Avatar: The Last Airbender comic gets new creators, new designs

Avatar: The Last Airbender ended in 2008, but the story has been kept alive in the years since by a series of comics written by Gene Luen Yang, the award-winning author of American Born Chinese. Now, the torch is being passed once again. EW can exclusively announce that writer Faith Erin Hicks (The Nameless City) and artist Peter Wartman (Over the Wall) will be taking over Avatar: The Last Airbender comics starting next year.

“Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of my favorite things in the world,” Hicks said in a statement. “I’m totally not kidding: I remember watching the series finale over ten years ago when I was a struggling animator, wishing I could work on a show that was even ten percent as thoughtful and compelling as Avatar. I was so in love with the world and characters. Even now, there’s nothing that has filled my heart quite like Avatar, and I’m so honored to contribute to the real thing.”

As Yang did, Hicks and Wartman will work closely with Avatar: The Last Airbender co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko to continue to build the fictional world of Aang and his friends. DiMartino has also been busy writing sequel comics to Avatar’s companion series, The Legend of Korra; the first volume of Turf Wars by DiMartino and artist Irene Koh was one of EW’s favorite pop culture highlights of the summer.

Below, you can check out Wartman’s new designs of Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph. Their comic is due out in 2018.