Sunday Comics | ‘Heartstopper’ will return in April

Plus: Get Dinosaur Comics texted to you! And check out some recent award nominees.

Here’s a round-up of some of the best webcomics we’ve seen online recently — and news about them as well. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

Heartstopper, the mega-popular webcomic by Alice Oseman that’s been adapted into a series on Netflix, will return from hiatus in April. The announcement came on Twitter from Oseman’s official account.

“The Heartstopper webcomic returns to Tapas, Webtoon, and Tumblr on the 1st April 2023! (I promise this isn’t an April Fool’s joke lol),” the tweet read.

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Venom gets extreme — and an anthology series — in May

‘Extreme Venomverse’ arrives just in time for ‘Death of the Venomverse’ and ‘Summer of Symbiotes,’ as Venom celebrates his 35-year anniversary.

How easy would it be to apply the template of the Spider-Verse to Venom? We’ll find out later this year, as Marvel has announced Extreme Venomverse, an anthology series that will feature various versions of Venom from around the multiverse.

This year is the 35th anniversary of the character, who was created by Todd McFarlane and David Michelinie and had his first, full appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #300. But you have to tip your hat to the creators of Amazing Spider-Man #252 — Roger Stern, Todd DeFalco, Mike Zeck and Ron Frenz — for creating Spider-Man’s black alien costume. And are you familiar with Randy Schueller? He was a comics fan who came up with the idea for putting Spider-Man in a black costume.

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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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North + Henderson are back together for ‘Danger and Other Unknown Risks’

The young-adult graphic novel about the end of the world arrives next April.

Ryan North and Erica Henderson, who cracked people up with their work on Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, will reunite for a new graphic novel titled Danger and Other Unknown Risks. The young-adult title is due out in April of next year from Penguin Teen.

The publisher describes it as “a twisty, spellbinding adventure about a girl and her dog who want to save the world.”

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Learn ‘How to Take Over the World’ from Ryan North

The comic book writer announces his new book, which features tips on supervillainy using known science.

When he’s not writing comics like The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and Slaughterhouse-Five, Ryan North works in the realm of non-non-fiction, putting out handy guides like How to Invent Everything, a must-have manual for time travelers, and the just-announced How to Take Over the World.

This new book introduces readers to “the science of supervillainy” and could be your ticket to a new line career path.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Ryan North and Albert Monteys

North and Monteys discuss how they approached adapting Kurt Vonnegut’s ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ into a graphic novel.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut is one of the seminal novels of postwar America. Part science fiction tale, part story of World War II and the firebombing of Dresden from the point of view of American POWs, the story of Billy Pilgrim was an immensely important novel and for many their introduction to the late, great novelist Kurt Vonnegut. It is also not an easy book to adapt and defies adaptation in a number of ways, which makes the success of the new graphic novel all the more impressive.

Ryan North is the person behind the weekly Dinosaur Comics, the writer of Marvel’s The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and the writer of How To Invent Everything. This isn’t his first time tackling literary legends after writing Romeo and/or Juliet and To Be Or Not To Be (both with the help of William Shakespeare). Albert Monteys is an artist and illustrator know for his work on the weekly magazine El Jueves, the series Carlitos Fax and the monthly publication Orgullo y Satisfacción, which he co-founded. His comic Universe! was published online by Panel Syndicate and nominated for an Eisner in 2017. 

As someone who has read almost everything Vonnegut ever wrote and has always held the book in great regard, the graphic novel manages to capture and reinvent the spirit and the substance of the book in ways that are shocking, making the story a new experience, even though I knew the text so well. I had to ask the duo a few questions about how they worked and their own relationship to the material.

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North +Monteys’ ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ adaptation arrives Sept. 9

Archaia will bring Kurt Vonnegut’s classic anti-war novel to comic shops.

Archaia’s adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade became unstuck in time this week, as the BOOM! Studios imprint announced the graphic novel will arrive in comic shops Sept. 9 and in bookstores Sept. 15.

The anti-war novel will be adapted by writer Ryan North (The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl) and artist Albert Monteys (Universe!), with colors by Ricard Zaplana. Archaia also revealed the cover:

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Carey, Caselli, North, Uy venture into the ‘Negative Zone’

‘Fantastic Four: Negative Zone’ brings two stories in November.

The Fantastic Four will head into the Negative Zone this fall, courtesy of another fantastic foursome — Mike Carey and Stefano Caselli, along with Ryan North and Steve Uy.

Fantastic Four: Negative Zone will feature two stories, the first of which will feature the FF heading into the Negative Zone to deal with the fallout from one of Reed’s experiments — one that didn’t go that well. Carey and Caselli will tell that story.

“The very first Marvel comic I ever read was Fantastic Four #62, a Negative Zone story entitled ‘And One Shall Save Him!’ Maybe for that reason, both the FF and the Negative Zone have always seemed to me to be part of the Marvel Universe’s center of gravity — and part of my imaginative comfort zone,” Carey said. “In writing this story, I was trying to capture some of the anarchic wonder and craziness of those early FF epics. Do I love my job? Why yes, I do.”

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Kickstarter ‘Gold’ brings back 7 comic projects

‘Black,’ ‘Plume,’ ‘The Secret Loves of Geek Girls” and more get remixed as they return to the crowdfunding site for another go.

Kickstarter is giving new life to several of their past campaigns, including seven of them from the comics category.

“Kickstarter Gold” brings back projects by creators who were “specially selected for their creativity, ingenuity and past success on Kickstarter,” the site reads. “We’re spotlighting them because they do excellent work — and because creators who repeatedly use Kickstarter to support and sustain creative ventures are an integral part of our community’s ecosystem.”

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New site, The Pushpin, offers prints by comic artists

Featured artists include Ryan North, Kate Beaton, Johnnie Christmas, Michael Cho, Jeff Lemire, Chip Zdarsky and more.

If your walls crave some comic art love, The Pushpin has your hookup. The new site is selling giclée prints featuring artwork by Kate Beaton, Johnnie Christmas, Michael Cho, Jeff Lemire, Sarah Lazarovic, Christian Northeast and many more. In addition, they’re selling Pushpin Originals, which are exclusive prints by Kagan McLeod, Ryan North and Chip Zdarsky — including Zdarsky’s humorous “Solar System” print.

“Science is more important than ever. And even more important than science, is letting people know how much you love science,” Zdarsky said about his Pushpin Original. ”So I wanted to create a poster that could convey to your houseguests that you’d be perfectly at home retweeting Neil deGrasse Tyson, or that you read National Geographic magazines as a kid. My highly informative information graphic on THE SOLAR SYSTEM™ does just that.”

Science teachers may have some issues with it:

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