If you haven’t had a chance to check out the under-the-radar series The Perhapanauts, written by Todd DeZago and with art from Craig Rousseau, you owe it yourself to do so. Lucky for you, they’re returning to comics shelves in February with a new annual and a new publisher in Image Comics.

ComicBookResources recently featured a chat with the creators of the series, which focuses on a government-sponsored team that operates in secrecy and investigates supernatural events. The team is made up of living, breathing representatives of various cultural myths, including a sasquatch and a chupacabra.

Of course, this could also explain why The Perhapanauts might have found itself falling under a pretty large shadow at its previous publisher, Dark Horse Comics, whose well-established Hellboy and B.P.R.D. titles offer up stories that might seem similar from a back-of-the-book perspective.

According to DeZago:

… in the beginning people compared us to ‘BPRD’ and, when they debuted ‘Proof,’ Alex [Grecian] and Riley [Rossmo] were compared to us. But I think all three of them are very different books and, while they may tread some of the same ground — ‘Proof’ and ‘The Perhapanauts’ in particular — they are worlds apart. I would hope that anyone who wishes to make that comparison will pick up the books and see for themselves.

DeZago goes on to discuss why they eventually made the change in publishers and what they have in store for the Perhapanauts team down the road.

James Kochalka has done it all, and we are green with envy.

Playback has a nice interview with Kochalka, the creator of the award-winning daily comic American Elf, the adults-only Super F*ckers and a host of other comics – not to mention the frontman for the multi-album band James Kochalka Superstar. In the interview, the multi-talented Kochalka reflects on the ways Elf has both documented and shaped his growth as a creator, father and, well… superstar.

When I started the diary, I was still working my job as a waiter at the Chinese restaurant, then a couple months into the strip I quit. The strip covers my entire career as a full-time superstar. When I quit I said I was quitting to be a full-time superstar, instead of just part-time as I had been.

Kochalka also discusses the recent design overhaul of the American Elf website, as well as his upcoming projects in both comics and music. One such project, as he explains it, overlaps between the two:

Yeah, I have a song called "Dragon Puncher" and I wrote this book called Dragon Puncher and I just can’t find anyone to publish it. I really drew it to appeal to little kids, but the whole thing is fighting. The whole book basically is this battle. I think the children’s book publishers are freaked out ‘cause it’s all fighting, and the publishers of more adult stuff are freaked out ‘cause it seems like it’s for little kids. Everyone needs to lighten up cause it’s an awesome book.

Seriously, what’s not to like about punching dragons?