Stan Sakai will pay tribute to his late brother in the next ‘Usagi Yojimbo’ miniseries

The five-issue ‘Usagi Yojimbo: The Thousand Plums’ will debut in March.

Stan Sakai’s Usagi Yojimbo will return in a new miniseries next March, featuring two different stories — “Ten Thousand Plums” and “Tabo.” That second story, in particular, has significant meaning for Sakai, as it pays tribute to his deceased brother.

“‘Tabo’ is very personal to me,” Sakai said. “It was written as a tribute to my younger brother, Kenneth, a month after he passed away and was inspired by his struggles during his last days. I cherish the time growing up with him in Hawaii. When she saw how deeply I felt about this story, Emi (Fujii) volunteered to color it as she knew Kenneth and his gentle spirit.”

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Solomon Kane will return to comics next year

Patrick Zircher will write and draw a new series coming from Titan Comics in 2025.

Titan Comics and Heroic Signatures, who own the Robert E. Howard stable of characters, will team up for a new Solomon Kane title coming next year.

Solomon Kane joins the myriad of Conan titles that Titan is currently producing, and the character appeared in the recent Conan-centered crossover series Battle of the Black Stone. Patrick Zircher will write, draw and color the series, he confirmed on BlueSky.

Mike Mignola did the first issue’s cover:

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Your 2025 FCBD line-up includes Spider-Man, Speed Racer, VR Troopers + more

Free comics from Marvel, Archie, Dark Horse, Mad Cave, BOOM! and more will be available next year on May 3.

Diamond has revealed the “Gold Sponsor” comic publishers and titles for Free Comic Book Day 2025, which includes Marvel, Mad Cave, BOOM!, Dark Horse and more. Thirteen comics from the gold sponsors will be available during next year’s event, which is scheduled for May 5.

“We’re excited for another fantastic year of celebrating comic books and the shops that make them special,” said Ashton Greenwood, Free Comic Book Day spokesperson. “This year’s selection has something for every kind of fan. Whether you’re new to comics or a longtime reader, you’re sure to find a title that grabs your attention.”

An additional 33 titles in the “Silver Sponsor” tier will be revealed tomorrow, although Marvel has already revealed three more titles they’ll offer, in addition to their two gold titles. DC is not mentioned in the announcement, as their books are not distributed by Diamond, but I’m sure they’ll have something on FCBD as well.

Check out the list of titles below:

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Mad Cave + Tatsunoko will partner on ‘Speed Racer’ comics

Speed, Trixie, Racer X and more will return to comics.

Mad Cave Studios and Tatsunoko Production will expand their partnership next year with a comic adaptation of Speed Racer, the popular manga-turned-anime that aired in the United States in the late 1960s.

No details have been shared yet on when a comic (or comics) will launch or who the creative team might be. Tatsunoko owns the license for Gatchaman, known to some as Battle of the Planets here in the U.S., and Mad Cave has been working with them on their new line of Gatchaman comics that debuted earlier this year.

“Speed Racer is one of Tatsunoko’s most beloved properties and we’re excited to partner with Mad Cave Studios to bring new and original stories to fans of all generations,” said Mari Yamauchi from Tatsunoko Production in a press statement. “Tatsunoko is incredibly happy with Mad Cave’s work on Gatchaman and we look forward to continuing our journey together with Speed Racer.”

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Two Thunderbolts teams face off in ‘Thunderbolts: Doomstrike’

The ‘One World Under Doom’ tie-in series starts in February.

If you read the most recent Thunderbolts series you know that Bucky Barnes and company inadvertently did Doctor Doom a solid. That doesn’t sit well with Bucky, so he’s pulling the band back together — along with some new members — to face off with Doom and his own team of Thunderbolts.

The five-issue series is written by Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing, with art by Tommaso Bianchi. In addition to characters like the Winter Soldier, Black Widow and Red Guardian, it’ll also feature the return of many of the original Thunderbolts, including Songbird, Moonstone, Atlas and Fixer.

“We can’t wait for folks to see what Ryan (North) and company have planned for One World Under Doom – a Marvel event with brains, heart and incredible scope,” Kelly and Lanzing said. “The Thunderbolts are a crucial part of the puzzle: this is the story of what happens when heroes openly oppose Doom… and how they’ll have to learn to fight differently if they’re ever to make a difference.”

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Thunderbolt Ross faces off with Doom in Benjamin Percy + Geoff Shaw’s ‘Red Hulk’

The One World Under Doom tie-in series begins in February.

The Sabretooth War team of Benjamin Percy and Geoff Shaw are moving to a new front, as they put the Red Hulk under the thumb of the new sorcerer supreme Doctor Doom … and as you can imagine, that doesn’t really work for Thunderbolt Ross.

Red Hulk #1 arrives in February, right around the time the character will make an appearance in the fourth Captain America movie. It’ll tie into Marvel’s bigger publishing initiative, One World Under Doom.

“When I learned about the One World Under Doom event, my mind immediately went to Thunderbolt Ross,” Percy said. “A global takeover would not be tolerated by a man who bleeds red, white and blue (but especially red). And his experience—as a soldier in the field, as a military strategist in the war room, as a walking weapon of mass destruction—would make him someone Doom would target well before he made his move.”

So Ross is Doom’s pick for his secretary of defense — I can think of worse choices. At least he’s qualified, right?

“I proposed a story in which Ross would be kidnapped by Doom and forced into a ‘Think Tank’ prison in which he would test out various war-time scenarios,” Percy said. “That’s where we begin: in a book that does not give you a second to breathe. It moves and moves and moves with constant action and tension.”

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Zatanna is ‘llA nI’ in a new series by Jamal Campbell

The six-issue miniseries will cast its spell next February.

DC will continue to roll out new series in February as part of their All In initiative, with Zatanna joining the line-up in a new miniseries written and drawn by Jamal Campbell.

Unlike the recent Black Label series, Zatanna: Bring Down the House, this one is set in DC’s current continuity and will feature several familiar faces like Blue Devil and Madame Xanadu. It’ll also introduce a new villain, The Lady White.

“Wonder, mystery, mischief, and fishnets make up the core of a quintessential Zatanna Zatara stage show, and it’s high time she returned to the spotlight,” said Campbell. “In her newest DC Comics series, Zatanna is dragged down a rabbit hole of cursed swords, hidden truths and multiple brushes with death. She’ll need all her wits and every spell she can muster in order to make it out the other side in one piece.”

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Can’t Wait for Wednesday | ‘G.I. Joe’ brings its battle against Cobra to the Energon Universe

Check out new comics and graphic novels arriving in stores this week by Joshua Williamson, Tom Reilly, Brandon Thomas, Fico Ossio, Joe Kelly, Ed McGuinness, Melissa Flores, Michael Yg, Ryan North, Derek Charm, Tom Siddell, Alyssa Wong and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital. I don’t have much to say this week, so let’s get to it!

I’ve pulled out some of the other highlights for this week below, but for the complete list of everything you might find at your local comic shop and on digital this week, you’ll want to check out one or more of the following:

As a reminder, things can change and what you find on the above lists may differ from what’s actually arriving in your local shop. So always check with your comics retailer for the final word on availability.

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Oni announces ‘The Goddamn Tragedy’ by Chris Condon + Shawn Kuruneru

The vicious Western draws from the real-life story of the Donner Party.

That Texas Blood writer Chris Condon is teaming up with Fishflies artist Shawn Kuruneru for the Western thriller The Goddamn Tragedy, a new graphic novel that Oni Press will publish next year.

While the story is fiction, it does draw from the real-life tale of the Donner Party in the mid-1800s, whose ill-fated journey from Illinois to California became infamous when members of the party resorted to murder and cannibalism during a harsh winter spent in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

“I had been reading about the tragic Donner Party of 1846 and an idea struck me: there’s a story here to tell, one that could capture the psychological tumult a family endures as they are faced with an impossible decision: kill…or be killed,” Condon said. “We all know how the Donner Party played out, but we don’t know how things work out for the Janson family and that’s a story that the masterful Shawn Kuruneru and I are all too excited to tell. Thankfully, we’ve found a great home for this one-shot of survivalist terror at Oni Press who excels at telling gut-wrenching tales from beyond the pale.”

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Cryptozoic Entertainment is reprinting the DC Heroes RPG for its 40th anniversary

The role-playing game returns via a crowdfunding campaign for ‘definitive archival editions.’

The long out-of-print DC Heroes RPG will return next year from Cryptozoic Entertainment, who are planning to crowdfund a 40th anniversary edition of the popular role-playing game.

Originally published by Mayfair Games, DC Heroes came out during the height of popularity for role-playing games in the 1980s, debuting about a year after TSR’s Marvel Super-Heroes RPG. It coincided with Crisis on Infinite Earths, the event comic that consolidated DC’s multiverse onto one Earth, and it included both pre-Crisis and post-Crisis write-ups of various heroes and villains. It was followed by a Batman-specific version in 1989, when the Tim Burton film was released, with a full second edition coming later that year. A third edition came out around the time of the Death of Superman event in 1993.

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‘Kill Your Darlings’ wins the 2024 Ignyte Award

Ethan S. Parker, Griffin Sheridan and Bob Quinn win in the “Outstanding Comics Team” category.

Congratulations to Kill Your Darlings creators Ethan S. Parker, Griffin Sheridan and Bob Quinn, who have won the 2024 Ignyte Award in the “Outstanding Comics Team” category.

The annual awards program “celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscapes of science fiction, fantasy and horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts toward inclusivity of the genre.” It’s sponsored by FIYAH Magazine, the quarterly Black speculative fiction magazine.

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X-O Manowar faces the ultimate test in this preview of next week’s one-shot

Fred Van Lente and Jesus Barrios pit Aric against Ravenrok in this ‘Resurgence of the Valiant Universe’ tie-in.

The Resurgence of the Valiant Universe continues next Wednesday with a one-shot featuring one of the pillars of Valiant’s line, and we’ve got your exclusive preview right here.

Resurgence of the Valiant Universe: X-O Manowar finds Aric on an alien world, separated from his sentiment alien armor and being hunted. Can he survive without his armor? This issue is by Fred Van Lente and Jesus Barrios, and features our favorite Visigoth warrior in a showdown with Ravenrok, who may be a new threat to Aric , but Valiant readers will recognize from Van Lente’s work on Psi-Lords.

You can check out the preview below, along with the issue’s variant covers by Leo Lujan, Richard Ortiz and Guillermo Fajardo.

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