Even if Zagor’s schedule in 2024 is rich in news and notable events, the one destined to magnetize the attention will surely be the comeback of Mike Gordon, a.k.a. Supermike!

Forty years after his last appearance (in 1984) and almost fifty years after his first (dating back to 1975), one of the most acclaimed of the Spirit-with-the-Hatchet’s enemies will come back to the limelight on the pages of Zagor regular series. He will return on issue n. 703 (Collana Zenith 754), titled “Supermike!”, that you’ll find at your newsstands starting from February 1, 2024. This adventure is set to be the longest in the saga, breaking the previous record, owned by a 1988 Tiziano Sclavi story titled “Incubi” with 513 pages.

«Sooner or later, all the heroes meet with the same complaint: they always win, they are never beaten, and so on», Sergio Bonelli said in an interview. And continued: «It was then that I had an idea: some character could even oust and replace Zagor». Then, in November 1975, Supermike was born to corner the Spirit-with-the-Hatchet in the most blatant way possible, undermining his charisma and prestige after managing to hit him both above and below the belt.

The adversary conceived by Nolitta is an arrogant, boastful braggart, Mike Gordon, who is self-styled as “super” because he can reach the top in everything he tries his hand at. He’s got a cold, shrewd mind and relishes challenges to prove to himself and the world he’s the best. After receiving a severe beating by the King of Darkwood, he decides to methodically try to destroy the prestige our Hero gained in his forest, almost as if his life depended on it.

There is, however, another story that many readers clamored to be published: a Zagor adventure with art by Pini Segna, dating back to the early 1980s and unpublished until now. For some time now, we have been publishing two issues of Speciale every year - one in Spring and the other in Autumn. The second one is dedicated to presenting stories from the past and collector’s gems that weren’t distributed at newsstands for various reasons. We are now offering you a family heirloom of sorts, which will allow you to relish the taste of stories from the good old days once again. In our archives, we found it under the working title “Il re di Cuenca Verde”: you’ll discover after the summer holiday what will be the one on the cover of our Speciale 39.

Still about the taste of good old days, the third series of unpublished-before strips, “Collana Aquila” (after the previous series, “Collana Darkwood” in 2018 and “Collana Scure” in 2019), is finally on the home stretch. It will consist of eight small albums in horizontal format (instead of the six in the previous series), forming an adventure titled “La miniera dell’incubo”. As usual, it will be sold at your comic bookshops only (and also online in our Shop).

The two 2024 Color Zagor will star, alongside the Spirit-with-the-Hatchet, Ramath and Molti Occhi (in this order), with two stories about the return of the King of Darkwood to places where dramatic adventure of the past took place: the Gods’ Mountain, or Basileo’s Olympus, and the hidden city called New Uxal (as we will see in Speciale 38 and Zagor Più 14). We will again meet old characters like Professor Verybad and Blondie, the bandit.

Besides these juicy previews, there will also be surprises galore that will be announced in the next months. Have an excellent read!

By Moreno Burattini