Doug Wagner + Daniel Hillyard return to the twisted world of ‘Plastic’

The prequel miniseries, ‘Death & Dolls,’ kicks off in June.

Doug Wagner and Daniel Hillyard’s Plastic gets a prequel this summer — Plastic: Death & Dolls. They’re joined on their journey into the world of serial killers and depravity by colorist Michelle Madsen and letterer Ed Dukeshire.

If you missed the first miniseries, it’s about a reformed serial killer, Edwyn, who tries to stay on the straight and narrow for the sake of his true love — a plastic doll named Virginia.

“Getting to spend some quality time with Edwyn again after… well, what seems like only yesterday, really, was just so much fun,” Hillyard said. “Who would have thought that a story about a serial killer in love with a blow-up sex doll would turn out to be so loved, and get a sequel to-boot. It’s a wild crazy ride, and I’m not just saying this, but you won’t want to miss the ending.”

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Dark Horse will publish Mosher + Krause’s ‘Blacking Out’ in 2024

Set in Southern California, the graphic novel follows an ex-cop’s investigation into an unsolved murder.

Dark Horse has announced plans to publish the graphic novel Blacking Out next year. The SoCal crime story was written by Chip Mosher, one of the co-founders of DSTLRY, with artwork by Peter Krause, Giulia Brusco, Ed Dukeshire and Tom Muller.

The project began its life on Kickstarter and raised more than $40,000 back in 2020, at the start of the pandemic. I spoke with Mosher about it at the time, and he told me the project was inspired by the French bande dessinée format.

“Creators really take their time producing the work and it shows,” he said. “And these albums are just beautifully crafted, beautifully done, and I really just wanted to do something like that. I just really wanted to do something that just had absolutely no compromises.”

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Bunn + Luckert go ‘Beyond Mortal’ in a new graphic novel at Dark Horse

Superheroes battle the elder gods in the new project, which will arrive next January.

Cullen Bunn and Danny Luckert, who collaborated on the recent Shock Shop, will re-team for a new graphic novel from Dark Horse.

Beyond Mortal combines two things Bunn is famous for — super-heroes and horror, as a world protected by a pantheon of heroes must face it’s greatest challenge — an invasion by the elder gods.

“If you know me, you know I love superheroes,” said Bunn. “You also know I love-love-love horror. While I’ve frequently infused horror elements into my superhero comics, I’ve never done a full-on horror book in a superhero universe. Well, here you have it. Beyond Mortal is sort of a fever dream of heroics and terror. And I think fans of superheroes will love it. And so will horror fiends.”

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Doug Wagner + Doug Dabbs light the fuse of revenge in ‘Klik Klik Boom’

The five-issue miniseries kicks off in June.

Writer Doug Wagner and artist Doug Dabbs, who worked together on a story for the 2019 miniseries The Ride: Burning Desire, will reunite on a new miniseries at Image Comics titled Klik Klik Boom. They’ll be joined by colorist Matt Wilson and letterer Ed Dukeshire.

The five-issue miniseries will focus on a mute woman named Sprout who was raised off the grid by her grandfather. After he’s murdered, she heads to New York City to seek revenge.

“I can’t wait for everyone to see the insanity Doug, Matt, Ed and I cooked up for this book. When this was all starting to stew, I told Doug Dabbs the muses were speaking to me about mixing movies like Fargo and The Fifth Element with the artistic inspirations of Robert Valley and Bengal,” said Wagner. “I wanted to try to find this balance between the old and the new, between neon cyberpunk and crime noir, and wrap all of that in a modern day action tour de force tortilla. The team didn’t let me down.”

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Alaska battles a supernatural invasion in ‘Survival’

Dark Horse Comics will publish the new miniseries by Sean Lewis and Bryndon Everett.

With the release of Dark Horse’ solicitations for May 2023 comes word of a “new political horror-action comic” called Survival by Sean Lewis and Bryndon Everett. It’s about Russia invading the United States, specifically Alaska, with supernatural forces.

Survival was written years before Russia invaded Ukraine,” Lewis said. “Some would call it prescient, but it seemed obvious—old empires don’t like to fall. Survival merges a social aspect with a very fun, very pulp story of vampires and machine guns, survivalists and invaders.”

Natalie Barahona provides colors, while Ed Dukeshire is lettering the project.

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Bunn + Scharf reunite for supernatural horror series ‘Basilisk’

The new series debuts from BOOM! Studios in June.

Following the news of Parasomnia this week comes another horror-themes series written by Cullen Bunn — Basilisk, where he reunites with his Bone Parish collaborator Jonas Scharf for a new supernatural horror series from BOOM! Studios.

They’re joined by colorist Alex Guimarães and letterer Ed Dukeshire.

Basilisk is an epic, dark, fantasy horror story, and I can’t wait for readers to meet the players on both sides of this tale of revenge. Here we have a woman who has absolutely nothing left to lose hunting down a group of would-be gods, each of whom can use one of the five senses to destroy those around them. They’re terrifying in their own way–the heroes and the villains,” said Bunn. “This is another collaboration with the amazing Jonas Scharf, who worked with me on Bone Parish, and I think his work here is even more amazing, even more deific, even more haunting.”

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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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Smash Pages Q&A | Chip Mosher on ‘Blacking Out,’ bande dessinée and billboards

The writer of ‘Left on Mission’ returns with a new comic that’s currently up on Kickstarter.

As the Head of Content for comiXology Originals, Chip Mosher already has a pretty great day job, working with creators to bring original content to the digital comics provider.

But before working there and for his previous employer, BOOM! Studios, he wanted to write comics, and in fact wrote Left on Mission, with artist Francesco Francavilla, which was published by BOOM! before he joined them to handle marketing.

Now, more than a decade later, he’s returned to the creative side and has written something new, Blacking Out, featuring artwork by Peter Krause, Giulia Brusco and Ed Dukeshire. It’s currently up on Kickstarter, where it blew past its modest $500 goal in the first 8 minutes of the campaign.

I spoke with Mosher at length about the new project, what inspired the format, how he’s promoting it and more.

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‘The Woods’ wins a 2017 GLAAD Media Award

The BOOM! Studios title by James Tynion IV, Michael Dialynas, Josan Gonzalez and Ed Dukeshire comes out on top in a very competitive category.

The Woods has been named “Outstanding Comic Book” by The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, in their 2017 Media Awards.

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