Seth Green Returns To Comics And Celebrates 20 Years Of ‘Freshmen’ From Top Cow/Image Comics
by Olly MacNamee
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the irrelevant comic boom series Freshman, Seth Green is coming out of comic book retirement to co-write a new 32-page comic to roll out as part of a new Kickstarter campaign that collects the original series as a new hardcover edition from Top Cow/Image Comics.
Co-created with writer Hugh Sterbakov, with art by Leonard Kirk, the campaign launches on Tuesday, 18th August, with the all-new Freshmen: 20th Anniversary Reunion Special included.
“Originally published in 2006, Freshmen follows a group of socially awkward college students who survive a strange laboratory accident and emerge with superpowers inspired by whatever they were thinking about at the moment of the explosion. Equal parts superhero adventure, college comedy, and coming-of-age story, Freshmen explores what happens when ordinary young people are handed extraordinary abilities without the experience, maturity, or confidence to handle them.”
The new special sees the Freshmen enjoy a college reunion two decades on, “as they reflect on adulthood, friendship, old romances, and one hilariously disastrous mission they never quite managed to forget.”
Discussing the anniversary, Green stated:
“It’s hard to believe it’s been twenty years. This series came from a genuine love of superhero comics and the idea of exploring what real college students might do if they suddenly found themselves with incredible — and sometimes incredibly inconvenient — powers. I’m excited that longtime fans will be able to revisit the story and that a new generation of readers will get to meet these characters.”
Sterbakov added:
“Freshmen has always been about friendship, finding your place in the world, and discovering that becoming a hero is usually much messier than anyone expects. Bringing the complete story back for its twentieth anniversary gives us the opportunity to celebrate the characters, the creators, and the readers who have kept the series alive.”
Top Cow President and COO Matt Hawkins commented on the celebratory nature of the campaign:
“Fans have continued asking us about Freshmen for years, and the twentieth anniversary gave us the perfect reason to bring it back. But we didn’t want to simply repackage the original series. Seth and Hugh came back with a brand-new story that catches up with these characters twenty years later, which makes this feel like a genuine return rather than just an anniversary collection. For longtime fans, it’s a chance to see some old friends again, and for new readers, it’s a great way to discover what made Freshmen special in the first place.”
The hardcover edition also includes behind-the-scenes material, a complete cover gallery, and additional anniversary bonus features. You can pre-register here now and read the first issue from the original series here.
