Author: JK Parkin

Lore + Sposito team for the unsubtle werewolf story ‘Lunar Room’

Vault Comics will launch the new series in November.

Danny Lore (Queen of Bad Dreams) and Gio Sposito (Betty Page) will blend elements of science fiction, fantasy and horror in a new series, Lunar Room, coming from Vault Comics in November.

The two creators are joined by colorist DJ Chavis, letterer Andworld Design and designer Tim Daniel for the story of Cynthia “Sin” Breaker, whose resume includes former mob enforcer for a mage AND being a werewolf.

“Lunar Room started as a conversation with Tim Daniel about why I hadn’t done a werewolf comic,” Lore said. “That conversation created the seed of an idea—how would I get what I love about werewolves into a script that an artist could have fun with, rather than a more internal-sensation based tale. That, paired with the best advice I’ve ever been given (‘Be less subtle,’ as Adrian Wassel often reminds me!), gave way to Lunar Room. From the genre-mash up to the story structure (chapter-based but not reliant on the issue number) to the very names of our characters (Sin Breaker and Zac Zero!), this is me pushing myself to be wonderfully unsubtle in my style.”

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Hickman plans to leave X-Men after ‘Inferno’

The architect of the Krakoa era of the X-titles will move on to something new for Marvel after ‘Inferno.’

After relaunching the X-Men titles back in 2019 and writing some of the books over the course of the last two years, Jonathan Hickman told Entertainment Weekly that the upcoming Inferno will be his last X-book for now.

Hickman said that wasn’t his plan initially, but came about because of how well the current storyline has been received by the creators he’s been working with .

“Oh, plans have changed entirely,” Hickman told EW. “When I pitched the X-Men story I wanted to do, I pitched a very big, very broad, three-act, three-event narrative, the first of which was House of X. And while this loosely worked as a three-year plan, I told Marvel upfront that I honestly had no idea how long the first part would last because there were a lot of interesting ideas that I had seeded that other creators would want to play with, and so, we left this rather open-ended. I was also pretty clear with all the writers that came into the office what the initial, three-act plan was so no one would be surprised when it was time for the line to pivot.”

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Cantwell + Casalanguida create an ‘oddball love letter’ to Texas conspiracies

‘Regarding The Matter Of Oswald’s Body’ will feature a cast of crazy characters brought in to clean up ‘the crime of the century.’

BOOM! Studios has announced Regarding The Matter Of Oswald’s Body, a new “off-kilter crime thriller” built around the assassination of John F. Kennedy, by writer Christopher Cantwell and artist Luca Casalanguida.

“As a Dallas native and born obsessive, the Kennedy assassination and its infinite mysteries have often occupied my stray thoughts,” said Cantwell. “Regarding The Matter Of Oswald’s Body is both an oddball love letter and an offbeat elegy to the strangest, most wistful and ultimately tragic elements of the state of Texas, with a cast of characters you’ll love, love to hate and be sometimes hilariously confounded by.”

Cantwell and Casalanguida are joined by colorist Giada Marchisio and letterer AndWorld Design on the project.

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Tobin + MacDonald search for true love + kill monsters in ‘Croak’

The new title debuts from AfterShock Comics in November.

Paul Tobin and Andy MacDonald have a new comic called Croak coming from AfterShock in November that combines weaponized nightmares, monsters and … modern dating? Yeah, it’s an interesting, complicated mix, but it sounds pretty cool, as Tobin explains it:

“Croak is about finding monsters and true love, and learning to tell the difference. It’s a world where dream research has ripped a hole between realities, and now legions of legendary monsters stalk the lands. The only way these dream portals can be closed is if certain people quit having nightmares, if they find peace and lead character Risa needs…to fall in love,” Tobin said. “We’re talking TRUE love. Helping her (mostly) is Croak himself, a troll with (maybe) her best interests in mind, but he’s ALSO fond of how she finds and kills monsters, because Croak eats monsters, and he’s always ravenous. So Croak—the comic—is Risa’s story of trying to navigate a world that’s both full of monsters, and monstrously bad dates. She isn’t sure which she’d rather face.”

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Cates + Stegman plan to launch three comics on Substack

The two ‘King in Black’ creators launch Kids Love Chains Press on the email platform.

Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman are the latest creators to sign on for the Substack revolution, following James Tynion IV, Skottie Young, Chip Zdarsky, Molly Ostertag and others last week.

This morning the duo behind Venom and King in Black launched Kids Love Chains Press on the email newsletter platform and announced three comics they’ll share through Substack’s premium service. Cates and Stegman will work on the first title, Vanish, while Cates will write the other two with different artists attached.

Here’s the lowdown:

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DC, Webtoon partner to make webcomics

The partnership will bring popular DC characters to the webcomics juggernaut’s worldwide platform.

DC Comics and Webtoon have announced a partnership that will bring DC’s characters to the popular webcomics platform.

According to the press release, these will be “standalone series” that “will appeal to all fans, without the need to know or read any previous stories,” but they will be set in the DC Universe.

“DC is excited to introduce our iconic characters to a new generation of fans worldwide,” said DC General Manager Daniel Cherry III. “We’ve been working closely with the Webtoon writers and artists to adapt our characters and stories to Webtoon’s mobile format. Our shared goal is to create fun and compelling DC stories that all readers will enjoy. This partnership is yet another example of DC’s ambition to ‘meet fans where ever they are’ and continue sharing DC fandom. ”

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Can’t Wait for Comics | ‘The Trial of Magneto’ begins

New comics and graphic novels arrive this week from Peter Milligan, Piotr Kowalski, Simon Hanselmann, Leah Williams, Lucas Werneck, Roger Stern, Sal Buscema and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital this week.

Check out a few highlights below, or visit Diamond’s website for this week’s almost complete list of new comics arriving in stores. You can visit Lunar Distribution’s home page to see DC’s releases, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally.

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Marvel announces plans for milestone ‘Avengers’ #750

The oversized issue will include stories by Jason Aaron, Christopher Ruocchio, Steve McNiven, Carlos Pacheco and more.

Marvel is pulling out the stops on issue #750 of the Avengers, which arrives in November, as the 96-page issue will include multiple stories by current Avengers writer Jason Aaron and artists like Carlos Pacheco, Aaron Kuder, Ed McGuinness and Javier Garrón.

“It’s such an honor to be a part of issue #750 of Avengers, and I’m looking to celebrate the rich history of the title and its iconic characters by using this issue as the gargantuan-sized kick-off for a story that’ll be as wildly sweeping and swing-for-the-fences epic as it can possibly be,” Aaron told Marvel.com. “It’s not just that everything I’ve been doing in the last 50 issues of Avengers has been leading to this, but there are threads feeding into the next year’s worth of stories that stretch back to most every major series I’ve ever written in my 15 years at Marvel Comics.”

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‘Daredevil’ #36 marks the end of the current series — but Marvel promises more

Chip Zdarsky and Manuel Garcia will present an oversized final issue, while Marvel plans an announcement for Aug. 31.

Daredevil seems to bring the best out in its writers; from Frank Miller and Ann Nocenti to Ed Brubaker and Mark Waid, the title has enjoyed several epic, career-defining runs in its history. It’s really been no different for Chip Zdarsky, who has worked with artists like Marco Checchetto and Manuel Garcia to tear down Matt Murdock’s life, create a new one for Elektra and, of course, help the Kingpin find new love.

All that comes to a head in November’s oversized Daredevil #36, which Marvel says is the last issue of the current run, but not Zdarsky’s final issue of Daredevil.

“I know writers like to say things like, ‘It’s all been building toward this!!’ but, really, it has,” Zdarsky told Marvel.com. “When I sat down to write issue one, I knew that this issue was waiting and that it was going to drastically alter the lives of the Daredevil cast. Issue 36 is NOT an ending, it’s a beginning.”

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Bendis moves his Jinxworld titles to Dark Horse

The line of titles that includes ‘Pearl,’ ‘Cover’ and the upcoming ‘Joy Operations’ moves from DC to the Oregon-based publisher.

After stints at Image Comics, Marvel and DC Comics in recent years, Brian Michael Bendis’ Jinxworld line of creator-owned titles now has a new home at Dark Horse Comics.

The deal will include a new title, Joy Operations, which Bendis will write and artist Stephen Byrne (Wonder Twins) will draw. Many of the Jinxworld titles published by DC over the last few years, including Pearl and Cover, will also move to Dark Horse. THR said Bendis also has plans to release new editions of previous titles, like Powers, through the publisher. Bendis’ exclusive contract with DC, Jinxworld’s previous publisher, ended earlier this year.

“I am so proud to call Dark Horse Comics home! From Dark Horse Presents all the way up to Black Hammer, Dark Horse has been at the forefront of the kind of creator-owned comics I personally adore and aspire to. This partnership has been brewing for a very long time,” Bendis said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “Mike Richardson, Daniel Chabon and everyone else at Dark Horse has welcomed us with open arms and it’s very exciting to start rolling out our brand-new epics like Joy Operations and reintroduce you to some of our classic Jinxworld titles like Powers, Torso and Jinx. Any of my friends will tell you I wished those books were published by Dark Horse back when we first made them. To the future!”

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‘Darkhold’ continues in November with Wasp + Black Bolt

Jordie Bellaire, Claire Roe, Mark Russell and David Cutler will bring the next chapters in the event series to life.

Marvel has announced two more of the one-shots from their upcoming Darkhold event series, which features the infamous mystical tome causing problems for the Marvel Universe. Following the “Alpha” issue in September will be a series of one-shots featuring different characters “recruited to combat the Darkhold’s horrifying effects,” starting with Blade and Iron Man in September and Black Bolt and Wasp in October.

Colorist and writer Jordie Bellaire and artist Claire Roe are the creative team for Darkhold: Wasp, while Mark Russell teams with artist David Cutler on Darkhold: Black Bolt.

“As a writer, it’s a joy to get to write a character who spends even more time inside their own head than you do,” Russell said. “So Black Bolt is a writer’s dream character and when I heard which other creators were involved with the series, I was totally on board, like someone who’d unwittingly bought a house in a really great neighborhood.”

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Comics Lowdown | All hail the king as ‘King Spawn’ #1 sells nearly 500,000 copies

Spawn continues its big comeback with big numbers. Plus: news on censorship in Texas, Tim Drake’s big revelation, Kim Dwinell, ‘Chickaloonies’ and more.

Todd McFarlane’s Spawn is coming back in a big way this year, as the creator launches a universe of titles built around the character. Spawn’s Universe #1 set a sales record for the 21st Century for Image Comics, and it looks like the first issue of King Spawn has already broken it, with a reported 497,000 pre-orders.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, that puts King Spawn #1 in the same neighborhood as DC’s Action Comics No. 1,000, which has pre-orders of an estimated 504,000 copies, and Detective Comics No. 1,000 with its 574,705 copies. So it’s a respectable neighborhood.

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