Chip Zdarsky will write + draw ‘Public Doman’ for his Substack newsletter

His collaboration with Kagan McLeod, ‘Kaptara,’ will also return as a digital comic.

Chip Zdarsky is the latest creator to sign on as a premium content provider for Substack. In what has been an eventful week for the email newsletter platform, Zdarsky joins Skottie Young, James Tynion IV, Saladin Ahmed and others in posting comics through their newsletters for those willing to pay.

“So, last year I finished illustrating Sex Criminals. It was bittersweet. The bitter was that I loved creating it and was sad to see it go,” Zdarsky wrote. “The sweet was that my hand was a mashed mess of mincemeat from drawing and colouring 31 issues of a book and it was nice to kick back and relax and instead write 13 books for Marvel and DC. But then I had an idea. And now, like an absolute moron, I’m destroying my hand again.”

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Skottie Young will bring back ‘I Hate Fairyland’ in his Substack newsletter

The creator moves his newsletter to a premium model, offering new comics, behind-the-scenes information and more.

Although he wasn’t mentioned in the initial announcement, Skottie Young (Rocket Raccoon, Strange Academy, Middlewest) has announced he’ll move his Substack newsletter to a subscription model and will use it to share new comics content — including new I Hate Fairyland.

Young joins James Tynion IV, Jonathan Hickman, Molly Ostertag and others in using the Substack platform to share and sell new comics content.

“This is no longer just a ‘Newsletter.’ It’s a Creative Platform,” Young said in his newsletter today. “A place to explore new ideas, stories, products to share with you instantly.”

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Ahmed + Acosta team for ‘TerrorWar’ this fall through Substack

Following yesterday’s big Substack announcement, the writer reveals more details about his first comic through his Copper Bottle newsletter.

Following yesterday’s news that several comic creators would begin publishing their comics through their Substack newsletters, Saladin Ahmed has revealed more details about his first comic that’ll be available on the platform.

Note that there are still a lot of questions about how these new Substack comics will work — what’s the format? Are pages going to be embedded into an email, sent as a PDF or what? What am I getting for my (in Ahmed’s case) $6 a month? Ahmed promises to post an FAQ about the “nuts and bolts” of the subscription he’s offering, but in his latest email he talks specifically about TerrorWar, his newsletter comic.

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Substack moves into comics with Tynion IV, Hickman, Ahmed + more

The email newsletter platform makes a big leap into digital comics this week with a deal that could ‘redefine the next few decades of our industry,’ according to James Tynion IV.

News broke today that several comics creators will begin publishing comics via Substack, the email newsletter platform that’s been making a concentrated push to recruit content creators of all sorts to its subscription-model service.

According to the New York Times, Jonathan Hickman, James Tynion IV, Saladin Ahmed, Molly Ostertag and Scott Snyder will publish new comic book stories, essays and how-to guides on the platform. Several of these creators already have existing newsletters on Substack, but starting today they’ll offer a paid option that will give you access to future creator-owned comics. Others, like Ostertag, launched their newsletter today.

As The Beat reported a couple of months ago, former Amazing Spider-Man writer Nick Spencer is involved, serving as a liaison between the creators and Substack. The creators will be paid by Substack, who will keep any revenue for the first year, and only 10 percent after that. According to Tynion, his deal is the kind “I was dreaming would fall out of the sky and into my lap,” he said in his Tiny Onion newsletter today.

“I think this is the best deal for creators the comics industry has ever seen, and with some ambition and some ingenuity, I think this deal, and deals like it, are going to redefine the next few decades of our industry,” Tynion said.

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Several of Kurt Busiek’s creator-owned series are coming to digital

‘Astro City,’ ‘Arrowsmith,’ ‘Shockrockets’ and more are coming to comiXology Aug. 4, courtesy of Image Comics.

Several comic series written by Kurt Busiek over the last few decades are coming to digital courtesy of Image Comics, including collaborations with Stuart Immonen, Brent Anderson, Carlos Pacheco and more.

The titles will be added to comiXology on Aug. 4, followed by Apple Books and Google Play at a later date.

“I’m thrilled to be consolidating my creator-owned books at Image,” said Busiek. “Readers have been asking us to make these stories available again, so we’re glad to have them all together at last, and in great company with the rest of the Image line. This is just the beginning, too—there’ll be new material coming as well, but that’ll be another announcement for another day.”

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‘Afterlift’ team reunites for ‘The All-Nighter’

Chip Zdarsky, Jason Loo and the rest of the award-winning team will work with comiXology Originals again on a new series about vampire superheroes.

The award-winning creative team behind comiXology Original’s Afterlift reunite next year for The All-Nighter, a new series about vampires who decide to become superheroes.

Writer Chip Zdarsky, artist Jason Loo, colorist Paris Alleyne, letterer Aditya Bidikar and editor Alison O’Toole will tackle this superhero/horror mash-up.

“Working on Afterlift was an amazing experience, especially getting to see the beautiful pages coming in from Jason, Paris and Aditya,” said Zdarsky. “I knew I wanted to work with them again immediately, and I’m super grateful that we have the chance with The All-Nighter! It’s a ton of fun and I hope everyone loves it as much as I do!”

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Brubaker, Martín + Vicente’s ‘Friday’ is coming to print

Image Comics will bring the digital series to a comic shop near you in November.

Ed Brubaker, Marcos Martín and Muntsa Vicente’s critically acclaimed, awardnominated digital comic Friday is coming to print, courtesy of Image Comics.

Friday is available digitally from Panel Syndicate using the site’s “pay what you want” model. The comic debuted last year close to the beginning of the pandemic, when Diamond Comics Distributor was shut down and new comic books were not arriving in comic book stores. Three chapters have been published so far.

“I’m so excited to finally see Friday in print. This is one of my career-favorite projects, and every chapter that Marcos draws ups his game to an unbelievable level,” said Brubaker. “I’ve never really done anything like this book before, a post-YA coming of age story with that beautiful mid-70s era look, and watching Marcos and Muntsa bring the town of Kings Hill to life has been astonishing. I can’t wait for a whole new audience to discover Friday Fitzhugh and her terrible Christmas.” 

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‘Snow Angels’ returns from comiXology this Tuesday

Jeff Lemire and Jock return to the ice-covered world explored in the first four issues.

Snow Angels, the excellent comiXology Originals series by Jeff Lemire and Jock about a world covered in ice that came out earlier this year, will return this Tuesday for its “second season.”

On the ice-covered world that serves as the setting of Snow Angels, all the people live inside The Trench, which seems to stretch forever across the world. They live by three rules:

1. YOU MUST NEVER LEAVE THE TRENCH.
2. THE TRENCH PROVIDES.
3. THE TRENCH IS ENDLESS.

They have not only the cold to deal with, but also a legendary monster called The Snowman. The heart of the first arc, though, was the relationship between the three main characters — a father and his two daughters, Milliken and Mae. Also, those three rules? Think of them more as guidelines

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‘Blackhand Ironhead’ returns for a second season

David Lopez’s digital comic returns at Panel Syndicate today.

David Lopez‘s Blackhand Ironhead returns for a second season today at Panel Syndicate, the digital comics website founded by Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente. It’s available for download in Panel Syndicate’s traditional “choose your own price” model.

Lopez writes and draws the comic, while Kike J. Diaz provides the colors.

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comiXology Originals announces ‘Hailstone’

Rafael Scavone and Rafael de Latorre head to a winter-ravaged Montana for a new horror title.

comiXology Originals and Stout Club Entertainment are teaming up again for Hailstone, a “horror thriller set during the U.S. Civil War,” by Rafael Scavone, Rafael de Latorre, Wesllei Manoel, Bernardo Brice and Bis Stringer Horne.

This is the second comic in a five-title deal between comiXology and Stout Club, following last year’s Funny Creek.

Hailstone presents a story of mystery, mixed with historical, horror and supernatural elements, all seasoned with good old western action,” Scavone said. “If I had to pick only one genre to define it, I’d definitely go for weird-fiction. The characters range from a traumatized Sheriff, unable to help his people, to an arrogant army officer running a military factory in a remote town. Art-wise Rafael de Latorre gave it a beautiful but uneasy atmosphere, his work is a perfect match for the story. The moody ambience he created grows denser as the story goes on poking the characters’ fears with it. All of these elements allowed us to play with sequences and pacing. We hope the readers dig it as much as we did while creating this comic.”

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comiXology Originals announces three projects with Curt Pires

The digital comics imprint announces ‘Youth Season Two,’ ‘Lost Falls’ and ‘Memoria.’

With Youth Season One set to arrive in print this week from Dark Horse Comics, comiXology Originals has announced three new series with writer Curt Pires, including a second season of Youth that will debut on Tuesday.

They also announced two additional series Pires is writing: Lost Falls and Memoria.

“I’m very excited to finally pull back the curtain and unveil these projects we’ve spent the last year in the trenches working on,” said Pires. “With Youth Season Two, Lost Falls and Memoria, I issued a challenge to myself and my teams to make the greatest comics we could—comics that rival the greatest comics published anywhere by anyone in any format—and I’m excited to unveil the results of our labor. These books represent what I believe to be the future of comics: bold innovative genre storytelling that’s representative of our diverse and expansive modern world. I hope you’ll come along for the ride.”

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ComiXology Originals’ ‘The Final Girls’ will drop March 30

Cara Ellison and Sally Cantirino explore the world of ex-work-for-hire superheroes in the five-issue miniseries.

ComiXology Originals has announced a new digital miniseries, The Final Girls, by writer Cara Ellison, artist Sally Cantirino, colorist Gab Contreras and letterer Joamette Gil. The new series is described as a “darkly comedic superhero drama,” where a group of former work-for-hire superheroes navigate through the fallout and harm caused by their superhero colleagues.

ComiXology will release all five issues of the miniseries on March 30.

“Inside every superhuman, there’s still a human,” said Ellison. “And the human needs to eat, pay the bills, have relationships and send invoices. But what happens when superhumans realize that all the fragile systems of society and economy and politics are going to kill them, just like everyone else? What use is smashing someone through a window when the system that created them still exists?”

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