's rich, varied worlds and flesh out the characters that inhabit these places."

This is an unexpected switch for Wildstorm which was planning to launch a second monthly World of Warcraft comic in January. Instead the current series will end with the release of the World of Warcraft Special that was shipped to comic book stores this week. The current StarCraft monthly comic will end with issue 7 which is due in January. No specific release date info or creative teams for the new Blizzard graphic novels were announced.

As the US version of Thanksgiving approaches, folks who might have a hardcore PC gamer on their list might be wondering what to get them for the upcoming holiday season. Oh sure, you could go the easy route and actually get them games but that's actually pretty simple; just ask your PC gamer what titles he or she wants and get them. What's hard about that?

While we will give you some ideas of what games to give your gamer this holiday in the near future, we want to do something a little different today and offer some non-PC game suggestions that we are sure to please the hardcore PC gamer. From gaming mice to books to comics to even movies there are lots of things that we think should be on your gift giving list... or maybe even your "want to get" list.

Click on the image above to continue reading Big Download's 2009 PC Gamer Holiday Gift Guide

Before this weekend, a lot of PC gamers might have been excited about the prospect of Modern Warfare 2 being available for pre-purchase on Steam. That was before Infinity Ward revealed their plans for dumping dedicated servers in favor of their own matchmaking service. Now the first person shooter can be pre-ordered on Steam but there's a catch; it apparently won't be made available until two or three days after the game ships to retail stores.

In related news IGN has a five page preview of the first issue of Modern Warfare 2: Ghost, the six-issue comic book series from DC Comics' Wildstorm division that serves as a prequel to the events in the game. The preview also shows all three collectible covers; one by artist Federico Dallocchio, one showing a screenshot of the game itself, and the third by comic book legend Jim Lee.