C2E2: Dark Horse Announces Buzzkill From Cates and Reznicek

The Toadies drummer Mark Reznicek and Hunter Quaid's Donny Cates are joining together to bring fans a sauced-up superhero from Dark Horse Comics. The publisher announced this weekend at the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo the upcoming release of Buzzkill, a series about an alcholic who is also "an unstoppable superhero who derives his powers from imbibing massive amounts of alcohol." In the story, the damage alcohol has done to his non-superhero life is finally starting to take his toll and Buzzkill is trying to get clean--much to the delight of the city's criminal element, which sets up a unique moral dilemma for the character. The four-part miniseries will feature the art of Geoff Shaw and colorist Lauren Affe, and will hit the stands on September 18. So, while Walt Disney Studios is apparently not yet ready for a version of Iron Man that suffers from a debilitating drinking problem, that won't stop some creators from bringing fans a hero whose defining trait is his dependence (in more ways than one) on the bottle. "What I like so much about the book is that while it has these wild superhero trappings, at its core it's a very sweet and very personal story about the relationship between power and addiction, and the very real consequences of both," explained Cates. "It's something that really interests me, and I think that sometimes we approach issues like these in comics as punch lines. What we've really tried to do here is take something really devastating and horrible, and examine it through a very familiar terrain." "Working on Buzzkill is kinda like hanging out in a bar, drinking beers and doing shots with your buddy, and discussing the weirdest, wildest, most effed-up stuff you can think of to put in a comic. In fact, that's exactly what it's like," joked Reznicek. "If you ever wanted to see what a drunken, superpowered barroom brawl looks like, or wondered what would happen to bears in the airless vacuum of space, or wanted to see a baboon in a business suit . . . Buzzkill is the book for you!"