Dren Productions is lining up four distinctly pulpy comic-book releases for December 2026: a collection of Axa newspaper strips, the opening issue of the spacefaring Plan 79 From Outer Space, a Spring Break-set return for Flesh-Eating Cheerleaders, and another two-story installment of Tales of the Bizarre. It is a slate built around heightened genre premises—sealed dystopias, alien invasions, parasitic space worms, mad science, and haunted mansions—rather than a single shared universe or house style.
The releases also represent different entry points for readers. Axa #1 is positioned as a collection of previously published strips from the 1970s and 1980s. Plan 79 From Outer Space #1 begins a new three-issue story that follows earlier “Plan” comics. Flesh-Eating Cheerleaders: Spring Break #1 starts a four-issue continuation, while Tales of the Bizarre #13 retains the anthology format, telling two separate horror and science-fiction tales in one issue.
For readers keeping an eye on comic-book storytelling beyond the familiar superhero lanes, the range is the key feature here. The line moves from archival science-fiction adventure to knowingly B-movie-inspired horror, with each book making its own case for escalating danger and larger-than-life titles. Readers interested in another corner of comic-book news can also see the reported scope of Ben Affleck’s unmade Batman film.
Axa returns in a collected edition
Axa #1 collects the original Axa comic strips, which initially ran during the 1970s and 1980s. The collection credits Donne Avenell as writer and Romero as artist, with covers by Romero.
The story follows Axa in the year 2080. Humanity’s surviving population lives inside the Domed City, a supposedly utopian enclosure built after an event called the Great Contamination. Axa rejects the city’s oppressive system and leaves for the dangerous, uncharted land outside its boundaries. The premise then shifts from controlled civilization to a survival-oriented journey, with Axa becoming a nomadic adventurer among other survivors and the threats of the devastated world.
That setup gives the book a clear dystopian foundation. Dystopian fiction generally imagines a society whose order, safety, or promised perfection comes at a substantial human cost. Here, the Domed City exists to preserve humanity, but Axa’s decision to flee establishes that preservation and personal freedom are in conflict. The wilderness beyond is not portrayed as simple liberation either: it is explicitly damaged and unpredictable. The drama rests in her decision to choose that uncertainty over life under the dome.
Because this is a collection rather than a newly created chapter, its appeal is different from the other December launches. Readers can approach it as a chance to encounter the strip’s original run in one edition, while the solicitation’s plot description offers a basic starting point for those unfamiliar with Axa’s world. It should not be confused with a new issue continuing an already established current storyline; the supplied description specifically identifies it as a collection of the earlier comic strips.
Plan 79 takes its invasion story into space
Plan 79 From Outer Space #1, written by Michael Dolce and Dennis Knight with art by Javier Ortiz, begins a three-issue miniseries. Its cover lineup includes work by Ortiz, Gregbo, and Talent Caldwell, with a nude variant by Gregbo also listed.
The comic describes itself as a sequel to a sequel, following the legacy of Plan 9 From Outer Space through the prior Plan 59. Seventy plans later—and 30 years after the events of Plan 59—the Invaders return. This time, the conflict is no longer confined to Earth. Captain Jack Trent leads a group of Earth explorers into the cosmos in search of a planet that humanity can call home, unaware that the Invaders are pursuing them.
A meteor shower strands the expedition in space, placing Trent and the crew in an increasingly exposed position. The setup then adds another complication: the Invaders are not the only extraterrestrials with hostile intentions toward humans. That detail makes the series more than a straightforward rematch. Trent’s crew is caught between the old antagonists and an unknown alien threat, while their original goal—finding a new home—becomes harder to pursue.
The “three-issue” designation matters for prospective readers. It identifies Plan 79 From Outer Space as a miniseries with a stated, limited initial length rather than an open-ended monthly run. The #1 is the beginning of that arc, but the plot is also rooted in the events of Plan 59. New readers have enough information to understand the immediate situation: an Invader threat has resumed, Captain Trent is leading an off-world mission, and a meteor shower leaves the crew stranded. Readers seeking every prior reference and returning character, however, may find the earlier Plan story relevant context.
The premise consciously leans into old-school alien-invasion language: “Invaders,” a numbered plan, a captain, an exploratory mission, and a sudden meteor disaster. Rather than treating its heritage as incidental, the series makes the connection part of its identity. Its challenge will be to turn that knowingly oversized setup into a focused three-part survival story centered on Trent and his crew.
Flesh-Eating Cheerleaders heads to Daytona Beach
Flesh-Eating Cheerleaders: Spring Break #1 is a four-issue miniseries written by James Mascia and illustrated by Felipe Obando. Obando provides a standard cover and a “Naughty Variant,” while C.B. Zane is also credited with a cover and a “Naughty Variant.”
The new series follows Flesh-Eating Cheerleaders From Outer Space, where the space worms were believed to have been contained after the events at Pullman University. Two worms escaped, however, and have traveled to Daytona Beach during Spring Break. Their plan is simple and gruesome: feed as much as possible amid a setting full of potential victims.
The central twist is internal rather than merely geographic. One of the affected girls begins to regain control of her senses. That development threatens the worms’ ability to operate without resistance and creates a question at the center of the series: what happens if their host becomes fully conscious of what she has done and what is being done to her?
Body horror is a useful term for understanding this kind of setup. It refers to horror that makes the body itself a site of danger, violation, transformation, or lost autonomy. The description does not provide details about the worms’ exact biology or method of control, so those should not be assumed. But the conflict over a victim’s returning awareness clearly makes possession and bodily agency central to the premise. The horror is not only the potential feeding spree; it is also the possibility that someone trapped in that situation can recognize it.
The Spring Break location gives the series an immediate change of pace from the earlier Pullman University events. It moves the escaped-worm storyline into a public, vacation-focused setting, but the supplied material does not specify supporting characters, the scope of the outbreak, or how the prior story resolved beyond the belief that the worms had been bottled up. Those are details the new miniseries will need to establish as it unfolds.
Tales of the Bizarre #13 offers two standalone shocks
Tales of the Bizarre #13 continues as an anthology. Ben Lacy, Nathaniel Sepulveda, JC Grande, and Cloves Rodriguez receive writing and art credit. An anthology is a comic that contains multiple distinct stories rather than one uninterrupted narrative; in this case, the issue contains two genre tales with separate casts and premises.
The first is titled The Giant Squid Monster of the Depraved Doctor Piranha Woman. Dr. Brooke Douglas, described as brilliant but twisted, attempts to create her most dangerous monster by turning a squid into a gigantic, mind-controlled terror. The experiment goes wrong in a familiar but enduring mad-science fashion: her creation proves dangerously unpredictable. The story’s long, deliberately extravagant title signals a creature-feature approach, where the spectacle of the monster and the arrogance of its creator are fundamental to the premise.
The second story, Whispering Walls, follows paranormal investigator Jason Mercer as he spends the night in Hartwood Mansion. Mercer enters intending to expose supernatural claims as an elaborate hoax. After following the mansion’s disturbing cries to what seems to be their source, he finds that the haunting may be real after all.
The two stories offer a compact version of the anthology’s stated B-movie sensibility. One is rooted in a laboratory-made monster that slips beyond its maker’s control; the other begins with a skeptic investigating a possibly staged haunting. Both premises use a character’s certainty as a pressure point. Douglas expects control over her experiment, while Mercer expects to debunk the mansion’s reputation. In each case, that confidence is challenged by an outcome more dangerous than anticipated.
What the December lineup tells readers
Dren’s December releases are connected less by continuity than by an embrace of direct, high-concept genre hooks. Axa asks what freedom costs outside a protected dystopia. Plan 79 From Outer Space sends a familiar alien conflict beyond Earth and turns a resettlement mission into a stranded-in-space crisis. Flesh-Eating Cheerleaders: Spring Break continues an alien-parasite threat while introducing a host who may regain agency. Tales of the Bizarre #13 packages a giant squid experiment and a haunted-house investigation as separate bites of science fiction and horror.
Each title also makes its format clear: an archival collection, a three-part miniseries, a four-part miniseries, and an anthology issue. That is practical information for readers deciding whether they want an accessible collection, a finite new arc, a continuation of an existing horror series, or self-contained short fiction. All four are listed for December 2026 from Dren Productions.
