DC’s Excellent Young Animal Imprint Is Coming To An End

When My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way first announced back in 2016 that he was partnering with DC Comics to launch “pop-up imprint” Young Animal, he described it as a place where bold, innovative comics for “dangerous humans” would have the creative space to flourish.

Though Young Animal’s creation produced some of the most fascinating, mind-bending titles that DC’s put out in years – such as Shade, The Changing Girl and the Milk Wars event – the imprint and most of its titles are winding down later this winter.

Loma Shade, the Changing Girl, going through some personal stuff. Illustration: Marley Zarcone, Kelly Fitzpatrick (DC Comics)

Today, Way announced the news in a statement to Comics Beat, explaining that the imprint’s bittersweet end was always part of the plan:

I want to give everyone an update on Young Animal. In August, Shade, Cave Carson, and Mother Panic will end at issue 6 as we originally planned, alongside Eternity Girl. It’s been an incredible run for each of them and I’m so thankful to all the writers and artists who began this journey with me, and who created such incredible stories.

This is not the end of Young Animal. We’ll have more to news to share when we come back with Doom Patrol. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of these amazing series.

Currently, there’s no indication as to when DC might revive the imprint down the road and whether the current slate of titles would return along with it, but Way did note that the publisher intends to continue its Doom Patrol series and get it back on a proper production track.

It’s sad to see Young Animal go (for now), but if it means that the imprint’s characters will be free to wander their way into more of DC’s more mainstream books, then perhaps there’s a silver lining to the news after all.

[Comics Beat]