‘Criminy’ gets a release date + cover

Ryan Ferrier and Roger Langridge’s graphic novel will arrive from Dark Horse this fall.

Ryan Ferrier and Roger Langridge’s Criminy has gone from concept to a graphic novel, and now Dark Horse has announced more details about the project — including a publication date.

The publisher says that the “humorous, absurd tale about a family on the run” will land in stores Septe. 19. They also revealed the book’s cover:

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Smash Pages Q&A: Hazel Newlevant on ‘Sugar Town’ and more

The comics creator and editor discusses her own projects, including her next graphic novel, working at Lion Forge and more.

Hazel Newlevant has been making a big impression in comics in just a few years. She received a Xeric grant for Ci Vediamo and a Queer Press Grant for If This Be Sin, and last year received an Ignatz Award for her minicomic Tender-Hearted. Newlevant is also an editor at Lion Forge Comics, and has edited the anthology Chainmail Bikini and co-edited the recent Comics for Choice with Whit Taylor and O.K. Fox

Sugar Town, which was published late last year, is her longest single work to date and her best. The book is an emotional and thoughtful look at falling in love and exploring the emotional work of polyamory. It felt like a breakthrough for the creator in a number of ways. Newlevant and I have spoken before, and I reached out to talk with her about the fact that she’s had a very busy 2017, the ways she used color in Sugar Town, and her upcoming graphic novel No Ivy League.

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C2E2: ‘Rick & Morty,’ ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ cross over this summer

Patrick Rothfuss, Jim Zub and Troy Little bring the two properties together in a four-issue limited series.

The stars of Adult Swim’s popular Rick and Morty will enter the world of Dungeons & Dragons this summer in a comic book crossover by Patrick Rothfuss, Jim Zub and Troy Little.

At this weekend’s C2E2 convention in Chicago, IDW Publishing and Oni Press, who respectively publish the D&D and R&M comic books, announced the four-issue comic book series, which will debut in August.

“I love Rick and Morty with a powerful love, and I’ve played D&D since the fifth grade,” Rothfuss said in the press release. “So when they approached me about writing a story with both of them together? That’s some serious you-got-chocolate-in-my-peanut butter $#!& right there. I’m in. I’m all the way in. I’m gettin’ that chocolate all up in the peanut butter. Like, deep in. All the way in. It’s going to be sticky and delicious.”

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C2E2: Joëlle Jones working on new ‘Catwoman’ series, statue

Catwoman’s new series puts her back on the streets against a new villain.

At C2E2 in Chicago this weekend, Batman artist Joëlle Jones announced two new projects involving Bruce Wayne’s fiancée, Selina Kyle, A.K.A. Catwoman.

First up, starting this summer is a new Catwoman ongoing series, written and drawn by Jones. The new series will spin out of the big Batman wedding, which is set to occur in Batman #50.

“But if you’re expecting a romantic tale set during a tropical honeymoon or focused on Selina and Bruce’s newly wedded bliss, think again,” DC revealed in a press release. “Catwoman’s back on the streets dealing with a mysterious copycat and taking on a brand new, as-yet-unrevealed villain in the Eisner nominated Jones’ debut storyline.”

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C2E2: Image announces new titles from Young/Conley, Culver/Geoffo

‘Bully Wars’ and ‘Burnouts’ due out later this year.

Image Comics has announced two new titles in conjunction with C2E2 in Chicago this week: Bully Wars by Skottie Young and Aaron Conley,and Burnouts by Dennis Culver and Geoffo.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Dean Haspiel on New Brooklyn, his new play and more

The comics creator and playwright discusses The Red Hook, War Cry, his newest play and much more.

Dean Haspiel has always been a busy creator. Right now he’s writing and drawing War Cry, a weekly superhero comic for Line Webtoon, which wraps up next month. It’s a sequel to The Red Hook, which will be published as a print collection by Image Comics in June, part of the New Brooklyn Universe that Haspiel has overseen.

This month Haspiel has the world premiere of his new play in New York. The Last Bar at the End of the World is Haspiel’s third play and his second in two years. Haspiel has been one of those creators doing many things, from making his own comics, drawing books written by other people, working in television and film. This fall The Alcoholic, which Haspiel drew, will be reissued in a 10th anniversary edition. There will also be a collection to Haspiel’s The Fox: Fox Hunt series coming out from Archie Comics.

An Off-Broadway play, an indie superhero, a realistic graphic novel, an Archie superhero – and the fact that Haspiel is able to move from one to other with such ease is just one of the reasons his work has always stood out.

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Help kickstart a classic comic book spinner rack

Jim Demonakos looks to bring a piece of comics nostalgia back to life in a new Kickstarter campaign.

If you’ve ever wanted to own a classic-looking comic book spinner rack, you can either keep an eye on eBay and hope for the best, or support a new Kickstarter that’s looking “to create something that evoked nostalgia while also being functional and cool.”

The project is the brainstorm of Jim Demonakos of nerd rock band Kirby Krackle and Emerald City Comic Con fame. He’s looking to design two different models — one black, one white — that look like they came right out of a 1980s 7-Eleven.

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Nominees announced for this year’s Reuben Award

Nominees include Lynda Barry, Stephan Pastis, Hilary Price, Mark Tatulli and Glen Keane.

The National Cartoonists Society has announced the nominees for the 2017 NCS Reuben Award for “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.”

The nominees include:

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Smash Pages Q&A: Jaime Hernandez on ‘The Dragon Slayer’ and more

The legendary cartoonist discusses his latest work for Toon Books, ‘Love & Rockets’ and more.

Jaime Hernandez has long been one of the great cartoonists. Love and Rockets has been acclaimed for decades and remains beloved by generations of readers. The series continues to come out regularly, and late last year Fantagraphics published the collection Angels and Magpies in addition to a Studio Edition, which reproduces nearly 200 pages of Hernandez’s original artwork.

Toon Books is debuting a new book by Hernandez, The Dragon Slayer: Folktales from Latin America. The book is his first for younger readers and adapts stories from F. Isabel Campoy and Alma Flor Ada, and features an introduction by Campoy about imagination and tradition.

Hernandez will be appearing at the MoCCA Arts Festival this weekend in New York City, where he’ll be in conversation with Marc Sobel on Sunday. He will also appear at the Toronto Comics Arts Festival in May as part of Toon Books’ 1oth anniversary celebration.

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‘She Could Fly’ lifts off from Berger Books

Christopher Cantwell and Martín Morazzo team up for a new title from the Dark Horse Comics imprint.

Dark Horse’s Berger Books imprint, from former Vertigo editor Karen Berger, will add another comic to its flight plan this summer — She Could Fly by writer Christopher Cantwell and artist Martín Morazzo.

Cantwell is the co-creator and showrunner of the AMC drama Halt and Catch Fire, while Morazzo has been the artist on such comics as Nighthawk, Elektra, Great Pacific and Ice Cream Man. Miroslav Mrva, who has worked on Ghosted and Foolkiller, will provide colors.

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Keren Katz, Michael DeForge win 2018 Cartoonist Studio Prize

Created in conjunction with the Center for Cartoon Studies, the program offers $1,000 to each winner.

Slate has announced the winners of their annual Cartoonist Studio Prize, which awards $1,000 to the year’s best print comic and webcomic.

This year’s winner in the print catgeory is Keren Katz for The Academic Hour, published by Secret Acres.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Tim Fielder on ‘Matty’s Rocket’

Tim Fielder’s graphic novel Matty’s Rocket would be an innovative, inventive and moving comic no matter what year it was published. In a year when Black Panther has made the term “Afro-futurism” ubiquitous, the book has managed to come out at just the right moment to find a larger audience, but also offer new ways to rethink and redefine the genre. This is a project that Fielder has been working on for years about a young woman growing up in 1920s Mississippi, who moves to France in the 1930s so that she can pilot rocketships.

It’s an amazing book told in a number of styles, from the sepia-toned Mississippi Delta of 1920s to the 1930s, which resemble a recolored silent film, to a 1960s that evokes the comics and science fiction imagery of the era. The book’s real strengths, though, lie not in its imagery, but in its writing. Matty’s Rocket is great fun, but to engage with the book and Retro-Afrofuturism – as Fielder calls his approach in the series – is to be forced to rethink not just the genre and the stories we know, but the world, and the assumptions that underlie them.

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