The Quarter Bin

Yesterday, Oni Press had a small panel/trivia contest to talk about some of their existing and upcoming productions. The panel was led by Editor In Chief James Lucas Jones, with Rick Lacy, Matthew Loax, Vasilis Lolos, Andy Parks, Ray Fawkes, and marketing director Cory Casoni. After the jump, more details on what Oni has planned for the future.

- The Oni panel was much smaller and more low-key than the Vertigo panels, which was a little intimidating at first. Mostly because I was literally the only girl in the room, and I was in direct view of all of the panelists. After a few minutes, though, I came to like the more casual atmosphere in the Oni room.

- First up: The Return of King Doug, an adventure tale that’s a humorous send-up of fantasy epics. Written by Greg Erb and Jason Oremland with art by Nick Hunter Park.

- Matthew Loax talked about his new book Salt Water Taffy, an all-ages book about two young brothers on vacation with their family in Maine. There will be 3 or 4 books a year, and they will focus on different tales in New England folklore.

- Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen will be restarting in June after being put on hold because of the writer’s strike (while the strike didn’t normally affect comics, because they made this deal through Viacom, they had to put a stop to it when the strike hit). Will be illustrated by Robbie Rodriguez, who Jones says is the hardest working man in comics.

- Rick Lacy was up next to talk about Labor Days, which is a take on the twelve labors of Hercules “if Hercules were a British slacker”. It will take place in London and other countries, and will be released in October.

- Cory Casoni let everyone know that the new Damned mini-series Prodigal Sons is underway, and reading the previous trade is not necessary to get into the new series.

- Apocalipstix by Ray Fawkes sounds pretty awesome, as it will be the story of an all-girl band that survives the nuclear apocalypse and decides to go on with their tour. Neat! On sale in July.

- Marc Guggenheim isn’t around to talk about Resurrection because he’s still on the Marvel panel, so Jones fills everyone in on the premise: it’s basically the aftermath of a huge alien invasion (as in War of the Worlds, Independence Day, etc.)

- Uncle Slam Fights Back by Andy Parks is a 48-page one-shot due out in August, and was described as a deranged superhero parody.

- Vasilis Lolos talks about The Last Call, a coming-of-age story that he hopes will be available in time for the San Diego convention.

Next came a quick and uneventful question-and-answer session with the audience, during which Marc Guggenheim arrived. No one else has any questions for him, so I asked what it was like going from writing comic books to writing for television (he now writes for ABC’s Eli Stone). He says that you can’t write them the same way, and it’s just a matter of getting used to a new medium and figuring out what you have to do in each to make it work.

That wrapped up Oni’s panel. We’ve still got a few more panels to cover before we’re done with our New York Comic Con coverage, so keep checking back for more!