The next Pacific Rim comic, Tales from the Drift, will hit shelves in November

Legendary Pictures has announced the details of its promised comic book tie-in to the Pacific Rim universe. Pacific Rim: Tales from the Drift will be written by Joshua Fialkov and drawn by Marcos Marz.

The question of whether Pacific Rim had made enough money to garner a sequel in a notoriously risk-averse Hollywood blockbuster environment (where risk and "intellectual property without a preexisting fanbase" are considered to go hand in hand) hung over the film for a long while after its release. But when news of a sequel did finally arrive, it wasn't alone. Guillermo del Toro confirmed that an animated miniseries would bridge the gap between Pacific Rim and Pacific Rim 2 — slated for release in 2017 — and that another comic book tie-in would be produced to flesh out the details of the setting that had to be left on the cutting room floor.

That comic book will be known as Pacific Rim: Tales from the Drift, a monthly, four-issue miniseries that will start up this November. Here's the description from Legendary Pictures' press release:

Guillermo del Toro promised more adventures from the world of Pacific Rim - and he has delivered. Legendary is taking fans back to the frontlines of a larger-than-life battleground with Pacific Rim: Tales from the Drift, the official new comic series presented by director Guillermo del Toro and featuring a story from Pacific Rim screenwriter Travis Beacham. A continuation of the bestselling graphic novel Pacific Rim: Tales from Year Zero, the new Pacific Rim comic series will feature Jaegers never before seen in combat, squaring off against all-new Kaiju creatures.

Joshua Fialkov, a Harvey Award- and Eisner Award-nominated horror comics writer, will pen the book, based on a story by Travis Beacham, with art by Marcos Marz (Batman Confidential, Blackest Night: JSA). The announcement included two preview pages from the upcoming book, featuring the Japanese jaeger Coyote Tango and a kaiju (you can check them out at the bottom of this post). Legendary says the comic will be "presented by" Guillermo del Toro, not the most common of credits for a comic book, but it likely means that the director will have some creative input on the book, if not that Legendary simply wants to make sure his name is associated with it for press reasons.

Tales from Year Zero was a prequel, following the first appearances of kaiju in Pacific coastal cities, the creation of the Jaeger Program and the first kaiju encounters of movie characters like Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecost and Rinko Kikuchi's Mako Mori. The press release seems to indicate that Tales from the Drift will also be a prequel, perhaps delving into the backstory of Australia's father/son pilot team Herc and Chuck Hansen, or Russian pilots Sasha and Aleksis Kaidanovsky, whose brief appearances in the film became something of a fan sensation.