Phenomenon, conspiracy, or delusion? "Kelvin" Melvin Reyes was only three years old when Spontaneous Human Combustion took his father from him. He''s since devoted his life to exploring the mystery behind the phenomenon, searching for a pattern and predictors that he might save others from that same fiery fate. But the closer he gets to his goal, the further things lead down a well of secrets, horrors, and terrible truths. Is SHC real? And, if so, can it be stopped?

THE FURY OF FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MEN #8
Written by JOE HARRIS and ETHAN VAN SCIVER
Art and cover by ETHAN VAN SCIVER
On sale APRIL 25 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Jason Rusch rockets to Europe to thwart the next Rogue attack, only to find that other Firestorms have beaten him to it! Introducing the all-new Firehawk, France's own atomic defender, and Hurricane, Great Britain's officially sanctioned Nuclear Man! Meanwhile, out of the ashes of last issue's shocking climax, Ronnie Raymond and the Russian Firestorm, Pozhar, begin a long, mutual descent toward the dark underbelly of the Firestorm Protocols. New cowriter Joe Harris (Ghost Projekt) continues this acclaimed series with superstar artist Ethan Van Sciver, who provides another stunning issue of full interior art!

Story by Joe Harris
Art by Jean Diaz
Cover by Joseph Michael Linsner
Dynamite Entertainment
$3.99
Wed, January 4th, 2012

Spinning out of Alan Moore's retelling of the ageless horror classic, Dracula has come to America to play out his timeless narrative in this brave, New World. Only he didn't realize ANOTHER vampire already beat him to it. Drawn to one another across continents and centuries by a mysterious force, both Vampirella and Bram Stoker's immortal monster find themselves sucked into a time-tossed epic of love, hate, death and damnation. But can an epic built for one vampire possibly hold them both?

THE FURY OF FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MEN #7
Written by JOE HARRIS and ETHAN VAN SCIVER
Art and cover by ETHAN VAN SCIVER
On sale MARCH 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
New co-writer Joe Harris (Ghost Projekt) joins Ethan Van Sciver in this white-hot jumping-on issue! Plus: Van Sciver provides interior art for what's sure to be one of the most talked-about comics of the year! As the fallout from the recent rogue Firestorm attack spreads and threatens to bring down Zither-Tech and the Firestorm Protocols, Ronnie Raymond pursues the Russian Nuclear Man Pozhar on what may well turn out to be a suicide mission. Meanwhile, Jason Rusch is made an offer he can't refuse. Separated in an evolving game of international atomic brinkmanship, each Firestorm faces a world more dangerous than he ever imagined... while one gets a life-altering shock you'll never forget!

Ethan, in addition to providing covers for the series, is going to also be the interior artist on my first two issues, #7-8 before Yildiray Cinar returns to the interiors with issue #9.

The first arc is called "The Firestorm Protocols" and, I can promise you, it's going to be filled with a lot of big science fiction concepts and super-hero smackdowns... some good, tense international and geopolitical maneuvering around the prospect of a new nuclear arms race in a much smaller and interconnected world than the Cold War-era knew, and some really dark, juicy moments that should really shock the hell out of people.

Stay tuned! So excited to be on board... and I can't wait to tell you more about the series!

Writer: Joe Harris

Covers: Joe Linsner

Artist: Ivan Rodriguez

Publication Date: Feb 2012

Format: Comic Book

Page Count: 32 pages

Rights: WW

Age range: 16+

UPC: 725130186058 00211

Mysteriously transported to 19th Century Europe, Vampirella must team with Jonathan Harker and his band of vampire slayers to navigate a familiar, but twisting narrative in order to track down Dracula. But who, or what, is behind this strange temporal loop that's ensnared them, or the evolving, shifting storyline they appear destined to follow? From the smoking battlefields and impaled victims of Vlad Dracul's Wallachia to the unsuspecting underbelly of modern-day New York City, these two vampiric titans cross paths. Hunting like enemies, warring like lovers scorned, each seeking to break free of the tragic destiny that's ensnared them both... or die trying!

My GHOST PROJEKT comrade, Steve Rolston and I will be teaming up to do a short piece in support of the "Occupy Wall Street" movement with all of the money going to the organization.

Check out the project's Kickstarter page for funding details, the list of talent involved and more.

I'll post more as things progress as, though I can't really divulge much at this point, I can tell you that what I've seen and read so far on this adaptation has been spectacular and I'm absolutely stoked.

A most, I would expect, unexpected trip down a rabbit's hole of myth and monsters. From the official press release:

October 12th, 2011, Runnemede, NJ - This coming January 2012, Vampirella faces her deadliest enemy - Dracula, in the aptly titled Vampirella vs. Dracula #1, written by acclaimed writer Joe (Vampirella and the Scarlet Legion) Harris and covers by Joseph Michael Linsner! Spinning out of Alan Moore's retelling of the ageless horror classic, Dracula has come to America to play out his timeless narrative in this brave, New World. Only he didn't realize ANOTHER vampire already beat him to it. Drawn to one another across continents and centuries by a mysterious force, both Vampirella and Bram Stoker's immortal monster find themselves sucked into a time-tossed epic of love, hate, death and damnation. But can an epic built for one vampire possibly hold them both?

"When Dynamite asked if I'd be interested in building a "Vampirella/Dracula" series out of what's, honestly, a quite brilliant short comic story by Alan Moore, I really had no idea what to do," said writer Joe Harris. "'The New European' presented this updated, chilling vision of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" that really resonates and mines its horror from facets of that immortal story not ordinarily considered when you read the original text. But when I starting thinking about the possibilities I really got into this. In the original Moore story, protagonist Jack Halloran accepts a regrettable invitation from the mysterious Dragunsun and, in turn, he unwittingly helps this modern iteration of Count Dracula come to the United States where they play out this sort of updated cycle in which Jack is revealed to be this time period's version of Stoker's protagonist, Jonathan Harker while his wife, Mia, is seduced and stolen away by the vampire. Jack is eventually left, broken and alone, in this dingy New York City back alley to consider the audacious horror of it all while this reborn, triumphant Dracula writes this new ending to the classic story and wins where he'd previously failed. Considering where to go from here, I wondered... what if this cycle never really ends? What if there are forces at play here pushing our characters toward a sort of pre-ordained narrative in cycles that loop over and over, toying with these characters' lives and loves for their own savage amusement? The story of "Dracula" is a tragedy and, if Dracula found a way to break the arc and prevail... what would this mysterious audience watching this never-ending performance think? What if Jonathan Harker, Jack Halloran or whatever other iteration of the book's hero could figure out how to stop this loop? What if Dracula realized he wanted something else... that Mina Harker was not his true love, and that what and who he really desired lay much further back in the memories of a life Bram Stoker was only influenced by but did not chronicle directly? And where does Vampirella fit in? So I came up with this series spanning six issues and three time periods drawing on the works of the original Bram Stoker novel, the life and times of Vlad Tepes, the infamous "Impaler" of 15th century Walachia who drove out the Turks in defense of Christendom only to lose his beloved wife to a suicide that damned her soul to hell, and who sought to debase himself so horribly that he might one day join her there, as well as this modern version, the dark and manipulatively charming Dragunsun introduced in the original Moore short story. Over the ages, he's repeated the same tragic mistakes and lost the same terrible things. But he's finally waking up and asserting control. Only Jonathan Harker is too. As is this shadowy, mystical organization linked in history to Vlad Dracul, "The Order of the Dragon". And when they drag Vampirella into this to try and right the ship and protect their investment, things get really interesting... as well as bloody, sexy and violent all at once."

"The Alan Moore story with art by Gary Frank is one of my personal favorite Vampirella stories, and as usual with Alan the ideas are rich, even in just a single story. We wanted to build on this, but wanted to wait for a creator who not only appreciated the story, but would add to the entire mythos. When Joe (Harris) handed in his Vampirella And the Scarlet Legion, he did an excellent job. We asked if he would be interested, and he gave it some thought, and came up with a story that he felt would build on Alan's story. We are extremely happy that the inspiration for this story comes from that Alan and Gary created can be expanded by someone as gifted as Joe. I think that fans will agree.," says Dynamite Entertainment President and Publisher Nick Barrucci. "And as a bit of a bonus, we are providing that original story to issue #1 at no additional cost! 48 Pages #1 issue! No Extra Cost!"

THURSDAY 10/13
4:00 - 4:45 - Signing at Oni Press (Booth #1236)
with Brett Weldele, Phil Gelat, Rick Lacy

FRIDAY 10/14
1:00 - 1:45 - Signing at Oni Press (Booth #1236)
with Brett Weldele, Cullen Bunn, Brian Hurtt

6:00 - 6:45 - Signing at Oni Press (Booth #1236)
with Brett Weldele, Cullen Bunn, Brian Hurtt

SATURDAY 10/15
1:00 - 1:45 - Signing at Oni Press (Booth #1236)
with Brett Weldele, Cullen Bunn, Brian Hurtt

5:00 - 5:45 - Signing at Oni Press (Booth #1236)
with Brett Weldele, Cullen Bunn, Brian Hurtt

6:30 - 7:30 - I'll be stopping by this panel:

CREEPY AND EERIE: ALL HALLOW'S EVE EDITION (Room 1A24)

Discuss the new Dark Horse Creepy series, the classic age of the Warren Creepy and Eerie magazines, and all the exciting things coming up in the Creepy universe with a bone-chilling panel including Louise Simonson, Joe Harris ("The Curse" from Creepy #1-#3), and a number of other special guests. Moderated by New Comic Company's twin engines Dan Braun (Creepy) and Josh Braun (A History of Violence). Plus, there will be Creepy trivia questions with swag and prizes!

SUNDAY 10/16
1:00 - 1:45 - Signing at Oni Press (Booth #1236)
with Brett Weldele, Cullen Bunn, Brian Hurtt

I'm very proud of how this book is turning out. The reviews have been really gratifying, as have the comments I get on Twitter, at conventions and when I run into readers in comic shops. I always suspected it'd be cool to do a comic about SHC. But to hear that people like these quirky, lovable loser characters the story is being told through, Melvin and Emily, makes me very happy.

First off, here's a preview of SPONTANEOUS #4:

You can check out the entire first issue in the latest issue of Broken Frontier's magazine, THE FRONTIERSMAN. They also feature a lot of DCnU coverage and interviews, so it's a fun read all around.

Also on the Broken Frontier site is an "Inside Look" feature I wrote for SPONTANEOUS #3. It's a sort of filmmaker's commentary track shedding some light on what goes into writing this series, with a scene-by-scene breakdown of the third issue and all the sordid influences involved in this series' crafting.

This past week, WIZARD WORLD gave the book a shoutout as part of their "THE DAILY DOZEN: Titles That Should Be On Your Pull List" feature:

"No one writes horror quite like Joe Harris. His most recent offering from Oni Press involves the phenomenon of spontaneous combustion. It's a topic which, for a long time, has deserved its own comic book."

Wizard has long been kind to me, over the years. When I first broke into comics, they were very complimentary of my Marvel Spider-Man spinoff book, SLINGERS and, last year, named GHOST PROJEKT as the Best Miniseries Of 2010.

Finally (at least until I append this entry later), I did a podcast interview with WAYNE'S COMICS where we discussed all things SPONTANEOUS, GHOST PROJEKT, upcoming projects like THE HASHISHIAN and more. Check it out!

I'm very fond of these classic Vampirella characters and had a great time getting to know them. The mythos of Pendragon, Adam Van Helsing and the Companions of Chaos is, for my money, as classic as anything long-running in comics. And Vampirella remains one of the enduring icons of this industry.

Look for more Vampirella news from Dynamite and myself coming soon...

As Melvin struggles to come to terms with his family's legacy of Spontaneous Human Combustion and fears of his own fiery fate, investigative reporter Emily rips the scab off their town's darkest secret. What happened at Grumm Industries and how many people have to burn before the truth comes out?