Earlier this month at New York Comic Con, Dark Horse made plenty of great new announcements. A lot of these announcements revolved around their new products involving the companies video game licenses, such as their new Dragon Age series and the hardcover collection of all their Mass Effect mini-series. The company also made some interesting news as they showed off the new ePlate digital payment devices they are offering rewards for. But this was all just the tip of the iceberg. So for those of you who couldn’t make it out to the jam packed east coast show, here is a rundown on all of the other big Dark Horse announcements.

Continuing with the trend of video hame tie-in announcements, Dark Horse has made a deal with the game developers at Naughty Dog to bring The Last of Us into the realm of comics. The Last of Us is 2013′s highly anticipated new Playstation 3 game that swept E3, winning the hearts and awards of many video game press groups. The game is a post-apocalyptic third-person survival action-adventure game following the characters of Joel, a ruthless survivor, and Ellie, a brave young teenage girl, as they travel across what remains of the United States of America after a fungal disease has transformed many humans into zombie-like shells of their former selves. A very psychological and emotional story dealing with the father-daughter like relationship of the main characters, The Last of Us is still an action packed game filled with violence and surprises as the surviving duo attempt to pass through a city overtaken by vegetation, infected, and mad men. At New York Comic Con, Dark Horse announced they would be handling both a comic book series for the game and a deluxe art book.

The Last of Us: American Dreams will be a 4 issue mini-series by The Last of Us’ lead writer, Neil Druckmann, with rising star Faith Erin Hicks (Zombies Calling, The Adventures of Superhero Girl) as co-writer and artist. American Dreams explores Ellie’s backstory, before the video game, and her first steps on the road that led her to her companion Joel. Growing up in the post-pandemic world, Ellie had been shuttled between military orphanages in one of the last remaining quarantine zones and resigned to the fact that when she’s old enough, she’ll be channeled into the army or left to fend for herself. But things take a twist when she meets an older girl determined to find a third way out. The first issue of The Last of Us: American Dreams will appear in stores during the spring of 2013. Meanwhile, the deluxe, oversized Art of The Last of Us hardcover will explore the characters, infected humans, and intricately realized world of the video game in beautiful full color detail. The art book is set to launch in conjunction with the release of the game, at a to be determined date.

Another of Dark Horse’s big announcements this year was also related to a licensed comic. Joss Whedon’s hit TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, has continued its 8th and 9th seasons in comics through Dark Horse. However, while season 8 was quite epic, season 9 has simply exploded across several maxi-series and mini-series. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 9 and Angel & Faith are both direct follow-ups to Season 8 of Buffy, while Spike and Willow are two spin-off mini-series focusing more on their specific titular characters during the events of Season 9. With Joss Whedon himself at the helm, these series launched with much critical acclaim, and have sold out of multiple printings. But now Dark Horse is hoping to catch fans up that might have missed these new series the first time around or simply couldn’t get a hold of these hot new #1 issues. To accomplish this, next January Dark Horse will be releasing a 96-page Buffy Verse Sampler, collecting all four #1 issues, with brand new cover by artist C. L. Bradley. Packaged for just $4.99, look for this at your local comic shop on January 23, 2013.

But Dark Horse doesn’t simply stick with television when they’re making comics, because movies are where the big shows are. And when it comes to movies, Dark Horses newest announcement is sure to be bigger than Jesus…or at least be related to a band that once claimed they were. Award-winning producer and writer, Vivek J. Tiwary, is set to write and produce a feature film adaptation of his upcoming graphic novel, The Fifth Beatle, from Dark Horse. The Fifth Beatle chronicles the life of The Beatles little-known manager, Brian Epstein. As Paul McCartney once said, “If anyone was the Fifth Beatle, it was Brian.” This groundbreaking project also marks the first time a feature film about the band has ever secured rights to include Beatles songs. As stated, The Fifth Beatle is being written by Tiwary and drawn by artist Andrew Robinson (Superman: Red Son, Blue Estate) with additional contributions by multiple Eisner and Harvey award-winning artist Kyle Baker (Plastic Man, Why I Hate Saturn). It is slated to be published in 2013, but fans attending New York Comic Con got a glimpse at the books art, which Tiwary and Robinson were signing at the Dark Horse booth. Check out the cover below and learn more about The Fifth Beatle at TheFifthBeatle.com

Producers of theatre and television aren’t the only new celebrities Dark Horse is picking up to write comics though, as their new announcement brings yet another rock star to the proverbial type writer under Dark Horse’s publishing. Grammy-nominated musician and best-selling author Corey Taylor, the lyricist and lead singer of Slipknot and Stone Sour, is setting down the microphone and putting ink and images to paper in his new project with Dark Horse Comics, House of Gold & Bones. House of Gold & Bones is a unique multimedia experience which includes two Stone Sour albums (the first of which is released today, with Part 2 following in 2013), videos, online presence, creative album packaging, live shows, and now the Dark Horse Comics series. Each element will follow and expand on the story. Taylor, already an internationally best-selling author, courtesy of last year’s Seven Deadly Sins, wrote the story, as well as the lyrics for the twenty-three tracks that make up the two albums, as a linear story line. The Stone Sour songs set the tone and follow the action, with Taylor’s House of Gold & Bones comic expanding on the story. The comic will be a 4-issue limited series with covers by artist Jason Shawn Alexander (Empty Zone, Abe Sapien). “I’ve been a die-hard fan of comics, on every level, my entire life,” says Taylor. “This has been a dream of mine for years now, and this project was tailor made for a comic, no pun intended. I couldn’t have picked a better company than Dark Horse to make this a reality. I have loved several of their titles for many years, going back to ’92. If we can get this crazy world out of my head and onto the canvas, it’ll be the best thing I’ve ever attempted. And with Dark Horse, I have every confidence that’s exactly what we’ll do”. Issue #1 of House of Gold & Bones hits stores April 17th of next year.

Finally, Dark Horse wraps up their NYCC announcements with news that Emily The Strange has returned! That’s right, Emily the Strange creator Rob Reger is back and he is teaming up with Mariah Huehner (True Blood, Angel) as co-writer of a brand new Emily Strange mini-series. Along with the properly named artist, Emily Ivie (The Locked Maze, Rotsterarsil), Emily and the Strangers will be a brand new, full-color miniseries featuring limited variant covers by rock-poster legends! The new series follows Emily, with the help of her trio of troublemaking cats, as she shes out determined to make the most rockin’ song the world has ever known and win a legendary haunted guitar. The question is, can Emily do this solo? Only one thing is for sure, what Emily wants, Emily gets . . . sometimes. Emily and the Strangers #1 goes on sale January 30th of next year, which is going to be quite the big year for Emily. Also in 2013 we should see the Emily the Strange movie, which is currently in development, starring Chloë Grace Moretz (Let Me In, Kick-Ass) as the titular Emily. And as one last added bit of fun for Emily Strange fans, here is the rockin variant cover to Emily and the Strangers #1 down below.