After debuting their first graphic novel, The Tower Chronicles, Legendary Comics is making some big strides in the medium. They already have an impressive slate lined up for next year with titles such as Shadow Walk from Mark Waid, Max Brooks, and Shane Davis and The Majestic Files from J. Michael Straczynski, not to mention the further chapters of The Tower Chronicles. Their line just got a whole lot bigger as they've announced new titles from Grant Morrison and Guillermo del Toro. You can't get much bigger than that.
The comic from del Toro will be a prequel of his upcoming film, Pacific Rim -- which just so happens to be produced by Legendary Pictures. The aim is to have the graphic novel provide important details of the characters and ultimately lead up to the film's release. The book will be written by the film's writer, Travis Beacham and split into three parts, covering the history of this world from the first monster attack to moments before the movie begins.
Each part will be a complete episode, popping in and out of character backstories and sometimes new characters that never made it into the movie. The graphic novel will be expanding upon Pacific Rim's continuity, exploring how the war has affected not just the heroes of the film, but the world beyond. The origin of Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), will be part of each of the three segments, chronicling his journey to high-ranking commander.
In related news, del Toro also debuted this sweet new art piece from Raúl Monge at NYCC this week. Monge serves as concept artist on the film. It's a total WWII propaganda vibe.
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Morrison's story is entitled Annihilator. I could try and paraphrase it, but it's a lot better to just let the official synopsis do the talking here. Check this out.
Morrison brings to the pages a thrilling story starring wild-living screenwriter Ray Spass, who has one last chance to save his career as he struggles to write a new studio tent-pole movie, Annihilator.
The film centers around the incredible adventures of Max Nomax; a sci-fi rebel anti-hero who’s condemned to a haunted prison orbiting a supermassive black hole, following an epic struggle against the all-knowing, all–powerful artificial life form VADA and his squad of deadly Annihilators. Found guilty of the Greatest Crime in History, Nomax has vowed to clear his name by discovering a Cure for Death itself and resurrecting his lost love.
But with deadlines looming and a recently-diagnosed brain tumor, Spass is running out of time and inspiration – until the real Max Nomax mysteriously appears in the world of 21st century Los Angeles with no memory of how he got there, only a terrifying warning of imminent destruction and a mission for Ray Spass.
Ray’s tumor is the key—it contains all the information of Nomax’s adventures, uploaded into Ray’s head before Nomax made his great escape. Now, Ray has to finish his screenplay in order to get the information out of his head and shrink the tumor. Nomax needs Ray to finish the screenplay so he can remember how to defeat VADA and ultimately save the universe from extinction – if Makro, the unstoppable rogue Annihilator, doesn’t kill get to them first, that is.
But who or what is Max Nomax really? And why is it the more we learn, the less we want to know? A heart-stopping suspense thriller. A love story. An impossible mystery. A tale of vengeance and defiance – bargains and consequences - life and death – good and evil.
This sounds crazy and epic and totally Morrison which is a great thing. It's not really something you can explain in one sentence, but that's the beauty of it. It definitely looks like something that's completely out there, but I love it already. Not much has been released so far outside of the nifty logo.
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Both Annihilator and Pacific Rim are due out in 2013. No artists have been named for either project yet. Which of these announcements are you most excited about? It's pretty tough to decide.
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