Big news out of yesterday’s RWBY panel at RTX Austin. Not only did the Austin online leviathan release the date of volume six of its American anime crossover success, but the creative team also announced a book publishing deal with Scholastic.

During the afternoon’s panel focusing on the Austin-made animated fantasy show, director and co-writer Kerry Shawcross confirmed that not only will volume six debut on Roosterteeth.com on October 27, but the season premiere, along with episodes from season five and some special extras, will also screen in cinemas two days earlier in a special one-night global event, hosted by Fathom Events.

But for fans that want a break from their screens, show co-writer Miles Luna broke the news that there will be a new YA literary series, published with Scholastic (or, as show star Barbara Dunkelman described them, the book fair people). However, rather than focusing on the show’s central quartet of Ruby Red, her sister Yang, Blake Belladonna, and Weiss Schnee (the four members of team RWBY), it will focus on four other survivors of the Fall of Beacon Academy at the end of season three – Coco Adel, Fox Alistair, Velvet Scarlatina, Yatsuhashi Daichi, aka Team CFVY (pronounced coffee). Written by E.C. Myers (winner of the Andre Norton award for his 2012 novel Fair Coin), it will follow the quartet as they contend with what they survived, and the never-ending threat of the monstrous Grimm. Expect the first volume in the summer of 2019.

If that’s not enough page-turning, Luna confirmed that there will be further volumes of the Viz Manga original anthology series coming very soon. Following on from the Ruby-centric Red Like Roses, on Aug. 21 Weiss will be the center of the second volume, Mirror, Mirror, followed by Blake in From Shadows on Nov. 12, and the as-yet-untitled Yang edition in the first quarter of 2019. On top of that, there will be a new RWBY manga, adapting volumes one and two of the series, and drawn by artist Kohei Kusu, which will be serialized in Shonenjump magazine in the U.S.

RTX Austin 2018

Aug. 3-5. Tickets and info at www.rtxaustin.com. Follow all our coverage at www.austinchronicle.com/rtx-austin.

For more on Rooster Teeth, read “How Rooster Teeth Became an Online Phenomenon,” May 11.

This article appears in August 3 • 2018.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.