Mail Call | ‘TerrorWar’ debuts from Saladin Ahmed + Dave Acosta

Check out recent news and updates from Saladin Ahmed, Top Shelf, IDW, James Tynion IV, Kyle Higgins and more.

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

Saladin Ahmed posted the first pages of TerrorWar this week, the comic he first announced when he launched the paid version of his Substack newsletter. Drawn by Dave Acosta and Jay Leisten, the comic is about a city where people’s worst fears have come to life somehow, and the terrorfighters who face them with really big guns.

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New graphic novel will cover NY State Senator Julia Salazar’s first year in office

The 27-year-old democratic socialist was the youngest woman ever elected to New York’s state senate.

Following in the (large) footprints left by March and They Called Us Enemy, Top Shelf will publish Radical: My Year with a Socialist Senator by Sofia Warren next year.

The graphic novel will chronicle Warren’s time with Julia Salazar, the 27-year-old democratic socialist who became the youngest woman to ever be elected to New York’s state senate in 2018. Warren was embedded with Salazar’s staff during her first year in office.

“So much of this experience was a surprise to me,” said Warren, “that for their entire first legislative session, Julia and her staff let me be in the room; that ‘the room’ was just as often a food court, or a senior center, or a march in the middle of a blizzard; that they were as open with me about their frustrations as they were about their victories; and that I — an introverted, cynical millennial living through the Trump presidency — could leave the experience so motivated and inspired. I hope that readers leave this book feeling the same.”

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Mail Call | Tynion offers first ‘Blue Book’ for free

Check out news and updates from Marvel, Dark Horse, Top Shelf, Image Comics 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.

James Tynion IV was one of the first creators out of the gate with his plans for his premium Substack newsletter subscription, announcing a new comic called Blue Book with artist Michael Avon Oeming that he planned to share with paid subscribers.

But even if you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can still check out the first one, which he posted for free a couple days ago.

Blue Book is a passion project for myself and Michael Avon Oeming,” Tynion wrote. “We share a lifelong fascination with UFOs and a lifelong frustration with how those stories have been adapted into other media. There is a strangeness in the original accounts of UFO sightings that usually gets swept aside, but Michael and I want to lean into the strangeness. These are human stories of ordinary people who brush against the unknown and must grapple with what they see there. There is a deeper truth, whether you believe in the accounts or not, that lies in the many ways people tell these stories.”

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Top Shelf will publish Peter and Maria Hoey’s ‘Animal Stories’

Top Shelf will release the six-story collection in December.

Top Shelf Comix has announced a new graphic novel by Peter and Maria Hoey, creators of Coin-Op Comics.

Animal Stories will collect six stories by the siblings that explore “the mysterious relationships between humans and other animals.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: Kim Dwinell on ‘The Science of Surfing’

The creator of ‘The Surfside Girls’ graphic novels focuses on the science of the ocean in her new nonfiction graphic novel from Top Shelf.

Kim Dwinell made a splash with her comics debut, The Surfside Girls, and its sequel. The two fictional mystery books were about a pair of friends, Sam and Jade, who explored the natural world and the historical past of their fictional seaside town.

Dwinell’s new book is The Science of Surfing: A Surfside Girls Guide to the Ocean, which is a nonfiction book, but it feels very much like her other books. Some of this is simply because the book is narrated by the two main characters of the series, but it goes beyond the style of the book. Dwinell has from the beginning been interested in building a fictional world that is a character in its own right, but in finding ways to present a very tactile world to readers.

This new book is a nonfiction book that is just as masterfully told as her comics debut was. The book is out this month, and we spoke recently about how science is more than math, finding joy in nature and crafting a field guide to the Southern California coast for surfers.

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‘Cosmoknights’ webcomic returns June 4

Hannah Templer’s ‘epic lesbian-gladiators-in-space adventure’ returns to the web next week, with another graphic novel planned for 2022.

Hannah Templer’s Cosmoknights will return to the web next week, while Top Shelf plans to collect the second volume into a graphic novel next year.

The first volume, which was recently nominated for Nutmeg Award, introduced a universe where “mech-suited warriors duel over the daughters of the aristocracy, and a fledgling resistance of lady knights aim to bring down the system from within.”

Templer has also revealed the cover for the second volume:

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Melo + Cavia compose a ‘Ballad for Sophie’

Top Shelf will release the graphic novel this September.

Top Shelf will publish Ballad for Sophie, a new music-themed graphic novel by Filipe Melo and Juan Cavia in September.

Melo, a Portuguese musician, award-winning film director and comic book writer, teams with his frequent artistic partner for this new graphic novel about a musician who tells his life story to a journalist in a story that spans the 20th century.

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‘They Called Us Enemy’ wins the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics

The graphic novel by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott and Harmony Becker adds another award to its shelf.

They Called Us Enemy, the graphic novel that recounts the experiences of actor George Takei and his family when they were interned by the United States government during World War II, has added another award to its already long list of accolades — the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics.

The sixth annual Dwayne McDuffie Award was presented over the weekend in a virtual ceremony hosted by actor Phil LaMarr and broadcast on Facebook.

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Mail Call | DC in May brings Star Girl and more

A round-up of news from DC, Marvel, Oni Press 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 released their May solicitations on Friday, and with them came several announcements and reveals throughout the week. In addition to the new Wonder Girl, Mister Miracle and Future State: Gotham projects, DC announced they will release two interesting one-shots — the first being Star Girl one-shot, featuring not only the star of the hit CW show, but also the Seven Soldiers of Victory. It’s by the character’s co-creator, Geoff Johns, and artist Todd Nauck.

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Mail Call | Marvel celebrates 80 years of Captain America

A round-up of news and announcements from Marvel, DC, Top Shelf, Z2 Comics, AfterShock 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.

Marvel will pay tribute to the 80th anniversary of Captain America next year with a special project involving John Cassaday, Alex Ross, Marguerite Sauvage, David Lapham, Declan Shalvey and many more. Captain America Tribute #1, coming from Marvel in March, will feature a bunch of current artists redrawing both Captain America Comics #1 and Avengers #4, with each page by a different artist.

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Mail Call | John Ridley makes his Marvel debut in January

A round-up of news from Marvel, IDW, Top Shelf 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.

Academy Award winner John Ridley has several projects in the works at DC right now, but DC’s not the only publisher he’s doing work for. Marvel has announced that the writer of 12 Years A Slave will have a story in Wolverine: Black, White and Blood #3. The anthology series will feature short stories about the popular mutant, told in black and white … and red. Jorge Fornés is the artist on his story.

“I can think of no better way to kick off my writing relationship with Marvel Comics than by contributing to a truly fantastic anthology series centered around Wolverine,” Ridley told Marvel.com. “Equally exciting is having the story illustrated by Jorge Fornés. I look forward to writing more stories set in the Marvel Universe, and with their roster of iconic characters.”

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Mail Call | Fantastic Four take a ‘Road Trip’ in December

A round-up of news from DC, Marvel, Image and more.

Fresh from saving the Earth from being destroyed by the sun in Empyre, the Fantastic Four will get a much-needed vacation in a one-shot by new Iron Man scribe Christopher Cantwell and artist Filipe Andrade. It’s titled Fantastic Four: Road Trip, and it features family fun, a station wagon … and a Reed Richards experiment gone wrong.

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