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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Slugfest | Martinbrough + Greene take Red Hood back to ‘The Hill’

Plus: News and announcements on Marvel’s Godzilla series, John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando, Ultimate Spider-Man, Sinister Sons and more.

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

Shawn Martinbrough will return to write Jason Todd again next year with Red Hood: The Hill, a miniseries that follows his work on the character’s previous series. Sanford Greene will draw the six-issue series.

Here’s how DC describes the series:

In Gotham City’s early days, The Hill was one of Gotham City’s most dangerous neighborhoods, one that required the residents to band together to keep themselves safe when the police – and sometimes even Batman – wouldn’t.

Now, as the Hill finds itself gentrifying, old habits die hard as the vigilante known only as Strike works with her team to keep the town safe—but she’s not alone. Jason Todd, one of the Hill’s newest residents, is more than happy to don the visage of Red Hood to help Strike keep his new home safe. But a new villain is emerging from the shadows. Will Red Hood, Strike and the Hill’s small militia of vigilantes be able to keep their home safe? This series features a main cover by series artist Greene, with a variant cover by Tirso Cons.

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Slugfest | SDCC news + more

Today’s round-up includes items on Ms. Marvel, ‘Operation Sunshine,’ Zod, Supergirl and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you from comics creators, publishers and more. Today’s edition includes some San Diego news we didn’t get to this past week, plus a few other items to note. Hit the links for more information.

If you read the Hellfire Gala 2023 special this week, then you know Ms. Marvel is playing a big role in what happens next to our favorite mutants. At San Diego, Marvel revealed more about Ms. Marvel: The New Mutant, the Fall of X miniseries featuring the recently resurrected Inhuman/mutant.

Here’s a look at the covers for the first three issues, along with the solicitation information (which was “hidden” when Marvel originally released their solicitations, to keep everything a surprise).

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‘Minor Threats’ gets a spinoff miniseries starring ‘The Alternates’

Tim Seeley, Christopher Mitten and Tess Fowler join Patton Oswalt and Jordan Blum on the September-debuting series.

Minor Threats, the genre-bending superhero mystery by Patton Oswalt, Jordan Blum and Scott Hepburn, will get a spinoff miniseries in September. Oswalt and Blum will be joined by co-writer Tim Seeley, with Christopher Mitten and Tess Fowler on art.

“I love the first Minor Threats series so much that I couldn’t help but imagine another team of lovable losers in their world–this time, a squad of forgotten superheroes who got rebooted, and now crave their old lives so bad it borders on addiction,” Seeley said. “Jordan and Patton not only liked the idea, they added their creativity to make something that fits their universe perfectly!”

While Minor Threats paid tribute to the Bronze Age of comics and the “grim and gritty” titles of the 1980s, From the World of Minor Threats: The Alternates has a different era in its heart.

“If the first Minor Threats series was a love letter to the c-list working class supervillains, then The Alternates is one for the early Vertigo comics of the 90s like Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing and Animal Man,” said Blum. “Forgotten goofy heroes pulled into a suddenly ‘mature’ existence that both humanizes and alienates them. Tim is such a master and historian of comics, we were so thrilled with the new sandbox he built for us all to play in — once again offering a fresh and unique point of view we hadn’t yet seen explored in superhero comics. This story of existence, addiction, recovery and monster smashing was beautifully rendered thanks to the art of Christopher Mitten and paintings by Tess Fowler. “

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‘Black Hammer: The End’ will bring ‘a whole new beginning’ to the Black Hammer story

Jeff Lemire and Malachi Ward continue the story from ‘Black Hammer Reborn’ in August.

Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston’s Black Hammer universe will continue in August with Black Hammer: The End, which, despite the title continues the ongoing story and picks up right after Black Hammer Reborn. Lemire will write the series, with Malachi Ward providing the art.

They’ll be joined by letterer Nate Piekos for a world-hopping adventure that will bring a return to Black Hammer Farm, the place where everything started.

Black Hammer Reborn left the Black Hammer Universe on quite a cliffhanger,” said Lemire,”and now we’ll find out what happens next! Black Hammer: The End is a story I’ve been building across the various Black Hammer books for years now. It will pull storylines, and characters, from all the various series into one massive story which will both be a conclusion of all we’ve been doing, but also usher in a fresh start, and a whole new beginning, for the Black Hammer Universe!”

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Gert returns for more mayhem in a new ‘I Hate Fairyland’ series

Skottie Young and Brett Bean chronicle the adventures of an adult Gert who has returned to the real world.

Skottie Young’s fairy tale gone horribly wrong, I Hate Fairyland, will return for a second series in November at Image Comics.

While Young will continue to write the series, this time he won’t be drawing it — instead, he’ll be joined by artist Brett Bean on the series. They’ll team with colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu and letterer Nate Piekos, who worked on the first series.

I Hate Fairyland follows the adventures of Gert, a young girl who ends up trapped in Fairyland and has to go on a quest to find her way home. Some 30 years later, she’s still there, and while she hasn’t aged physically, she has developed a very sour attitude about the place where she’s trapped.

The original series, which won a Ringo Award back in 2017, ran for 20 issues before going in hiatus. Young announced its return on Substack last year, and since then his newsletter has featured Fairyland stories by other creators (such as Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá. He’s said those side stories will eventually be collected in print as well.

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Young + Strahm’s ‘Twig’ will debut next year

Young teases the new series about a fantastical journey.

Skottie Young and Kyle Strahm will debut a new comic at Image Comics next summer called Twig. A teaser for the comic appeared in the final issue of The Me You Love in the Dark, which came out earlier this month.

Young and Strahm will be joined by colorist Jean-Francois Beaulieu and letterer Nate Piekos, both of whom worked with Young and artist Jorge Corona on The Me You Love in the Dark. The teaser says the comic will be about “a fantastical journey of hope, heartache and the determination to overcome insurmountable odds.”

Here’s the teaser:

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Mail Call | New release dates for the Milestone revival

Catch up on news and announcements from Dark Horse, Vault Comics, DC, Z2 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.

DC Comics has modified their plans for the upcoming Milestone Media relaunch. The three launch titles — Static, Icon and Rocket, and Hardware — will no longer arrive digitally before they come out in print. Instead, they’ll be released in both formats on the same day, as well as on DC Universe Infinite. Both Static and Icon and Rocket will come out later, but Hardware will be published earlier than originally announced. The new dates (and creative teams for each title) are:

  • Static: Season One, written by Vita Ayala, with layouts by CHRISCROSS, finishes by Nikolas Draper-Ivey with covers by Khary Randolph launches in print and digital on June 15.
  • Icon and Rocket: Season One, co-written by Reggie Hudlin and Leon Chills, with art by Doug Braithwaite and covers by Taurin Clarke launches in print and digital on July 27.
  • Hardware: Season One, written by Brandon Thomas, with art by Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz with covers by Mateus Mahanini, launches in print and digital on August 10.
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DC launches ‘Let Them Live!’ on DC Universe Infinite

A lost Suicide Squad story written in 2011 surfaces on DC’s digital comics system.

When DC relaunched their DC Universe Infinite service last month, they promised exclusive content for subscribers. Today brought the first DCUI-exclusive comic, titled Let Them Live!: Unpublished Tales from the DC Vault, featuring a “lost” Suicide Squad story by Jim Zub, Tradd Moore, Felipe Sobreiro and Nate Piekos.

The story will be the first of several released by DC under this title, which seems like a way for them to clean out their files and share comics that were commissioned but never published. In fact, each issue will feature a framing sequence by Elliott Kalan, Mike Norton and Marissa Louise starring Ambush Bug — who has taken a job as a night janitor at the DC offices, where he finds the unreleased comics and provides commentary.

Future issues will include:

  • Let Them Live! #2 — a Nightwing story by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, Jorge Corona, Mat Lopes and Carlos M. Mangual — debuting Feb. 16 with a frame story by Elliott Kalan, Mike Norton and Marissa Louise. Let them Live! #3 — a Batman story by Scott Bryan Wilson, John Paul Leon, Dave Stewart and Deron Bennet — debuting 3/2 with a frame story by Elliott Kalan, Mike Norton and Marissa Louise.
  • Let them Live! #3 — a Batman story by Scott Bryan Wilson, John Paul Leon, Dave Stewart and Deron Bennet — debuting March 2 with a frame story by Elliott Kalan, Mike Norton and Marissa Louise.
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New ‘Beasts of Burden’ miniseries tells a story from the past

‘Beasts of Burden: Occupied Territory’ heads to post-WW2 Japan in April.

The Eisner-winning Beasts of Burden returns in April with a new miniseries, Beasts of Burden: Occupied Territory.

Writers Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer tell a story set in post-World War II, as a member of the Wise Dogs must deal with a curse that creates an army of crawling heads. They’re joined by artist Benjamin Dewey and letterer Nate Piekos, while series co-creator Jill Thompson will provide a variant cover for issue #4.

“I’m very excited to have a new Beasts of Burden story for the fans and I’m extremely happy with the way everything came together working with Sarah, Benjamin and Nate,” Dorkin said. “Why post-war Japan? I used to half-jokingly ask editor Daniel Chabon if we could have his Shiba Inu, Zell. He said we should have a Shiba in the series, instead. One thing led to another, one idea led to three more, and that’s where our latest story of dogs fighting supernatural evil ended up.”

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Ringo Awards winners announced

Annual awards ceremony recognizes ‘the creativity, skill and fun of comics.’

The winners for the 2020 Ringo Awards were announced today, marking the fourth year for the awards program named for artist Mike Wieringo, who passed away in 2007.

The awards were presented virtually as part of the Baltimore Comic Con‘s online programming, and started with an introduction and keynote from Kevin Smith and Geoff Johns. It was also live, which led to some logistical/technical issues as they tried to “cut over” to winners for their acceptance speeches.

Here are the winners, in the order they were presented during the ceremony. They include the “fan favorite” awards, which have a different process than the rest of the awards. You can find more details on the process here.

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Killjoys will make more noise this fall

‘The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys: National Anthem’ will arrive in October from Gerard Way, Shaun Simon, Leonardo Romero and Dark Horse Comics.

It’s been about seven years since Gerard Way, Shaun Simon and Becky Cloonan teamed up for The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, the comic book spinoff of the My Chemical Romance album of the same name. Well, look alive, sunshine: The Killjoys, just like My Chemical Romance, are returning, in the new miniseries The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys: National Anthem from Dark Horse Comics.

According to Alternative Press, Simon and Way will be joined by illustrator Leonardo Romero, colorist Jordie Bellaire, and letterer Nate Piekos for the new series. Cloonan will return, but only to do variant covers:

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