Ennis + Burrows pit the Punisher against Nick Fury in ‘Get Fury’

The Marvel MAX miniseries set during the Vietnam War begins in May.

Garth Ennis, writer of many memorable Punisher stories during the Marvel Knights and MAX eras, will re-team with his Punisher Soviet and Crossed collaborator Jacen Burrows for Get Fury, a new MAX miniseries that kicks off in May.

Ennis mentioned the project back in 2019 in an interview with The Lakes International Comic Art Festival, right before Punisher Soviet kicked off. Set in Vietnam, the out-of-continuity story features Nick Fury being held hostage by the Viet Cong — and the CIA sends in Lt. Frank Castle to protect their secrets.

“There’s a nice sense of things coming full circle with Get Fury; the editor is my good friend Nick Lowe, who handled Born back at the beginning some 20+ years ago, and just like that story, this one sees Frank Castle as a U.S. Marine in Vietnam (in fact, it goes some way to explaining how he ended up at Firebase Valley Forge in the first place),” Ennis said.

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Image will publish ‘Drawing Blood’ as a 12-issue series

Originally crowdfunded as a graphic novel, the series fictionalizes Kevin Eastman’s life as a comics creator.

Drawing Blood, the semi-autobiographical tale of Kevin Eastman’s rise in the comics world that was successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter back in 2017, is coming to Image Comics as a 12-issue maxi-series in April.

“The completely fictional true stories of Shane ‘Books’ Bookman sums it up the best,” said Eastman. “Set squarely in our collective world of Comics, part autobiographical, part tall tails and legends, I wanted a fictional character we could really put through the paces. Drawing Blood is all that and a basket of kittens…”

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Venom faces the Purple Man in Michelinie + Sandoval’s ‘Venom: Separation Anxiety’

The retro miniseries kicks off in May.

Venom co-creator David Michelinie returns to the character again this year for another miniseries set during Venom’s early days.

Venom: Separation Anxiety by Michelinie and Death of the Venomverse artist Gerardo Sandoval will feature Eddie Brock encountering the Purple Man, who uses his powers to steal Brock’s symbiote and become “The King in Purple.”

“I’m always delighted to write a new Venom story in a retro background,” Michelinie said. “With ‘Separation Anxiety’ as the required theme, the problem became how to do something that’s already been done—have Eddie Brock separated from his symbiote ‘other.’ So I thought, what if there was a deeply creepy villain with a decidedly bloodthirsty agenda who was able to take bits of Eddie’s symbiote away every time the two touched, with that enemy slowly growing stronger as Venom slowly grew weaker? And that was the nugget that became ‘The King In Purple.'”

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Fawkes + Fuso impose a ‘Sanction’ on Mad Cave Studios

Set in the USSR in 1987, the crime story will see two detectives discover a body on New Year’s Day.

Ray Fawkes of In the Flood and Justice League Dark fame will team with Wyrd artist Antonio Fuso for Sanction, a new Soviet-era crime story coming from Mad Cave Studios in May.

They are joined by Dave Sharpe on colors and letterer Emilio Lecce on the project, which Fawkes said is “the gritty, high-impact, never-seen-this-before crime book I’ve always wanted to write.”

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Young + Corona dig up ‘Ain’t No Grave’ in May

The ‘Middlewest’ team reunites for an Old West tale.

One of my favorite creative teams is back with a new miniseries named after one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs.

Skottie Young and Jorge Corona, the award-winning team behind The Me You Love In The Dark and Middlewest, will reunite on Ain’t No Grave, a Western arriving from Image Comics in May. Young’s frequent collaborators, colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu and letterer Nate Piekos, round out the creative team.

“I tapped into that darker side of my imagination to write Ryder’s story,” Young said on Substack. “The journey of a person who has lived a not so great life but was changed by three hearts. Her man’s, her child’s and her own. This story explores the length one will go to not lose their home after years of not knowing what that word really meant. What would you do when something, or someone threatens to take you away from all you hold dear? Ryder knows.”

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Canto returns at Dark Horse to search for ‘A Place Like Home’

David M. Booher and Drew Zucker’s clockwork hero returns in a third miniseries.

David M. Booher and Drew Zucker’s Canto found a new home at Dark Horse last year, when the publisher announced plans to release new printings of the first two volumes that were previously published by IDW.

But the tiny clockwork hero’s adventures don’t end there — Dark Horse has announced Canto: A Place Like Home, a new six-issue miniseries by Booher and Zucker that will debut in June.  Joined by colorist Vittorio Astone and letterer Andworld Design, Booher and Zucker will bring Canto’s battle against the Shrouded Man to a conclusion in the series.

“We’ve always known where this story was headed,” Zucker said. “But it still feels surreal to have finally made it. When we set out on CANTO’s adventure I’m not sure we could have predicted how life changing it would be both professionally and personally. It has been a genuine pleasure to not only tell CANTO’s story, but share it with all of the readers who have come on this adventure with us. I couldn’t be more excited to bring The Shrouded Man Saga to a close with our amazing creative partners and the team at Dark Horse Comics.”

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‘Ahsoka’ comes to comics this summer

Rodney Barnes, Steven Cummings and Georges Jeanty will bring Anakin Skywalker’s former apprentice to the printed page.

Marvel has announced plans to bring Ahsoka to comics in an eight-issue miniseries by Rodney Barnes, Steven Cummings and Georges Jeanty.

Much like the recent Mandalorian and Obi-Wan comics, this one sounds like it’ll be another straight-up adaptation of the Ahsoka Disney+ show, versus a new story. Played by Rosario Dawson, the show brought the popular character from The Clone Wars animated series to live action, along with characters from Star Wars: Rebels and Admiral Thrawn, who first debuted in the books by Timothy Zahn.

“It is truly an honor to be adapting Ahsoka,” Barnes told StarWars.com. “The character is the essence of classic Star Wars: layered, complex and fun! I hope the fans enjoy this adaptation as much as the series it’s adapted from.”

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Slugfest | Dark Horse resurrects ‘Lester of the Lesser Gods’

Plus: The Winx saga continues, Usagi turns 40, the Dreadnoks return and more!

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

Lester of the Lesser Gods, which was originally published by Albatross Funnybooks, is finding new life at Dark Horse this year.

Written by Eric Powell and Lucky Yates, and featuring artwork by Gideon Kendall, Lester began life as unproduced animated short before finding its way to comics.

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Corrado Mastantuono will make his U.S. debut on ‘The Witcher: Corvo Bianco’

The Italian artist joins Bartosz Sztybor on a story that finds Geralt of Rivia eyeing retirement.

Italian comics legend Corrado Mastantuono will make his U.S. debut on The Witcher: Corvo Bianco, an upcoming miniseries from Dark Horse Comics.

Mastantuono will work with writer Bartosz Sztybor, who has written several previous series starring Geralt of Rivia. They’ll be joined by colorist Matteo Vattani and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou on a tale focused on a different kind of challenge for Geralt — retirement.

“For all who know Geralt, Corvo Bianco is his endgame,” Sztybor said. “The end of his journey, one and only place where he can retire – taking a break from killing monsters and trying to figure out how to make his own wine. As a fan of pop–culture and postmodern genre mixing, that setup above sounded like a perfect premise for a western. A western in The Witcher world – that’s something that was never done before! So I quickly got excited and thought about getting on board someone who really knows what western is.”

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DSTLRY + Kodansha announce cover artist exchange partnership

DSTLRY titles will feature variant covers by Kodansha artists, starting with a Shūzō Oshimi cover for ‘Somna’ #3.

DSTLRY has announced a new cover artist exchange program with manga publisher Kodansha, starting with a variant cover for Somna #3 by Shūzō Oshimi.

DSTLRY, the new comics company formed by former Comixology execs David Steinberger and Chip Mosher, began releasing comics last August with The Devil’s Cut, which was followed by print editions of Gone by Jock and Somna by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay. The company has gone all in on variant covers, offering them through retail channels, their own website and on the limited-edition digital comics they started releasing late last year.

“I was drawn to the story of Somna where dreams and reality intermingle, and the way it’s expressed through different artistic styles,” Oshimi said. “Drawing the variant cover was fun!”

According to the press release, this variant cover by Oshimi will be the first of many by Kodansha artists:

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‘What If?’ comes to the ‘Alien’ universe in March

Actor Paul Reiser + team will write a story asking what would have happened if Carter Burke had lived.

If you’ve ever seen Aliens, the second and arguably best movie in the Alien franchise, then you’ll probably remember Carter Burke, the shady company man played by Paul Reiser who wanted to capture a xenomorph for his employers. And like any shady company man in a horror movie, he got what was coming to him … or did he?

Marvel has announced a new What If? miniseries set in the Alien universe that asks the question “What If… Carter Burke has lived?” Reiser will work with his son Leon, TV producer Adam F. Goldberg, Brian Volk-Weiss and Hans Rodionoff on a story that seems to be taking a “writer’s room” approach. Guiu Vilanova is drawing the five-issue miniseries.

“For years, people have asked me about Burke, what it was like to play such a ‘bad guy,’ to which my response was always ‘You say ‘bad,’ I say ‘misunderstood.’ Now the world will find out,” Reiser said.

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Dark Horse serves up ‘The Butcher’s Boy’ in May

Landry Q. Walker, Pannel Vaughn and Justin Greenwood bring a tale of gruesome folklore to life in a new miniseries.

Landry Q. Walker, Pannel Vaughn and Justin Greenwood will hit the backroads of the Pacific Northwest for a folk horror tale in The Butcher’s Boy, a new miniseries coming from Dark Horse Comics later this year.

Walker, known for the excellent Danger Club, will co-write the series with Vaughn. Greenwood, who worked with Walker on The Last Siege, is the artist, along with colorist Bard Simpson. Letterer Pat Brosseau rounds out the team.

“Appetite – whether it be desire for food, affection, or power – and the ability that hunger has to drive you to become unrecognizable – even to yourself – has always sat at the heart of my favorite horror stories,” Walker said. “Writing this book has led me down some dark psychological pathways that border somewhere between healthy obsession and self-destructive spirals. On some level, you need to feel what you write. The goal of this story is to take that discomfort, that yearning appetite (in all its myriad forms) and contextualize it as a malignant and conscious force. As a story, one that is finally ready for consumption.”

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