NYCC 2023: Mad Cave Studios Discusses 2024 Lineup, Including `Gatchaman’ And `Flash Gordon’
by Tom Smithyman
Mad Cave Studios excited fans at New York Comic Con with several announcements about its upcoming titles. The publisher, which has primarily been known for independent titles, will soon showcase some more familiar properties in 2024, including Gatchaman, Flash Gordon and Dick Tracy.
Mad Cave used the con to introduce members of the new titles’ creative teams to would-be readers.
Gatchaman will be an ongoing series beginning in June 2024, written by Cullen Bunn and illustrated by Chris Batista. Batista, who was on hand to talk about his vision for the series, fell in love with Ken, Joe and Jun when he was younger. While cartoons of the time, like Scooby-Doo and Super Friends, were repetitive and lack action, the original Japanese version of Gatchaman was much different.
“They would take the bad guy and beat the crap out of them!” he said.
That action stuck with Batista through the years, and he jumped at the chance to draw the characters when it was offered to him. Those heroes wear iconic costume that Batista said he will keep, though he promised to add some modern touches so the comic wouldn’t look like something out of the 1970s.
“I don’t have any intention of putting anything in there I that isn’t instantly recognizable,” he said.
Mad Cave Editor In Chief In Chief Mike Marts also announced that writers Steve Orlando and Tommy Lee Edwards will join the Gatchaman creative team, working on some related miniseries and one-shots.
Fans know the show by a number of names, including G-Force and Battle of the Planets. Orlando said his job is to build off of that nostalgia while also creating enticing stories that will draw in a new audience.
“That’s the perfect alchemy for a project like this,” he said.
While Flash Gordon doesn’t yet have an announced artist, Jeremy Adams’ script the ongoing series, which will harken back to the zany pulp sci-fi that creator Alex Raymond built for the character. Several publishers have leveraged the spacefaring hero’s license over the years, which makes creating a memorable story a challenge that Adams is embracing.
“This is my chance to take a swing at it so people will remember it in the main comic book consciousness,” he said.
Adams said Flash’s origin story has been told so well so many times that there was no need for him to retell it. Instead, the hero will already be in space, punching evil in the face, whenever the need arises.
As with Gatchaman, Flash Gordon will feature some spin-off one-shots and limited series.
The first new licensed title, Dick Tracy, will debut next March, written by Alex Segura and Michael Moreci and illustrated by Geraldo Borges.
Segura said he became a fan after watching the 1990 movie with Warren Beatty. From there, he read the original comic strips and was surprised to see how terrifying the villains were depicted. He wants to bring that hard-boiled noir sensibility to the comic series.
“What if Brian De Palma directed Dick Tracy?” he teased.