Layman + Bradshaw’s ‘Bermuda’ starts in July

The series features a girl who lives on an island populated by dinosaurs, pirates and more.

IDW Publishing has announced that Bermuda, the new series by John Layman and Nick Bradshaw originally announced at the 2019 New York Comic Con, will kick off in July.

“Probably the single upside to the past year has been that Bermuda got some extra time, and it shows on every panel on every page. This is a gorgeous book, just staggeringly beautiful, and it’s been a thrill to see the pages roll in. It’s certainly one of the most stunning comics I’ve ever been a part of — and it’s a whole lot of fun, too,” Layman said.

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Comics Lowdown | Tarzan swings to the web

Plus: Graphic novel sales soar, a look at comics NFTs and more!

Bullish on Manga: Graphic novel sales were up by 4 million units in the first quarter of 2021, compared to the first quarter of 2020, according to news released by NPD BookScan and reported by ICv2. Sales of all print books, including graphic novels, increased by 29% to the highest sales numbers recorded in the first quarter since NPD started keeping track in 2004. The top driver for graphic novel sales was manga, which increased by 80% from the first quarter of 2020.

Watch Out for that Tree! The Tarzan syndicated newspaper strip will end its 92-year run in June, reports The Daily Cartoonist, killed off by two factors: The low number of subscribers, and the fact that the strips, which are reruns from the 1950s (daily) and 1980s (Sundays) are, well, not exactly in tune with today’s readers. That’s not the end of the line for the Lord of the Jungle, though: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., is transitioning Tarzan to a subscription webcomic, with new strips picking up where the old ones left off. (That subscription is a pretty good deal, as it includes a number of other webcomics based on Burroughs’ work.) In addition, Dark Horse will publish collected editions of both the new strip and Roy Thomas’s Tarzan of the Apes: A Classic Adaptation.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Jason Novak

The creator of ‘Joe Frank: Ascent’ discusses adapting the radio dramas of the legendary radio producer.

Jason Novak is a cartoonist and writer perhaps best known for his collaboration with the poet Ron Padgett, How To Be Perfect: An Illustrated Guide and his books Et Tu, Brute?: The Deaths of the Roman Emperors and Baseball Epic: Famous and Forgotten Lives of the Dead Ball Era. He’s contributed to The Rumpus, The Paris Review, The Morning News, and many other publications. His new book, an adaptation of some of the radio stories of Joe Frank, is Joe Frank: Ascent.

Joe Frank is a legendary radio producer who influenced generations of producers including Ira Glass (This American Life), Jad Abumrad (Radiolab) and Jonathan Goldstein (Wiretap, Heavyweight). Frank wrote plays and a book, and he was loved by many in Hollywood, but radio was always his first love.

In the pages of Joe Frank: Ascent, Novak manages to adapt Frank’s work in really striking ways. Using the rhythms and designs of the page in ways similar to how Frank used music and the way he spoke. It’s a strange experience to see some of the pieces I know almost by heart adapted into a new medium, but Novak captured Frank’s voice in a way that’s stunning to behold. Novak was kind enough to answer a few questions about the project.

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‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ ‘S.W.O.R.D.’ will cross over for ‘The Last Annihilation’

Al Ewing brings two of his titles together for an epic space war.

Two of Al Ewing’s space-based titles will cross over later this year for an event Marvel is billing as “The Last Annihilation.”

Guardians of the Galaxy, which launched a new team and new mission with last week’s issue #13, will cross over with S.W.O.R.D., the X-title featuring Magneto, Cable and other mutants tasked with protecting the Earth. You might also remember that late last year, following the Empyre event, the Empyre Aftermath: Avengers special teased a confrontation between S.W.O.R.D. and the new Kree/Skrull Alliance. With both Hulkling and Wiccan playing a major roll in Guardians now, this could be what that teaser was alluding to.

Guardians and S.W.O.R.D. have been building their own unique gravity for a while now, and in space, when two objects have gravity, there’s a pretty good chance they’ll crash into each other – or get sucked into the orbit of something even bigger,” Ewing told Marvel.com. “Marvel Space these days is a fragile coalition of worlds that chose peace over war, a little bubble of hope in a cruel void – but there’s an enemy nobody ever suspected readying an attack that’ll either cement all those frail alliances or tear them to pieces.”

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