‘Space Ghost’ Flies Again This May

by Erik Amaya

He may not be sitting down to talk, but Space Ghost will soon be back.

Dynamite announced Thursday the imminent release of Space Ghost, a new series detailing the exploits of the intergalactic hero who cut quite the silhouette in Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the 1960s. Guiding the new adventures: writer David Pepose and artist Jonathan Lau.

As the series begins, the resources of the Galactic Federation are spread thin across a cosmos it cannot effectively maintain. Greed and corruption reign supreme where they cannot enforce the laws. Pirates, hijackers and others move with stealth to take by force what they cannot gain by legitimate means. Colonies, science installations, and the vehicles ferrying personnel and resources between them are not safe. But the rogues of the galaxy will soon face a vigilante who takes the whole of space as his patrol: Space Ghost. Is he policeman gone rouge? An Alex Toth figure come to life? The manifestation of his sidekicks’ dream of heroism?

All of that is moot as Space Colony Omicron, home of brilliant scientist Dr. Jerrod Keplar, is attacked. His children, Jan and Jace — and their monkey Blip — are also threatened. Only Space Ghost can come to their aid.

“I’m so excited to be diving into the world of Space Ghost!,” Pepose said in a statement. “When Dynamite first approached me about tackling this series, I was immediately struck by the sheer amount of raw material we had to play with — the cartoons were immensely stylish and a heck of a lot of fun, but they never had the time to develop those characters beyond their powers and the roles they played in each episode. So we’re taking those classic vibes and using them as a starting point to dig even deeper into the characters than the original cartoons were ever able to.”

The series is the latest in Dynamite’s continued relationship with Warner Bros. Discovery, who owns the character, his related friends and foes, and even Space Ghost Coast to Coast, the strange talk show he hosted in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But for this comic book, it’s back to the high-flying adventures of the original 1960s Space Ghost series as designed by Toth and produced by Hanna-Barbera.

Supporting the debut issue are covers from Francesco Mattina, Jae Lee, Bjorn Barends, and Michael Cho.