Very exciting news, "Avatar" fans!
"Avatar: The Last Airbender" and its spinoff series "The Legend of Korra" may be over, but the legacy of both will continue thanks to Dark Horse Comics! Last year at San Diego Comic-Con, there was many a tear shed for what was thought to be the last panel with co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, but today the dynamic duo reunited at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2015 to announce an all-new graphic novel series based on "The Legend of Korra"!
According to the co-creators, they have three volumes of "Korra" comics planned, with DiMartino taking point on the writing and Konietzko consulting on the art.
Dark Horse also revealed new key art for the first volume (seen above, drawn by Konietzko), which features Korra and Asami walking back out of the Republic City Spirit Portal we saw them enter at the end of the series. "We're definitely going to focus on Korra and Asami's relationship," DiMartino said. (Suffice to say, this was met with huge applause from the audience!) Same as the "Avatar" comics, the "Korra" comics will detail the aftermath of the show, with no major time jump from Book Four to Volume One. In other words, the comics will pick up around where the hit animated series left off.
Dark Horse Comics is expected to announce the release date, artists and subtitle for their "Legend of Korra" graphic novel series soon. Meanwhile, Dark Horse will release "Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Poster Collection" coming out on Tuesday 4th August 2015, and "The Legend of Korra: Art of Book Four" on Tuesday 15th September 2015.
Prior to the announcement, Konietzko and DiMartino recalled some of their favorite moments from the series during Dark Horse Comics' San Diego Comic-Con 2015 panel. When asked what the most rewarding aspect of finishing "The Legend of Korra" was, DiMartino said he and Konietzko were thrilled to see the positive reaction to the finale, specifically the final few minutes. "It's been so great to see how much it connected with everyone," DiMartino said. "We knew people would hopefully enjoy it, but you never know... It's touched people on an emotional level that I didn't expect."
Konietzko added, "You pick a certain pairing, some people are going to be happy, and some people are going to be unhappy... We were just making sure we liked it, and in this case we did." Konietzko also referred to his blog post that came out shortly after the finale aired, which said pretty much everything he and DiMartino wanted to say on the subject.
"Smoke and Shadow, Part One" is the next installment in the "Avatar: The Last Airbender" graphic novel series. Fans were treated to some new images from that book, as well some page layouts for the fourth and final "Korra" art book, featuring concepts from "Book Four: Balance". These included sketches of the redesigned Airbenders in wing suits (Konietzko amusingly noted how bummed he was when the trailer for "How to Train Your Dragon 2" came out, featuring Hiccup in a similarly-styled outfit), Kuvira's armor, storyboards and Korra's various redesigns for "Book Four". Fans were also treated to high-res version of Aang's sushi trick photo from "Korra Alone", which Konietzko joked was his personal pick for the cover for the art book.
Moving on to fan questions, the co-creators were asked if there were any "Avatar: The Last Airbender" characters or concepts they wanted to include in "Korra", but couldn't. DiMartino explained that they were able to include pretty much everything they wanted, specifically older versions of Team Avatar like Katara and Zuko. Of course, while they showed grown-up Sokka in flashbacks, DiMartino did acknowledge that they never got around to explaining what happened to him, but he also didn't specify if he had a story planned for that. "You saw him. You know... he had a job," Konietzko chimed in, grinning.
Of course, Konietzko and DiMartino are now working on their own separate projects: "Threadworlds" and "Geniuses", respectively. However, that doesn't mean the duo aren't still on great terms. "We didn't break up, but we are working on different things," Martino said, to which Konietzko through his arm over his partner in crime for so many years. That said, they are still collaborating on one thing: "The Legend of Korra" graphic novels.
Source: IGN.
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