Smash Pages Q&A: Marcus Kwame Anderson

The artist of ‘Snow Daze’ and ‘Cash and Carrie’ discusses his latest graphic novel, ‘The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History.’

Marcus Kwame Anderson is the artist behind The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History. Along with writer David F. Walker, Anderson tackles an immense complicated subject, a story that isn’t just a historical topic, but remains very contemporary.

The research required to even start such a project and the skill with which Anderson is able to play with page design and layout is striking. He has an incredible eye and a visual sense that is playful, even though he’s addressing topics that are difficult. Anderson is best known as the artist behind comics like Snow Daze and Cash and Carrie, but with this book his work has reached a new level.

We had the opportunity to speak recently about what the project required and what he took away from the experience.

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Shazam! spins out of ‘Teen Titans Academy’ into a new miniseries

Tim Sheridan, Clayton Henry and Marcelo Maiolo present a new story about Billy Batson.

Tim Sheridan, writer of Teen Titans Academy, will team with Clayton Henry and Marcelo Maiolo for a new miniseries starring the World’s Mightiest Mortal, Shazam!

Shazam!, aka Billy Batson, is currently appearing in Teen Titans Academy as one of the students being taught by Nightwing and company. You might remember from the previous Shazam! series, by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, (or if you saw the film) that Shazam!’s foster siblings also gained the power of Shazam! Apparently they’ve all lost their powers, though, and Billy’s powers have become unreliable — which is what led him to Titans Island in the first place.

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AfterShock will unleash ‘Clans of Belari’ in July

TV writers Rob and Peter Blackie team up with artist Daniel Maine for the new science fiction series.

Rob and Peter Blackie, the creators of the TV series Frontier, are teaming up with artist Daniel Maine for a new science fiction comic titled Clans of Belari.

Set in the Belari system, “an isolated, feudal dystopia located in the farthest reaches of the galaxy,” the comic will feature a girl named Te’a, and her adoptive father “Gummy,” as they unite the system’s clans against an alien threat.

“For a long time, we have been interested in a sci-fi story that imagines what life could be like for a human establishment on a distant planet facing similar struggles as we face on the Earth today,” Rob Blackie said. “As soon as we travelled across the galaxy, so to speak, it opens up the fantastical and what we sometimes call ‘space magic’ of the genre. That is just exciting and fertile territory for exploring character and story.”

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Bunn + Leiz team for ‘The Last Book You’ll Ever Read’

The new horror title from Vault Comics arrives in July. Read at your own risk.

Cullen Bunn and Leila Leiz have a new title coming out in July from Vault Comics, but based on the title, we’d recommend you read it at your own risk: The Last Book You’ll Ever Read.

Joining them are colorist Giada Marchisio, letterer Jim Campbell and designer Tim Daniel. It’s about a woman who writes a book that brings about the collapse of society as we know it.  

“With this story, I’m exploring some concepts and themes that really trouble and frighten me,” Bunn said. “This is a story of fantasy and supernatural horror, but the themes and concepts haunt me like a ghost in the dark. The Last Book You’ll Ever Read is about the collapse of society, about the descent or de-evolution of mankind. The book referenced in the title is the Bible of this massive shift. In ourselves. In our friends and neighbors. In our culture. In the world around us. Reality itself is becoming more fierce and wild, and it is taking us with it. Is the ‘last book’ sort of a doctrine to what is coming? Is it somehow bringing about this cataclysmic reckoning? Not even the author of the book, Olivia Kade, seems to know. She knows only that the people around her want her dead because of the words she’s written. She hires a security consultant, Connor Wilson, to protect her. In order to protect him, she asks that he never reads her work. From that moment forward, the fates of Olivia and Connor are intertwined. And they are facing a horror of unbelievable proportions. This isn’t a story about the end times. It’s about a new beginning that is violent and terrifying.”

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#Bwahaha: Blue Beetle + Booster Gold take on social media in new miniseries

‘Blue & Gold’ by Dan Jurgens and Ryan Sook will go online in July.

Get ready, internets — Blue Beetle and Booster Gold are coming for you.

DC has announced that the duo will get an eight-issue miniseries this summer from the team of Dan Jurgens and Ryan Sook.

Blue & Gold, based on the description, returns the team to their more comical roots, as Booster Gold enlists Blue Beetle’s aid in becoming a social media star.

“To be clear, this is the third, maybe even fourth time this project has been on my board, the first in ’88 or ’89,” Jurgens said on Twitter. “Nice to have it become a reality and even better to have the incredible Ryan Sook drawing it. So good!”

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The Superman family of titles expands in July

Tom Taylor, John Timms, Grant Morrison, Mikel Janin and more tell new tales of the Man of Steel, the Woman of Tomorrow and the Son of Kal-El.

DC Comics has announces several changes to its Superman titles for this July, including the launch of three new titles.

Launching in July will be:

  • Superman: Son of Kal-El by Tom Taylor and John Timms, focusing on Jon Kent. It replaces the regular Superman title.
  • Superman and the Authority, a new miniseries by Grant Morrison and Mikel Janin.
  • The previously announced Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow miniseries by Tom King and Bilquis Evely.

Here’s a rundown of the new titles + storylines from DC:

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