Campbell + Zonno gear up for the the post-apocalyptic sports comic ‘I Heart Skull-Crusher’

The first issue from BOOM! Box arrives in March.

Josie Campbell and Alessio Zonno will team for a new series from BOOM! Studios’ BOOM! Box imprint next year.  I Heart Skull-Crusher is about an aspiring player of Screaming Pain Ball, the most popular sport in post-apocalyptic America, and her journey to becoming just like her favorite pro, Skull-Crusher.

“I am BEYOND thrilled to bring I Heart Skull-Crusher to life with the talented Alessio; it’s everything I love–queer characters, anime influences, action, comedy, broken hearts, broken bones, Post-Apocalypse death matches–wrapped up in one gorgeous package. This is the story I’ve been wanting to tell for years!” Campbell said

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Get ready for more Kid Venom

Manga creator Taigami takes Venom back to the past for a 10th century adventure.

Kid Venom, the breakout star of Death of the Venomverse, will leap into his own miniseries next year by Taigami (Unsung Hero).

Kid Venom is Kintaro, a 10th century Japanese hero who bonded with a symbiote to save his village from evil symbiotes.

“Kid Venom was based on a one shot that I sent for a manga contest Shonen Magazine and Marvel held in 2018. One of the rules for the contest was [to use a theme or a character from Marvel and write and draw a first episode for a new series], and the theme that I chose was symbiote,” Taigami said.

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Quick Hits | Massachusetts police officer searched an 8th grade classroom for a copy of ‘Gender Queer’

Plus: News on IDW, Fantagraphics, Joe Sacco, Jim Lee, Chris Gooch and more.

In a chilling chapter in the ongoing culture war against LGBTQ+ books and graphic novels, several sources reported that a plain-clothes police officer searched an eighth grade classroom for a copy of the graphic novel Gender Queer in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

The officer notified the school he was coming and was accompanied by the principal as he searched for the memoir by Maia Kobabe, which has topped the most banned book list for the last couple years. The search reportedly took place after school hours and was the result of a single complaint by a community member.

“Police going into schools and searching for books is the sort of thing you hear about in communist China and Russia. What are we doing?” Ruth A. Bourquin, senior and managing attorney for the ACLU of Massachusetts, told the Berkshire Eagle.

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Bunn + Piazzalunga’s over-the-top horror romp lands next year

‘Monsters Are My Business (And Business is Bloody)’ will debut from Dark Horse in April.

Dark Horse this week announced a new miniseries from horror mastermind Cullen Bunn and Happy Horror Days artist Patrick Piazzalunga. Monsters Are My Business (And Business is Bloody) is described as “an over the top, colorful, vibrant world of horrors,” and features colors by Marco Brakko and letters by Jim Campbell.

“Some time ago, Patrick and I were discussing working together on a new creator-owned title,” said Bunn. “He sent me some concept sketches of this big, burly biker type and a chainsaw-wielding, cigar-smoking koala bear. From there, we discussed building a story of elder gods, mutant cults, mercenary necromancers, and a lot of bloody good violence. Monsters Are My Business was born! I am just in awe of Patrick’s ability to fuse horror and action and comedy so seamlessly. Readers are going to dig this book!”

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Spider-Gwen swings back into the Marvel Universe next year

Stephanie Phillips and Chris Campana bring the Ghost Spider back to the 616.

After a few recent miniseries detailed what life is like for Spider-Gwen in her own universe, the Spiderverse-hopping hero will once again land in the 616 in a new title coming next year.

Writer Stephanie Phillips (Kicking Ice, Grim) and artist Chris Campana (Red Goblin, The Adventures of Parker Reef) will bring Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider to New York, home of many Marvel heroes and, of course, the home of the deceased 616 Gwen Stacey. Mark Brooks will provide covers.

“Right after I started working on this new Spider-Gwen ongoing, I saw a little girl on Halloween dressed as Gwen and hitting some cool Spidey poses,” Phillips said. “It was kind of a surreal moment to realize that I get to be a part of Gwen’s next big chapter, bringing her into the 616 and giving readers stories that make us rethink who Gwen is and what her role is within this new universe. I’m also working on this story with the incredible Chris Campana, a great collaborator and friend, and I truly believe this is one of the most special books I’ve been a part of.”

Campana echoed Phillips’ comments about working together on the series.

“Stephanie’s writing allows for a ton of artistic freedom, while providing a great framework to work inside of,” Campana said. “I was onboard the moment I heard she was attached.”

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Fleecs + Forstner continue to build the ‘pet horror’ genre in ‘Feral’

The creators of ‘Stray Dogs’ set their sights on cats in their next series at Image Comics.

Tony Fleecs and Trish Forstner will once again put household pets in terrible situations in Feral, an ongoing series coming from Image Comics next year.

This time around the Stray Dogs team will focus on cats — in particular three indoor cats who get lost outside during a rabies outbreak.

“We didn’t want to repeat ourselves with this follow up book so it really was at first, thinking about: Okay, Stray Dogs is dogs trapped in a house. So, let’s have this one be about what’s really frightening in wide open spaces. The antagonist in Stray Dogs is someone who’s evil from the inside out. So, let’s have these cats face something that’s like an infection. An external threat. The stray dogs were forgetful… So these cats remember EVERYTHING,” Fleecs told The Hollywood Reporter. “These cats hold a grudge. That’s what we did differently. But the thing we did the same way was, we tried to build the story on characters, and how they fit together and how they clash and then just… What’s the worst possible situation we can put them in?”

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DSTLRY announces three more titles that will debut next spring

Titles by Scott Snyder, Francesco Francavilla, James Tynion IV, Christian Ward, Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso will arrive next year.

DSTLRY has announced three more titles that spin out of its recent anthology The Devil’s Cut, all of which will debut next spring.

The titles include White Boat by Scott Snyder and Francesco Francavilla, Spectregraph by James Tynion IV and Christian Ward, and The Blood Brothers Mother by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso.

DSTLRY, the new comics company formed by former Comixology execs David Steinberger and Chip Mosher, released The Devil’s Cut in print back in August and a digital edition a couple of weeks ago. They’ve also released print editions of Gone by Jock and Somna by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay, which were followed this month by limited-edition digital releases (The digital Somna #1 should go on sale on the DSTLRY site this week). Blasfamous by Mirka Andolfo was announced to come out this week.

With these three announcements, that leaves two more titles that were featured in The Devil’s Cut that you can expect to see in the future — one by Elsa Charretier and another by Marc Bernardin and Ariela Kristantina.

Here’s more info on the three titles:

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Deadpool returns next year to face the new villain Death Grip

Cody Ziglar and Rogê Antônio helm a new ongoing series for the Merc with a Mouth.

Deadpool will return in a solo series next year courtesy of writer Cody Ziglar and artist Rogê Antônio.

“Wade’s been one of my favorite characters since I first got into super hero comics, so being asked to helm a Deadpool series was a dream come true,” said Ziglar, who contributed to the recent Seven Slaughters one-shot featuring Deadpool. “I look forward to diving into and exploring Wade’s family (found or otherwise), his unique approach to being a (mostly) unkillable mercenary, as well see what kinda of whackos they bring into his orbit.”

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All the Wolverines team up in ‘Weapon X-Men’

The four-issue miniseries by Christos Gage and Yildiray Çinar will feature Old Man Logan, Zombie Wolverine and more.

There was a time in comics when every book hitting the shelves from Marvel seemed to feature Wolverine, and now the publisher is taking things up a level by introducing a whole team of Wolverines.

Christos Gage and Yildiray Çinar will bring together Old Man Logan, Zombie Wolverine, Earth X Wolverine and more in Weapon X-Men, a four-issue miniseries that kicks off in March.

“Getting a chance to continue to explore the Marvel Multiverse in the pages of Weapon X-Men with the amazing Yildiray Çinar is the perfect Christmas gift!” Gage said. “A team of nothing but Wolverines…one of whom, Jane Howlett, has never been seen before? Against a threat from the pages of Original X-Men? With Yildiray Çinar, whose character acting is as brilliant as his action scenes and who has a George Perez-level of skill with crowds? Moving from one alternate Earth to another? Sign me up! We are packing a TON of action, story, character moments, pathos, and sometimes literally earth-shattering moments into these four issues, so don’t miss it!”

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Warren Pleece returns to Dark Horse for ‘a dystopian eco-noir thriller’

The creator of ‘Incognegro’ will write and draw a new graphic novel for the Berger Books imprint.

Incognegro creator Warren Pleece will return with a new graphic novel next year from Berger Books, the Dark Horse imprint run by former Vertigo chief Karen Berger.

The Sunny-Luna Travelling Oracle is described as “a dystopian eco-noir thriller about power, escape, creation, and the mark we leave on the world.”

“My love of the natural world and learning about the Wood Wide Web grafted to my other permanent obsession with the long dramatic shadows cast by classic film noir, finally led me to this rip-snorting eco-thriller story with more than a touch of magic,” Pleece said.

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Tom King + Peter Gross start a revolution in ‘Animal Pound’

Check out new comics and graphic novels arriving this week by Tom King, Peter Gross, Tamra Bonvillain, Mike W. Barr, Steve NIles, Shannon Eric Denton, Tom Mandrake, Alfonso Font and more.

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

I’ve pulled out some of the highlights below, but for the complete list of everything you might find at your local comic shop and on digital this week, you’ll want to check out one or more of the following:

As a reminder, things can change and what you find on the above lists may differ from what’s actually arriving in your local shop. So always check with your comics retailer for the final word on availability.

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Derek Kirk Kim returns to comics for ‘The Last Mermaid’

The ongoing series launches at Image Comics next March.

After shifting from comics to animation, Derek Kirk Kim will return to the printed world for The Last Mermaid, a new ongoing series from Image Comics.

The creator of the award-winning Same Difference and Other Stories will write and draw The Last Mermaid, which, as the title suggests, is about a mermaid roaming across a post-apocalyptic landscape “on a quest beyond reason.”

“I’m so excited to be back making comics after a decade of experience in TV and animation,” said Kim. “The Last Mermaid is a culmination of everything I’ve learned and love in storytelling, and I couldn’t be prouder to present it through Image Comics. Returning to comics feels like coming home and I hope everyone will join the titular mermaid on her epic quest to find her own home in The Last Mermaid.”

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