Thundarr the Barbarian, Gargoyles/Darkwing Duck and 35 Years of Judge Dredd Megazine
From Dynamite Comics and Rebellion,
Here is the latest news and previews in comics, including:
Two announcements from New York Comic Con by Dynamite Comics.
And an anniversary for Judge Dredd!
Thundarr the Barbarian Slashes Into Comics With Jason Aaron!
Fresh from my childhood is Thundarr the Barbarian with a new comic series from Dynamite Comics.
In the coming year Dynamite Entertainment, Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products and comics superstar Jason Aaron present the sword and sorcery comics event of a lifetime, as the legendary Thundarr the Barbarian slashes into comic books!
Thundarr the Barbarian ran for two thrilling seasons in the early 1980s, bursting wide the creative minds of a whole generation who watched it. The novel premise takes fantasy staples of barbarians, wizards, and monstrous beings and sets them in a post-apocalyptic vision of our world nearly 2,000 years in the future.
Writer Jason Aaron is coming up on a quarter century in comics, with forays on nearly every top character or franchise, wide-ranging genres, and hit independent creations. All-told his works have garnered countless awards nominations and wins, and proved definitive in many cases. He’s no stranger to swords and sandals, leading the charge in the revival of another barbarian comics icon in years past. Now he’s ready to bring the world of Thundarr to the page and the hands of readers.
Aaron is joined in this effort by artist Kewber Baal, teed up for his biggest breakout yet. The Vampirella, James Bond, and Jennifer Blood illustrator is ready to sling ink in bringing Aaron’s scripts to the page, alongside Thundarr’s signature Sunsword with his trademark portrayals of action.
“This strange new world arisen from the old, a world of savagery, super-science and sorcery, as created by so many comic book legends, imprinted on me in a profound way at an early age,” said writer Jason Aaron. “Thundarr the Barbarian isn’t simply my all-time favorite Saturday morning cartoon. It’s a fundamental component of my DNA as a writer. To say I’m thrilled to be crafting Thundarr’s first ever comic book adventure would be a gross understatement. In a career full of dream jobs, this one will most assuredly go down as one of the dreamiest. And as a lifelong fan of this character and his richly-imagined world, I’m intent on creating a story that honors the cartoon we all know and love, while propelling Thundarr into his most epic adventure yet.”
The series features Thundarr and his trusty companions Princess Ariel and Ookla the Mok fighting to save the world’s last surviving humans from enslavement by mutants and wizards. But when Thundarr’s greatest foes, like Gemini and Mindok the Mind Menace, team-up to devise the ultimate revenge, the heroes must battle to save the future itself, an adventure that takes us all the way back to that fateful day in 1994 when a runaway planet came hurtling between the Earth and the Moon, unleashing cosmic destruction. And for the first time ever, we’ll also learn the origin of Thundarr, including his first meetings with Ariel, Ookla, and the first time he ever wielded his mighty and mysterious Sunsword.To add to this monumental comics event, editor Joe Rybandt has called in top names for stunning series covers. Initial names include Rob Liefeld, Dan Panosian, Francesco Mattina, Michael Cho, Joseph Michael Linsner, Björn Barends, and more.
Shockingly in an era where it was common, Thundarr never once featured in its own comic book stories — a fact that stands out even more with its deep pedigree connections to the medium. The King of Comics himself Jack Kirby worked on the production design for the show, establishing its memorable look. He was complemented by Hanna-Barbera/Ruby-Spears icon and “artist’s favorite artist” Alex Toth, who designed key characters. The principal original creator of the show was the enigmatic writer Steve Gerber, known for his satirical and boundary-breaking work in comics like Howard the Duck, Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, and more. Other comics mainstays like Martin Pasko, Mark Evanier, and Roy Thomas also played key roles in Thundarr’s original tales. And now these connections come full circle, courtesy of one of the biggest names in comics today!
Teased initially at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, this year’s New York Comic Con brings major updates on Thundarr’s comics debut this January!
Gargoyles & Darkwing Duck Collide in Comics Crossover With Creators!
An entertaining-looking crossover from Dynamite Comics with the legendary Gargoyles and zany Darkwing Duck!
Dynamite Entertainment is proud to announce a brand-new Disney cartoon and comics crossover! The two franchises at the foundation of Dynamite’s new era of Disney comics collide in Gargoyles / Darkwing Duck this January — heightened even more by the ultimate creative team!
“I am the Terror That Flaps in the Night!”
“We are the Defenders of the Night!”
“I am Darkwing Duck!”
“We are Gargoyles!”
In the 1990s, the beloved Disney Afternoon TV programming block inspired a legion of fans, and continues to do so for further generations to this day. Two shows stood out from the pack with their superhero genre inspired ethos, portraying powerful heroes protecting their cities from evildoers of all kinds. With fan-favorite characters and expansive lore, Gargoyles and Darkwing Duck had an indelible impact on audiences. Now the principal creators behind both mythos are coming together for an unprecedented comic book event!
When the diabolical Demona uses a mysterious magic mirror to recruit Morgana Macawber to her cause of mass destruction, Darkwing Duck and Launchpad McQuack flap their wings — actually they board the Thunderquack — over to Manhattan. They’ll quickly cross paths with Goliath and Elisa. It might be time for a classic hero versus hero misunderstanding brawl, and so much more will follow!
Greg Weisman is a revered writer and producer behind several hit animated series, as well as a long legacy in comics, with Gargoyles being his magnum opus across both mediums. Since 2022 he has been continuously chronicling new tales of his stone guardians with Dynamite, with comics picking up right where he left things. He’s continued to flesh out the arcs of his deep bench of characters, and now in this series will have a whole new set of relationships to work his magic on.
“When I started in development at Walt Disney Television Animation, the first show I ever worked on was Darkwing Duck, learning the gig under Tad,” said co-writer and Gargoyles creator Greg Weisman. “So nothing seems more appropriate than for Tad and I to team up to bring fans of both properties to this crossover event!”
The talented Tad Stones is no rookie either, with nearly three decades working directly under the Disney umbrella. He played a key role in developing other Disney Afternoon staples like Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers and the follow up series for Aladdin and Hercules. His most iconic creation is the one and only Drake Mallard, known to his St. Canard criminal foes as Darkwing Duck. He’s recently returned as well, with a series of stunning covers on the latest series by creators Daniel Kibblesmith, Ted Brandt, and Ro Stein. This titanic team-up with Weisman will mark his first time writing Darkwing in 15 years!
“Greg had no problem entering DW’s world since he was part of the show’s development from the start,” said co-writer and Darkwing creator Tad Stones. We traded notes and I even sketched out visual gags when words failed me. Working with teams of creative artists and writers has always been the best part of my career, and this crossover is a new highlight.”
The colossal co-writing tandem of Greg Weisman and Tad Stones will be ably assisted in this historic epic by the Disney comics veteran virtuoso Ciro Cangialosi. No stranger to these characters, such as illustrating Dynamite’s spotlight on Negaduck, this will be his first chance to flex his skills on the Manhattan Clan. Letterer Fabio Amelia rounds out the core team.
The worlds of Gargoyles and Darkwing Duck colliding is a can’t-miss chapter in comics, and to mark the occasion editor Nate Cosby has assembled an all-star team of top names for covers. Italian master Ivan Bigarella delighted fans on DuckTales, and will here as well. Clayton Henry’s mastery of superheroic artwork fits these unique heroes well. Recent Dynamite superstar Declan Shalvey dishes up a delightful addition. Then both Tad Stones himself and Ciro Cangialosi pull double beyond the interior pages with covers.
Celebrating 35 Years of Judge Dredd Megazine
Wow! 35 years of the classic monthly Judge Dredd Megazine and Rebellion have a celebratory issue!
In 1990 a seismic shock swept through the comics industry, as an upstart new comics anthology rumbled into production for the first time. Judge Dredd Megazine, a sister title to the legendary British comics anthology 2000 AD, was brought to life!
Thirty-five years later and the Megazine is still going strong, and this October we’ll be celebrating 35 drokkin’ years of awesome comics with a celebratory issue featuring the return of beloved characters and series, a celebration of everything that the Megazine has stood for across the last three and a half decades!
“Thirty-five is an extraordinary birthday for any comic to have reached, let alone one that was tasked with expanding the universe of its older sibling’s lead character and has been running neck and neck with it ever since,” says Ben Smith, Head of Film, TV and Publishing for Rebellion.
“Such longevity would have been impossible without our editor Matt Smith guiding the Judge Dredd Megazine for more than half its lifetime, nor without the incredible artists and writers who have sustained it with classics, bold experiments, unexpected adventures, new characters, alongside the journalists giving us one-to-one interviews that cover the history and present of the comics medium in the UK. Most important of all, we are enormously grateful to the Megazine’s readers; subscribers and newsstand regulars, both physical and digital customers who have ensured its ongoing success.”
From its debut at the start of the 90s, Judge Dredd Megazine has been home to some of the most acclaimed and beloved comics in 2000 AD history, including Judge Dredd: America; Young Death, and Judge Anderson: Satan, as well as debuting new series including Dreadnoughts, Lawless, Armitage, Missionary Man, and Devlin Waugh.
Current editor Matt Smith says “The Meg reaching its 35th anniversary is a fantastic achievement, and testament to the wonderful work being published in its pages that readers are still flocking to. It’s fair to say that before the turn of the millennium the Meg’s future was not guaranteed – but it’s flourished over the past quarter of a century, building on some of the stunning stories of the nineties to become the unmissable companion to 2000 AD. Lawless, Dreadnoughts, Megatropolis, Angelic, Spector and more have shown that the Meg may be approaching middle age but it’s stronger and more vital than ever.’
Judge Dredd Megazine 485 is out on the 15th October, and kicks off with a new one-off America story from Rob Williams and Colin MacNeil - who was the artist on the original ground-breaking America storyline which rocked the very first issue of the Meg back in 1990! America Beeny has aged in real time since she first appeared in that story, and was taken in by the Judges and trained to be one of them. Now an active Judge, Beeny and Dredd head off into the Cursed Earth to find a message from the past waiting for them...
Megatropolis, the alternate-universe retelling of Judge Dredd and Mega-City One from Ken Niemand and Dave Taylor, is another headline feature in October’s Meg. Returning to the art-deco noir of this unpredictable universe, which debuted in Judge Dredd Megazine back in 2020, much-anticipated sequel will feature the final published artwork from co-creator Dave Taylor, who sadly passed away earlier in the year. Although he hadn’t completed this story at that time, his pages are a reminder of the fierce and passionate flair that he brought to his storytelling - and 2000 AD have pledged to complete the run in tribute to him, with Chris Weston joining the series to draw the final pages.
Elsewhere Judge Anderson has a demonic new case to solve as well, returning to the Megazine which has been her home since 1992 courtesy of Alec Worley and Ben Willsher After a film premiere is taken over by a demonic incursion, Anderson is on the scene, ready to take the psychic battle to the silver screen!
And if you’re looking for hard-hitting political realism in your comics, the return of Dreadnoughts is just what you’re looking for. This Meg-Original series has been critically acclaimed for exploring how we went from our current police system to the judge state that will take over in Judge Dredd’s era. Mike Carroll, John Higgins and Sally Hurst head back into the darkness this issue...
Also returning is the gruff detective Armitage, who debuted in Judge Dredd Megazine #9 back in 1991. Working the tough streets of Brit-Cit, Armitage has a new case thanks to Liam Johnson and Staz Johnson which finds him exploring a serial killer whose patterns seem to replicate the murder spree of Jack the Ripper! And the anniversary line up is rounded off by the latest instalment of Rok The God, John Wagner, Alan Grant and Dan Cornwell’s sci-fi sports series!The ground-shaking anniversary issue of Judge Dredd Megazine delivers over 100 pages of hard-hitting action and features, and is a true celebration of an incredible run - which continues to thrill readers around the world decades after debuting. Don’t miss this latest issue of one of the longest-running comics in history!
Celebrating 35 years of publication, Judge Dredd Megazine 485 will be published on 15th October 2025, and is available for pre-order now!
