Month: May 2019

Impeach Pedro: ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ comes to comics

Sequel to the film launches from IDW in September.

IDW Publishing has announced a comic book sequel to the 2004 movie Napoleon Dynamite. The story directly follows the movie, as Napoleon’s friend Pedro fights to remain student body president after being accused of cheating.

“Fifteen years ago, an unsuspecting world was introduced to the bizarre cinematic world of Napoleon Dynamite… and it was flippin’ sweet!” said Editor Tom Waltz. “And now we have the freakin’ awesome opportunity to show off our really good comic-book-making skills with a tale that picks up right where Napoleon and his friends left off. It’s almost like we borrowed Uncle Rico’s mail-order time machine… and it actually worked this time!”

The story will be written by brothers Carlos Guzman-Verdugo and Alejandro Verdugo, who wrote Time Machine Cheetah. Jorge Monlongo will provide the art

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Rest in peace, Justin Ponsor

The 42-year-old colorist died of cancer this past weekend.

Comic artist/colorist Justin Ponsor, whose work graced the pages of comics for Marvel, CrossGen, Image Comics, DC Comics and others over the years, died this past weekend after a long fight with cancer. Ponsor was 42 and shared the details of his medical battles (and a lot of humor) over the last few years on his “Blarg.”

Ponsor began his career in the mid-1990s at Wildstorm, working on titles like Danger Girl, Divine Right and WildCATS. In the early 2000s he went to work on CrossGen’s titles, including Scion and Sojourn. In 2004 he started working for both DC and Marvel, the latter where he’d spend the majority of his career, working on titles like Ultimate X-Men, Gambit, Phoenix: Endsong and Young Avengers, among many others. He touched probably every major Marvel character over the course of his career, working on interiors as well as covers.

The news of Ponsor’s passing was revealed on his Facebook page:

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Pastis wins the Reuben; ‘Kafkaesque,’ ‘Vampironica’ win NCS division awards

Winners of the annual awards presented by the National Cartoonists Society given out this weekend in Huntington Beach.

The National Cartoonists Society announced the winners of the annual Reuben Award and other divisional awards this weekend during NCS Fest in Huntington Beach, California.

After 11 nominations,Pearls Before Swine creator Stephan Pastis took home the Reuben Award, beating out Lynda Barry, Hilary Price, Brain Basset and Mark Tatulli for the honor.

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McFarlane’s ‘Spawn’ celebrates 300 issues in August

Greg Capullo, Scott Snyder, J. Scott Campbell and more help celebrate the milestone.

Todd McFarlane’s Spawn will reach its 300th issue in August, and the creator has gone all out for the big occasion.

“I created Spawn back when I was a teenager hoping to someday break into the comic book industry,” McFarlane said in a press release.  “Now, over 40 years later, not only was I able to have a career drawing and writing comics, but Spawn has been by my side for most of that journey. Even more exciting, Spawn is becoming the longest running creator-owned comic in the world!”

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Lou the Cat saves the galaxy in ‘Strayed’

Meet your new favorite feline in a miniseries from Dark Horse, coming in August.

It’s not secret that cats rule the world, and starting in summer they’re going galactic. Strayed, a new series by Carlos Giffoni, Juan Doe and Matt Krotzer, blasts into space — and comic shops — in August.

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‘Ghost Spider’ relaunches in August

Seanan McGuire and Takeshi Miyazawa bring Spider-Gwen over to the 616.

While she’ll always be Spider-Gwen in our hearts, the character now known as Ghost Spider (which is a pretty cool name, too) is getting another reboot in August. This time around she’ll be spending more time in the 616, as she enrolls at Empire State University, where Peter Parker has spent a few semesters over the course of the last five decades.

“After dipping her toes into the main Marvel Universe, Gwen Stacy is finally taking the leap part-time as she enrolls in Empire State University,” Assistant Editor Danny Khazem told Marvel.com. “But Gwen’s going to need to do her Spider-History research if she’s going to figure out just who from Spider’s past is keeping tabs on her!”

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‘Ruby Falls’ is a modern murder mystery with a feminist edge

Ann Nocenti, Flavia Biondi and Lee Loughridge team for a new title from Berger Books.

The Seeds writerAnn Nocenti will team with Italian artist Flavia Biondi and colorist Lee Loughridge on Ruby Falls, a new noir murder mystery title from Dark Horse’s Berger Books line.

Described as “a dazzling and unforgettably modern murder mystery with a feminist edge,” the story revolves around three generations of women and the mysterious disappearance of one of Ruby Falls’ residents during the town’s “mobster-ruled heyday.”

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Neal Adams to write and draw ‘Batman vs. Ra’s al Ghul’

DC’s ‘Year of the Villain’ continues in August with a new miniseries about one of Batman’s greatest foes.

DC Comics is giving the devil his due this year in their “Year of the Villain” event, which will come to a head in the fall with lots of broken comic logos. But before that, Neal Adams will pit Batman against his son’s grandfather, Ra’s al Ghul, in a six-issue miniseries.

Here’s how DC describes the comic:

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Ellis, Villalobos, Bonvillain revive ‘WildCATS’ [Update: It’s been cancelled]

The new series launches in August and follows Ellis’ work on ‘The Wild Storm.’

Update: As of March 3, 2020, Warren Ellis has said that this project is cancelled. “The artist didn’t want to draw it after all and no replacement was found,” he wrote on his blog.

Original story below:

Warren Ellis’ adventures in the Wildstorm universe aren’t coming to an end as quickly as we thought. Although The Wild Storm comes to an end in a couple of issues, DC Comics has announced Ellis will write a six-issue WildCATS miniseries that spins out of it.

“The first line I wrote down for WildCATS was: ‘Saving the human race from the human race,’” Ellis said in the press release.  “It’s a team made up of people who have seen the worst in everybody and everything, and yet still put themselves in frankly absurd amounts of jeopardy just so tomorrow might be a little bit better. And it’s a short series, so I might just kill them all. Come and see what happens. The art is great.”

And that’s the really good news is he’s working with the former Border Town art team of Ramon Villalobos and Tamra Bonvillain. The Vertigo series Border Town ended prematurely because of the behavior of its writer, and it was a shame the art team was caught in the wake. So it’s good to see the two of them back together, working on the flagship title of the WildStorm universe.

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Dark Phoenix rises on Becky Cloonan’s Loot Wear shirt

The raglan shirt featuring the image is available this month only.

Comics creator Becky Cloonan has been doing some design work for Loot Crate, “the worldwide leader in fan subscription boxes,” and their sister site, Loot Wear. One of the pieces she’s done for them ties into the big summer superhero blockbuster, Dark Phoenix — and it is on fire.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Mariko Tamaki

The award-winning author discusses her latest graphic novel from First Second, ‘Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me.’

Mariko Tamaki is the award-winning author of the graphic novels This One Summer and Skim, both of which she made with her cousin, the artist and writer Jillian Tamaki. Mariko has written a number of comics series including Tomb Raider, She Hulk, Supergirland X-23. She’s written graphic novels like Emiko Superstar and the upcoming Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass, in addition to writing a trilogy of Lumberjanes novels and various other works of fiction and nonfiction.

Her new book, with artist Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, is Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, which is just out from First Second Books. Frederica Riley is dating Laura Dean, the most popular girl in school, who is amazing — and a horrible girlfriend. While Freddy is writing to an advice columnist about what she should do, her friends are dealing with their own problems and trying to be delicate, and inanimate objects around Freddy are offering their own ignored Greek chorus in the background. It is a brilliant work that manages to balance comedy and drama, and capture something truly essential about relationships and teenage life.

Tamaki is a featured guest at this weekend’s Queers and Comics Conference in New York, and we spoke recently about the book.

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‘Superman: Year One’ preview showcases key moments on the Kent farm

As a matter of fact, we ARE in Kansas anymore for this preview of the Black Label project from Frank Miller and John Romita Jr.

DC Comics has released a preview and some additional details on Frank Miller and John Romta Jr.’s upcoming Superman: Year One project, which starts in June. Not only do they share some interior pages, but they also have a Q&A with the creative team.

“This is baby Kal-El’s odyssey from planet Krypton to planet Earth. From a strange little boy to Superman. It’s a hero’s journey wherein a boy discovers his powers and more importantly, his destiny,” Miller said. “It ties in with my Dark Knight Universe and Batman: Year One.”

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