Category: Comic Books

Smash Pages Q&A: Francis Manapul on ‘Clear’

The artist of ‘Flash,’ ‘Justice League’ and more discusses his new creator-owned title with writer Scott Snyder.

Francis Manapul has been drawing comics for more than 20 years now. He became an artist to watch while working on Top Cow comics like Witchblade before moving on to DC Comics. While there, he drew Legion of Super-Heroes, Detective Comics and Justice League, among other titles, but he might be best known for his work on The Flash, which he eventually wrote in addition to drawing it.

After years at DC, Manapul is collaborating with his former Justice League partner-in-crime, Scott Snyder, for a new creator-owned comic called Clear. It’s one of several titles written by Snyder as part of his deal with comiXology Originals, and the second issue became available on the digital comics platform yesterday. Snyder and Manapul are clearly having fun with the neo-noir science fiction environment they’ve created that’s a departure from the bright world of superheroes, as Snyder said in our interview with him that was posted yesterday.

“People think of [Manapul] as doing this bright vibrant exuberant superhero work with a lot of emotionality that has a light, painterly feel,” Snyder said. “With this he’s showing that he has this whole range that hasn’t been explored with darkness and nightmarish kinds of abilities that he didn’t get to do much in superheroes.”

I spoke with Manapul at length about the origins of Clear, the opportunities that working on a digital comic have given him and drawing on the styles of other artists to create the “skins” featured in the first issue.

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Synchronized swimming: Aquamen unite in a new series from DC

Jackson Hyde, Arthur Curry and the rest of the Aquaman family headline a new ongoing title by Chuck Brown, Brandon Thomas, Sami Basri and Adriano Lucas.

When Jackson Hyde took up the mantle of Aquaman in his new series, it begged the question, “So what’s going to happen to Arthur?” The answer: nothing; he’s still around, and in fact the old and new Aquaman will both star in the new title Aquamen.

Chuck Brown, Brandon Thomas, Sami Basri and Adriano Lucas will bring us new adventures of the underseas heroes, starting with a conspiracy involving an Atlantean suicide bomber in Middle America.

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Spurrier + Bergara reunite on ‘Step by Bloody Step’

The project is a co-production between Image Comics and Éditions Dupuis, and will arrive in both English and French next year.

Image Comics has announced Step By Bloody Step, a four-issue, “text free” miniseries by the team of Si Spurrier, Matías Bergara and Matheus Lopes.

The series is co-produced by Éditions Dupuis, which will release a French edition next summer titled Saison de Sang. Image decribes the story as “a bittersweet fantasy opus about a nameless child and her giant guardian.”

“My last collaboration with Matías Bergara, Coda, has picked up awards and nominations everywhere it’s gone. We knew our follow-up had to be even more ambitious. We set our sights on nothing less than a step-change in fantasy comics,” said Spurrier. “Step By Bloody Step resounds with all the elements I love most—magic, mystery, monstrosity and the bond between two lost souls—but above all it’s an opportunity for Bergara and Lopes to shatter your senses with peerless storytelling spectacle and raw emotion. Love, after all, transcends any mere language.” 

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Participation trophy: X-Men fan vote runner-ups assemble for ‘Secret X-Men’

The one-shot by Tini Howard and Francesco Mobili arrives next February.

Remember the fan vote Marvel held to see who the new member of the X-Men would be? Polaris went on to win, but all the losers runner ups are getting a chance at the spotlight in Secret X-Men.

The one-shot will feature Strong Guy, Forge, Tempo (our choice!), Boom-Boom, Marrow, Armor, Cannonball, Sunspot and Banshee teaming up for a secret mission, written by Tini Howard and drawn by Francesco Mobili.

“We had to do it, yeah? And I jumped at the chance to tell the story while I had the time,” Howard told Marvel.com. “Cannonball was my vote, and Strong Guy? Tempo? Boom-Boom? This is the perfect team for an intergalactic X-Men mission. I hope they didn’t forget anything important!”

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LSH’s Polar Boy returns in a festive frozen feature

For the first time since the Bendis reboot, classic Legionnaire reappears in DC’s holiday anthology ‘Tis the Season to be Freezin’.

Polar Boy is getting his own solo adventure and an updated look in DC’s 2021 holiday special ‘Tis the Season to be Freezin’ in a story called “Snow Date.”

Writer Richard Bernatovech and penciller Travis Mercer took to social media this weekend to give readers a sneak peak into the new Polar Boy. Mercer said in a tweet that his redesign is based on the esthetics already laid out by Brian Michael Bendis and Ryan Sook, but also adding some Korean Pop fashion influences.

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‘Devil’s Reign’ gets all sorts of crazy crossover titles in January + February

Moon Knight, Spider-Man, Emma Frost and more get caught up in the Kingpin’s war on superheroes.

Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto’s epic run on Daredevil will give way to a crossover event called Devil’s Reign in December, one of several “tentpole” events Marvel announced in August. And in the Mighty Marvel fashion, the main Devil’s Reign title will be accompanied by all sorts of tie-in titles in January, February and beyond.

In case you missed the news, Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto, the creative team for the ongoing Daredevil title, are also the creative team behind the crossover event’s main miniseries. It will run for six issues and will see the Kingpin “bring his full criminal and political power to bear on the super heroes who call NYC home.” Yep, NYC’s mayor is declaring war on the superhero community, and he’s got his new team of Thunderbolts on his side.

Let’s take a look at what’s coming in January and February …

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Ennis + Holden take flight in ‘The Lion & the Eagle’ next year

The war comic kicks off in February.

AfterShock Comics has announced a new prestige-format war comic coming from the team of Garth Ennis and PJ Holden next year.

The Lion and the Eagle will tell the story of the Chindits, a British special forces unit active in Burma during the Japanese occupation in 1944.

“The conflict between the British and Japanese in Burma is almost lost to history now; indeed, the British soldiers who fought there came to refer to themselves as The Forgotten Army,” Ennis said. “That’s partly what drew me to their story, a chance to keep alive the memories of the men who faced Imperial Japan. There’s also the political aspect, as the two warring nations find themselves fighting for possession of Burma and India, two countries who by and large would have preferred to have neither of these foreign powers on their soil.”

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Lemire + Sorrentino announce ‘The Bone Orchard Mythos’ for 2022

The ‘Gideon Falls’ creators will reunite for a new horror project next year from Image Comics.

On Halloween Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino announced their creepy new Image Comics project, The Bone Orchard Mythos, which will kick off in 2022.

The two creators took to social media to announce the new title with a short teaser trailer:

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A new Iron Fist will debut in February

A new character will inherit the mantle from a powerless Danny Rand.

Marvel has announced that Danny Rand, who lost his powers in the excellent Heart of the Dragon miniseries, will pass on the mantle of Iron Fist to a new hero next year.

Iron Fist by Alyssa Wong and Michael YG will debut in February, and the five-issue miniseries will show the “hero’s journey” of the new Iron Fist, whose idnetity Marvel is keeping under wraps.

“It’s an incredible honor to introduce a new Iron Fist to the Marvel Universe. I’m excited to delve into the comic’s rich mythos and build on it. What does it mean for someone to take up the mantle of the Iron Fist right now, today? As a newcomer, how does one interact with legacy, and how does one honor it while forging a new path?” Wong told Marvel.com.

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Percy + Smith are planning a new road trip for ‘Ghost Rider’

The new series launches in February.

Marvel has announced that Johnny Blaze will ride again as Ghost Rider in a new series by Benjamin Percy and Cory Smith.

“I’m a horror head. I grew up reading Stephen King, watching John Carpenter and listening to Black Sabbath, and when it came to comics, I always reached first for the dark and weird which means I read a hell of a lot of Ghost Rider. That flaming skull. That spiked leather jacket. That monstrous bike coughing out clouds of sulfurous exhaust. To this day, the sight of the character blazing along a midnight highway makes my heart rev like a four-stroke engine,” Percy told Marvel.com.

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Spider-Man goes from ‘Non-Stop’ to ‘Savage’ in a new miniseries

Joe Kelly and Gerardo Sandoval present a monstrous look at Spider-Man next year.

Joe Kelly and Chris Bachalo’s adrenaline-fueled Non-Stop Spider-Man ended up being, um, not so non-stop, as it ended on a bit of a cliffhanger. But now Marvel has revealed where you can read the next chapter — in the pages of Savage Spider-Man, a miniseries kicking off in February.

The series finds Peter Parker once again mutating into something more monstrous, in a story told by Kelly and artist Gerardo Sandoval.

“You may think you’ve seen a monstrous or vicious Spider-Man before, but never like this,” Spider-Man Editor Nick Lowe told Marvel.com. “This book is so intense that you’re going to need to put it down between pages to get your breath back.”

You’ve been warned! Make sure you’re hydrated as well before you start reading it as well, just in case..

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Allred + Milligan’s ‘X-Cellent’ debuts in February

The X-Statix team returns to the Marvel universe to confront a new team of mutants taking their spotlight.

The creative team behind one of Marvel’s most creative and fun comics from the early 2000s will reunite in February for The X-Cellent.

Writer Peter Milligan and artists Michael and Laura Allred, whose run on X-Force and X-Statix introduced us to Doop, Anarchist, Mister Sensitive, Vivisector, U-Go Girl, Dead Girl and many others (most of whom ended up dead), will return to Marvel for the new series.

“I’m thoroughly X-Statix to be working with Mike and Laura Allred again,” Milligan told Marvel.com. “And it’s been truly X-CELLENT to discover that we’ve lost none of our alchemical fizz in conjuring up this new comic, this new title, this new beginning: The X-Cellent!”

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