Quick Hits | Nirvana Comics in Knoxville wins the first Image Select Retailer Award

Plus: News on Rob Liefeld, Scout Comics, G. Willow Wilson and the Robert E. Howard awards.

Nirvana Comics in Knoxville, Tennessee has won Image Comics’ inaugural Image Select Retailer Award. The winner was announced this weekend at the Emerald City Comic Con during an event hosted by Lunar Distribution.

Images Comics announced the award last month as a way to recognize retailers “that are going above and beyond to serve their customers, expand readership and grow a healthier marketplace.” Customers were able to vote for their favorite store via an online form.

“This is such a huge honor,” said Grant and Jasmine Mitchell, co-owners of the store. “Thank you Image Comics for all you’ve done to help the comic shop industry. Thank you to all our customers who nominated us. Your support and friendship is why we do this everyday. The best is yet to come!”

According to Image, the shop was in the top tier of most nominations by sheer volume from “happy customers eager to pay it forward to the store they love.” They’ll receive several prizes from Image, including a commemorative medallion and their choice of a comic with a gold foil exclusive variant cover branded with their store logo.

“The response to this award was phenomenal with thousands of nominations submitted in just a few days,” said Alex Cox, director of direct market sales at Image Comics. “Reading that many testimonials from people praising their local comic shops was a great reminder of how amazing the comics community can be, and Nirvana Comics stood out as a prime example of a store that truly values their customers, and makes new fans every day.”

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Wilson + Wildgoose present a ‘high fantasy tour de force’ in ‘The Hunger and the Dusk’

The new series from IDW will debut in July.

G. Willow Wilson, best-selling novelist and co-creator of Ms. Marvel, will team with artist Chris Wildgoose for a new “high fantasy tour de force” from IDW titled The Hunger and the Dusk.

The series will feature humans and orcs on a dying world who were once mortal enemies but now must team up to face an ancient race called the Vangol that threatened them both. The Hunger and the Dusk will be colored by MsassyK and lettered by Simon Bowland.

“During the pandemic, I thought a lot about the many different times in history when the world has come to an end. I was also revisiting the science fiction and fantasy comfort food that I grew up with, and bit by bit, almost like a bedtime story, this saga—with orcs and humans banding together in a world that is slowly becoming uninhabitable, with enemies facing the choice to stand together or die separately—began to take shape,” said Wilson. “Ordinarily, high fantasy is not something I write a lot of, but coming out of the pandemic, I thought, ‘To hell with it. Death is coming for us all. Do what you love. Write the hot orc saga.’ And here we are!”

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‘Lazarus Planet’ grows in scope with ‘Revenge of the Gods’ miniseries

G. Willow Wilson and Cian Tormey featuring the Shazam! family, Wonder Woman and some old frenemies from Olympus.

DC’s Lazarus Planet crossover will expand in both time and scope next year, as the publisher announced a follow-up miniseries, Lazarus Planet: Revenge of the Gods by G. Willow Wilson and Cian Tormey.

Revenge of the Gods will feature the Shazam! family and Wonder Woman, as they take a stand against the old gods who have decided to “take down the heroes they once called champions.” Or at least some of them take a stand; at least one of them actually goes over to the other side. The story will run through a four-issue bi-weekly miniseries, as well as issues of Wonder Woman, in March and April.

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Slugfest | ‘Radio Apocalypse’ goes on indefinite hiatus

Plus: A new Secret Stash title, Poison Ivy grows and Marvel Masterworks gets reprinted.

Vault Comics and writer Ram V have announced via press release that the comic series Radio Apocalypse will go on “an indefinite hiatus.” The series, which suffered delays before launch, only saw two issues published.

“We launched this book with much excitement and to celebration and acclaim,” Ram V said in the statement. “And for that I have readers, retailers and everyone who worked on this book to thank. Unfortunately, in the time since, Anand, Aditya and I have been through some rough times. I will allow everyone including myself some privacy but suffice to say health issues, bouts of COVID and some difficult family emergencies on my end have meant that we have been unable to work on this book with the care and attention it deserves.”

The series, which reunited Ram V with Anand RK, who he worked with on Grafity’s Wall, was about the last radio station on Earth.

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Batman villains steal the spotlight in ‘One Bad Day’ one-shots

Tom King, Mitch Gerads, G. Willow Wilson, Jamie McKelvie and more tell new stories about Riddler, Catwoman, Bane and more.

DC Comics spent the day on social media revealing a series of eight one-shots starring Batman’s villains by a variety of comics’ finest.

The 64-page one-shots will feature The Riddler, Two-Face, The Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Catwoman, Bane, Clayface and Ra’s al Ghul, by the likes of Tom King, Mitch Gerads, John Ridley and more. They’ll be released monthly starting in August.

Here’s a rundown of who is doing what, along with cover art for six of the projects:

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Comics Lowdown | Texas school district bans ‘The Breakaways’

Plus: Scout Comics launches Latinx imprint, Marvel’s legal battles, New York Comic Con and more!

Cathy G. Johnson’s The Breakaways joins the list of banned graphic novels making headlines over the past few weeks after Spring Branch Independent School District in Texas banned it from school libraries.

Spring Branch Independent School District, which serves part of Houston, told the Houston Chronicle that the graphic novel was removed from schools because it was “not age appropriate nor was it appropriate for its intended educational use.” A committee decided to ban it after receiving a letter from a parent.

The graphic novel is about a diverse 8th-grade soccer team that includes a trans character.

“The book includes kids of all sorts of identities to reflect the world that is around us,” creator Cathy G. Johnson told the Chronicle. “There is a transgender student who comes out in the book. He is just one of many characters who make up my book, as well as one of the identities that make up the world.”

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Mail Call | New ‘Avatar,’ ‘Abbott’ and a ‘Batgirl’ debut

Check out recent news and announcements from DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently. Hit the links for more information.

Following the end of the Joker War storyline, DC’s current Batgirl series will wrap up with its extra-sized 50th issue this Tuesday. DC has revealed that this issue will also see the debut of Ryan Wilder, the character taking over the Batwoman mantle on The CW’s Batwoman TV show.

Will this new character also take over as Batwoman in the comics? I guess we’ll find out. You can see a preview of that issue here.

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Mail Call | Defend-ing the Hero Initiative, new ‘Bad Karma’ and more

Plus: News from DC, Image, Humble Bundle and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from publishers in our mailboxes recently. Hit the links for more information.

DC Comics has announced a change in the variant covers for the upcoming The Dreaming: Waking Hours #1. The cover shown below, by Yanick Paquette and Nathan Fairbairn, will replace one from Bill Sienkiewicz that they first showed us in May.

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‘The Dreaming: Waking Hours’ arrives in August

The new Sandman Universe series will feature a nightmare named Ruin, by G. Willow Wilson and Nick Robles.

After wrapping up The Dreaming with issue #20 last month, DC Comics has announced the follow-up series by Ms. Marvel co-creator G. Willow Wilson and Euthanauts artist Nick Robles — The Dreaming: Waking Hours — will now debut in August.

The story will focus on Ruin, “the nightmare of catastrophic failure,” who finds his way into the waking world.

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Berger Books adds ‘Invisible Kingdom’ from Wilson + Ward to its line-up

The ‘epic multi-part sci-fi saga’ about a religious conspiracy debuts next year.

Dark Horse’s Berger Books imprint, headed up by former Vertigo editor Karen Berger, welcomes a new book by G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward into the fold next year — Invisible Kingdom.

“It’s a delight to be working with my mentor Karen Berger once again, especially on such an exciting project,” said G. Willow Wilson in a statement. “Christian Ward’s art is truly visionary—this is one of the most dynamic collaborations I’ve ever been involved with. I can’t wait to show the world what we’ve cooked up.”

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Comics Lowdown: Off to a roaring start

Zunar sues his persecutors, Bosch Fawstin is booted (temporarily) from Twitter, and the Best of the Year lists keep rolling in.

Legal: A Malaysian High Court judge has set aside five days in April to hear the cartoonist Zunar’s lawsuit against the Inspector-General of Police and 19 other defendants. Zunar, who has been charged with sedition and is currently prohibited from leaving the country, is suing for damages and wrongful arrest. In December 2016, police stormed the venue where a “Tea with Zunar” event was about to take place and arrested the cartoonist and several other people; they also confiscated books and T-shirts. In the lawsuit, Zunar is asking for monetary damages for wrongful arrest, the return of his merchandise, and a declaration that the defendants had violated his rights.

Twitter: Cartoonist Bosch Fawstin was suspended from Twitter for “hate speech” after one of his Tweets was reported by another user. At first Twitter refused to tell him why, but then they told him his account would be unlocked if he deleted a Tweet reply that read “@NyaDnart1 There are degrees. Muslims who follow in Mohammad’s footsteps mass murder. Christians who follow in Jesus’s footsteps?” They subsequently reinstated his account with a statement that it had accidentally been caught in a spam filter.

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Comics Lowdown: Retailer killed in Kansas City robbery

Get today’s comics news and updates in new feature here at Smash Pages.

Top News

• James Cavanaugh, the owner of Clint’s Comics in Kansas City, Missouri, was killed while attempting to stop a robbery at his store on May 12. According to the Kansas City Star, Cavanaugh was chasing a man who had just stolen about 10 or 15 comics from the shop, according to witnesses. He reached the thief’s car and pulled a gun; somehow the passenger side door opened and when the thief drove away, the door hit Cavanaugh, knocking him to the ground and critically injuring him. Police are still searching for the thief, who was described as a bald, 40-ish white man with glasses; the store posted a photo of the car on Facebook.

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