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Exclusive | Check out the merch for Stephan Franck’s ‘Palomino’ Kickstarter

The campaign for the final graphic novel in the series will launch next week.

Cartoonist Stephan Franck will launch a Kickstarter next week for the sixth volume of Palomino, his neo-noir graphic novel series, and we’ve got an exclusive look at some of the rewards he’ll offer as part of the campaign.

Available exclusively through the Kickstarter will be a Palomino T-shirt, mug and art print. The campaign will also offer all six volumes of the series, which wraps up in this final volume. Take a look at the merch after the jump.

Kelly Thompson + Stephen Byrne’s new ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ comic series launches at Dynamite in July

Dynamite Entertainment’s new Buffy ongoing kicks off with an oversized first issue tying in the cast of both Buffy and Angel.

Dynamite Entertainment has revealed the full creative team, launch date and story details for their new Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, the first details since the publisher announced the license at San Diego Comic-Con last summer.

Artist Stephen Byrne will join Kelly Thompson on the title, along with colorist Lee Loughridge and letterer Jeff Eckleberry. Nate Cosby is editing the series.

The oversized first issue kicks off an event story drawing in characters from both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, with Thompson describing a “mythic new villain” and a major twist she says will shake longtime fans. The series picks up at a pivotal point in the character’s timeline and includes the comics debut of a beloved character from the TV series. Thompson is also writing a companion Angel title, with further details to come.

The bunny did it: ‘Exquisite Corpses: Rascal Randy’ launches in July

Tyler Boss and Dylan Burnett explore the dark origins of the fan-favorite mascot killer in a five-issue series from Tiny Onion and Image Comics.

Tiny Onion and Image Comics have announced that the rabbit suit-wearing killer from Exquisite Corpses, Rascal Randy, will star in a five-issue spinoff series from writer Tyler Boss and artist Dylan Burnett. Colorist Jordie Bellaire and letterer Becca Carey round out the creative team.

Rascal Randy is one of a dozen assassins dispatched to the town of Oak Valley, Maine, where they compete in a deadly game of, well, trying to kill each other for their ultra-powerful and ultra-demented clients, in the pages of James Tynion IV and Michael Walsh’s Exquisite Corpses.

“From the moment I saw the full cast of killers for Exquisite Corpses, I, like most discerning readers, knew Randy would be the winner of the first season’s game,” said Boss. “Now while I still can’t say whether we’ve been proven correct or not, I can say the story Dylan and I have created for everyone’s favorite furry fiend is as sweet and cuddly as a porcupine.”

DC announces ‘Clayface: Celebrity Dirt’ for July

Jude Ellison S. Doyle and Fran Galán present a noir horror series starring the Batman villain.

Following the debut of the first footage from the upcoming Clayface movie, DC Comics has announced Clayface: Celebrity Dirt, a six-issue miniseries from writer Jude Ellison S. Doyle and artist Fran Galán that will launch in July.

The series follows Basil Karlo after he escapes Arkham Towers to find that a doppelgänger has stolen his identity and achieved the Hollywood stardom he never could. A spreading plague is transforming ordinary people into clay-warped figures, and tracing both mysteries draws Basil deeper into the history of the Clayface legacy.

Exclusive | The Power Pets + Superteens team up in ‘Archie Comics 85th Anniversary Presents: Archie’s Movie Mania’

Writer Jamie L. Rotante and artists Steven Butler and Lily Butler bring the Superteens and Power Pets together in the upcoming one-shot.

Archie Comics has shared an exclusive first look with us of a new superhero story appearing in Archie Comics 85th Anniversary Presents: Archie’s Movie Mania, on sale May 13.

The story teams the Superteens and the Power Pets against a group of rampaging zoo animals, who are being controlled by a sinister force. Writer Jamie L. Rotante is joined by penciler Steven Butler, inker Lily Butler, colorist Glenn Whitmore and letterer Jack Morelli.

The one-shot also includes a fashion-world story starring Veronica Lodge and Ginger Lopez, with the issue taking inspiration from upcoming films including Masters of the Universe, The Mandalorian and Grogu, and The Devil Wears Prada 2. Dan Parent provides the main cover, with variant covers by Holly G! and Adrian Ropp, and a foil virgin variant by Parent.

Take a look at the preview, covers and a complete “classic” Archie story below.

Smash Pages Q&A | Joe Palmer on ‘Destination Kill’

The ‘Time Before Time’ and ‘2000 AD’ artist talks about his new series from Oni Press, which debuts in May.

Joe Palmer had been carrying pieces of Destination Kill around in his head for years before he finally had the chance to put them all together. The British cartoonist, known for his work on 2000 AD, Time Before Time, Write it in Blood and more, spent that time accumulating ideas, characters and images that didn’t quite have a home yet, but found one in this new title that he’s writing and drawing.

The result arrives from Oni Press on May 13: a 40-page first issue set in 2125 London, where a superfast transatlantic train, a robot workforce and a citywide worker uprising collide. We talked about the genesis of the project, going solo and lettering your own comics, among other topics. My thanks for his time.

‘100 Bullets: The US of Anger’ debuts in July

The long-running Vertigo series returns with a new miniseries featuring Brother Lono.

When DC announced that the beloved Vertigo imprint would return, most of the titles they announced were new to the world. But the exception was 100 Bullets: The US of Anger, which will see Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso return to the long-running Vertigo title.

The first issue of the eight-issue miniseries will debut July 1.

100 Bullets first debuted back in 1999 and ran for 100 issues — plus a spinoff miniseries in 2014 featuring Brother Lono, one of several “minutemen” who helped safeguard the mysterious group known as The Trust. This new series will also feature Lono, one of the few surviving cast members from the original series, as well as his former protege Loop Hughes.

Can’t Wait for Wednesday | The best there was

This week brings new comics by Christopher Condon, Alessandro Cappuccio, Jacob Phillips, Bill Sienkiewicz, David Lapham, Pat Oliffe, Tom DeFalco, Curt Pires, Franklin Jonas, Roman Dirge, Matthew Dow Smith 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:

Penguin Random House (Marvel + IDW + Dark Horse + more)
Lunar Distribution (DC + Image + Mad Cave + more)
ComicList (Pretty much all of the above)
Amazon/Kindle new releases (digital comics)

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.

Tom Taylor + Otto Schmidt get medieval again with ‘Dark Knights of Steel II’

The sequel to the DC Elseworlds fantasy saga brings a new war, a hidden traitor and a threat rising from beneath the waves.

DC has released details on Dark Knights of Steel II, a sequel to Tom Taylor and Otto Schmidt’s high-fantasy reimagining of the DC Universe. The 12-issue series will kick off on July 15.

The series features colors by Arif Prianto and letters by Wes Abbott, with a main cover by Yasmine Putri. The first issue will be followed on July 22 by Dark Knights of Steel II Special: Heir to the Sea #1, a 48-page one-shot collecting the Aquaman origin story first serialized in Dark Knights of Steel: Allwinter.

“I was raised on comic books and fantasy novels,” Taylor said. “From as early as I can remember, my mind has been filled with universes of great heroes standing against corrupting evil and injustice. From the Discworld to the DCU, I have been thrilled by the epics and heroism of J.R.R. Tolkien and Mark Waid, by the humor and heart of Gail Simone, Joe Kelly and Terry Pratchett, by the jaw-dropping character arcs of Garth Ennis and Robin Hobb.”

The X-Men + Fantastic Four team up to save mankind from becoming mutants in ‘DNX’

Marvel’s next big X-Men event by Jed MacKay and Federico Vicentini begins in September.

Marvel has announced their next big mutant event, following the poorly received Age of Revelation event late last year. DNX, which will kick off in September, will spring from the pages of Revelation as Cyclops tries to prevent the Age of Revelation from happening, while the Chairman (aka an evil version of the Beast) wants to make it all come true. Their respective factions will clash, and the X-Men will reach out to the Fantastic Four for help.

Current X-Men scribe Jed MacKay will work with artist Federico Vicentini to bring DNX to life.

“DNX is the next big milestone event of our X-Men run,” MacKay said. “Age of Revelation showed the future, and DNX shows that future’s impact on the present! The X-Men and 3K are on a collision course that has been set since issue one—and only one will survive. And with the Fantastic Four joining the fray, this is going to be an event that will transform the X-Men dramatically.”

Smash Pages Q&A | Jay Eaton on ‘Runaway to the Stars’

With a Kickstarter launching this week, we talk to Eaton about biology degrees, base-8 numeral systems and why a wall clock can take hours to draw.

Jay Eaton describes their path to comics less as a choice than as an inescapable gravitational pull, one they spent years trying to resist before giving in entirely.

After pursuing biology in college and working in horticulture, Eaton eventually committed full-time to the project they’d been building on the side all along: Runaway to the Stars, a hard sci-fi slice-of-life graphic novel about a centaur aerospace engineer, a shipwrecked AI pirate and the unlikely friendship that upends both their lives.

Eaton has been building this story on the web for years, and now it’s coming to print via Kickstarter through Iron Circus Comics. We talked about world-building as narrative, designing for bodies that aren’t human and what a biology degree is actually good for when you’re a cartoonist.

Blade, Supergirl, Aquaman + Jeff the Land Shark star in new digital crossover comics you can read for free

New DC and Marvel crossover comics landed on their respective digital platforms today.

Following the release of their latest crossover, Superman/Spider-Man, DC and Marvel both released digital crossover comics today. And you can read both for free.

Marvel released It’s Jeff!/Aquaman, a one-shot by Kelly Thompson and Andres Genolet, on their Marvel Unlimited platform. If you have an account, even a free one, you can use code CROSSOVER26 at Marvel.com/redeem to snag yourself a copy.

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