Author: JK Parkin

What’s scarier: demons or parenthood? IDW announces ‘Scarenthood’

Nick Roche, Chris O’Halleran and Shawn Lee kick off a new horror title in October.

Writer and artist Nick Roche is teaming up with colorist Chris O’Halloran and letterer Shawn Lee to bring some bumps in the night to the local neighborhood in Scarenthood, a four-issue miniseries debuting from IDW in October.

“My generation grew up in what seemed like a haunted Ireland: superstition still abounded, and everyone had seen moving holy statues, or lived near a stately home that had been burnt to the ground in a Satanic visitation, or knew someone who chopped down a Faerie bush and lived to regret it,” Roche said in the press release. “Scarenthood is about realizing that some of those horrors from childhood are real, but nothing is more terrifying than ruining your own kid’s life. Also: there are funny bits.”

On Twitter, Roche added: “… it’s about some parents who go ghosthunting while their kids are in preschool, but have to be back by lunchtime to collect them. It’s The Goonies, grown-up and with mortgages. Or: Catastrophe meets Stranger Things. In Ireland.”

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DC announces ‘Rorschach’ by Tom King + Jorge Fornés

The Black Label title featuring a character created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons will be set 35 years after the end of the ‘Watchmen’ maxiseries.

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen continues to be mined by DC Comics for story ideas some 30+ years after the 12-issue miniseries debuted. Although it enjoyed a long tenure as a “hands off” project while DC built its graphic novel business on its back, in recent years, post-Paul Levitz, the gloves have been off, starting with Before Watchmen in 2012 and the more recent Doomsday Clock, which brought the Watchmen characters into contact with the DC universe. These projects were done without the support or approval of Moore, who has “angrily” distanced himself from anything Watchmen due to his ownership dispute with DC (among other reasons).

Which brings us to today, in a world where Watchmen is not just a very well-regarded comic from the 1980s, but also a very well-regarded HBO show. DC has announced a new Rorschach 12-issue series by Tom King and Jorge Fornés that sounds like it has more in common with the TV show than the original comic.

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Cartoonists confront the pandemic for a good cause in ‘Pandemix’

Dean Haspiel and Whitney Matheson spearhead an anthology benefiting the Hero Initiative.

Dean Haspiel and a group of cartoonists have used their downtime during the pandemic to create an anthology for a good cause.

Pandemix: Quarantine Comics in the Age of ‘Rona is a benefit anthology that’s raising money for the Hero Initiative. Haspiel is editing the book along with Whitney Matheson (USA Today’s Pop Candy blog), as well as contributing a story that features his character The Red Hook.

“When COVID-19 sparked a global pandemic and national quarantines, I worried about my creative colleagues,” Haspiel said. “Many of us lost freelance work, and the comic book industry shuttered for a while. But I felt compelled to rally cartoonists to confront the pandemic and make art out of it. Art that can help comic creators in need.”

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Mega-super-hyper storyline

New comics and graphic novels arrive this week from Fred Van Lente, Ryan Dunlavey, Erik Larsen, Matt Fraction, Steve Lieber, Pat Grant and more.

It’s a big week for comics, with big debuts, big milestones and just overall BIG storylines, from Empyre to Death Metal to the 250th issue of Savage Dragon. It’s BIG!

But don’t let that scare you off; The Smash Pages crew is here to help you decide how much big is too big. If you’re wondering what to get this week, check out a few recommendations below.

You can check the Comic List page (now at a fancy new site!) to see what’s arriving in your local shop, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally. As always, you should check with your local shop on their hours, curbside pick-up and mask restrictions, due to COVID-19. Stay safe out there and enjoy some comics.

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Dark Horse sharpens its axe for ‘Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla’ miniseries

The prequel to the upcoming Ubisoft video game starts in October.

Dark Horse Comics has announced a new miniseries that will serve as a prequel to the upcoming video game Assassin’s Creed: Vahalla. Subtitled “Song of Glory,” the creative team includes writer Cavan Scott, artist Martin Tunica and colorist Michael Atiyeh.

This will be the first Assassin’s Creed comic from Dark Horse, although they’ve published plenty of video game tie-ins before. Previously the license was held by Titan.

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Callen channels classic comics art in his new T-shirt shop

Buy shirts featuring Spacehawk, Stardust, Fantomah and more.

MAD contributor and Dirtnap creator Kerry Callen has set up an online store where he’s selling T-shirts he’s designed — and he’s channeling some classic comics in doing so.

“I love reading old, public domain comics, and I often wish I had a cool shirt or two,” Callen said on his blog. “Not a mere old panel on product, but something actually DESIGNED. So, I decided to make a few myself and place them on TeePublic.”

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What Are You Reading? | Strange Academy, Green Lantern, Dryad and more

See what the Smash Pages crew has checked off their ‘to read’ list lately.

Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately.

Most of the comics in this edition came out this past week, so if you’re curious about new comics, we have some thoughts. Although a couple of older books managed to squeeze their way in between the Empyres and Green Lanterns.

Let us know what you read this week in the comments.

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Sunday Comics | Bite-sized science comics from TinyView

Check out recent comics from Andrew Neal, Gabrielle Bell, Gary Moloney and more.

Here’s a round up of some of the best comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

So have you checked out TinyView yet? TinyView is a “platform for bite-sized comics,” offering up content you can scroll through easily on your phone. It was founded/created by the father-and-son team of Rishi and Raj Lalwani, and so far it has offered up nonfiction content — including biographies of scientists, Malachi Ray Rempen’s travel comic and political cartoons by The Nib’s Matt Bors. There’s even a comic about the creation of the app.

Some of the content is free, while some is behind a paywall. Visit their website to learn more.

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Mail Call | Grifter coming to ‘Batman’ following the Joker War

Rounding up news from DC, IDW, Humble Bundle and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently. Hit the links for more information.

Trick or treat: DC Comics will release not one but two Halloween specials this October, the equivalent of getting a full-sized candy bar instead of those fun-sized ones.

The first one features Swamp Thing with stories by James Tynion IV, Tom King, Tradd Moore, Emma Rios and more. The second, titled DC: The Doomed and the Damned, will feature stories by Marv Wolfman, Ken Porter, John Arcudi, Saladin Ahmed, Riley Rossmo, Travis Moore and more. It’ll feature short stories starring Batman, Madame Xanadu, Man-Bat, Green Lantern, Etrigan and more.

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Fund Me Friday | Vipers, dragons, baboons … and lemonade

Check out new crowdfunding projects from Joe Glass, Cullen Bunn, Saladin Ahmed, Dave Acosta and more.

Crowdfunding continues to serve as a viable method for creators to fund their creative endeavors, as comic-related projects flourish on sites like Kickstarter, Patreon and IndieGoGo. The internet also allows creators to sell their creations direct to fans, through sites like Gumroad, Etsy and of course their own websites. If you’re looking to buy something from or support a creator directly, you’ve come to the right place. And that’s a good thing to do, now more than ever.

Send any suggestions of your own to jkparkin@yahoo.com.

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Oh, Knull: Venom takes the spotlight in December’s ‘King in Black’

Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman bring the god of the symbiotes to Earth for a showdown with the heroes of the Marvel universe.

Fans of Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman’s run on Venom have known that “Knull is coming” for quite sometime, and now Marvel has revealed when exactly he’ll arrive — in King in Black, which starts in December.

Knull — which means “Fuck” in Swedish — is the god of the symbiotes, and in King in Black, he’ll be taking on not just Venom, but the Avengers, the X-Men, the Hulk and more.

“As far as event books go, this is the coolest, darkest, most heavy metal, Cthulhu dark horror thing I’ve ever been able to do,” Cates said in an announcement video. “I still can’t believe that Marvel is letting us go as dark and scary as we’re going.”

You can watch the video below, featuring Cates and Stegman talking about the book.

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‘Virtually Yours’ by Holt + Beals arrives July 14 from comiXology Originals

The new graphic novel is a “rom-com for the digital age.’

ComiXology Originals has announced another new graphic novel that they plan to release July 14 — Virtually Yours, a “rom-com for the digital age” by writer Jeremy Holt and artist Elizabeth Beals, with lettering by Adam Wollet.

“If the quarantine has been an indicator, access to high-speed internet has become society’s lifeline. As connective as this new virtual landscape has and can be, it cannot replace the absence of interacting in a three-dimensional space,” Holt said in the press release. “Particularly when it comes to all stages of a romantic relationship. Virtually Yours focuses on one particular aspect, which is the notion that a simulated online connection can be equally as genuine as a random face-to-face one. In this day and age, I’d argue that they’ve become interchangeable. With the advent of robust chat software, online dating has evolved from simply facilitating an eventual in-person meet up to hosting dates in their entirety. This has dynamically altered our ideas, notions and expectations of courtship because the physicality component has been removed. Creative problem solving is the name of the game, and I for one support the notion of pioneering new and sustainable ways to be human.”

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