The first issue of the new book from Skybound Entertainment and Image Comics is scheduled to crash into stores in mid-March.
Comic book fans should circle March 17, 2021 on their calendars. That’s the New Comic Book Day they’ll want to visit their favorite direct market retailer to snag a copy of “Ultramega” No. 1, a new kaiju comic by James Harren and Dave Stewart from Skybound Entertainment and Image Comics.
If the monsters within aren’t big enough, the size of the first issue is monstrous, coming in at a whopping 68 pages with a $7.99 price tag, according to a press release from Image that was sent out Tuesday. The book was first announced at the virtual Skybound Holiday Xpo earlier that day.
Harren (“Rumble” and “B.P.R.D.”) is providing story and art for the series, which looks to heavily embrace elements of tokusatsu. Stewart, an Eisner Award winner, is coloring the book, while Rus Wooton handles lettering.
The description for the comic states a cosmic plague has been spreading and transforming people into vicious kaiju, and that three superpowered individuals known as the Ultramega are all that stands in the way, as they battle against the kaiju, creating great destruction wherever they fight.
“I hope readers appreciate an honest stab at making visceral, surprising, and bizarre comics,” Harren said in a statement. “It’s a celebration of the kinds of books I grew up reading — comics that move and curse and bleed. Skybound has given me the unbelievable privilege to play and experiment — and with any luck, deliver a book that doesn’t look like anything else. And Dave Stewart’s there to hit home runs and make the world a better place with his color art.”
For those unable to make it to their local comic shop on March 17, “Ultramega” will be released the same day digitally, including on comiXology and Google Play.
The first issue of “Ultramega” ought to be a good appetizer for kaiju movie fans, given it’ll be released just two months before “Godzilla vs. Kong” premieres in U.S. movie theaters and on HBO Max
See a four-page preview below.
