Halo Ongoing Comic Series Details Revealed

This weekend at San Diego Comic Con International, 343 Studios' Frank O'Connor was on hand to announce that Dark Horse Comics will begin publishing a new, ongoing series later this year based on the massive video game franchise Halo, titled Halo: Escalation. This news comes prior to next month's release of the first issue of the upcoming Halo: Initiation miniseries. While that miniseries ties directly into Microsoft's Halo: Spartan Assault video game, Halo: Escalation will spin directly out of the events of Halo 4. The series begins when the UNSC Infinity is assigned escort duty for a diplomatic mission between the Arbiter and the Brutes, but has to fend off an attack meant to thwart the negotiations. Featuring Captain Lasky, Spartan Palmer, and a cast of recognizable characters, this ongoing series is poised to be essential reading for fans in search of new story lines set within the canon of the Halo universe! Much like other Dark Horse video game tie-in titles that are written by the games' writers, Halo will be written by Halo 4 lead writer Chris Schlerf, with Omar Francia handling art for the first three issues, and with covers by Anthony Palumbo. "There are many, many more stories we want to tell in the Halo universe than we'd ever be able to explore solely through the games," said writer Chris Schlerf. "Having the chance to see those adventures come to life on a monthly basis feels like the ultimate realization of an awful lot of dreaming on our part." The first issue of Halo: Escalation arrives in stores on December 11, 2013. In addition to continued games, Microsoft is developing a live-action TV series to be broadcast via Xbox Live based on the property.