Month: April 2020

IDW announces Sonic spinoff series, new writer

Artist Evan Stanley will write the main Sonic title as Ian Flynn focuses on the four-issue “Sonic: Bad Guys.”

IDW has announced Sonic the Hedgehog’s summer plans, which include a new writer for the main title and a spinoff series featuring several Sonic bad guys.

Beginning with issue #33, Sonic illustrator Evan Stanley will take over both writing and drawing the main title.

“Sonic the Hedgehog comics have been a constant source of joy and inspiration for me for well over 10 years, and the truth is, this opportunity is a dream I didn’t believe could come true,” said Stanley. “The world of Sonic has a truly amazing creative legacy, and I’ve always pushed myself to make my contributions as meaningful and worthwhile as they can be — and that’s more important than ever now. I hope I can deepen the world of IDW’s Sonic The Hedgehog comics, exploring new places and characters while continuing to deliver exciting adventures about Sonic and his friends!”

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Diamond targets May to restart comics distribution, as DC makes their own plans

DC will work with two new distributors with ties to comic retailers to deliver comics in late April and the first half of May.

It’s been a crazy day on the comics distribution front. Since Diamond Comics Distributors announced in March plans to temporarily halt comics distribution because of the coronavirus, the question has been when we’ll see new comics start to hit direct market shelves again. Now Diamond has provided an answer, as one of their biggest customers has given a different one.

Let’s start with the Diamond news, which you can find on Newsarama. That article quotes from a letter sent to retailers and publishers, saying that “While there are many steps and conversations that need to happen between today and resuming distribution of new weekly product, we are currently targeting mid- to late-May with the hope that, as an industry, we can all work toward that timeframe.”

The way that’s worded is interesting, as it was not long after that DC put out a press release of their own, saying they planned to have a limited number of comics in shops on Tuesday, April 28, as well as on May 5 and May 12. “After surveying more than 2,000 stores across the U.S. and Canada, it became clear that many comic book store owners are finding new and creative ways to get books to the fans who want them,” the press release reads. They’ve also set up a comic shop tracker on their site so you can see who will have their comics on April 28.

So what exactly is DC doing to get comics out to shops?

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Comic Con International in San Diego canceled for 2020

For the first time in its 50-year history, the San Diego Comic Con will not happen due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Comic-Con International has announced that the annual San Diego Comic Con has been officially canceled for 2020. The convention will not return until July 22-25, 2021.

“Recognizing that countless attendees save and plan for its conventions each year, and how many exhibitors and stakeholders rely upon its events for a major portion of their livelihood, they had hoped to delay this decision in anticipation that COVID-19 concerns might lessen by summer,” their page reads. “Continuous monitoring of health advisories and recent statements by the Governor of California have made it clear that it would not be safe to move forward with plans for this year.”

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Creators 4 Comics is raising money to benefit the Book Industry Charitable Foundation

Creators have begun to host Twitter auctions that you can find via the hashtag #Creators4Comics.

Several comic book creators have banned together and created the initiative Creators 4 Comics, in an effort to raise money to benefit the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (binc), which supports both independent bookstores and comic shops.

“#Creators4Comics is a group of comic creators who are coming together to help save comic book retailers and independent bookstores by holding online Twitter auctions to directly benefit the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (BINC). BINC is taking applications now and they will start providing direct aid to stores at the end of April,” their site reads. The effort was started by Kami Garcia, Brian Michael Bendis, Gwenda Bond, Sam Humphries and Phil Jimenez.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Gina Biggs

The webcomics creator discusses the science fiction romance ‘Love Not Found,’ Filthy Figments, creating while being isolated and more.

Gina Biggs is best known as the cartoonist behind a great series of webcomics that she’s been making for more than a decade, including Red String, Erstwhile and her current project, Love Not Found. She is also the founder and editor of the website Filthy Figments, which turns 10 this year. Long one of the very best collections of erotic comics on the web, Filthy Figments has published a long list of talented creators, including Megan Rose Gedris, Molly Ostertag, Sarah Searle, Niki Smith and others making comics than aren’t simply inventive and interesting and visually dynamic by the standards of erotic comics, but exciting work by any standard.

Biggs’ current ongoing comic is Love Not Found, a science fiction romance set in a world where physical contact is rare. In the second chapter, one character has a line which has long stayed with me, “Sex is great. Why complicate it with emotions and touching?” In the time since I first reached out to us finishing this interview, that scenario went from science fiction to the norm for so many of us. We spoke over email about her career, Filthy Figments, upcoming plans, and how Love Not Found feels like a very different comic right now.

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Panel Syndicate announces ‘Friday’ by Brubaker + Martin + Vicente

The first installment of the digital series is available now.

Criminal writer Ed Brubaker is teaming up with Barrier artists Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente for a new Panel Syndicate title called Friday. It’s about a former girl detective/occult expert who returns home from college for the holidays and gets wrapped up in a new mystery.

“One of the first things I said to Marcos was that this book feels like Lovecraft’s New England is colliding with Edward Gorey’s,” said Brubaker. “And I like to describe Friday as post-YA, which is a genre that doesn’t really exist. It’s an idea I’ve been circling for a long time, that lets me tap into my own nostalgia for my youth and the YA books I loved back in the 70s and 80s – stuff like The Great Brain, or John Belliars books, or Harriet the Spy, or Encyclopedia Brown. I want to take that concept of the teen detective and those supernatural mysteries aimed at kids, but then let the protagonists grow up, so they have all the same problems we all do… and they encounter a much more dangerous world.”

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‘Lost on Planet Earth’ coming from comiXology Originals on Wednesday

The ‘Kim & Kim’ team of Magdalene Visaggio and Claudia Aguirre team up again for a five-issue miniseries.

There may not be much new stuff arriving on comiXology right now deu to the coronavirus, but here’s something to look forward to — this Wednesday they’ll release the latest in their comiXology Originals line, Lost on Planet Earth.

The Kim & Kim team of Magdalene Visaggio and Claudia Aguirre team up again for a five-issue miniseries set in the year 2381, featuring “a conflicted lesbian relationship in a socially reactionary future.”

“This is a series about the ones who stay behind, the ones who don’t like what they see. It is an examination of choice and self-determination and self-knowledge,” said Visaggio. “At its heart, Lost on Planet Earth is a sci-fi slice-of-life comic about a burgeoning group of friends making their own way in a world that has no place for them.” 

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What Are You Reading? Squirrel Girl, Grendel and more!

See what the Smash Pages crew has checked off their “to read” list lately.

Hey, Happy Easter! The Easter Bunny stopped by the blog and brought not only delicious chocolate eggs, but also brought back one of our favorite features — What Are You Reading? Like the title suggests, it’s a casual look at what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately. So without further ado …

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A girl and her bear: Top Shelf announces ‘Kodi’ for summer

Jared Cullum’s gorgeous graphic novel arrives in August.

Top Shelf Comix has announced a new project for August — Kodi, the story of a girl and her Kodiak bear.

It’s by Jared Cullum, whose previous work includes the 35th anniversay Fraggle Rock miniseries fand Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Giants, both from Archaia. He’s not only an illustrator but also a painter (see his website for some samples), and his work with watercolors is very impressive. In fact, he has several water color tutorials on his YouTube channel, if you’re looking for something new to try during life in quarantine.

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Meighan + Gabo launch ‘She Kills’ on the web

The free webcomic tells a story tied to the origins of Los Angeles.

Family Guy writer/executive producer Patrick Meighan, The Life After/Lil’ Kaiju artist Gabo and Jupiter Jet‘s Ashley Robinson have teamed up on a gritty new webcomic, She Kills. Did I mention it was gritty? It is, and it’s also NSFW and not for kids. But the history it’s delving into is interesting.

“She Kills is a project born out of my 10 years of research into mid-19th century California,” Meighan said in a press release. “It uses a violent historical episode (the descent and death of LA sheriff James Barton) as a backdrop to tell a fictional mother-daughter story, driven by a strong female protagonist… a woman fighting to determine her own family’s destiny in a time and place when to do so was a revolutionary act.  Because I decided to tell this story from the point of view of one of LA’s native workers, I sought an elder from one of the local First Nation communities, who graciously read every single draft of the series, giving me guidance that was truly invaluable to the story’s context, and which shaped what She Kills has become. Now I can’t wait to share it with the world.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: Elle Power

The cartoonist discusses illustrating the novel ‘Goldie Vance: the Hotel Whodunit,’ based on the BOOM! Studios series.

Goldie Vance: the Hotel Whodunit is a new novel based on the comics series created by Hope Larson and Brittney Williams. Lilliam Rivera wrote the novel, but artist and cartoonist Elle Power drew the novel’s cover, interior illustrations, and two eight-page sections of comics in the novel.

Power has been drawing comics for years, including the fourth volume of the Goldie Vance series, and we spoke over email recently about Goldie, the unusual process of working on this book and thinking about what comes next.

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2020 Doug Wright Awards nominees announced

Connor Willumsen, Sarah Leavitt, Jay Stephens, Chris Kuzma and more nominated for awards this year.

Nominees for the 2020 Doug Wright Awards, which honor “the best work and most promising talent in Canadian comics,” were announced this week. Conundrum Press leads the pack this year in terms of nominations, with four, while Drawn & Quarterly and Koyama Press each received two nominations.

The Doug Wright Awards also announced that Walter Ball, a longtime cartoonist for the Toronto Star and creator of the strip Rural Route, will be inducted into the “Giants of the North” hall of fame.

You can find the complete list of nominees below.

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