SDCC16: DC Comics Young Animal Panel Showed Off Doom Patrol and More

Friday morning marked the first official convention panel for the new DC’S Young Animal pop-up imprint! The room was packed wall-to-wall with fans eager for more information about the imprint and title lineup. DC Co-Publisher and legendary artist Jim Lee opened the panel with an intimate conversation with Gerard Way, the curator of the four-book mature-reader imprint, which he’s described as “comics for dangerous humans.”

Lee and Way discussed the unique point-of-view storytelling that each creative team is bringing to their book and how they all have a distinct tone. Way also explained that each series has a strong visual direction that fans will experience, and there are plans to incorporate fine art into the books.

Additional panelists included writer Cecil Castellucci (Shade The Changing Girl) and writer Jon Rivera (Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye). Fans were treated to first looks at interior pages and were wowed by the eye-popping colors in Shade The Changing Girl #1, and they finally got to see Cave, the scientist/inventor/adventurer who has just returned home from his wife’s funeral. Way and Rivera revealed that Tom Scioli (G.I. Joe vs. Transformers) will write and draw a backup story in the book that will feature DC’s Super Powers as originally designed by Jack Kirby and the corresponding toy line.

Way also discussed his inspiration for Mother Panic and vows that this series will have a different take on crime-fighting in Gotham than fans have seen before.