Posted in: Comics, Dark Horse Comics | Tagged: 3w3m, comicspro, jonathan hickman, nick spencer, peter stern. comicspro

Jonathan Hickman's 3W3M Comes To Dark Horse Comics

Jonathan Hickman, Mike Del Mundo, Mike Huddleston and Nick Spencer's 3W3M comes to Dark Horse Comics, announced at ComicsPRO

3W/3M is the common abbreviation and shorthand for Three Worlds / Three Moons, a creator-owned independent comics universe and ongoing project that launched in 2021 on Substack, created by Jonathan Hickman, Mike Del Mundo and Mike Huddleston, using plans that had been concocted for X-Men comics when lockdown hit, and the future of comics was uncertain. They have collaborated with the likes of Nick Spencer, Ram V, Al Ewing, Tini Howard, Juni Ba, Matias Basla, Stuart Immonen and many, many more, on a shared universe with sci-fi and magical elements across a solar system, with serialized comics, world-building materials, maps, lore docs, process posts, short stories, and community-engaged content, with cyclical mythology, multigenerational family sagas, planetary systems, themes of science vs. magic/creativity, rebirth, and large-scale cosmic narratives. Until now, it has been sold direct-to-customer, with rather expensive shipping options.

And this week at ComicsPRO in Glendale, California, they announced a partnership with Dark Horse to finally bring 3 Worlds / 3 Moons to the direct market, starting with the release of Foundations in July.

This is what they told the Substack followers who had, until now, had 3W3M all to themselves. "As for what it means for the project and the community here, the answer is simple: only good things. Everything we do will always originate here; much like with Kickstarter, we view this as additive. You can see with the debut of mythicpowered.com and the 3W/3M mobile app (download it now: (IOS / ANDROID)- our commitment to this space is only growing deeper. We've got so much amazing stuff coming your way this year, as the things we've been building for years now finally come into full view. Your support is what has made all this possible, and with your help, we're going to do even more going forward. We always knew bringing these books to retail was a part of that next phase. Dark Horse have been incredible partners to us in that effort so far, they care deeply about the quality of these books and making sure they resonate within the market. We couldn't be happier about this collaboration with them."

And cheaper shipping. And this is what Jonathan Hickman told retailers at ComicsPRO about the news. And what 3W3M even was. "We wanted to make you kind of a sprawling high concept sci-fi fantasy universe that would act as a container for a bunch of stories that we wanted to tell with a bunch of our friends we really wanted to basically create kind of like a jam session universe, I guess this is the best way to say it, and that's exactly what we did. To date, we've had over 75 of our favourite creators and friends work on these projects. We have a subscriber base of people who show up, you know, every month for this stuff. We have 38,000 subscribers, which is kind of mind-blowing that over this period of time, this many people have stuck around, and they keep signing up. We have produced 2000 pages of stories, and it's all leading to this, which is a relationship with Dark Horse. It is very different, but it is very exciting, and we're incredibly proud of it."

"Foundations: Across a distant solar system and countless millennia-long cycles, a war has been fought between the forces of magic and science, and order and chaos. When astronaut and explorer Tajo Vallar undertakes a doomed expedition to a dormant moon full of mysteries, the conflict begins anew, and it will be more dangerous than ever before! $6.99 July 8, 2026, prestige, magazine-sized format. "

Nick Spencer followed, running through the line coming to comic book stores, "These books really represent the stuff that we've been working on and building here over these first five years. So this is really about getting it caught up to that. The first book, Foundations, is written by Jonathan and me, art by Mike Del Mundo, Mike Huddleston and Jerome Opeña. A story of an astronaut named Toval and his doomed expedition to the moon of chaos, so it's really like the perfect entry-level story, the perfect jump-on point for any of your customers to get into the universe."

"Next up, we have Shift, this is a 64-page original graphic novel that Jonathan wrote with art by Mike Del Mundo again."

"We've got Arrivals 1 through 3, this is written again by Jonathan and myself, essentially a guided tour of the new universe, all of the new worlds and moons that are a part of it. We got a murderers' row of talent on art on this one. There's a framing sequence by Mike Huddleston as well as short stories by Christian Ward, James Stokoe, Mirka Andolfo, Juni Ba and Matis Basla, that is gonna be a gorgeous set of books."

"We've also got these. These are graphic source books, we have Systems, Maps and Histories. They are 200-page volumes designed to perfection by Sasha that feature 16 stories across the three volumes, and the System is full of world-building material about how this universe works. Maps functions as the comprehensive Atlas for that universe. And we have Histories, which is obviously a tome of what's come before here in these worlds. "

"We've been doing these weekly serials in the sci-fi tradition. Jonathan wrote Academy, which is drawn by the legendary Steve Epting, and I wrote Institute, which is drawn by Phil Hester, so I will be bringing those your way here in January/February." These books are really about catching your audience up to speed on what we've been building with the community online, and then come San Diego Comic-Con this year, we kind of pull back the curtain on what comes after that and the things that we have planned." And in the PR:

This summer, Jonathan Hickman, Mike del Mundo, Mike Huddleston, and Nick Spencer's ambitious science-fiction universe, Three Worlds / Three Moons, comes to print at Dark Horse! Initially published at 3w3m.com, Three Worlds / Three Moons is the brainchild of the award-winning and best-selling team of Hickman (X-Men, East of West), del Mundo (Spawn: Unwanted Violence, Avengers), Huddleston (Decorum, The Strain) and Spencer (Amazing Spider-Man, The Fix), spanning comics, graphic novels, and more. Dark Horse Comics will publish all of these stories, in comic shops and bookstores beginning July 2026. The Foundations one-shot, written by Hickman and Spencer, illustrated by del Mundo and Huddleston, and lettered by Rus Wooton, will be the first title published in the line and will set the scene for the sprawling sci-fi world.  "We are incredibly excited for the opportunity to partner with Dark Horse so that comic stores and comic fans can get to experience this project that has been years in the making," said 3W/3M creator Jonathan Hickman."

"Christian Ward, James Stokoe, Juni Ba, Ram V, Al Ewing, Steve Epting, Stephen Green, Tini Howard, Phil Hester, and more will be joining the universe in yet-to-be-announced projects, so stay tuned for what's next in the 3W/3M line."

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