Skybound Comet, the middle-grade and YA comics imprint published by Image Comics, has announced three new graphic novels for Spring and Summer 2023 release.
Scurry collects Mac Smith’s webtoon about a colony of mice struggling to survive in a world without humans. The story follows a mouse named Wix who gets lost while searching for food and finds himself on a journey filled with danger, surprises, and the path to his unexpected destiny. The Comet edition will mark the first time the comic has been collected in a single volume; Smith originally published it as a trilogy, and the Kickstarter campaign for the third volume raised over $188,000 from over 3,000 backers. The webtoon has 21,000 followers on Tapas. Image will publish the 328-page paperback, rated for ages 8 to 12, in February 2023, and Wix will make an appearance in Skybound X #25 in July. Outpost Zero, by writer Sean Kelley McKeever and artist Alexandre Tefengki, collects the Image Comics series about a girl living in a frozen outpost who goes on a search for the truth about her world and what lies beyond it. McKeever is the writer of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane; Tefengki was part of the creative team for The Good Asian,which the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) named to its top ten graphic novels for adults list (see “ALA Graphic Novel Round Table Releases Top Graphic Novels for Children List”). Outpost Zero was originally collected in three trade paperbacks in 2018-20, and now Comet will collect it in a single volume geared for the young adult audience. Ava’s Demon Book One: Reborn, by Michelle Fus, is the first book in a collected edition of the webtoon, which has over 260,000 followers on Webtoon. In it, a young girl named Ava makes a pact with Wrathia, the spirit of an ancient alien queen: Ava will help Wrathia avenge the loss of her empire and in return will get a better life. The first volume of the YA saga is slated for June 2023.ICv2 interviewed the senior editor of Comet last week about the new imprint (see “ICv2 Interview: Skybound Comet Senior Editor Alex Antone”).