Author: Corey Blake

‘Vader’s Castle’ strikes back: Cavan Scott revisits ‘Star Wars’ horror

The 5-issue mini-series will run weekly with art by Francesco Francavilla, Derek Charm, Robert Hack and more

Now an annual Halloween tradition reminiscent of the beloved Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror, IDW’s haunting look at Star Wars returns this September for the fourth year in a row. Get ready for zombie droids, giant Wookies and maybe Jedi ghosts that go bump in the night.

Writer Cavan Scott is back to helm the weekly mini-series Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts of Vader’s Castle with a murderer’s row of artists. Joining him will be artists Francesco Francavilla, Derek Charm, Megan Levens, Robert Hack, Chris Fenoglio and others, along with editor Heather Antos. Scott’s Star Wars bonafides run deep. He’s the author of the Star Wars: Adventures in Wild Space novels and one of the architects of Lucasfilm’s The High Republic publishing initiative.

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Tillie Walden, Mairghread Scott + others launch Skybound Comet imprint

The Young Adult and Middle Age graphic novels will get previews in ‘Skybound X’

Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment has announced plans for Skybound Comet, a new graphic novel imprint targeting Young Adult (ages 12+) and Middle Age (ages 8-12) readers. The line will launch next year with three original graphic novels by Tillie Walden, Irma Kniivila, Tri Vuong, Mairghread Scott, and Pablo Tunica.

Characters will first appear in next month’s 10-year anniversary anthology Skybound X.

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Don’t feel so loud: Milligan, Cantirino + Kelly scare up ‘Human Remains’

The horror/sci-fi series debuts in September

How good are you at hiding your emotions? In the world created by writer Peter Milligan, artist Sally Cantirino and colorist Dearbhla Kelly for Human Remains, you better be good at it or you’ll wind up dead. The aliens will find you if you feel too strongly.

Inspired by the isolation Milligan felt during quarantine from the COVID-19 pandemic, the series stars Dax and Bisa who must hide their love for each other if they want to live. Alien monsters roaming the earth hunt humans by sensing strong emotions.

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Crisis on Infinite Ponies: ‘Friendship’ Ends and ‘Generations’ Begins

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #102 concludes Season 10

Since 2012, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has been everyone’s favorite fantasy filly comic. But after nine years, the long-galloping series will make its final jump this September with issue 102 by Jeremy Whitley and Andy Price. Then in October, My Little Pony: Generations by Casey Gilly and Michela Cacciatore will feature the Friendship ponies teaming up with the original Ponies of the 1980s.

The finale to Friendship is Magic will feature the Mane 6 calling on friends to stop the Knights of Order from stealing the Elements of Harmony. The regular creative team of Whitley and Price will be joined by variant cover artists JustaSuta and Roopsha Mandal.

Then the five-issue mini-series, My Little Pony: Generations, will star the original iterations of the Ponies and the modern Ponies facing a new witch threat from the Volcano of Doom. The first issue will get variant covers as well, seen here, but artists weren’t initially identified.

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Lemire explores grief in ‘Mazebook’

The five-issue miniseries launches in September from Dark Horse

Sweet Tooth creator Jeff Lemire knows how to celebrate the day after Father’s Day, with the announcement of a heart-breaking tale called Mazebook about a father’s journey through grief over the death of his daughter.

Described as an “ambitious and haunting comic series about family, grief, and loss,” the five-issue mini-series will focus on a building inspector who becomes convinced his deceased daughter is trying to contact him. He uses an unfinished maze from her journal and a map of the city to make his way to a different reality and bring his daughter home.

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30 years of changing the world: Celebrating the anniversary of the New Warriors

Hear from writers, artists, editors and fans about the impact ‘New Warriors’ has had on them.

Special thanks to Doug Smith, who contributed additional reporting to this post.

Thirty years ago, comic shops were selling the first issue of a brand new comic book series starring a brand new Marvel Comics superhero team. The New Warriors starred a lineup of mostly forgotten and obscure characters by a creative team who had never launched an ongoing series before. Conventional wisdom at the time said the new series would fail. And yet, improbably, New Warriors not only survived, it thrived. At its peak, it was among the top 25 best-selling comics in North America and the United Kingdom.What was it about this underdog series that defied the odds?

Was it the characters? The book starred supporting characters like Namorita from Sub-Mariner and Marvel Boy from The Thing, and stars of previously cancelled comics like Nova and Speedball. Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief at the time, Tom DeFalco, assembled the team. He also included the abandoned co-star of the animated Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends TV show, Firestar, and a new character co-created with Thor artist Ron Frenz, Night Thrasher.

Was it the creators? Writer Fabian Nicieza inherited these characters and immediately embraced them as his own. The first two years of the book was tightly plotted out and featured sharp dialogue, humor, betrayal, adventure and surprise revelations. Artist Mark Bagley, initially inked by Al Williamson and later by Larry Mahlstedt, injected character-driven storytelling with fun action in every issue. After two years, Bagley was moved to Amazing Spider-Man and replaced with Darick Robertson, who brought his own dynamic and expressive storytelling visuals. Even 30 years later, the series is fondly remembered by fans and comic book professionals, even inspiring some of them to become professionals.

We reached out to a number of comic book writers, artists, retailers and others to hear in their own words what made the New Warriors so special to them. We also reached out to Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley, as well as the first editor on the series, Danny Fingeroth, and writer Evan Skolnick, who succeeded Nicieza as writer, to get their own thoughts on their time working on this secret classic.

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Binge-worthy Backlist Bonanza: Terry Moore’s ‘Strangers in Paradise’

Looking for something to read while stuck at home? The Smash Pages crew recommends a meet-up with ‘Strangers in Paradise.’

In the current climate, many industries are in a standstill as people isolate and wait out the coronavirus. The comics industry is no different, with Diamond Comic Distributors shutting down, leaving comic shops without a supply of new weekly comics.

With that in mind, we’ve introduced a new feature this week, Binge-worthy Backlist Bonzana. While new comics might not be arriving for a while, your local retailer, favorite online site, digital comics provider or even favorite creator can still supply older comics that you might not have read yet.

Today Corey Blake revisits old friends between the pages of Terry Moore’s Strangers in Paradise. Watch for more from the Smash Pages crew over the next days and weeks.

In this age of social distancing and isolation, there is a strong need to reconnect with old friends, fictional or otherwise. Cartoonist Terry Moore has an uncanny ability to create instant lifelong friends in his comics. His current project Five Years brings together characters from almost all of his previous comics into one storyline. As that series (and all comics) are forced into a pause, it’s a good opportunity to revisit old friends.

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Fresh Eyes on ‘Devil Dinosaur’ by Jack Kirby

In celebration of what would have been Jack Kirby’s 100th birthday, Corey Blake journeys into The Valley of Flame.

Fresh Eyes is a column reassessing milestone stories in comic book history from a modern perspective. Do they hold up, and how might they resonate with today’s readers?

Devil and Moon Boy take a rare break in Devil Dinosaur #1 by Jack Kirby and Mike Royer

In the late 1970s, Jack Kirby made a triumphant return to Marvel Comics. Among his mini-line of new ideas and character, there was Devil Dinosaur, a prehistoric adventure series about a mighty red T-Rex and his best friend, an early human named Moon Boy. In celebration of what would have been Jack Kirby’s 100th birthday, I sought out to read the comic series for the first time.

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Fresh Eyes on ‘Black Panther: Panther’s Rage’

Fresh Eyes is a new column reassessing milestone stories in comic book history from a modern perspective. Do they hold up, and how might they resonate with today’s readers?

Jungle Action #11 by McGregor, Graham and Janson

In the mid-1970s, the Black Panther starred in a sprawling 13-part epic called Panther’s Rage in the pages of Jungle Action by writer Don McGregor and artists Rich Buckler and Billy Graham. With promotion heating up for the 2018 Black Panther movie from Marvel Studios, it seemed like a good time to revisit this story. For me, it was the first time reading it.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Transience and forgotten memories

Do you remember yesterday? I often barely remember where I parked but I more or less know what I do day to day. In Transience, Leo Johnson and Ricardo Mo have assembled a collection of stories that build a world wrecked from amnesia.

In a unique science fiction premise, they’ve imagined a world where a series of biological attacks have left cities and towns around the world without the ability to form new memories. Each morning, people wake up with the previous day lost to them. Each story is set in a different city around the world where years have passed since the attack.

The creative teams tackling these stories often come from the location of their story, and make up an international team of collaborators that helped form this world.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Helm’s Hasan and Caballero break out with Eisner nomination

Last June, the high fantasy series Helm launched through Crookshaw Creative’s website. Less than a year later, it has been nominated for a prestigious Eisner Award in the digital comics category alongside industry luminaries such as Colleen Coover and Chris Roberson. (See the full list of Eisner nominations.)

Writer Jehanzeb Hasan and illustrator Mauricio Caballero’s enthusiasm for their work is infectious. We talked about creating a high fantasy world that mixes steampunk, the comic’s video game origins, the animation-style look and feel of Helm, and plans for a print edition. We also talked about coffee as inspiration and Scarlett Johansson.

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Ray-Anthony Height and Vito Delsante reunite for the return of Midnight Tiger

Announced at the recent Long Beach Comic-Con, artist Ray-Anthony Height and writer Vito Delsante revealed that the two will be teaming up to bring back Height’s superhero creation Midnight Tiger. The character’s comic book series was initially self-published before attracting the attention of Action Lab Entertainment, resulting in the publication of three issues in 2014.

Height and Delsante previously worked together on the Actionverse mini-series, which brought together a number of Action Lab’s creator-owned superhero series into one big collaborative story, including Height’s Midnight Tiger and Delsante’s Stray.

I reached out to both creators to find out more about the upcoming return of Midnight Tiger.

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