Month: July 2017

Fantagraphics to publish a new edition of Langridge’s ‘The Iron Duchess’

The cartoonists’ self-published “Fred the Clown” collection will get a new edition with more pages in September.

Roger Langridge’s self-published collection of Fred the Clown comics, “The Iron Duchess,” is getting a new home. Fantagraphics will release a new version in September.

“The new edition will contain ten new pages of story material,” Langridge said on his blog. “As many of you have already bought the self-published version from me, I thought it only fair to make this new material available to you, as a free download, by way of saying ‘thank you’ for your support.” Head over to his blog to download the extra pages.

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Comics Lowdown: Graphic novel sales are up, floppies are flat

The comics market is growing, but monthly comics are not. Also: A week of great comics articles from NPR!

By the Numbers: The comics market increased by 5% to a total of $1.085 billion in 2016, according to an estimate by Milton Griepp of ICv2 and John Jackson Miller of Comichron. Graphic novels sold in bookstores accounted for almost all the growth, however; they were up 16%, while sales of monthly comics in comic shops, on newsstands, and in digital format remained flat. Griepp saw the graphic novel growth as evidence that the market is expanding, as more women and children find graphic novels, while Miller credited Marvel’s Star Wars comics and DC’s Rebirth event.

Whatever Happened to comiXology? Three years after the largest digital comics service was purchased by Amazon, they still have plenty going on, says comics-biz maven Rob Salkowitz, including using Amazon’s “affinity marketing” (if you liked this, you’ll like that) tools, expanding to foreign audiences, and bringing in new readers via the ComiXology Unlimited, Kindle Unlimited, and Prime Reading programs.

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Extended engagement: Archie launches ongoing ‘The Archies’ series

Alex Segura, Matt Rosenberg and Joe Eisma send The Archies on tour, where they’ll meet more real-life bands.

After meeting Kiss and the Ramones, not to mention getting their own one-shot, The Archies will hit the road in a new ongoing series by Alex Segura, Matt Rosenberg and Joe Eisma.

The series will show what happens when Archie, Jughead, Betty & Veronica, and Reggie leave Riverdale as they begin their first tour across the country, where they’ll meet other bands along the way.

“When we jammed on The Archies One-Shot, it was always in the hopes of having the book become an ongoing, so it was great to see the positive response that made it possible,” Segura, who also serves as Senior Vice President of Publicity and Marketing for Archie Comics, said in a press release. “Adding real bands in the mix gives the series a must-read twist and opens the door for Matt, Joe and I to get our favorite bands into Riverdale.”

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DC enlists Corinna Bechko, Gabriel Hardman for ‘Green Lantern Earth One’

The ‘Invisible Republic’ team will chronicle the early adventures of Hal Jordan as part of DC’s graphic novel line.

DC Comics has recruited the all-star team of Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman to bring Hal Jordan into their Earth One line of graphic novels. Green Lantern Earth One is scheduled to arrive in March 2018.

“Approaching this as an Earth One story gives us the opportunity to go back to the core concept of Green Lantern and interpret it through the lens of a modern, grounded sci-fi story while still being true to the Silver Age roots of Hal Jordan,” Hardman said in a press release. “Having storyboarded Interstellar, this is an approach I’m comfortable with and have wanted to explore in comics. Realistic sci-fi is only the beginning of this story; we have something much more epic in store.”

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Deathblow returns to his own title in new ‘Michael Cray’ series

Warren Ellis, Bryan Hill, N. Steven Harris and Dexter Vines team up for a new 12-issue miniseries starring everyone’ favorite Wildstorm assassin.

Back in October when DC Comics announced that Warren Ellis was bringing back the Wildstorm universe with the launch of The Wild Storm, they said they also planned to bring back several other series — including Zealot, WildCATS and “Michael Cray,” which is the real name of the assassin called Deathblow. If you’re wondering when that last title will see print, wonder no more: DC has officially announced Wildstrom: Michael Cray by Ellis, Postal writer Bryan Hill and artists N. Steven Harris and Dexter Vines.

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Mignola brings out the bad guys this winter

“Hellboy” creator MIke Mignola teams up with Adam Hughes, Chris Roberson, Christopher Mitten, Ben Stenbeck and more to tell new stories about Rasputin, Krampus and Koshchei the Deathless.

The “Mignolaverse” will continue to grow this coming winter with a pair of miniseries and a one-shot focusing on some of the unsavory characters Hellboy has encountered — namely Rasputin, Krampus and Koshchei the Deathless.

“We didn’t set out to publish three stories about bad guys for the holidays, it just worked out that way—and, really, at least one of these guys isn’t ALL bad,” Mignola said in a press release. “It’s been a real pleasure working with Chris Roberson and Christopher Mitten again to flesh out more of the history of the Hellboy world—focusing on Rasputin before the arrival of Hellboy. You just knew there had to be more to say about that guy. Just like I’ve always known there was a lot more to say about Koshchei the Deathless, who I’ve loved since Hellboy: Darkness Calls. Now thanks to the great Ben Stenbeck, we get his full, odd, and tragic life story. And then what is there to say about the Krampus? This grim little Christmas story has been gathering dust for years on my mental shelf, apparently just waiting for the right artist to come along and ask to draw it. I just never imagined that the right artist would be Adam Hughes!”

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‘Spy Seal’ enlists Joey Weiser’s ‘Ninja Fukuroh’ as a back-up feature

Rich Tommaso takes Weiser up on his offer to draw a back-up story for his new comic.

Back when Rich Tommaso started talking about Spy Seal, before it became an upcoming comic from Image, he shared several images of the character online that drew rave reviews from fans and fellow creators. One of those creators was Joey Weiser, creator of the really fun Oni Press graphic novel series Mermin, who offered (perhaps jokingly) to draw a back-up series for the comic:

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Welcome back to Horrorland: IDW announces ‘Goosebumps’ comics

New series will feature three-issue arcs by a variety of creators as R.L. Stine’s creation returns to comics.

In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the “spooky” children’s series Goosebumps, IDW announced today that they will publish a comic series based on R.L. Stine’s popular books by a rotating series of creators. The first issue arrives in October.

“My first reading thrill when I was a kid were the EC horror comics, Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror,” said R.L. Stine. “They introduced me to the excitement of reading. Now all these years later, I have another thrill–seeing my stories and characters come to life in a comic book series of their own.”

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Stephan Franck puts a stake in a third volume of his vampire heist series ‘Silver’

The animator returns to Kickstarter to fund a third volume of his graphic novel series that pits conmen versus vampires.

When he’s not helping to make animated hits like The Iron Giant and Despicable Me, Stephan Franck turns to his first love, comics. The son of two comic retailers, Franck started his own company, Dark Planet Comics, to publish Silver, a pulp-inspired heist story involving vampires.

Franck has used Kickstarter to crowd fund two volumes of the series already, and now a new campaign has launched for the third volume. I spoke with Franck about the project, the campaign and the appeal of working on comics.

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Live Through This: ‘Royal City’ homages ’90s alternative album covers

Jeff Lemire recruits Jeffrey Brown, Emi Lenox, Nate Powell and more to pay tribute to album covers by Weezer, Hole and more.

The second story arc for Jeff Lemire’s excellent Royal City will take the Pike family back to the early 1990s, and to help set the mood, Lemire has enlisted a bunch of great artists to draw music album tribute covers.

“This new arc takes a major shift as the story jumps back to the year 1993 and we follow the last week in the life of Tommy Pike!” Lemire wrote on his blog. “Meet the Pike siblings when they were all just teenagers in the 90’s and the tragedy that will come to haunt their family is still in the future.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: Vito Delsante on ‘The Purple Heart’

The ‘Stray’ writer discusses his contribution to the New Brooklyn Universe.

Vito Delsante has been writing comics for years, and he’s had success with stories in comics that range from Batman Adventures to Savage Tales to Scooby Doo to Superman. But recently though Delsante has been putting out his best work in a pair of projects. One of them is Stray, the story of a retired sidekick who returns to the hero game whose new solo series from Action Labs kicks off in September.

Perhaps his biggest project, though, is The Purple Heart, which is part of the New Brooklyn Universe spearheaded by Dean Haspiel, a shared universe that also includes The Red Hook and The Brooklynite and the upcoming War Cry, which launches in the fall. The weekly webcomic that Delsante is making with Ricardo Venancio wraps up this week, and Delsante spoke about working in a shared universe, and crafting a story very different from The Red Hook about Brooklyn’s Silver Surfer-like hero.

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DC Comics recruits horror writers for ‘DC House of Horrors’

The Halloween-themed one-shot arrives Oct. 25.

DC Comics will once again bring some frightening fun to the DC universe with a Halloween-themed one-shot titled DC House of Horrors.

The anthology will feature stories by horror writers Brian Keene, Weston Ochse, Edward Lee, Mary SanGiovanni, Wrath James White, Nick Cutter, Ronald Malfi and Bryan Smith. They’ll work with Rags Morales, Bilquis Evely, Howard Porter, Scott Kolins, Dale Eaglesham and other artists “for some short stories that will keep you reading late into the night.”

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