Che Grayson + Adam Gorham put the spotlight on another ‘Exquisite Corpses’ killer

‘Exquisite Corpses: Fox Mask Killer’ reveals the backstory of the franchise’s most enigmatic assassin in a five-issue miniseries arriving in September.

Tiny Onion and Image Comics have announced the next Exquisite Corpses spinoff: Exquisite Corpses: Fox Mask Killer, a five-issue series from Che Grayson and Adam Gorham that launches in September.

The two creators previously worked together on Exquisite Corpses #4, which featured the showdown between Fox Mask Killer and another of the killers, Lady Carolina. Colorist Jordie Bellaire and letterer Becca Carey, both of whom are also working on the first Exquisite Corpse spinoff, Rascal Randy, round out the creative team.

Grayson said the miniseries will reveal the face behind the mask, something the original series kept hidden, along with the character’s full backstory.

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Vault Comics announces cryptid sf series ‘Project Perseus’

Jack Mulqueen and Edison Neo present a time-traveling, cryptid-hunting adventure designed to be too ‘batshit insane’ for any medium but comics.

Vault Comics has announced Project Perseus by writer Jack Mulqueen and artist Edison Neo, a cryptid science-fiction series arriving in September.

The series is about a disgraced member of a cryptid-hunting squadron who has to sober up from a decade-long bender to track down a former friend who has vanished with a time-traveling apparatus. The chase takes Slug across jungles, frozen oceans and dive bars.

“This story was born from a desire to tell a tale that could only be told in the medium of comics,” said Mulqueen. “At the time when the story was conceived, there was a lot of discourse regarding the medium of comics being used as an IP farm for other mediums, people using comics as spec-scripts and proof of concept, in hopes their work would get optioned to television or film. From the start, we knew we wanted to tell a story that would be so batshit insane, that it would be prohibitively expensive to recreate it in any other medium, and therefore, it would be a story that would belong singularly to comics.”

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Space Ghost + the Herculoids will cross over this fall

David Pepose and Jonathan Lau bring the casts of the two Hanna-Barbera cartoons together in September.

Fans of David Pepose and Jonathan Lau’s work on Space Ghost will be happy to know that not only is Dynamite planning a third season of the book, but before it arrives they’ll release Space Ghost vs. the Herculoids by the same creative team, which will lead into the next series.

Pepose told me recently, when we were talking about the Kickstarter for the final issue of The O.Z. (which you can still back for another 13 days) that this summer’s Space Ghost Annual will tease the crossover.

“We’ll be putting an action-packed, emotional bow on our ‘Season Two’ storyline,” he said about the annual, “and towards the end of the issue, it’ll also kick off our big Space Ghost event in September, featuring Alex Toth’s other team of sci-fi adventurers, the Herculoids!”

If you aren’t familiar with the Herculoids, it was another Hanna-Barbera cartoon that ran for 18 episodes in the late 1960s, with new episodes being produced in the early 1980s after its reruns gained a fan following. Both Space Ghost and the Herculoids were part of the Space Stars line-up, where they even had a crossover.

Set on the planet Amzot, Herculoids blended science fiction and fantasy elements as Zandor, his wife Tara and their son Dorno led a team of alien creatures against an endless supply of villains, mad scientists, mutants, giant ants and more. Luckily Zandor and company had the help of the space dragon Zok, the rhinoceros-like Tundro, the rock ape Igoo and two shape-shifting balls of goo named Gloop and Gleep.

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Eliot Rahal + Mattia Monaco go bananas with neo-noir buddy comedy ‘Crimes Against Nature’

The Image Comics series pairs a washed-up Hollywood animal trainer and his gorilla, as they go on the run from a crime they didn’t commit.

Eliot Rahal and Mattia Monaco are teaming up again on Crimes Against Nature, a neo-noir buddy comedy from Image Comics that launches in September. Rahal and Monaco previously collaborated on Knock ‘Em Dead.

“This story is about two desperate fathers, one at the end of his rope, with nothing left to lose, shooting their shot—and I’m not talking about the characters in our book,” said Rahal. “I’m talking about Mattia and me. Honestly, working on this book has felt like him and me against the world, with help from the friends we’ve made along the way. It’s a feeling I haven’t had since I first started in comics. It feels like we’re committing a crime together. Like we’re doing something special. It’s exciting. Special. And it’s fitting for our first Image book. I’m just so grateful for Mattia. Every panel and page is lightning in a bottle. It’s one of the greatest partnerships of my life. And I think all of that joy and trust spills out into our book about a guy and his gorilla.”

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Darcy Van Poelgeest + Ian Bertram reunite for dark fantasy ‘The Karman Blade’

The creative team behind ‘Little Bird’ and ‘Precious Metal’ are back with a new miniseries in September.

Darcy Van Poelgeest and Ian Bertram are reuniting for The Karman Blade, a four-issue dark fantasy miniseries from Image Comics launching in September

The series is about a man on the outskirts of a dying desert world who is chosen by a blade forged from the stars to slay a despotic deity named Kalu, who hoards the world’s water in his kingdom. Before the boy can begin his quest, he must first confront his own demons and answer the blade’s call.

“The Karman Blade is a feral work,” Bertram said. “It’s something Darcy and I made in a swamp of beautiful and festering creativity. Now it emerges, tall, and rough and wide eyed. Glistening and set to purpose. It’s a work of passion and obsession and I can’t wait to finally set it free and share it with everyone!”

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Slugfest | Bad Seed, Kingdom of Zod continue in DC’s September solicitations

Things go from bad to worse for Gotham as the Super family battles General Zod.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. This edition focuses on DC’s September titles. Hit the links for more info.

DC’s September line-up starts strong with the introduction of three new team titles, as they bring Legion of Super Heroes, New Teen Titans and the Doom Patrol back to their line-up. But wait — there’s more! The first month of fall also brings crossovers, Absolute developments and a new Halloween special.

Let’s start first with Batman: Bad Seeds, which gets its start in August but really goes into overdrive in September, as it runs through all the Batman titles and gets a couple of spinoff miniseries.

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Can’t Wait for Wednesday | ‘Mind MGMT’ is back in business

Plus: The end of the Ultimate Universe, the Summer of Supergirl, John Byrne’s X-Men: Elsewhen collection and more!

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, your guide to what’s coming to your local comic shop this week.

I’ve pulled out some of the 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 check with your retailer to see what’s arriving at their shop this week.

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DC’s Next Level goes next level in September with ‘Legion of Super-Heroes,’ ‘Teen Titans’ and ‘The Doom Patrol’

Who’s your favorite super team?

DC’s September solicitations are making the dream work with not one, not two but THREE new team titles. Teen titles? Yeah, that too, as both Legion of Super-Heroes and Teen Titans return to the publishing slate.

The launches follow all the other recent Next Level titles, including Batwoman, Lobo, Deathstroke: The Terminator, Firestorm, Zatanna, Barbara Gordon: Breakout and The Deadman, with a couple more — The Demon and Jonah Hex — waiting in the wings.

“These books are set in continuity,” said DC co-architect Josh Williamson, who is also writing the Legion title. “While the series will be independent reads and not heavily tied to other books, they will exist alongside DC’s ongoing comic book series like Superman, Batman, Justice League Unlimited and more.”

Not sure we needed that clarification, but ok … well, maybe we did? Several of DC’s September titles seem to have a new moniker in front of them, ie All In Batman, All In Batgirl, etc. Maybe they’re trying to avoid confusion with the red-hot Absolute Universe.

So let’s take a look at each new title, all of which come out Sept. 2 …

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Nominees announced for the 2026 Russ Manning Award

Named for the creator of ‘Magnus, Robot Fighter,’ the awards program recognizes the comic industry’s most promising newcomers.

Comic-Con International has announced the nominees for this year’s Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award, which will be presented during the Eisner Award ceremony in July.

Named for the creator of Magnus, Robot Fighter, the award recognizes a new artist who “shows a superior knowledge and ability in the art of creating comics.”

Previous winners include Dave Stevens, Eleanor Davis, Jeff Smith, Marion Churchland, David Petersen, Tyler Crook, Dan Mora, Lorena Alvarez, Nate Simpson, Zoe Thorogood and Oliver Bly. Richard Blake, writer and artist of Hexagon Bridge, won the award last year.

Congratulations to this year’s nominees:

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Todd McFarlane brings his original 1977 Spawn design to comics

Nearly 50 years after creating the character as a teenager, McFarlane teams with Mark Spears for a three-issue miniseries built around his earliest Spawn concept art.

Todd McFarlane is going back to the well that spawned Spawn in a new three-issue miniseries with Mark Spears. Image Comics will release Spawn 77, which will be co-written by McFarlane and Spears, with Spears providing fully painted interior art.

The series takes its name from 1977, the year a budding 16-year-old McFarlane first sketched the character design that would eventually evolve into Spawn. Spawn 77 marks the first official comic appearance of that original design, though the story itself introduces a new character and narrative rooted in Spawn mythology rather than adapting McFarlane’s teenage concept directly.

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Snake Plissken returns in new comic ‘Escape From New York: Escape From Chicago’

Kyle Higgins and Val Rodrigues return to the world of John Carpenter’s 1981 cult classic, sending the iconic antihero on a new adventure this September.

Mad Cave Studios has picked up the license to make comics based on John Carpenter’s 1981 film Escape from New York, a cult classic that saw Kurt Russell rescue the president when he crash-lands inside the prison that used to be New York.

The comic will head west, though, as Kyle Higgins and Val Rodrigues bring us Escape From New York: Escape From Chicago this September.

“Escape From New York is one of the films that taught me what genre storytelling could be—lean, mean, and built on a world you can’t stop thinking about,” Higgins said. “Getting to write in Carpenter’s Manhattan is the kind of thing my younger self wouldn’t have believed. I can’t wait for everyone to see Snake’s next adventure.” 

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Wes Craig reimagines Superman’s early days in ‘Superman: The Stranger’

The Black Label series strips Superman down to his ‘Action Comics’ #1 roots.

Wes Craig is going old school on Superman in a new Black Label series. DC has announced Superman: The Stranger, a six-issue series arriving in September.

“Superman is my favorite hero. Always has been,” Craig said. “The version I love the most and the one that I think, strangely, reflects our modern world best, is the original. You strip away the extra powers, you strip away Ma and Pa Kent, and Smallville and Krypton, you boil it down to that explosive first issue of Action Comics, and you have this vital, powerful myth of a brash young man with incredible powers fighting against a corrupt city. That’s the story I want to tell.”

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