Author: JK Parkin

A sunflower-farmer death cult and serial killers inhabit the world of ‘Vinyl’

The new Image Comics miniseries by Doug Wagner, Daniel Hillyard and Dave Stewart debuts in June.

Doug Wagner and Daniel Hillyard, the creators of Plastic, are teaming up again on Vinyl, a new miniseries from Image Comics. They’ll be joined by colorist Dave Stewart for a comic about serial killers, death cults and friendship.

“This is all Daniel Hillyard’s fault,” said Wagner. “He asked if I thought we could create a story about serial killers, inhuman monsters and a cult of sunflower farmers all trapped together inside an underground bunker. I mean, you have to do that, right?”

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IDW celebrates Sonic’s 30th anniversary

IDW’s plans include an oversized special that will also come in a deluxe edition, as well as collections of previous Sonic comics.

IDW Publishing will celebrate the 30th anniversary of video game icon Sonic the Hedgehog with Sonic the Hedgehog 30th Anniversary Special, a super-sized 80-page comic book featuring stories by Gale Galligan (The Babysitters Club) and the McElroy Brothers (The Adventure Zone), along with longtime Sonic contributors Ian Flynn, Mauro Fonseca, Reggie Graham and more. The also plan to release a deluxe edition with additional content.

“We’re celebrating a major milestone for the world’s coolest hedgehog, so we needed creators who could capture the vibrant comedy and action of Sonic in style,” said IDW editor David Mariotte. “The 30th Anniversary Special features possibly the greatest creative lineup ever assembled on a single issue of Sonic!”

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Dark Horse puts a hit out on ‘Mafiosa’ in October

The story follows a mafia family’s youngest daughter and her quest to join the family business.

Dark Horse has announced they’ve acquired Mafiosa, the story of a mafia family’s youngest daughter deciding to join the family business. The comic, which started life on Kickstarter, will be published as a trade paperback in October.

The story was developed by Thomas Brooke of Portland’s Rainwerks Studio, and was created by Sunshine Barbito, Alessia Alfano, Débora Caritá, Ronda Pattison and Mariacristina Federica.

“What draws me into the world of organized crime is the juxtaposition of tradition, loyalty, hyper-morality, and what boils down to murderous greed,” Barbito said. “We wanted to take this familiar and popular storytelling genre; set in the roaring ’20s, but show you this world from a different perspective in order to create a dialogue. For me, this story is about desire and how it affects people once it takes over completely.”

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Joe Benitez’s ‘Lady Mechanika’ moves to Image

The character takes the spotlight in one of Image’s Free Comic Book Day offerings in August.

As revealed in the 2021 Free Comic Book Day offerings announcement, Joe Benitez’s steampunk comic Lady Mechanika is moving to Image Comics. The entire backlist of the comic will be reprinted by Image, with plans for a new series coming later this year.

“I’m very excited that Lady Mechanika is moving to Image!” said Benitez. “We hope this move will provide an opportunity to share the series with a new, wider audience, and also give us more time to focus on our creative strengths while letting the experts at Image handle publishing and marketing. We have so many stories to tell, hopefully this will help us get more of them out faster. The next story arc we’re calling ‘The Monster of the Ministry of Hell-th’ will deal with a piece of Lady Mechanika’s haunted past. Check out a preview of the new book in our FCBD issue!”

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2021 Free Comic Book Day will include 50 free comics

Silver titles for this year include Star Wars, The Boys, Sonic the Hedgehog, Avengers/Spider-Man and more.

Diamond has revealed the additional “silver level” titles that retailers can order for Free Comic Book Day this year, which will take place Aug. 14. With the gold titles that were announced yesterday, that brings the number to 50 titles.

The line-up of silver titles includes several recognizable names, including Star Wars, Zorro, The Boys, Judge Dredd, the Smurfs and R.L. Stine, just to name a few. No DC books are included on the list, though they have indicated plans to participate. Also, while Marvel hasn’t revealed much about the contents or even the covers for their gold and silver titles, they did reveal that the gold title will feature Hulk and Avengers, while the silver title will feature Spider-Man and Venom.

Here’s a look at all the silver titles:

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Van Lente + Parent team for Archie’s 80th anniversary one-shot

‘Everything’s Archie’ will present a new story in the classic Archie art style.

Archie Andrews celebrates his 80th anniversary this year, and Archie Comics will acknowledge the milestone with a new one-shot, Everything’s Archie. Fred Van Lente and longtime Archie artist Dan Parent will craft all-new story told in the traditional Archie Comics art-style.

The comic is the first in a series of classic-styled one-shots celebrating the anniversary.

“You can always tell a great franchise because it quickly and easily updates to any era, and bringing Archie, Betty, Veronica, Reggie and Jughead into our world of social media insanity and real life anxiety was…pretty effortless,” said Van Lente. “Turns out the Riverdale gang is your perfect guide to modern living, even if half the time they can’t figure it out for themselves!”

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Marvel announces ‘Marvel’s Voices: Pride’ #1

The anthology will feature new stories by Kieron Gillen, Olivier Coipel, Steve Orlando, Anthony Oliveira, Tini Howard, Vita Ayala, Kris Anka, Javier Garrón and more.

Marvel has announced their plans for Pride Month, which include a new issue of their Marvel Voices featuring their “first-ever queer-centered special spotlighting Marvel’s growing tapestry of LGBTQ+ characters.” They also plan to have a series of variant covers drawn by Phil Jimenez.

Contributors to the anthology issue include Allan Heinberg, Jim Cheung, Kieron Gillen, Olivier Coipel, Steve Orlando, Anthony Oliveira, Tini Howard, Vita Ayala, Kris Anka, Javier Garrón and Luciano Vecchio, who provides the issue’s cover.

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Star Wars, Blade Runner, InvestiGators among the 2021 Free Comic Book Day gold sponsor comics

This year’s Free Comic Book Day on Aug. 14 will include titles from Marvel, IDW, Dark Horse, Titan and more.

Diamond Comics Distributors has announced the 12 gold sponsor titles that retailers will offer on Free Comic Book Day this year. This year’s event will take place Aug. 14.

“This year’s lineup of titles has something for every kind of comic fan,” said Ashton Greenwood, Free Comic Book Day spokesperson. “We can’t wait to once again share the FCBD experience with fans, especially on our landmark 20th anniversary! We hope fans will safely visit their local comic shops to celebrate and to pick up a few of the great titles available this year.”

Missing from the list is DC Comics, who no longer use Diamond to distribute comics to U.S. retailers. DC has indicated their plans to participate, however.

The titles were curated by more than 20 comic shop retailers who make up the FCBD Selection Committee. The Gold Sponsor titles come from Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, IDW Publishing, Image Comics, Archie Comics, BOOM! Studios, Macmillan/First Second Books, Penguin Workshop, AfterShock Comics, Titan Comics, TOKYOPOP and VIZ Media.

This year’s gold sponsor books are:

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Victor Santos’ ‘Paranoia Killer’ launches at Panel Syndicate

Pay what you’d like for the new sci-fi thriller by the creator of ‘Polar.’

In celebration of its 8th anniversary, the digital comics site Panel Syndicate has launched a new comic by Polar creator Victor Santos. Paranoia Killer is described as “a thriller with elements of sci-fi about identity, divinity and the privatization of violence.”

“She is the reckless FBI Agent Nathalie Laertes. Her twin brother is the international hitman known as Delon Sombre. And now one must become the other. Princess Knight meets Philip K. Dick in this sci-fi crime thriller,” Santos posted on Twitter.

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Orphans, kaiju, cryptids and more

See what comics and graphic novels arrive this week in a comic shop near you.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide each week to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital. This week DC continues the rollout of their Infinite Frontier publishing initiative, while two Marvel books delayed by the pandemic finally arrive in comic shops.

Check out a few highlights below, or visit ComicList for this week’s full list of new comics arriving in stores, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally.

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‘The Magic Fish,’ ‘The Contradictions’ among the nominees for the 2021 Lambda Literary Awards

The annual awards recognize LGBTQ books, poetry, comics and more.

The nominees for the 33rd annual Lambda Literary Awards have been announced, celebrating “the very best in LGBTQ literature.” The awards include a “Comics” category, but graphic novels also found their way into other categories as well.

“By celebrating LGBTQ books, we celebrate LGBTQ life,” said Sue Landers, executive director of Lambda Literary. “As a community often under threat of legislative and actual violence, the Lammys offer a necessary space to come together in joy.”

Nominees in the “LGBTQ Comics” category include:

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What Are You Reading? | Where did the time go?

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 checking off their “to read” list lately. Let us know what you read this week in the comments or on social media.

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