Big news for Kansas City comic book creators.

Jason Aaron’s X-Men: Schism #1 has sold out at the distributor level and is going back to press for a second printing. Comic Book Resources tells the story.

Chris Grine’s Chickenhare gets animated. Sony Pictures Animation has optioned the rights to make an animated feature file based on Grine’s Dark Horse Comics graphic novel. Here’s the story in Variety.

Dennis Hopeless is writing X-Men: Season One for Marvel Comics. It’s his first work for the publisher. Here’s the story in USA Today.

Lovestruck coming from Image Comics in September

Lovestruck from Image Comics
Lovestruck by Dennis Hopeless and Kevin Mellon will be published by Image Comics in Septemer. Cover by Erik Jones.

The creative team behind Gearhead, writer Dennis Hopeless and artist Kevin Mellon, have a new original graphic novel coming from Image Comics this September. Lovestruck is the story of a group of people employed by the Roman god Cupid, who has turned his matchmaking prowess to profit in the modern world.

Both Hopeless and Mellon are local Kansas City comics creators. Hopeless has also written Hack/Slash Trailers 2. Mellon’s work has appeared in Comic Book Tattoo, Hack/Slash, and Marvel Comics’ S.H.I.E.L.D. one-shot earlier this summer.

Mellon says that Hopeless initially pitched the idea to him as a follow up to Gearhead. “It was like a light kind of shone on me and it became something I not only wanted to do, but had to do,” Mellon said. “One of the many joys about working with Dennis is that everything we come up with together, I pretty much have to do. Come hell or high water.”

Lovestruck features a cover by Brooklyn-based Erik Jones. The 192-page graphic novel retails for $16.99. It is currently available for pre-order from comics shops and other book outlets. Westfield Comics has announced that copies of Lovestruck pre-ordered through the service will comics signed by Hopeless and Mellon and will include a limited edition print.

Local creator’s first Marvel work debuts in April

S.H.I.E.L.D. Infinity
Marvel Comics' S.H.I.E.L.D. Infinity features a story drawn by Kevin Mellon.

Local comics creator Kevin Mellon has illustrated a story for Marvel Comics’ S.H.I.E.L.D. Infinity one-shot comic book. “This is my first Marvel work,” Mellon writes on his blog, “and I think it came out pretty dope.”

The 8-page story is written by Jonathan Hickman, currently one of Marvel’s most buzzworthy writers.

The one-shot comic book features multiple stories related to recent events in the Marvel universe. Marvel’s promotion for the book says, “Decode the miraculous designs of Leonardo Da Vinci. Devour the truths and reel with the lies of Isaac Newton. Puzzle at the perilous predictions of Nostradamus. Discover the Forever Machines of Nikola Tesla. Stemming from the pages of the most critically-acclaimed series of 2010, Jonathan Hickman and company bring you the apocrypha of the Marvel Universe. The foundations will shake, crumble and fall.”

Kevin Mellon is a Kansas City-area artist and writer whose previous work includes Gearhead, Thirteen Steps, and Comic Book Tattoo. His upcoming work includes Lovestruck, an original graphic written by Dennis Hopeless expected to be released this summer.

The final cut-off for retailers to pre-order S.H.I.E.L.D. Infinity is March 30th. Visit your local comic shop to reserve your copy. It is expected to arrive in comic shops April 13th.