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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Usagi returns to Dark Horse this September

Stan Sakai’s rabbit samurai contends with the mystical villain Jei in a new miniseries.

Stan Sakai’s long-eared samurai, Usagi Yojimbo, will return to Dark Horse this fall in a new miniseries, Usagi Yojimbo: Ice and Snow. The five-issue miniseries is part of Sakai’s Dogu Publishing imprint, which Dark Horse announced last fall.

“I’m very excited, honored and thankful to have my own publishing imprint with Dark Horse,” Sakai said at the time. “As the sole creator and owner of Usagi Yojimbo, this is a significant milestone. I’ve known Mike Richardson for more than 30 years and he is one of the pioneers and champions of creator-owned IP. As the industry continues to change, I feel he brings a unique progressive perspective.”

Dark Horse published Usagi Yojimbo for about 20 years, up until 2019 when it moved to IDW. That relationship did not last long, but did result in several Usagi-related projects, including color versions of the famously black-and-white title and a graphic novel featuring Chibi Usagi. This new miniseries will be in color, thanks to HiFi Colour Design.

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Slugfest | Frank Miller draws a new variant cover featuring Wolverine

Plus: a manga tribute to Marvel, Star Trek’s ‘Day of Blood,’ Power Rangers, Oni Ronin and Whoopi Goldberg!

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

It’s been awhile since we’ve seen Frank Miller draw Wolverine. Before moving on to DC to work on Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Returns, Miller worked with writer Chris Claremont on the character’s first miniseries in the early 1980s, which, along with his work on Daredevil, established Miller as a top-tier creator.

Decades later, Miller has drawn a variant cover for Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance Alpha #1:

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Sunday Comics | New Emily Carroll comics debut on the web

Check out new comics by Skottie Young, Aaron Conley, Kagan Mcleod, J Bone 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.

Emily Carroll’s new graphic novel won’t arrive until August, but you can tide yourself over with two new comics on the creator’s website.

The first, A Pretty Place, is likely one you won’t see in print, or if you do, it won’t be the same experience. It’s an interactive comic about someone “visiting their lady,” and you can click around a map of the house to see what happens. If you’re familiar with Carroll’s work, then you can guess this is less of a romance and more of a horror comic.

Speaking of which, Carroll has also posted a fan comic for the game Bloodborne by FromSoftware.

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Young + Ramos’ Strange Academy story will wrap up with ‘Strange Academy: Finals’ #6

The creators set out to tell a 24-issue story, with the final issue arriving in April.

In an interview on Marvel.com and in his Substack newsletter, Strange Academy writer Skottie Young has revealed that the story he and Humberto Ramos set out to tell will come to an end with issue #6 of Strange Academy: Finals.

“We made it to the end,” Young told Marvel.com. “We planned this as a 24-issue story with a very specific set of goals in mind and we’ve made it!”

The first series, Strange Academy, launched in March of 2020 and ran for 18 issues, until this past summer. It introduced the titular institution, a school for young magicians started by Doctor Strange and featuring mystical instructors from around the Marvel universe, including Magik, Agatha Harkness and the Scarlet Witch. Bu the real focus was on the students, a set of new characters created by Young and Ramos. It returned in the Mighty Marvel fashion with a new title and a new first issue in October as Strange Academy: Finals.

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‘Miracleman’ #0 preview features Young Miracleman, Big Ben, a new Warpsmith and more

The one-shot anthology includes stories by Jason Aaron, Leinil Francis Yu, Ty Templeton, Ryan Stegman, Peach Momoko and more.

Marvel has revealed more details and some preview artwork from the upcoming Miracleman #0, a one-shot anthology that celebrates the character’s anniversary and return to comics. It will also preview Miracleman: The Silver Age, which marks the return of Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham to a story they began telling several decades ago.

Other creators contributing to the anthology include Jason Aaron, Leinil Francis Yu, Michael Carey, Ty Templeton, Ryan Stegman, Peach Momoko and Paul Davidson.

Stories in the special zero issue include, according to Marvel:

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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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Strange Academy returns in October with ‘Strange Academy: Finals’

Class is back in session, courtesy of Skottie Young and Humberto Ramos.

Marvel’s magical teens will return in October to finish out their freshman year in Strange Academy: Finals. Although the series receives a reboot with a new first issue, fans will be happy to know that the creative team of Skottie Young and Humberto Ramos are still in charge at the academy.

The first series, Strange Academy, ended just this past month with some heavy revelations and a field trip to the dark dimension. Young promises we’ll see the ramifications from the first series’ final issue.

“This is a real passion project for me and Humberto, and we’ve never had so much fun making this project,” Young said. “All of the high school teen drama between Dormammu’s son Doyle and Emily Bright is going to come back, but this is not just a continuation of the next day of class! You will see the ramifications of how the first series ended, and we’re going to be focusing on some really cool characters. And with the prophecy over the last few years…someone’s going to come out of this changed in a big way.”

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Mail Call | End of year free-for-all

Check out some recently released free comics from Cullen Bunn, Chip Zdarsky, Molly Knox Ostertag and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of cool things we’ve received in our mailboxes recently from comics creators, publishers and more. For this end of the year edition, we’re putting the spotlight on free comics that various creators have released over the last few weeks. Hit the links for more information, and check out our Comics Newsletter Directory for more newsletter goodness.

In the 100th issue of his Vicious Shivers newsletter, Cullen Bunn shared a new horror story he made with Federico de Luca and Micah Myers called “The Feast.”

“As we move toward the end of the year, I thought it might be fun to share an all-new 8-page horror comic with the world,” Bunn wrote. “Consider it a gift. Amazing artist Federico de Luca messaged me a few weeks back asking if I had a short script he could work from to try a new art style. I have had the script for ‘The Feast’ in my scripts folder for well over 12 years. It was originally written to be part of a small horror anthology, but that never happened. So, I’m so glad to see Federico’s take on the story. I love the way it turned out! Hmm. There was another story written for that anthology. Maybe I should have that one drawn, too.”

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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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Fábio Moon + Gabriel Bá create an ‘I Hate Fairyland’ comic for Skottie Young

Young released the unannounced comic on Substack today.

When Skottie Young announced he would release new I Hate Fairyland comics via his Substack newsletter earlier this year, he mentioned several creators he was working with on the stories — but he didn’t mention Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá.

But today Young posted a story by the creative team behind Daytripper and Two Brothers, featuring Gert and the gang, as part of his The Unbelievable, Unfortunately Mostly Unreadable and Nearly Unpublishable Untold Tales of I Hate Fairyland series of stories by different creators.

“After a few years away from Gert and the gang, I was starting to miss the energy of I Hate Fairyland and the stories I could tell only in that universe,” Young said in a press release. “I thought it was time to bring it back, but not only continue Gert’s ongoing saga, but also introduce short stories that fill in the many gaps in all the years she’s been in Fairyland. So I decided to reach out to some of my awesome cartoonist pals and invite them to join in on the fun.” 

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Mail Call | Sina Grace returns to write and draw ‘Rockstar and Softboy’

Today’s round-up includes news and announcements from Skottie Young, Ben Templesmith, Molly Knox Ostertag and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of cool things we’ve received in our mailboxes recently from comics publishers, creators and more. Hit the links for more information.

Sina Grace (Ghosted) is writing and drawing a new one-shot, Rockstar and Softboy, that Image Comics will publish next February.

Set in “Hollyweird, CA,” the story involves two roommates, a house party and the “dreaded party animal” who shows up to make a mess of things.

“As a fan of buddy movies like Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion and Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, it only just occurred to me that I can create a story of my very own where two gay besties throw a party that includes werewolves, vampires, zombies, witches and the reviled Party Animal,” said Grace. “Rockstar and Softboy is pure, frenzied, loving, ratchet friendship in a comic book.”

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