Tag Archives: The Awakening

Heavy Metal Teams with Herø Projects for Graphic Novels and Screen Adaptations

Posted on by

Heavy Metal has announced that it is teaming up with acclaimed comics and animation company Herø Projects to publish a slate of sci-fi graphic novels and to develop Herø’s original IP for screen adaptations to be produced through Heavy Metal Studio. 

Herø Projects’ “Ønyx” lineup of sci-fi graphic novels will be published through Heavy Metal and distributed by Simon and Schuster in 2022-2023. The titles featured in the lineup are post-apocalyptic space opera Stable, dystopian thriller The Red, historical sci-fi Dogma Resistance, action-adventure The Awakening, and decopunk crime noir Remnant.

All five of the “Onyx” line of books being announced were created by Matthew Medney, Morgan Rosenblum, Jonny Handler, and Pete “Voodoo Bownz” Russo, and written by Medney and Rosenblum. Notable artists featured in the series of OGNs include Francesco Pisa, Jon Lam, Giuseppe Peppe, Santa Fung, Andrea Adiletto, Fabrizio Ugolini, and many more.

Stable will be on sale in winter of 2022, followed by Remnant coming out summer of 2022, both of which are collaborations with Tomato Farm Agency, then The Awakening in fall of 2022, Dogma Resistance in winter of 2023, and The Red in spring of 2023.

Along with the slate of graphic novels hitting shelves soon, Heavy Metal’s President and Head of Studio Tommy Coriale is in the process of developing screen adaptations of Herø Projects’ graphic novel collection, based on the original IP. Heavy Metal plans to produce the television and film projects with additional partners. Stable and The Red are the first two of the titles being developed, with the others in the pipeline.

Review: Penny Dreadful: The Awakening #1

Posted on by

Penny Dreadful “The Awakening” picks up where the television series left off. We follow both Ethan and Mr. Lyle in a world without their beloved Vanessa. An ancient Egyptian legend dooming all of mankind arrives in London, that poor old Lyle has attempted to prevent numerous times, but nevertheless, the curse is unveiled.

Writer Chris King borrows details from the existing storyline from the show, as well as creates his own, developing a fascinating new plot line that puts all of our favorite characters lives at risk. We meet again, familiar faces such as Dr. Seward. Through King, Seward’s subtle and dry humor is brought to light, leaving the scenes a moment to take a breath from the drama. I personally wouldn’t mind a touch more of this, but overall I didn’t feel as though there was anything else to pick at in terms of storytelling.

Artist Jesús Hervás brings to Penny Dreadful everything I would hope for from a horror-based comic. It’s dark, menacing, delightfully detailed and unique. I don’t often feel the need to shout out the colorist, but even Jason Wordie seemed to create an entirely new palette with the color alone, and I imagine that’s not easy to do. The scenes in Egypt felt antiquated, like Wordie found the perfect shade of a million-year-old parchment, and saved it just for this. There are frames where it seems as though he has played with water colors, others where he has made use of markers, which is something I personally haven’t seen before―and it worked. It’s difficult to say who of the two gets credit for what, but at the end of the day, they seem to make a fine pair.

Fans will be grateful to live in this well-crafted world again thanks to these three artists and their unique hand in this piece. It’s set to be a four-part miniseries but I’m hoping that this won’t be the end of this trio.

Story: Chris King Art: Jesús Hervás Color: Jason Wordie
Story: 10 Art: 10 Overall: 10 Recommendation: Buy

Titan Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review