Dark Horse will release four major art books over the summer and fall. First up is the Art of Bone, a full color hardcover scheduled for June. It will include previously unpublished and rarely seen Jeff Smith promotional art, holiday cards, and other artwork, outlines, and full stories from the early self-published days until the property's current status as a mainstay of the graphic novel world.
In August, Dark Horse will release the Art of Grendel, which will similarly track the 25 year history of Matt Wagner's anti-hero in a full color hardcover presentation.
Conan: The Phenomenon, a hardcover written by Paul Sammon, will be released in September. The cover will be a classic piece of Frazetta Conan artwork. The book will cover the history of the character from its 1932 origin to the present, including the great Frazetta covers for the novels, the history of the comics, the Shwarzenegger film, and the recent revival of the comics.
In October, Dark Horse will release Buffy: Panel to Panel, modeled after its Star Wars: Panel to Panel release. This deluxe trade paperback will collect the best of the paintings and line art from the Dark Horse comics, which have run over 100 issues to date.
Dark Horse is also planning a number of comic collections in the coming months, with omnibus editions for Aliens (June), Buffy (July), and Star Wars Tale of the Jedi (October) among them. In June, the company plans to release its first collection of Harvey Comics Classics: Casper the Friendly Ghost, in an omnibus format. Edited by Leslie Cabarga and Jerry Beck, the volume will collect 100 original comic stories from 1949 to 1965.