July 2020 – SMASH PAGES

James Tynion IV launches a new horror magazine

‘Razorblades’ features comics, prose and artwork by a variety of contributors.

Batman writer James Tynion IV has launched not only a new webstore, but also a horror magazine containing comics and prose. Tynion is curating the stories with Steve Foxe, and also contributing some work of his own.

The magazine includes two new comics by Tynion: “Washing Machine” with artist Andy Belanger and a preview of “The Adventures of Killboy” with artist Ricardo Lopez Ortiz, which Tynion says he plans to serialize in the future. Other contributors include Sam Johns, DaNi, Michael Dialynas, Marguerite Bennett, Werther Dell’Edera, Lonnie Nadler, Jenna Cha, Michael Walsh, and more.

‘Doctor Aphra’ wins a GLAAD Media Award

The Star Wars comic featuring an original character created for the comics also featured a same-sex relationship.

Star Wars: Doctor Aphra has won a 2020 GLAAD Media Award, in the “Outstanding Comic Book” category. The awards were announced by GLAAD on Twitter.

The comic features the adventures of Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra, a character created specifically for comics. She is a lesbian, having a same-sex relationship with Magna Tolvan, a member of the Imperial army when they first meet.

Aphra was created by Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca, but the comics that were nominated were created by a large cast of creators who GLAAD recognized on Twitter: Simon Spurrier, Emilio Laiso, Andrea Broccardo, Wilton Santos, Caspar Wijngaard, Marc Deering, Don Ho, Walden Wong, Chris Bolson, Scott Hanna, Elsa Charretier, Rachelle Rosenberg, Chris O’Halloran, Stephane Paitreau, Lee Loughridge, Edgar Delgado, Jim Campbell, Joe Caramagna.

The announcement video also included some words from Spurrier on the win:

Smash Pages Q&A: Sarah Mirk

The writer, editor and journalist discusses her two most recent projects — ‘Year of Zines’ and ‘Guantanamo Voices.’

Sarah Mirk is mostly known as a writer and editor for her work at Bitch Media, and for her books like You Do You and Sex From Scratch. She’s also written comics for The Nib and Symbolia, and has done cartoons for The New Yorker.

This year, though, she has two major projects coming out that show the breadth and depth of her work and her talent. Year of Zines is out now. The book collects 100 of the comics that Mirk made in 2019 where she made literally a zine a day. In the fall, Abrams is publishing Guantanamo Voices, which Mirk wrote and edited, telling the stories of veterans, prisoners, lawyers and government officials, with a number of artists.

Taken together, the books show off the inventiveness, skill and roving mind of a creator who is clearly just getting started. More recently, Mirk has been covering the protests in Portland in work that can be seen on her Twitter and Instagram. Mirk was kind enough to chat about her work.

Aja + Nocenti’s ‘The Seeds’ will wrap up this December

A trade paperback collecting the entire story arrives just in time for Christmas.

The long-delayed ending to writer Ann Nocenti and artist, colorist and letterer David Aja‘s ‘The Seeds’ will arrive in December. Dark Horse has announced that the entire story will be collected and released as a trade paperback.

The Seeds was announced back in 2017 as one of the launch titles in the Berger Books line, which is spearheaded by veteran editor Karen Berger. Originally intended as a four-issue miniseries, only two issues were published.

“I’m so thrilled to finally to share our hopeful dystopian tale The Seeds with everyone,” Nocenti said. “Grateful for the patience of the readers for our slow-growing Seeds. At this point the characters feel like family, even our nasty aliens. And who knows? Maybe all the world needs is a love story between an alien and a human to lead us someplace better…”

The Justice League at 60, Part Two: Setting The Standard

Tom Bondurant continues his look at the different eras that have defined the Justice League with an overview of the team’s early years.

Check out part one in this series here!

On or about Dec. 29, 1959, newsstands received new issues of 10 comics series. Next to the four different Archie Comics titles and two Prize Comics romance series were four DC books: Sugar & Spike #27, Detective Comics #276, Strange Adventures #113 and (cover-dated February-March 1960) The Brave and the Bold #28. Like its fellow DC series Showcase, B&B had switched to rotating features and had just concluded three issues’ worth of the spy-centric Suicide Squad. Therefore, dominating B&B‘s cover this month was the title of the newest feature, Justice League of America.

Thanks to Strange Adventures #113, Starro the Conqueror was not the only tentacled menace on that day’s newsstands; but he was the only one being fought by a quintet of familiar superheroes. Martian Manhunter had been around for a few years in Detective; just a few days before, DC had published new issues of Flash and Wonder Woman; and on New Year’s Eve, readers would find a new Aquaman tale in Adventure Comics #269. The relaunched Green Lantern was the newest of the group, having concluded his three-issue tryout a month or so earlier, in Showcase #24. (GL’s solo book wouldn’t start until May 24, 1960.)

Comics Lowdown | Jud Meyers placed on administrative leave at IDW

Plus: News on SDCC, DC’s writing workshop and the winner of the 2020 Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award.

Publishers: Jud Meyers, who was named publisher at IDW last week, has already been placed on administrative leave, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Jerry Bennington, who was named president of IDW last week, will assume Meyer’s duties in the interim. No reason was given for why Meyers was placed on leave. The Beat has more background, including information on a past lawsuit against Meyers by his former business partner, comics retailer Carr D’Angelo.

Conventions: The local San Diego news station KUSI looks at the loss of revenue to the city of San Diego due to the cancellation of the San Diego Comic Con. Clifford “Rip” Rippetoe, the president and CEO of the San Diego Convention Center, says the cancellation of the event meant a potential loss of $166 million to the local San Diego economy across restaurants, retail and taxes. He notes the convention center has had to cancel about 100 shows this year so far due to COVID-19.

Speaking of Comic-Con, Variety is calling the virtual convention “a bust,” based on the amount of activity on Twitter about the convention being down compared to last year, as well as the YouTube views of panels. The Beat points out that from a comic perspective, the YouTube numbers for “comics-based panels are way way above what they would have reached in person.” Also, almost a week later, those panels are still available for people who want to view them.

Smash Pages Q&A: Steenz

The cartoonist who took over ‘Heart of the City’ this year discusses the comic strip process, her focus on the characters, her other projects and more.

Christina “Steenz” Stewart has been making comics for years, but earlier this year, she took over making the daily syndicated comic strip Heart of the City when its creator Mark Tatulli stepped down. Since then, as a reader I think she’s managed to improve the strip, but she’s also found a way to transform the strip while remaining true to what it’s always been. Instead of a gag strip, as Tatulli did, Steenz has focused more on character, introducing new people and grounding the comic and the characters as middle schoolers getting older and starting to see the world and their lives in new ways.

Even before taking over the strip, Steenz has emerged as a writer, artist and editor to be reckoned with. She was the artist of the award-winning graphic novel Archival Quality and is working on a graphic novel about the history of tabletop roleplaying. She’s been a contributor to anthologies like Elements and Dead Beats. A former editor at Lion Forge, Steenz edited the recent graphic novel adaptation of Work For A Million and teaches cartooning at Webster University. We spoke recently about how she worked on the strip, bringing her own voice and approach to it, and why she’s not addressing COVID-19 in the strip.

Can’t Wait for Comics | Lost Soldiers, Bandette, lots of mutants and more

New comics and graphic novels arrive this week from Ales Kot, Garth Stein, Matthew Southworth, Tom Taylor, Gipi, Colleen Coover, Paul Tobin and more.

The Smash Pages crew is back again with a look at what’s arriving in comic shops, bookstores and on digital this week.

If you’re wondering what to get this week, check out a few recommendations below. You can check the Comic List page to see what’s arriving in your local shop, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally. As always, you should check with your local shop on their hours, curbside pick-up and mask restrictions, due to COVID-19. Stay safe out there.

Eisner winner refuses award due to voting issues

Nola Fau from Women Write About Comics said: ‘I can’t accept an award that isn’t cleanly and fairly won.’

Following their win in the Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism category during the Eisner Awards presentation that was posted Friday night, the editors of Women Write About Comics questioned the legitimacy of the win, with one noting that they “can’t accept an award that isn’t cleanly and fairly won.”

Nola Fau, in a statement on Twitter, said that “given the situation with the Eisner voting procedures this year and given the shoddy way in which they were ‘resolved,’ I can’t personally accept this award.” Fau is one of the two editors listed on the nomination, along with Wendy Browne. You can read Fau’s full statement below.

What Are You Reading? | ‘Empyre,’ ‘Wicked Things’ and more

See what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately.

Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately — including comics from past decades and some from the past week.

Let us know what you read this week in the comments or on social media.

‘Crossover’ blurs the line between fact and fiction [Preview]

The new title by the creators of ‘God Country’ arrives in November.

Image Comics has released a preview of the first issue of Crossover, the new series coming from Donny Cates, Geoff Shaw, Dee Cunniffe and John J Hill that was revealed this week during Comic-Con@Home.

Referred to by Cates as the “scariest” project he’s ever tried to produce, but also “the most exciting thing I’ve ever done” during their CCI@Home panel Crossover is about what happens when a big summer event book crosses over into the real world.

Your 2020 Eisner Award winners

‘Bitter Root,’ ‘Are You Listening?’ and more take home awards.

The 2020 Will Eisner Awards were presented in a virtual ceremony tonight. You can find the list of all nominees below, with the winners marked in BOLD. Congratulations to all the nominees and the winners!

You can also watch the ceremony here. The Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award recepients were announced earlier this week and include the Hero Initiative, Creators 4 Comics, Comicbook United Fund and BINC. Read more about them here.

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