Welcome to the weekend edition of Comics Relief! today we’ve got the latest on Garth Ennis’ horror comic Crossed, more superhero themed teasers from Image Comics, and one bad ass painting of the everyone’s favorite Sith Lord from Alex Ross. But first, the latest on Mark Millar’s newest creator owned series coming to us from Image Comics…

Mark Millar Announces Chrononauts For Image Comics

Writer Mark Millar has announced his latest Millarworld series for Image this week with artist Sean Murphy (The Wake); titled Chrononauts, it’ll explore a reality where we explored other times the way we did outer space, with expeditions manned by our famous explorers as the whole world watches on live television. “It’s essentially a buddy story about two best friends who can jump around between 16th-century Persia, the American Civil War or New York in the ’20s,” Millar says. Chrononauts will launch its first four-issue arc in March, with plans to for at least two more series to follow, and knowing Millar, whose had three of his previous comics become films (Kick-Ass, Wanted, and The Secret Service) a movie deal has probably already been made before the book ever hits the stands. [Entertainment Weekly]

IDW Set To Publish New Print Version of D4ve 

Ryan Ferrier and Valentin Ramon’s D4ve, a Monkeybrian digital original about a middle aged robot who daydreams of one last big battle, is coming to print from IDW in February, with a new cover by artist Fiona Staples. According to the official description, D4ve takes place after “A war for Earth was fought and the robots have won, but the results are far less “brave new world” and more of the “same old, same old.” Beginning in February of next year, fans of print comics will get the opportunity to meet D4VE, “a great robot war hero who now is trapped behind a desk at a horrible 9-5 day job.” [ComicsBeat]

Garth Ennis Launches Free Crossed Webcomic and Crowdfunding For New Project

Writer Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Boys) has launched a new webcomic this week titled Dead or Alive, which is set in the universe of his apocalyptic horror series Crossed and will run for 12 weeks of new content every Thursday. Avatar Press and Ennis are also beginning what will be a pretty ambitious new initiative: to crowdfund a series of live action webisodes connected to the story. The crowdfunding for the the live action series that builds on this webcomic is unusual in that it’s happening directly through Avatar Press and not through an outside platform like Kickstarter or Indiegogo. So if you contribute, what are you contributing to exactly? For starters, you will be contributing to the realization of the first season of the Crossed webisodes, with a second and third season set as the goals for after. The ultimate goal is to see a Crossed feature film made, which, based on the content of the comic, might be one of the most screwed up horror flicks ever. [CrossedComics.Com]

Marvel Unveils Latest Star Wars Variant Alex Ross Cover

We revealed a few weeks back the first Alex Ross variant cover for Marvel’s Star Wars #1. Now the official Star Wars site has unveiled Alex Ross’ painted variant cover to Marvel’s Star Wars: Darth Vader #1. The first issue of this new regular series is coming in 2015 from writer Kieron Gillen and artist Salvador Larroca, and the book will take place after the events of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, focusing on the Dark Lord of the Sith himself. [StarWars.com]

Image Brings The Wicked + The Divine Style To December’s Variant Covers

Fans of  The Wicked + The Divine are in for a treat this December, as Image Comics plans to bring the aesthetic of that critically beloved series to the covers of several of their titles that month. The publisher announced this week a series of six variants by series artists Jamie McKelvie and Matt Wilson that bring the portrait cover style from The Wicked + The Divine to the following December-shipping releases: Kelly Sue DeConnick & Valentine De Landro’s  Bitch Planet #1, Joe Keatinge & Leila Del Duca’s  Shutter  #7, Jonathan Hickman & Nick Dragotta’s  East of West #16, John Arcudi & James Harren’s  Rumble #1, Tim Seeely & Mike Norton’s  Revival #26 and, of course,  The Wicked + The Divine #6. [Comic Book Resources]

IDW Set to Uncover The Untold History of Black Comic Books

African-American characters in comics have been getting a lot of overdue attention lately; first due to former Falcon Sam Wilson taking over as the new Captain America at Marvel, and then to the announcements of both Cyborg and Black Panther movies from Marvel Studios and DC. Although the character of Falcon was the first African-American superhero, there were indeed many comics featuring black people before him. IDW and Yoe Books are set to start bringing to light the world of comic books created by African-Americans and centered around black characters in The Untold History of Black Comic Books , a 200 page hardcover hitting stores in February 2015, curated by historian Professor William H. Foster III and Craig Yoe. [Newsarama]

Who Wins In The Licensing Wars, Marvel or DC?

The eternal comic fans ongoing crisis: Is it Marvel….or DC? This cannot be answered by anyone obviously, as taste is subjective, but we can say just who wins when it comes to revenue from licensing their characters out for everything from Pez dispensers to baby clothes. And the winner is (DRUMROLL…………..) Marvel. According to numbers that appeared in the Hollywood Reporter this week, Marvel wins, hands down.  Spider-Man is the biggest seller, with global retail sales in 2013 of $1.3 billion, and The Avengers brought in $325 million that same year. In comparison, Batman, DC’s most-licensed character, with global retail sales of $494 million in 2013 and poor Superman at $277 million. [Hollywood Reporter]

More Image Comics Superhero Team Teasers

Lastly, we have even more character teasers for an as-yet unknown super team project from Image that they’ve been teasing for the past few weeks. This time, we’ve got  an alien, a super-powered comedian, and a speedster. What are all these for? It’s still a mystery, but you  can check out all three teasers below.

Which news item are you most excited about? Be sure to sound off in the comments below.