Top Cow announces ‘Helm Greycastle’ by Barajas + Handoko + Valenza

New miniseries combines high fantasy with Aztec myths.

Henry Barajas, Rahmat M. Handoko and Bryan Valenza are teaming up on a new comic that combines high fantasy with Aztec mythology. Helm Greycastle — both the title of the miniseries coming from Top Cow and the name of the main character — is both an ode to J. R. R. Tolkien and Dungeons and Dragons, and an opportunity for the creative team to showcase Mesoamerican history.

“What if the Aztec Empire defeated the Spanish Conquistadors? As a Mexican-American who has had no formal education on my indigenous background, writing this book has been very empowering,” said Barajas. “I’m excited to share some Mesoamerican history while mixing it with swords and sorcery.”

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The State of Future State, Part 2

JK, Shane and Tom continue their look at DC’s Future State titles, this time around focusing on ‘Justice League,’ ‘Green Lantern,’ ‘Harley Quinn’ and ‘Swamp Thing.’

Following part one from earlier this week, Shane Bailey, Tom Bondurant and I are back to talk more about of DC’s Future State comics, roundtable style.

This time around, Shane and I finish off week one by discussing Harley Quinn and Swamp Thing, and then Tom rejoins us as we jump into week two’s Superman of Metropolis and Green Lantern.

As always, the timeline DC provided helps put these stories into context:

So let’s get to it …

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BOOM! Studios acquires the license for ‘Magic: The Gathering’ comics

Jed MacKay, Ig Guara, Arianna Consonni and Ed Dukeshire team up for ‘Magic,’ which debuts in April.

BOOM! Studios has announced that they’ve acquired the rights to publish comics based on Magic: The Gathering, the popular card game made by Wizards of the Coast. They plan to start publishing Magic: The Gathering comics in April with, appropriately, a comic called Magic.

Writer Jed MacKay, artist Ig Guara, colorist Arianna Consonni and letterer Ed Dukeshire are the creative team for Magic, which will feature names and concepts that most Magic: The Gathering fans will recognize.

“Magic: The Gathering is more than a game—it’s a rich, expansive multiverse and mythology you can really live in and spend an infinite amount of time traversing. This all-new and unique story we’re launching into is full of beloved characters and shocking reveals from the world of Magic that are going to entertain readers new to the brand and surprise lifelong fans in the best possible ways,” said Bryce Carlson, Vice President, Editorial & Creative Strategy, BOOM! Studios. “Jed, Ig, Arianna, Ed, all of our incredible cover artists, and the entire team at BOOM! Studios are firing on all cylinders so I can confidently say that this is far and away the best Magic: The Gathering has ever been executed in the comics medium. Period.”

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Transformers, My Little Pony will cross over again in April

The Autobots and Decepticons will revisit Equestria in the four-issue series.

Two of Hasbro’s properties will collide again in My Little Pony / Transformers II, a four-issue miniseries launching in April from IDW Publishing.

The creative team for the first issue includes writers James Asmus and Sam Maggs, and artists Jack Lawrence and Casey W. Coller. Ian Flynn, Priscilla Tramontano and Tony Fleecs will also contribute to the series.

“I can’t wait to jump back into this world of magical friendships that really is More than Meets the Eye,” said Maggs. “It’s such a blast coming up with the most fun (and downright weird) pairings of ponies and ‘bots, and I think fans of both series are going to be surprised at what’s we’ve got for them this second time around!”

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DC announces more issues of ‘Represent!’

Jesse Holland, Doug Braithwaite and more will contribute stories to the anthology series.

DC’s Represent!, a digital-first series that debuted last fall with a story about Christian Cooper’s encounter with a racist dog owner in Central Park, will return in February with five weekly issues.

DC created the series to “showcase and introduce creators traditionally underrepresented in the mainstream comic book medium.” They also offer non-fiction/slice of life stories versus the traditional superheroes you might expect from the publisher.

“Represent! is the kind of innovative and personal storytelling I’ve always believed in,” said Marie Javins, DC editor-in-chief. “Throughout history, stories have been catalysts to expand hearts, minds and culture; having the chance to do so with this group of talented writers and artists has been invigorating and has been embraced throughout DC.”

Each issue will cost 99 cents and will be released on Mondays on comiXology and DC’s other digital platforms beginning Feb. 1.

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Fantagraphics to publish Ed Piskor’s ‘Red Room’

The comic series will be 12 issues of ‘subversive, stand alone stories that are all part of a larger, twisted narrative.’

Hip Hop Family Tree creator Ed Piskor will debut his first creator-owned, shared universe in a new comic, Red Room, which debuts in May from Fantagraphics.

“Red Room is a cyberpunk, outlaw, splatterpunk comic that you can’t unsee once you feast your eyes on the mayhem,” said Piskor in a press release. “Think of Red Room as modern day E.C. Comics, infused with the dream of Black Mirror. These are subversive, stand alone stories that are all part of a larger, twisted narrative.”

Piskor has been sharing pages from the new project on his Patreon, where he describes it as an “epic in the funnybook tradition of Faust, The Crow and other comics that make parents nervous.“

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Dark Horse announces ‘Jenny Zero’ for April

The ‘hard-drinking, hard-partying’ daughter of a superhero goes monster-hunting in April.

Dave Dwonch, Brockton McKinney, Magenta King and Megan Huang are teaming up on Jenny Zero, a new series about the ‘celebutante’ daughter of a superhero who tries to give up the party lifestyle to become a superhero herself.

“When Dave and I started working on Jenny Zero we wanted to get back to the idea of making ‘fun comic books’ simply for fun’s sake,” said McKinney, who is co-writing the comic with Dwonch. “And the end product, the idea of an ass-kicking lush who hunts monsters, most certainly is. But as we worked, and as series artist Magenta King began to bring Jenny and her world to life, it also took on the themes of self-responsibility, parental contrition, and the idea that no one but yourself can define who you are. All that, set against the backdrop of off-the-wall characters and otherworldly creatures. But yeah, in the end, it’s still very much about getting a good buzz on and going monster-hunting.”

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New ‘Beasts of Burden’ miniseries tells a story from the past

‘Beasts of Burden: Occupied Territory’ heads to post-WW2 Japan in April.

The Eisner-winning Beasts of Burden returns in April with a new miniseries, Beasts of Burden: Occupied Territory.

Writers Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer tell a story set in post-World War II, as a member of the Wise Dogs must deal with a curse that creates an army of crawling heads. They’re joined by artist Benjamin Dewey and letterer Nate Piekos, while series co-creator Jill Thompson will provide a variant cover for issue #4.

“I’m very excited to have a new Beasts of Burden story for the fans and I’m extremely happy with the way everything came together working with Sarah, Benjamin and Nate,” Dorkin said. “Why post-war Japan? I used to half-jokingly ask editor Daniel Chabon if we could have his Shiba Inu, Zell. He said we should have a Shiba in the series, instead. One thing led to another, one idea led to three more, and that’s where our latest story of dogs fighting supernatural evil ended up.”

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Forward into the Past: Marvel solicitations for April 2021

Carla Hoffman dives deep into what to expect from Marvel in April.

Let’s take a moment, Dear Reader, to look forward to the future.  I know, it’s been a while since we’ve indulged in this sort of thing, the idea that the next few months could be predictable enough to make plans accordingly, rather than surviving by the seat of our pants.  But just in case the aliens don’t land, wild boars don’t mutate and dominate the East Coast, or that the comics publishing business won’t go belly up in a matter of weeks and lock down all new content from our humble shelves, let’s look forward into the past at the solicitations of April 2021 from Marvel Comics.

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Zdarsky + Ferry cast a ‘Spider’s Shadow’ in April

The What If?-style story examines what might have happened if Peter Parker kept his symbiote suit.

Chip Zdarsky, Pasqual Ferry and Matt Hollingsworth will explore a “What If?” style universe where Peter Parker not only kept the symbiote suit he found on an alien world in the original Secret Wars, but he also embraced its darkness.

Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow will tell a darker Spider-Man story in April.

“I’m thrilled to be kicking off a new era of What If? stories with this tale of a Spider-Man gone bad! How bad will he be? Will he have a goatee and no hyphen in his name? Pick up issue one to find out! But seriously, I feel that with Spider’s Shadow we’re exploring some dark situations with Spidey and the Marvel Universe, while making it cool and fun to read. I think longtime fans will love it and new readers will be amazed at what Marvel lets us do,” Zdarsky told Marvel.com. “Pasqual and Matt are producing amazing work on this book. When every page comes in, I share them with all of my friends even though Marvel says I’m not allowed to do that.”

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The State of Future State, Part 1

JK, Shane and Tom take a look at DC’s Future State titles, starting with ‘The Next Batman,’ ‘Superman of Metropolis,’ ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Flash.’

DC officially kicked off Future State earlier this month, and the comics we’ve seen give a rough — emphasis on “rough” for some heroes — idea of what possible futures look like for their characters. This line-wide event, or publishing initiative, or whatever we want to call it, will go on through February and has replaced their regular titles until March.

With the event now in full gear, Shane Bailey, Tom Bondurant and I decided to discuss each one, roundtable style. Also, since the titles are all set at different times — some are just a few years into the future, while others jump forward thousands of years — I thought it might help to share this timeline of when each one is set:

I know it has helped us as we’ve been reading them.

So let’s get started …

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DC Universe Infinite launches this week

The service eliminates some features as it focuses exclusively on comics.

DC’s revised and rebranded comics subscription service, DC Universe Infinite, will officially launch this Thursday. Formerly known as DC Universe, the service will feature comics, as its video programming, like Titans, Doom Patrol and the Young Justice cartoon, have all moved over to HBO Max.

In addition, the community forum can be found outside the app at community.dcuniverseinfinite.com, while the store will also live at a new web address: https://shop.dccomics.com/. It’s up and running with several T-shirt designs, masks and more.

DC Universe Infinite will be available for iPhone, iPad, Android Phone and Tablets and online for web and mobile web at dcuniverseinfinite.com. Some platforms it was on before, like Apple TV and XBox, for example, no longer carry the app as of last month.

So, for the service itself, that leaves comics, and DC is adding a whole bunch of them to the service this week.

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