Fan-Favorite Netflix Series To Continue in Comics
Good news, everyone! Matt Groening is heading back to comics, with over 500 pages of Disenchantment stories to tell. Groening, whose The Simpsons and Futurama had long runs in comic books, will bring his next title to Titan Comics, who apparently are providing him an easy working relationship for his first major new comics project since the end of Bongo Comics, which Groening co-founded, in 2018. Bongo was the official comics home of The Simpsons and Futurama from 1993 until 2018. They also published other books, including a number of The Simpsons spinoffs and even SpongeBob Squarepants.
Titan is a prolific comics and magazine publisher who do have original IP, but primarily specialize in licensed comics. They publish books featuring Conan the Barbarian, the Minions, and characters from Star Trek and Doctor Who.
"Only the first two issues of these comics were previously released as a convention exclusive in 2019, and over 500 pages and 17 issues of original strips, featuring all-new stories, were left unpublished… until now," explains Titan's announcement of Disenchantment: Untold Tales Vol. 1. "The first graphic novel in this exciting series also features exclusive content from the show's creators."
Disenchantment has not yet been officially cancelled, but it has been over a year since the second half of season four launched, and the series has never been the mega-hit the streamer was hoping for from the creators behind The Simpsons. The long wait for a renewal has many fans fearing the worst -- especially against the larger backdrop of a bloodbath in the animation industry more generally. That trend is especially strong at Netflix, where animation was one of the divisions hardest hit by cuts last year after two consecutive quarters of disappointing earnings reports sent management into panic mode.
Of course, the other side of that argument is that animation is less time-sensitive than live-action is, with most voice actors able to recapture the age and feel of their characters again a few years down the line. Even Futurama has been cancelled and renewed numerous times at different venues during its long life on screen, and the cast always brings the heat when the series comes back for "one more time."
You can see the official synopsis for the series below.
The misadventures of hard-hitting, hard-drinking Queen Bean, her feisty elf companion Elfo and her personal demon Luci return and deepen in Part IV of Matt Groening's comedy fantasy series Disenchantment.
The mystery of Dreamland's origins – and the stakes for its future – become ever clearer as our trio – and King Zøg – find themselves on personal journeys that will ultimately tie in to the kingdom's fate. Separated at the end of Part III, our heroes race to reunite in this sweeping series of ten episodes. They'll find themselves everywhere from the depths of Hell to the clouds of Heaven and everywhere in between, including Ogreland, Steamland, underwater, monasteries, insane asylums, the Enchanted Forest, the Dreamscape and more. All the while, puzzle pieces both canonical and personal will reveal themselves to eager fans.
The series features the voice talents of Abbi Jacobson ("Bean"), Eric Andre ("Luci") and Nat Faxon ("Elfo") along with John DiMaggio, Billy West, Maurice LaMarche, Tress MacNeille, David Herman, Matt Berry, Rich Fulcher, Noel Fielding, Richard Ayoade, and Lucy Montgomery.