After slumming it in the mainstream DC Universe for most of the noughties, the Strange Adventures anthology is returning to Vertigo. Jeff Lemire, Peter Milligan and Scott Snyder are just some of the writers contributing ten-page stories to the new Strange Adventures #1, which features a cover by Paul Pope and also includes the first chapter of Spaceman, created by the legendary 100 Bullets team of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso.


Launched in 1950, Strange Adventures has been home to countless DC Comics short stories that are indeed strange but also quite cool. The title has a habit of birthing memorable characters like Deadman, Animal Man and Captain Comet, the latter of whom starred in a recent, well-received revival of the title written by Jim Starlin. Vertigo last published Strange Adventures in 1999 as a four-issue mature readers anthology edited by Axel Alonso, who was just installed as Editor-in-Chief of Marvel Comics. Featuring work by Frank Quitely, Brian Bolland, Brian Azzarello, Dave Gibbons, Joe R. Lansdale, Richard Corben, Klaus Janson and more, Vertigo's last Strange Adventures miniseries was part of a great run of extremely cool anthologies that included Weird Western Tales, Gangland and Weird War Tales, all of which are worth tracking down.



Little is known about Spaceman, the new project by the award-winning team of Azzarello and Risso. Robot 6 reports the series will be nine issues of "speculative science fiction" and reunite the entire 100 Bullets crew, including cover artist Dave Johnson and colorist Trish Mulvihill.


For his part, Jeff Lemire will be writing and drawing a story starring Ultra the Multi-Alien, who was recently characterized by Conan O'Brien as "a f*cking mess." Maybe Lemire can improve the talk show host's estimation of the character when Strange Adventures debuts in May.