‘The Champions’ head for Weirdworld in issue #25

The team gets a D&D-esque makeover courtesy of Jim Zub, Sean Izaakse and Max Dunbar.

Remixing superheroes with different genres is a staple of the artform; who can forget Kurt Busiek and George Perez’s classic “Morgan Conquest,” which saw the Avengers recast as knights of the realm? It looks like the Champions will get their day in the sun as well, so I hope that armor breaths. Ms. Marvel and company will head to Weirdworld in issue #25 to save a couple of their teammates, courtesy of Jim Zub, Sean Izaakse and Max Dunbar.

“With two of their teammates having vanished into Weirdworld, the rest of the Champions have no choice but to follow them into that ever-changing landscape,” said SVP and Executive Editor Tom Brevoort in a press release. “However, the changes this will put them through are both profound and unexpected—and will lead to something new on the horizon.”

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The 2018 Joe Shuster Award Nominations

Awards celebrate excellence in the Canadian comic creators and publications.

The nominations for the 2018 Joe Shuster Awards have been announced this week.  Commonly nickednamed “The Shusters”, they are Canada’s national comic book awards that honours and raises the awareness of Canadians that create, self-publish and sell comic books, digital comics and graphic novels.

The award winners will be chosen by a jury vote to ensure every nominee is given adequate consideration.

The ceremony will take place at the Montreal Comic Con July 6-8, 2018 at the Palais des congrès, Montreal, QC.

And the nominees are:

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C2E2: ‘Rick & Morty,’ ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ cross over this summer

Patrick Rothfuss, Jim Zub and Troy Little bring the two properties together in a four-issue limited series.

The stars of Adult Swim’s popular Rick and Morty will enter the world of Dungeons & Dragons this summer in a comic book crossover by Patrick Rothfuss, Jim Zub and Troy Little.

At this weekend’s C2E2 convention in Chicago, IDW Publishing and Oni Press, who respectively publish the D&D and R&M comic books, announced the four-issue comic book series, which will debut in August.

“I love Rick and Morty with a powerful love, and I’ve played D&D since the fifth grade,” Rothfuss said in the press release. “So when they approached me about writing a story with both of them together? That’s some serious you-got-chocolate-in-my-peanut butter $#!& right there. I’m in. I’m all the way in. I’m gettin’ that chocolate all up in the peanut butter. Like, deep in. All the way in. It’s going to be sticky and delicious.”

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Comics Lowdown: The Diversity issue

Black comics festivals, indy publishers, and the history of women in comics.

Festivals: West Coast: It’s Martin Luther King Day, and this past weekend brought festivals celebrating black comics to both sides of the country. In San Francisco, Nanette Asimov writes about the Black Comix Arts Festival, which runs through today, and interviews creators Tony Medina and John Jennings as well as an attendee.

Festivals: East Coast: At the New York Times, George Gene Gustines turns his focus to the Black Comics Festival, which took place this past weekend at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City, and he interviews David Heredia, the creator of the animated video series Heroes of Color and a guest at the festival.

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Comics Lowdown: Don’t quit the day job

Jim Zub has advice for an aspiring creator. Also: Best comics of 2017, trends to watch in 2018.

Sitcomics, a comics publisher based in Santa Monica, is rolling out Binge Books, a line of 64-page comics priced at $3.99, with a new strategy that they call “Sell-Through Distribution”: Bypassing the usual distribution system, they will go directly through retailers. They will start distributing a free catalog to retailers on January 3; customers can order the comics until January 25, and they will be delivered on January 31, a much faster turnaround than standard distribution. The comics will also be returnable by retailers.

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Comics Lowdown: ‘One Punch Man’ tops GN chart

Plus: Another view of Marvel’s Northrop Grumman Comic, Palmiotti and Conner say goodbye to Harley Quinn, and was New York Comic Con too big?

Top Graphic Novels: Viz takes half the slots in the September BookScan top 20 chart, which measures sales of graphic novels in the book channel: Vol. 12 of One Punch Man was the top seller, followed by the all-in-one edition of Death Note (a 12-volume omnibus—yes, it’s a brick). Perennial best-sellers Fun Home, March, and Watchmen all make the chart, as does Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight: Master Race, vol. 3 of Tom King’s Batman: Rebirth, and Avatar’s limited edition of Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows’s Providence: Act 3. Interestingly, there is not a single Image title on the list.

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Comics Lowdown: More Manga, Scary Stories and an Inside Look at North Korea

A North Korean cartoonist looks at the lighter side of defection, an American cartoonist turns down an Iranian award, and Humanoids announces an all-ages horror graphic novel.

Struggles and Smiles: Former North Korean animator Choi Seong-guk was surprised at how different the comics were when he defected to South Korea: “When I first saw South Korean cartoons, I just didn’t get them,” he says. “There were no stories about patriotism or catching spies or war. They just seemed useless to me.” There were a lot of other differences too, including some idioms that he misunderstood. Now he has turned his experiences into an online comic that depicts both the funny and the serious side of the lives of North Koreans at home and in South Korea.

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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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Smash Pages End of Year Survey, Part 4

Comic folks answer the question, “What do you consider to be the top five important events of 2015?”

For this year’s inaugural version of the Smash Pages End of Year Survey I had people answer the question: “What do you consider to be the top five important events of 2015?” I encouraged people to not necessarily answer the question in that manner if it didn’t strike their fancy. I cannot thank everyone enough for the participation during a busy time of year. Part 1 is here, part 2 is here part 3 is here.

Sensation Comics #39
Sensation Comics #39

Carla Speed McNeil

Sensation Comics, Finder

These things happened, and I learned things from them I didn’t expect.

I wrote and drew a WONDER WOMAN story titled BOTH ENDS OF THE LEASH for Sensation Magazine. I’d never tried to wrap my mind around any of the comic book demigods, but the more I read about this princess, the more facets she reveals. I had some odd and, frankly, rather woo experiences trying to find a story for her, which in itself probably is what made it worth doing. The story is about animal defense, so it hit a lot of nerves, and I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback from long-term fans, but none more so than the fan I didn’t know about: my older sister.

I had NO IDEA my sister was a Wonder Woman fan. She’s eight years older than I am, so I guess I missed her Underoos stage. But she’s nearly six feet tall, long black hair, green eyes… How tempted was I to make my Diana’s eyes green just for her! But the fact that I found out late in the game that my sister’s such a fan restrained me from redesigning the Princess radically. This time.

I drew an issue of a horror comic called HARROW COUNTY, written and drawn by Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook. I’ve never done a straight-up ghost story. This one was about a not-entirely-lost soul, a sad, ferocious little ghost in two parts. The tricky part, the thing I had to keep reminding myself was that, no matter how bad I felt for him, I needed to keep him creepy. That’s what makes him work. Poor little sticky thing.

If that was true of HARROW COUNTY, it’s doubly true of NO MERCY, the book I’m drawing with writer Alex de Campi. She rarely pulls a punch unless it’s for effect, and has been a master class in how fast you can make things happen in a story. It’s all too easy, especially when you love worldbuilding, to get lost in creating the immersive experience, forgetting that stories are about and-then-what.

The storytellers who REALLY surprised me with the depth and deftness of their storytelling are the ones who are making the tv show STEVEN UNIVERSE. If you don’t like goofy, it’s not for you, but that story’s deep heart, complexity of imagined world, and up-close-magic-tricks of throwing down new Plot Cards have left me with my jaw on the floor. I am watching. Taking NOTES.

Dunno if I’m going to be able to get all of these things into the new FINDER story I started in DARK HORSE PRESENTS last November, but they’re all in my head, at the very least. They’ll end up in SOMETHING.

Eric Haven

UR, MythBusters

1. Recidivist 4, by Zack Sally
2. Intelligent Sentient? by Luke Ramsey
3. Cosplayers 3, by Dash Shaw
4. Shaolin Cowboy: Shemp Buffet, by Geoff Darrow
5. Idyl – I’m Age, by Jeffrey Jones

Vito Delsante

Stray, Actionverse, Action Lab: Dog of Wonder

Actionverse #4
Actionverse #4

5. The Flash TV show – there’s not enough of it in a week. It’s not even a guilty pleasure. I sit and watch it with a smile from ear to ear. And while I enjoy Arrow (not caught up) and what I’ve seen of Supergirl (not caught up), I never miss Flash.

4. Conventions – I hate conventions, and that’s not a strong hate. It’s just…they’re inconvenient sometimes. But I had great experiences this year in Baltimore, NYCC and New Jersey Comic Expo. More shows are popping up (really looking forward to the 3 Rivers Comicon in May), and I hope the remain a local staple more than the overblown extravaganzas that they can become. Smaller shows are the best.

3. My comics – Stray came out this year. Line Webtoons announced that Dean Haspiel and I are working together again on the New Brooklyn Universe. Actionverse 0 just debuted and I’m writing a new all-ages comic, Action Lab: Dog of Wonder. I’m incredibly fortunate to have such opportunities and such amazing collaborators.

2. My friends’ comics – Beef With Tomato, Schmuck, Smoke, We Are Robin, Ghetto Klown, Plunder, the Bunker…working with my friends on Actionverse. As exciting as it is to see my own stuff out there, it’s just as exciting to see my friends get their work seen and recognized.

1. My kids – Unto us, a son was born this year. And while I’m still in the introduction phase with him, my daughter (who will be 3 in February) has become a huge part of my life and is dictating how I create comics in the near future…in a good way. I don’t know…it’s all new to me, but I’m enjoying the lessons.

Jim Zub

Wayward, Samurai Jack

1) Image’s Continued Creator-Owned Success
2) Diversity in Characters and Creators
3) Convention Culture Continues to Thrive
4) The Widening Embrace of Comics Content From Mainstream Media
5) Disney the Pop Culture Juggernaut: Animation, Marvel Movies, Star Wars

DJ Kirkbride

Amelia Cole, The Bigger Bang, Never Ending

Copra
Copra

5. COPRA makes me giddy. I was late to the game and missed the single issues, but Bergen Press’s trades are so snazzy. Tough characters in tough stories with tough art — I’m in as long as MICHEL FIFFE continues to create the book. Pure comics power!

4. COMIC BOOK APOCALYPSE: THE GRAPHIC WORLD OF JACK KIRBY, both the amazing CSUN exhibit and the accompanying book from IDW, gave me a jolt of energy regarding the whole medium, and art in general. From his early romance comics to of course all the superheroes to his mind boggling collages, there’s a reason JACK KIRBY is THE KING. It was a true delight seeing his pages in person, and reading amazing essays about the man and his art.

3. DAVID F. WALKER taking over comics! I’ve known Dave for a few years and have always admired his work, so it’s been a true pleasure watching him finally get the credit he deserves. From SHAFT in late 2014 to this year’s CYBORG and the upcoming (as of my typing) POWER MAN AND IRON FIST (with one of my favorites artists, SANFORD GREENE), his success this year just couldn’t have happened to a more deserving creator. Good for my pal, and good for all of us comic fans!

2. MICHAEL ALLRED drawing comics is one of my favorite things each and every year. He’s making magic with DAN SLOTT on SILVER SURFER — the Marvel character (along with, I’d say, DOCTOR STRANGE) that Allred was born to draw. He’s one of the nicest and most talented guys in comics, so it’s always a joy to see work from him.

1. HEROES FOR EVERY READER! Since I was a kid, part of my love of SUPERMAN has always been that, lack of muscles and perfectly chiseled features, I kinda look like him. Big jaw, blue eyes, dark hair… it made Halloween fun growing up (as almost every pic of me was in some Underroos-based Superman costume). Identification is important to kids, to see themselves in their heroes. This is just one of the reasons why characters like MS. MARVEL, BATGIRL, MILES MORALES: ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, SPIDER-GWEN, CYBORG, MOON GIRL, AMELIA COLE (I have to mention the hero created by ADAM P. KNAVE, NICK BROKENSHIRE, and myself here, right?), and many more having their own comic book titles is so important. We still have a long, looooong way to go, but it’s great to see some logical and, obviously, long overdue steps FINALLY being made. It’s a no-brainer and win-win for everyone!