Kate Beaton, Rachel Smythe + more win at the 2023 Harvey Awards

The awards were presented last night in conjunction with the New York Comic Con.

Last night the Harvey Awards were given out at New York Comic Con, in the six categories the awards program reintroduced in 2018.

Kate Beaton’s critically acclaimed Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands added another accolade to its shelf, taking home the award for “Book of the Year.” And Rachel Smythe’s Lore Olympus defended the “Digital Book of the Year” category, taking home the Harvey for a second year. And somehow the big blockbuster film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was able to squeak out a victory against The Stuff of Legend – The Board Game in the always odd “Best Adaptation” category.

Six creators were inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame: Chris Claremont, Walt Simonson, Louise Simonson, Marv Wolfman, George Pérez and Bill Griffith.

A committee of “diverse industry voices including creators, publishing professionals, retailers, educators and librarians” determined the nominees, and the winners were chosen by creators and other industry professionals. Check out the full list of winners below.

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Simonson and Brigman return to ‘Power Pack’ next year

‘Power Pack: Into the Storm’ will launch in January.

Louise Simonson and June Brigman, the creators of Marvel’s Power Pack, will return to the characters for a story set during their original run in Power Pack: Into the Storm.

The five-issue miniseries celebrates the team’s 40th anniversary and feature appearances by the Snarks, the Brood, Franklin Richards and the X-Men’s Storm.

“It’s funny how easy it is to slip back into Power Pack!” Simonson shared. “This story explores the looming question: Should Power Pack tell their parents about their powers? I loved hinting at Franklin’s nascent abilities, one blocked by his parents, but too powerful for even them to contain completely.”

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Louise Simonson returns to the X-Men for a Jean Grey miniseries

The four-issue series will tie into the ‘Fall of X’ event.

Louise Simonson, legendary Marvel editor and former writer of X-Factor, will return to a character near and dear to her heart in Jean Grey, a four-issue miniseries with artist Bernard Chang.

The series will launch in August and tie into Fall of X, which Marvel.com describes as a “dark new age of mutantkind” and the potential end of Krakoa. To help save mutantkind, Jean Grey will have to look to her past to save the future, as the series explores different dark events in Jean Grey’s life.

“I loved writing X-Factor and Jean was a pivotal part of those stories, from the escape from her Phoenix-created cocoon to her life and death battle with the Goblin Queen in Inferno. So It’s really exciting to explore Jean’s part in this new mega-adventure,” Simonson said. 

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DC announces new stories, collection for ‘Death of Superman’ anniversary

Dan Jurgens, Brett Breeding, Louise Simonson, Roger Stern and more reunite for new tales about Superman’s death.

Several classic Superman creative teams will return to the character for the 80-Page The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special #1. Celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Death of Superman event that ushered in a new, seemingly endless wave of event comics, the special will include new stories by Dan Jurgens, Brett Breeding, Roger Stern, Butch Guice, Jon Bogdanove, Louise Simonson, Jerry Ordway and more.

“It was great to be able to work with them and make sure that each team was back together again,” Jurgens said about the special. “It was Roger Stern and Butch Guice who were on Action Comics back at that time, and they could come back as a team. Louise Simonson and John Bogdanov were on Man of Steel, Tom Grummett and Jerry Ordway were working on Adventures of Superman, and Brett Breeding and I were on Superman. We realized we could get the full crew back together to do these stories.”

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Mail Call | DC reveals more details on April’s relaunch of ‘Green Lantern’

A round-up of recent news on ‘Aliens,’ DC Future State, IDW’s Canto and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently that we haven’t already covered. Hit the links for more information.

When Green Lantern returns later this year after the events of Future State, Geoffrey Thorne and Dexter Soy will chart a new path for John Stewart, Sojourner “Jo” Mullein from Far Sector and Teen Lantern, the hacker Green Lantern who appeared in Young Justice.

Here’s how DC describes the first issue: With the majority of Green Lanterns called back to Oa, John Stewart arrives alongside Teen Lantern Keli Quintela, whose homemade gauntlet could be one of the most powerful and unstable weapons in the universe. With the entire landscape of the universe in flux, is this the end of the Green Lantern Corps…or a new beginning?

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Mail Call | BOOM! reveals plans for Power Rangers, Dune and more

See the latest news and announcements from DC, Marvel, BOOM!, Image 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.

BOOM! Studios has announced not just one but two different new series starring the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, both written by Ryan Parrott. The first, titled Mighty Morphin, will feature art by Marco Renna and the introduction of a mysterious Green Ranger:

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Sunday Comics | Comic strips pay tribute to COVID-19 essential workers

Check out new comics by Louise Simonson, Jan Duursema, Ali Fitzgerald, Roger Langridge and more.

Here’s a round up of some of the best comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

Comic strips from Dick Tracy to Doonesbury are celebrating medical personnel on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis today, as the Sunday strips feature six “hidden” items like a microscope and a medical mask that relate to essential workers during the pandemic. The idea for it came from Rick Kirkman, who is one of the creators of the comic strip Baby Blues.

Maria Scriven provides a look at the six items:

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2020 Eisner Hall of Fame nominees announced

Judges choices include Nell Brinkley and E. Simms Campbell.

Comic-Con International has announced this year’s nominees for the Eisner Hall of Fame. They include two judges’ choices — who will be automatically inducted — and 14 other nominees, four of whom will be inducted based on voters’ choices.

The judges’ choices are Nell Brinkley and E. Simms Campbell, both of whom worked in the magazine industry. Brinkley, a.k.a. the “Queen of Comics,” created comics and illustrations for many Hearst newspapers, including the Denver Post and the New York Journal-America. She became well-known for her “Brinkley Girl” illustrations circa 1913 through the 1940s. Campbell, meanwhile, helped define the visual style of Esquire magazine and created comics for it, Life, Cosmopolitan and Playboy during his career. He was the first African-American cartoonist published in nationally distributed slick magazines.

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DC previews artwork from their upcoming YA titles

Check out pages from ‘Shadow of the Batgirl,’ ‘Gotham High” and more.

During the “Super-Powered YA: DC Graphic Novels For Your #TBR Pile” panel at Comic-Con International yesterday, DC shared artwork from four of their upcoming young adult graphic novels (formerly known as the DC Ink imprint).

Check out previews for Shadow of the Batgirl,The Lost Carnival: A Dick Grayson Graphic Novel, Gotham High and Wonder Woman: Warbringer below.

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Primal Age invades Target with exclusive comic

DC and Funko’s action figure line hits Target with a 100-page comic.

DC Comics and Target have teamed up to bring DC’s new action figure line, Primal Age, to comics. DC announced that the DC Primal Age 100-Page Giant is now available at Target, and can be found on end caps with the toys.

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Superman puts his pants back on for ‘Action’ #1000

Milestone issue will include new stories by Brian Michael Bendis, Jim Lee, Curt Swan, Marv Wolfman, Paul Dini, Brad Meltzer, John Cassaday, Scott Snyder and more.

The world returns to sanity again in April with the landmark Action Comics #1000, which features a slew of creators telling tales about Superman and, more importantly, the return of his famous red trunks.

Debuting in Action Comics #1 way back in 1938, the red trunks helped Clark Kent’s alter-ego fight for truth, justice and the American way for almost a century — that is, until the launch of the New 52 in 2010. Dc co-publisher Jim Lee redesigned many DC characters at the time, including Superman — and the new, super-hip redesign had no room for outside undies or his classic red boots. The move was controversial, just like any change to the status quo in superhero comics, and eventually spawned petitions from fans to return to the classic look. Now it looks like those voices have finally been heard by DC.

Action Comics #1000 represents a watershed moment in the history of not just comic books, but entertainment, literature and pop culture,” said Lee. “There’s no better way to celebrate Superman’s enduring popularity than to give him a look that combines some new accents with the most iconic feature of his classic design.”

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