In the Footsteps of MIRACLEMAN and BLACK HAMMER, Oni Press Proudly Presents a Powerful and Terrifying New Kind of Superhero Saga Reinventing the Golden Age’s Most Psycho-Surreal Icon
In advance of New York Comic-Con 2026, Oni Press – the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997 – is proud to announce CITIZEN: STARDUST #1 (of 12), the intense and enthralling FIRST ISSUE of a new, prestige maxi-series debuting in April 2027 from Eisner Award nominee Dave Baker (Mary Tyler MooreHawk, Halloween Boy) and acclaimed artist Malachi Ward (Black Hammer: The End, Prophet)! Co-written by Baker & Ward and illustrated by Ward with color art by multiple Eisner Award winner Dave Stewart (Hellboy), CITIZEN: STARDUST reimagines Golden Age cartoonist Fletcher Hanks’ once-forgotten, psycho-surrealist superhero – STARDUST THE SUPER WIZARD – as the fading pop culture mainstay of an alternate America, where the aging actor behind the character’s rise to superstardom is about to discover the terrifying secrets behind his cinematic alter ego…
“The probability of Stardust: The Super-Wizard becoming one of the most bizarre and unique comics to be published in 2027 seems extraordinarily high, to me,” said writer Dave Baker. “Malachi Ward and I are bringing a new perspective to the superhero world informed by psychogeography, cult sacrifices, and technology beyond human comprehension. If that doesn't make you want to read it? Just know that there's a cat of nine tails made of human skulls.”
“Dave's take on Stardust, and on the work of Fletcher Hanks as a whole, is such a compelling meditation on the savagery of American pop culture and the often tragic consequences of trying to make something great,” said artist Malachi Ward. “The task of bringing all of that grotesque action and sprawling imagination to the comic page is the most ambitious joy of my career so far. You are not going to believe what these pages hold.”
B&W INTERIOR ART BY MALACHI WARD (FINAL WILL BE IN COLOR)
In 1947, no Hollywood star shined more brightly than Barclay Flagg – the rugged and cocksure leading man better known to an adoring public as STARDUST, post-war America's first and most bankable on-screen superhero. Across dozens of films, serials, and radio shows, he entertained millions in STARDUST's hyper-violent, cinematic spectacles – until an attempted assassination by a crazed fan ended his once-luminous career with a bullet. Twisted by pain, excess, and unfailing ego in the decades since, Flagg's decaying, Los Angeles mansion – and the fallen star within it – have become rotting effigies of their former selves ... until a fortuitous and well-timed invitation arrives unexpectedly on the doorstep.
Barclay Flagg has been invited to join The Institute – an experimental arts retreat dedicated to advancing innovation through radical creativity. It’s here that Barclay Flagg can finally craft the long-gestating STARDUST masterpiece he’s always dreamt of making. He can restore his reputation. He can rekindle his celebrity. He can finally save the day.
With a near-unlimited budget and an obsessive crew of fellow Institute creators dedicated to bringing his vision to life, Flagg is about to discover that some dreams are too good to be true … and that the two-dimensional comic book hero inside him could never, ever be truly locked away.
The Golden Age is over. The time of STARDUST shall soon begin.
“Lighting a new path out of the long shadow first cast by deconstructions like MIRACLEMAN, PLANETARY, and BLACK HAMMER, Dave and Malachi are cutting deep to probe the liminal edges of America's obsession with superheroes, celebrity, self-destruction, and, of course, power,” said Oni Press President & Publisher Hunter Gorinson. “This is an exciting, disturbing, and fascinating series primed for anyone who has followed the arc of comics storytelling over the past half-century, and Fletcher Hanks’ signature creation – the beautifully bizarre STARDUST THE SUPER-WIZARD – is the perfect vehicle for this nightmarish descent into the superhero substrata. CITIZEN: STARDUST is comics of the highest order.”
Created by writer/artist Fletcher Hanks in the pages of Fox Comics’ FANTASTIC COMICS #1 in 1939, the original STARDUST THE SUPER-WIZARD was one of a handful of colorfully disturbing Hanks creations typified by their seemingly unintentional collision of sadistic violence and maniacally amplified characterization that, when combined, gave the impression of a four-color champion who was more surrealist icon than traditional superhero. Appearing in less than 20 stories across Hanks’ brief, two-year sojourn as a cartoonist, STARDUST was largely forgotten – along with rest of his creator’s oeuvre – until he was rediscovered by editor Paul Karasik, who gathered the first substantial appreciation of Hanks’ work in 2007’s Eisner Award-winning collection I SHALL DESTROY ALL THE CIVILIZED PLANETS. Little is known of what became of Hanks following his departure from the comics industry in 1941; after decades of presumed substance abuse, he was discovered dead on a New York City park bench in 1976. Despite their one-time exile in obscurity, STARDUST and his fellow Hanks creations endure as transgressive comic book icons, all cut from the same impossibly singular mold.
Don’t miss CITIZEN: STARDUST writer Dave Baker at Oni Press’s panel at New York Comic Con on Friday, October 9, 2026 between 4:30 PM - 5:15 PM in North-Room S 406.1—also featuring creators George Northy (Yuletide), Caitlin Yarsky (Dead Teenagers), Oliver Mertz (A Ghost Arm Made of Angry Ghosts), Ryan O'Sullivan (Judge Dredd / Biker Mice from Mars), and Michael E. Uslan (BATMAN producer) alongside Oni Press editors Karl Bollers and Bess Pallares.
CITIZEN: STARDUST #1 (of 12) will arrive in comic shops everywhere in April 2027, only from Oni Press.
Comments
Post a Comment