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Comics Relief: Marvel Announces Disney HAUNTED MANSION Series

Welcome to your weekend edition of  Comics Relief, where today we have news on different comic book-y ways you can donate to charity and help a good cause, as well as details on Marvel’s new Black Panther series. First off though, Marvel and Disney have revealed their latest collaboration, and it looks to be a spooky good time. Read on for the details…

Disney and Marvel officially announce new Haunted Mansion comic series

Recently, Marvel revealed an image via social media teasing that something was coming based on Disney’s classic Haunted Mansion attraction. Now the publisher has officially announced that their new series The Haunted Mansion will be written by Joshua Williamson (Ghosted) with art from Jorge Coelho. The Haunted Mansion will focus on the stories of the 999 ghosts that live in the fabled Disney ride.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, writer Josh Williamson said, “One thing that Marvel and I have talked about a little bit is making sure there’s really a horror aspect. There are sillyparts of the attraction, but we wanted to make sure there was horror there, which is not something I’ve done a lot with my other books.” Williamson added, “I get to add to something that I’ve loved since I was a little kid. And then to think it’s something that could introduce this franchise to people, that’s really powerful.” The Haunted Mansion #1 will debut in 2016, and will be followed by several more related titles, including Disney Parks Presents: The Haunted Mansion, and Tales From The Haunted Mansion: The Fearsome Foursome Vol. 1 [Entertainment Weekly]

DC and Comixology team up to celebrate 75 years of Robin the Boy Wonder

This years marks the 75th anniversary of Robin, the Boy Wonder, and DC Comics is celebrating with a Robin War storyline that features most of the characters to wear the green, yellow and red all together in one crossover event. But comiXology has also launched a celebratory sale on all things Robin, featuring all kinds of stories from the character’s seventy-five-year history, from his adventures with the Teen Titans to the post-Robin/post-Nightwing spy adventures in the pages of Grayson. You can check out the comiXology sale by clicking on this link: [Comics Alliance]

J. Scott Campbell Previews Jean Grey variant cover for final issue of Secret Wars

Secret Wars #9, the final issue of Marvel’s mega crossover, might be delayed until January of next year, but at least fans will have this cool variant cover for the final issue coming up. Featuring the X-Men’s Jean Grey in an illustration from J. Scott Campbell, this cover is a nifty roll down memory lane for a lot of Jean’s costumes from her early years, all the way through to the ’90s.

Oddly, her original X-Men school uniform is missing? A little too frumpy/not sexy for you Mr. Campbell? This retailer exclusive, made for New York’s Midtown Comics, is still undergoing revisions, so maybe we’ll see some more versions of Ms. Grey in the final product. You can see a preview of the cover for the final issue of Secret Wars below: [Newsarama]

Jim Lee Previews Dark Knight III Collector’s Edition in new video

Frank Miller’s and Brian Azzarello’s much hyped about Dark Knight III: The Master Race came out last week, and among the many, many artists who produced variant covers for the series was DC co-publisher Jim Lee himself. Now in a video taken from Periscope, Jim Lee introduces next week’s oversized Collector’s Edition of Dark Knight, plus a similarly oversized version of the mini-comic that comes inside each issue, all in a collectible format ahead of the release of the slip cover box set. You can check out Jim Lee’s video below: [Bleeding Cool]

Chip Zdarsky Auctions off Star Wars: Vader Down Variant issue for Syrian Refugees

The image below is of the Star Wars: Vader Down #1 Chip Zdarsky variant cover, which features Jaxxon the space rabbit, one of Marvel’s first ever Star Wars creations—that George Lucas apparently hated with a passion. One of these variants was available for every 4,999 issues ordered, so only a few copies of this issue even exist. How rare is it? One of these recently said at $3,739 eBay, so that should give you an idea.

Cover artist Chip Zdarsky has just announced via his Tumblr that he has donated a copy of the issue for a worthy cause, saying, “I’ve taken my ONE COPY and given it to a non-profit organization to auction off. It’s to help a Syrian refugee family relocate to Canada and it would be great if you spread the news.The book is signed by me (witnessed) and is currently being graded by CGC. The auction closes soon, so if you’re interested, bid now!” [Comics Beat]

Comics For Soldiers To Help Out Troops This Holiday Season

Jason Inman, the co-host of DC Comics YouTube show DC All Access, has just launched a donation campaign this week with the goal of sending 10,000 comic books overseas to troops by January 1, 2016. He is partnering with the charity organization known as “Comics for Soldiers,” and they have come up with an easy way for anyone to donate. In fact, DC Comics has already donated some 2,600 comics, just this week. Since the launch of his campaign, lots of creators and publisher have begun donating to the cause as well. You can watch a video detailing all of the charity drive and what you can do to help, below.

Concept Art Previewed for new Black Panther series

Marvel’s Black Panther is coming to movie screens all over the world next year in Captain America: Civil War, but before he does that, he’s returning to his own solo comic book series, from the creative team of writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and artist Brian Stelfreeze. Now Coates has shared some of his Stelfreeze’s concept art for his new take on T’Challa, which you can see below.

Speaking to the Atlantic, which Coates writes for, he said of working with Stelfreeze “One thing I did not count on was the extent to which the art would shape the story. Brian’s thoughts on T’Challa, and his supporting cast, have been invaluable. After talking back and forth we came up with some new ideas for how T’Challa’s famed Vibranium-weave suit might work — in this case, absorbing kinetic energy and allowing him to fire that energy back out in short energy bursts.” You can see a sneak peak at the concept art below: [Comic Book Resources]

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