Comic-Con News:  Dark Horse Comics has announced plans to publish two graphic novel collections based on popular Webcomics, Aron Warner’s Pariah and Victor Santos Polar: Came From the Cold.  The two digital comics will be collected in 160-page hardcover editions that will be published later this year.

The creator of Pariah, Aron Warner is far from the typical comic book author.  Warner is a Hollywood honcho who produced the Shrek movies and served as head of production at Fox during the making of Titanic.  Warner came up with the original story for Pariah, the saga of a group of teens who receive super intelligence when they are “cured” of a genetic disorder, but he chose to have his story scripted for the comics by writer Philip Gelatt, and illustrated by veteran artist Brett Weldele (Surrogates).  The superpowers that these teens receive are mental, but the angst that all this brain power creates will be familiar to readers of superhero sagas like X-Men.

Spanish artist Victor Santos’ Polar: Came From the Cold is a straight-up action thriller about a retired spy who suddenly finds that his former employers want him dead.  The title of this stylized saga that features stark, mostly black-and-white art reflects the ruthless nature of the protagonist, who Santos told Comics Alliance was based on the cold-as-ice title characters from movies like Point Blank (based on one of Richard Stark’s Parker novels) and Le Samurai.

"Polar" is also a sort of pun that stretches across linguistic barriers.  The French, who were among the first intellectuals in the world to see the virtues of hardboiled crime fiction, call these tough guy crime novels "Polars," a reference to their cold unsentimental narratives, Santos’ Polar: Came From the Cold with its titular references to John LeCarre’s spy novels as well as the "polar thrillers" should fit in nicely with the current upsurge in interest in crime and tough guy comic books.