DC FanDome begins today at 10 a.m. Pacific

The event will stream live on DcFanDome.com and other WB social channels.

DC FanDome, the streaming event featuring all things DC superheroes that debuted in 2020, returns today with more teasers, previews, celebrities and more. You can watch it starting at 10 a.m. Pacific.

Last year’s event was very successful for Warner Bros., as they rolled out DC movie trailers, tidbits on TV shows and games, and some comics news. It came at just the right time, as the COVID pandemic continued to keep people from attending events and conventions.

While last year’s event occurred across two different days, this year’s event is slimmed down in comparison, with a single day of content — but it should still have plenty to offer. DC has trickled out a few announcements leading up to the event, and I’m sure you can expect to here more about the next Batman/Fortnite crossover, the Milestone Initiative and maybe something called Aquamen. Plus, the Rock!

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Walt Simonson, Jared Cullum win 2021 NCS Divisional Awards

French cartoonist Boulet received the Sergio Aragones International Award for Excellence in Comic Art.

This weekend is NCS Fest, the annual event hosted by the National Cartoonists Society that includes, among other activities, the NCS Divisional Awards and the annual presentation of the Reuben Award.

This year’s event is being streamed online, and the NCS has interspersed some of the awards presentations throughout the stream. Yesterday Hellboy artist Duncan Fegredo presented the award for best comic book, which went to Walt Simonson’s Ragnarok: The Breaking of Helheim. The comic is published by IDW, which also publishes the other two nominees in the category, Usagi Yojimbo and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Jennika.

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‘Batman/Fortnite: Foundation’ will include The Batman Who Laughs skin for Fortnite

Jim Lee shares more information on the next collaboration between DC and Epic Games.

The day before DC FanDome kicks off, Publisher and CCO Jim Lee took to YouTube to reveal more details about the upcoming Batman/Fortnite: Foundation one-shot that arrives Oct. 26.

The one-shot follows the fun Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point miniseries from earlier this year, which was written by Epic Games Chief Creative Officer Donald Mustard and comics writer Christos Gage. This time around, they’re being joined by Scott Snyder of Batman and Death Metal fame, along with artists Joshua Hixson and Roman Stevens.

And yes, like the previous miniseries, the one-shot will include a code for an in-game Fortnite item — a skin and loading screen for The Batman Who Laughs, a character Snyder knows quite well.

Here’s the video, which also features a guest appearance by Kevin Conroy voicing Batman:

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Howard + Leon take over ‘Catwoman’ with issue #39

Selina Kyle returns to Gotham City in January to do what she does best.

DC’s ongoing Catwoman title will see a change in its creative team this January, as writer Tini Howard, artist Nico Leon and colorist Jordie Bellaire take over the title with issue #39.

The new team will take Catwoman back to Gotham City, promising Catwoman will be “doing what she does best: stealing from crime bosses, and looking fine while doing it.”

“I don’t want to go too far into what we’re doing in the book yet – Selina and I agree that there’s nothing more tantalizing than a taste – but you should know that I came in with a lot of plans,” Howard said in her Substack newsletter. “I’m building to a Catwoman-centric tale the likes that Gotham has never seen. The shape of this story, what makes it required reading for Selina Kyle’s life all became so clear to me as a I worked on this. I’m standing on the shoulders of giants who told my favorite Catwoman tales like Brubaker, Cooke and Valentine, and I’m so grateful.“

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Comics Lowdown | Texas school reverses ‘New Kid’ ban

Plus: Penguin Classics to publish Marvel classics, Joe Ollmann’s ‘Fictional Father’ nominated for Governor General’s award, and more!

Cover of New Kid by Jerry Craft

School administrators in Katy, Texas, have returned Jerry Craft’s New Kid to library shelves and rescheduled a video visit from the creator, according to NBC News. The district pulled the book and canceled the visit after a parent started a petition claiming that New Kid espoused critical race theory. The district told NBC that it had “determined the appropriateness” of the book, which was the first graphic novel to be awarded the Newbery Medal. In a statement last week, Craft said his intention was simply to portray children of color in a realistic setting: “Books aimed at kids like me seemed to deal only with history or misery. That’s why it has always been important to me to show kids of color as just regular kids, and to create iconic African American characters like Jordan Banks from ‘New Kid.’ I hope that readers of all ages will see the kindness and understanding that my characters exhibit and emulate those feelings in their day-to-day lives.” However, parent Bonnie Anderson, who started the petition, disagreed, saying, “The books don’t come out and say we want white children to feel like oppressors, but that is absolutely what they will do.”

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DC announces ‘Justice League vs. Legion of Super-Heroes’

Brian Michael Bendis and Scott Godlewski will bring two of DC’s powerhouse teams together in an adventure that spans time.

Two eras of DC’s greatest superheroes will team up to face a “great darkness” in a new miniseries that begins in January.

Brian Michael Bendis and Scott Godlewski will bring together the Justice League and the Legion of Super-Heroes — two teams Bendis is very familiar with — in Justice League vs. Legion of Super-Heroes. But “vs.”? I thought they were teaming up?

The story involves “The Great Darkness,” according to DC, which seems to suggest this might have a tie to what I consider the greatest Legion of Super-Heroes story of all time, “The Great Darkness Saga.” So maybe can we expect an appearance by Darkseid as well.

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‘Batman: The Knight’ explores how Bruce Wayne became Batman

The new miniseries from Chip Zdarsky and Carmine Di Giandomenico will show Bruce Wayne’s journey to becoming the Dark Knight.

Chip Zdarsky and Carmine Di Giandomenico will flesh out the origin of Batman in a new 10-issue series, titled Batman: The Knight.

The series sounds like it follows in the footsteps of the film Batman Begins, which showed Bruce Wayne on the path that would chart the way to him becoming Batman.

“Over the years readers have seen glimpses of this period of his life, but never as its own story, as a proper volume that will, hopefully, stand the test of time on the shelf next to the great markers of his big ol’ bat-journey,” Zdarsky said in his newsletter.

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Comics Lowdown | Seuss settlement scotches mash-up

Plus: Politician under fire for threatening cartoonist, Al Plastino’s house is for sale, and more!

Dr. Seuss Enterprises and the creators of a Star Trek-themed parody of the perennial graduation gift Oh, the Places You’ll Go have settled out of court, and the news is not good for mash-up makers.

Johanna Draper Carlson has a quick summary, with links, at The Beat: Former Star Trek writer David Gerrold and artist Ty Templeton mashed up the Seuss book with Star Trek characters and themes to create Oh, the Places You’ll Boldly Go!, which was supposed to be published by ComicMix. The famously litigious Seuss estate sued on grounds of both trademark and copyright infringement; the courts dismissed the trademark case in 2017, and in 2019 a judge found the book was sufficiently “transformative” and met the conditions for fair use. The Seuss folks appealed, and the parties settled out of court this week.

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Marz + Lim surf back to the past for ‘Silver Surfer: Rebirth’

Thanos, the original Captain Marvel and the Reality Gem will play a part in the new story set in the 1990s era.

Ron Marz and Ron Lim, who navigated the Silver Surfer through the spaceways in the early 1990s, will return to that era for Silver Surfer: Rebirth.

Much like X-Men: Legends and Symbiote Spider-Man, Marz and Lim will tell a story set in the past, one featuring the Reality Gem, Thanos and the original Captain Marvel.

“Turns out you can go home again,” Marz told Marvel.com. “Silver Surfer with Ron Lim was literally my first job in comics. The first comic page I ever wrote was drawn by Ron when we were both kids. And now three decades later we get to go back there and slip right back into that same groove. It’s so great to be wielding the power cosmic again.” 

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Smash Pages Q&A: Mike Federali on ‘Felix the Cat’

The comics writer discusses his work on the upcoming series featuring the beloved character and his bag of tricks.

Mike Federali has worked as a convention organizer, art director, comic writer and executive producer, with a resume that includes Mystery Science Theater 3000, the upcoming Owl Girl with Craig Rousseau and Incredible Conventions, which puts on pop culture shows on the East Coast.

He’s also the co-writer of the upcoming Felix the Cat comic from Source Point Press. The publisher announced the new comic to great fan reaction in August; Federali will be joined by co-writer Bob Frantz, artist Tracy Yardley, colorist Matt Herms and letterer Dave Lentz.

I caught up with Federali on the new comic and what fans can expect from his interpretation of the wonderful, wonderful cat.

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Comics Lowdown | More ‘Gender Queer’ controversy

Plus: Tanzanian cartoonist arrested, NYCC manga news, and more!

Gender Queer Challenged and Defended: The Brevard, Florida, Public Schools have removed a book from the Melbourne High School public library because it contained “adult images that have no place in education.” While they did not name the book, Florida Today speculates that it was Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer, which was the subject of a recent discussion on a local Facebook page. Superintendent Mike Mullins said that “BPS staff immediately agreed that this book violates our guidelines and that it has no place in our school district,” and he added that he has instructed the staff to check that there are no other such books in the school libraries. Gender Queer was also removed from the Fairfax, Virginia, public school libraries, but local station WTOP reports that students have pushed back: Over 400 students from across the district have signed a letter protesting the removal of the book. And in Williamstown, Michigan, parents are objecting to their children getting library cards because the book is in the local public library, according to the Lansing CityPulse.

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Can’t Wait for Comics | ‘Immortal Hulk’ meets its end

New comics and graphic novels arrive this week from Al Ewing, Mattson Tomlin, Andrea Sorrentino, Ryan North, Guillermo Sanna, Hope Larson, Scott Snyder, Francis Manapul, Evan Shaner and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital this week.

Check out a few highlights below, or visit Diamond’s website for this week’s almost complete list of new comics arriving in stores. You can visit Lunar Distribution’s home page to see DC’s releases, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally.

I should also add that the list of what is actually arriving at your local shop can vary from what’s on anyone’s official website for a myriad of reasons — so always check with your comics retailer for the final word on availability

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