Comic Books – SMASH PAGES

IDW and DC announce Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III

James Tynion IV, Freddie Williams II, Kevin Eastman and Jeremy Colwell will work together on a story featuring Krang.

Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are practically old friends at this point, and they will meet up again this May in Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, courtesy of DC Comics and IDW Publishing.

James Tynion IV, Freddie Williams II and Jeremy Colwell will wrap up this final part of this crossover trilogy, with TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman doing variant covers and some “pivotal” interiors as well.

“I still remember the e-mail asking me if I wanted to write the first Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover,” said Tynion IV in a press release. “My brain couldn’t even process what I was reading for a few seconds, and I started having a panic attack about fitting it into my work schedule. Then, finally, I pictured Michelangelo’s reaction to seeing the T. rex in the Batcave for the first time and started laughing out loud.”

DC to debut new ¡Lucha Explosiva! figures at Toy Fair

Superman, Batman, Deathstroke and more will get a Mexican luchadores-style makeover in a new action figure line from DC Collectibles.

In what I can only describe as the perfect marriage of two things I love, DC Collectibles has revealed a new action figure line that re-imagines their characters as luchadores — mask-wearing wrestlers that hail from Mexico.

DC ¡Lucha Explosiva! is “a thrilling and imaginative new universe that blends the action-packed world of Lucha Libre with iconic DC characters.” The first wave of figures includes Batman, Deathstroke, Superman, Metallo II, Wonder Woman and the Cheetah, and they come out in August.

“DC Collectibles is always striving to bring fans imaginative new ways to extend and celebrate DC’s most iconic characters,” said Jim Fletcher, executive creative director of DC Collectibles, said in a press release. “DC ¡LUCHA EXPLOSIVA! is a passion project for us. We’re all huge fans of Lucha Libre, and merging Mexican Luchadores with superheroes seemed like a perfect fit. Besides obvious similarities like masks, capes and secret identities, we also think there is a huge crossover between fan bases.” Heck yeah there is!

Exclusive: Mack + Fegredo cover ‘Fight Club 3’ #5

David Mack and Duncan Fegredo set the stage for the latest chapter of Tyler Durden’s descent into fatherhood.

Chuck Palahniuk’s classic novel Fight Club has found new life in comics, and the mayhem caused by Tyler Durden continues to grow in its latest sequel, Fight Club 3. The first bonkers issue arrived in January, as the lead characters prepare for the arrival of Durden’s heir.

Issue #5 arrives in May from Dark Horse Comics, and we’re pleased to share your exclusive first look at the comics’ two covers, by the wonderful David Mack and Duncan Fegredo. Check them out below.

Fantagraphics to publish four Ungerer books starting this fall

“The Underground Sketchbook” gets a new printing this October.

Fantagraphics has announced plans to release four out-of-print Tomi Ungerer books — The Underground Sketchbook, The Party, Babylon and Adam and Eve.

While probably best known for his work on children’s books like The Three Robbers and Flat Stanley, the illustrator and author’s career also included advertising, protest art, erotica and “books for adults” before he passed away a week ago at the age of 87. The four books Fantagraphics will reprint fall into that latter category.

“While preparing for my career-spanning interview with Tomi Ungerer that appears in the new print edition of The Comics Journal, I was astonished to discover that many of his best satirical works were only available as used books at exorbitant prices,” said Fantagraphics Publisher Gary Groth in a press release. “In an attempt to right this wrong, I chose four of his books to reprint, all trenchant commentaries on the folly of our relationships and the absurdity of our social order.”

‘Love and Capes’ returns this summer

Thom Zahler’s rom-com comic returns for a fifth volume.

Thom Zahler produced four volumes of his charming Love and Capes series before seemingly sending Mark and Abby off for their happy ending. But now the creator has said on Twitter that he’s planning a fifth volume of the popular series, set to be released this summer.

Although there aren’t a lot of details just yet, he did share two pages of art and some promo art that revealed the subtitle of the new volume — Love and Capes: The Family Way.

‘Avengers Dismember’: Wolverine, Conan join the ‘Savage Avengers’

Gerry Duggan and Mike Deodato Jr. bring together Marvel’s ‘badasses’ this May.

A new “unsanctioned” group of Avengers will slice and dice their way into comics in May, as Marvel has announced Savage Avengers by the creative team of Gerry Duggan and Mike Deodato Jr.

The Savage Avengers’ members will include Conan, Wolverine, Venom, Elektra, Brother Voodoo and Punisher.

“It has to be something that visually makes sense to you, and I think it does,” Duggan, who is also writing Savage Sword of Conan for Marvel, told Entertainment Weekly. “Mike Deodato Jr. is illustrating this book in both worlds. We envisioned a threat, a magical green zone where the evil wizards of Conan’s world are trading spells with the Hand in Japan. Conan is on a very Conan-like mission; he’s heard a tale of an amulet so he’s chasing it, and the evil magic sorcerers are doing something that would be a Marvel Avengers problem. It feels like we have found some very fertile ground that is a Venn diagram between those two worlds.”

DC announces ‘Year of the Villain’ 25-cent comic

The almost-free comic arrives a few days before this year’s Free Comic Book Day.

Just prior to Free Comic Book Day, DC Comics will release a 25-cent DC Year of the Villain comic that spotlights several villains and sets the stage for future stories.

The book will include stories by Scott Snyder, Brian Michael Bendis, James Tynion IV, Jim Cheung, Francis Manapul and Alex Maleev, with a cover by Greg Capullo. Variant cover artists include Maleev and Cheung, as well as Stanley “Artgerm” Lau.

Smash Pages Q&A: Jerry Craft’s ‘New Kid’

The creator of ‘Mama’s Boyz’ talks about his new graphic novel, which just arrived in stores this month.

Jerry Craft has been working as a cartoonist for decades and is best known for his long running comic strip Mama’s Boyz, which he ended late last year. He co-wrote and illustrated the middle grade novel The Offenders, and illustrated numerous books including The Zero Degree Zombie Zone and Khalil’s Way. Craft is also a co-founder of the Black Comic Book Festival at the Schomburg Center, which held its fifth annual show last month. His new book is New Kid, which was just released by Harper Collins.

The semi-autobiographical book tells the story of Jordan, who is the new kid attending an elite private school. The book has a lot of dramatic moments, and as I spoke with Craft I mentioned how many moments resonated with me, but the book is also an incredibly funny and visually inventive story. The way that Craft is able to make the story dramatic and comedic and visually inventive is not surprising to anyone who had read Mama’s Boyz, but the way that the story of Jordan and his friends and family come together make this arguably his best work to date.

We spoke recently while he was in an airport to talk about the book.

Ferrier, Malhotra smuggle ‘Narcos’ into comics

IDW Publishing will publish a four-issue miniseries set in the Netflix show’s first season.

Netflix’s Narcos will make the jump from the streaming giant to comics this April, as IDW Publishing as announced plans to make a comic book based on the popular TV show.

Ryan Ferrier and Vic Malhotra have been enlisted to create a four-issue miniseries that “introduces new dangers for DEA agents Steve Murphy and Javier Peña to face, while at the same time, El Patrón must contend with a dangerous threat to his drug empire.”

“I’m thrilled to take fans new and old into a deeper, unseen story from the volatile, teeth-gritting world of Narcos,” Ferrier said in a press release. “I’m even more excited to bring this to life alongside Vic Malhotra, whose immense talent and style will show us a new side of Narcos — one with dangerously high stakes and a new, chaotic presence that will affect the DEA, the Cartels, Don Pablo himself, and all of Colombia.”

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