The Comics Super Blog!
See what the Smash Pages crew has checked off their “to read” list lately.
If you’re looking for something to read while sheltering in place, you’ve come to the right blog, as the Smash Pages crew has a whole mess of comics to talk about this week. So without further ado …
Continue reading “What Are You Reading? ‘Friday,’ Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel and more”The first installment of the digital series is available now.
Criminal writer Ed Brubaker is teaming up with Barrier artists Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente for a new Panel Syndicate title called Friday. It’s about a former girl detective/occult expert who returns home from college for the holidays and gets wrapped up in a new mystery.
“One of the first things I said to Marcos was that this book feels like Lovecraft’s New England is colliding with Edward Gorey’s,” said Brubaker. “And I like to describe Friday as post-YA, which is a genre that doesn’t really exist. It’s an idea I’ve been circling for a long time, that lets me tap into my own nostalgia for my youth and the YA books I loved back in the 70s and 80s – stuff like The Great Brain, or John Belliars books, or Harriet the Spy, or Encyclopedia Brown. I want to take that concept of the teen detective and those supernatural mysteries aimed at kids, but then let the protagonists grow up, so they have all the same problems we all do… and they encounter a much more dangerous world.”
Continue reading “Panel Syndicate announces ‘Friday’ by Brubaker + Martin + Vicente”The Panel Syndicate title arrives as a hardcover from Image Comics this fall.
BlackHand & IronHead, David Lopez’s 2017 digital comic published through Panel Syndicate, will make the jump to print later this year.
Image Comics announced via press release their intent to publish a hardcover collection of the comic in September.
“After many years working only as an artist in the big two, I’ve finally found the courage and I’ve written and drawn my own story, and I’m printing it in Image! Where the world’s best authors publish their works, this is a change of scale, suddenly my public is the whole world, can you believe it?!” said López. “BlackHand & IronHead is sincere, raw, unfiltered and personal, no obligations or compromises, exactly the story I imagined, that’s something I love as a reader and I hope people will love it from my book.”
Continue reading “David Lopez’s ‘BlackHand & IronHead’ coming to print”New series stars a cop with no back-up in a secluded Alaska town.
Jay Faerber (Copperhead, Noble Causes) and Michael Montenat (Dead Squad, The Fallen) have teamed up to produce a “pilot” issue of a new comic from Panel Syndicate — and if it’s well-received, they plan to do more.
Glacier City, which is available now on the Panel Syndicate website, tells the story of Police Chief Wes Cutter, the only law enforcement in a secluded Alaskan town “where everyone has a secret and his closest backup is hours away.”
Continue reading “Faerber + Montenat team for ‘pilot’ issue of ‘Glacier City’ from Panel Syndicate”
Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente’s pay-what-you-want digital comic lands at Image as a five-issue, weekly miniseries coming next May.
Diamond Comics Distributors has announced the 12 Gold Sponsor comic book titles for 2018’s Free Comic Book Day, which includes titles from DC, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, IDW and more. While many publishers use the opportunity to kick off events or new series, Image is doing something interesting this year — their FCBD title is Barrier #1, bringing to print Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente’s pay-what-you-want digital comic.
Continue reading “‘Barrier’ jumps to print on Free Comic Book Day 2018”
Download the first issue now at a price of your choosing.
Ken Niimura of Henshin and I Kill Giants fame is the latest creator to join the Panel Syndicate crew, the digital comics imprint started by Marcos Martin and Brian K. Vaughan.
Umami, a black-and-white comic written and drawn by Niimura, debuts today on the site. It’s the story of a chef, a cook, giant birds and a quest for salt. The first issue is available via Panel Syndicate’s “name your price” model, like every other book they offer.
Continue reading “Ken Niimura’s ‘Umami’ debuts from Panel Syndicate”
Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente’s digital comic about immigration and aliens wraps up.
Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente wrap up their second “pay what you want” digital comic today, as the fifth issue of Barrier arrives on the Panel Syndicate site.
Continue reading “Final issue of ‘Barrier’ arrives at Panel Syndicate”
The first issue of David Lopez’s new “pay what you want” comic features family, superheroes and surprises.
Former Fallen Angel and Captain Marvel artist David Lopez returned to creator-owned comics today with Blackhand Ironhead, a “comedy about family, with superheroes, not about superheroes.” Like all of Panel Syndicate‘s titles, you can pay what you’d like for the first issue.
Continue reading “‘Blackhand Ironhead’ debuts at Panel Syndicate”
Panel Syndicate, the digital imprint founded by Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin, has published a small yet impressive set of “pay what you want” comics since they launched in 2013, including The Private Eye and Barrier from its founders and Albert Monteys’ Universe.
Now it looks like another creator is joining the line-up, as artist David Lopez has been posting process art and a logo for a new project titled Blackhand Ironhead.
Continue reading “David Lopez teases new project from Panel Syndicate”
The first issue of the “unconventional drama about violence, language and illegal immigration” is available from the Panel Syndicate site now.
Following the teaser from last week, Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente have launched another pay-what-you-want digital series, the five-part Barrier.
In an email from their Panel Syndicate imprint, the creators described the comic as an “unconventional drama about violence, language and illegal immigration.” The first 53-page issue is available now for download from the Panel Syndicate site.
Barrier follows the award-winning The Private Eye, which the three creators launched in a similar manner back in 2013.
Check out some preview art from Barrier by Martin and Vicente below.
‘The Private Eye’ creative team teases a new project from their Panel Syndicate label.
Looks like the band is getting back together, as the creators of the excellent “pay as you go” digital comic The Private Eye — Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente — appear to be reuniting for another project from Panel Syndicate.
Both Panel Syndicate and Vaughan teased the new project on Twitter:
Ok, this THE PRIVATE EYE thing was fun but isn't it time for something new @HeyBKV , Marcos and Muntsa? pic.twitter.com/YGEO2wkY3R
— PanelSyndicate (@PanelSyndicate) November 25, 2015
Vaughan also clarified that this is NOT the exclusive The Walking Dead comic that was announced last summer at Image Expo — which is something else we still have to look forward to.
The Private Eye was an interesting experiment — two top-of-their-game creators going out and creating something wonderful, then offering each issue digitally for whatever price their audience was willing to pay. It seems to have worked, as Vaughan said last September:
Even though readers can still pay whatever they want for our DRM-free files (including nothing!), artist Marcos Martin, colorist Muntsa Vicente and I are proud to reveal that The Private Eye is already well into the six figures for both issues downloaded AND dollars earned … and that’s without advertising, corporate backers, Comixology-like distributors, or even a Kickstarter campaign.
If you prefer print, a hardcover of The Private Eye is due out from Image Comics next month. And you can check the teaser out for the new project — in English and Spanish — below.
