The Umbrella Academy writer and former My Chemical Romance front man Gerard Way is curating a new DC Comics popup imprint. Young Animal, the imprint intended for “mature readers,” will feature four series under Way’s creative direction.
“I am thrilled to help bring DC’s Young Animal to life, having been raised on experimental 80s and 90s takes on superheroes,” Way said.
Young Animal’s four titles are Doom Patrol; Shade, The Changing Girl; Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye; and Mother Panic. Way spoke on the DC All Access panel at Emerald City Comicon, and said these stories will allow the publisher to “explore fine art, bold concepts, mature themes, and strangeness—with a lot of heart.”
Doom Patrol—the flagship title for Young Animal—is written by Way, with art by Catwoman artist Nick Derington. The series, which was described by Way as “comics for dangerous humans,” follows the “world’s strangest” heroes and villains.
Shade, The Changing Girl is a sci-fi thriller written by Star Wars’ Moving Target writer Cecil Castellucci, with art by Marley Zarcone. It explores themes of “madness, alienation, and the bizarre,” as an alien inhabits the body of a 16-year-old bully. Shade, The Changing Girl debuts in October.
Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye centers on DC Comics’ Silver Age character Cave Carson and his college-age daughter. Written by Way and Jon Rivera, the story will “travel to dark places in the earth and mind.” Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye will hit shelves in October.
With Attack on Titan writer Jody Houser, Way is also writing Mother Panic. The story, debuting in November, features Violet Paige, a “celebrity heiress by day and brutal vigilante by night,” as she takes on Gotham’s high society crime.
