Month: July 2018

Black Crown to publish the Laphams’ ‘Lodger’ this fall

The team behind ‘Stray Bullets’ moves into the Black Crown neighborhood in October.

Stray Bullets creators David and Maria Lapham are joining IDW’s Black Crown label this fall with a new book called Lodger. The story revolves around a drifter/serial killer and a teenager whose mom was killed by the man.

“David and I rarely have time to work on stories that don’t fit into Stray Bullets continuity, but Shelly Bond and Ricky Toledo had other ideas. Lodger is a twisted love story – dark and grimy — like all the best crime noir. We can’t wait for readers to see it,” Maria said.

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Spidey villain gets his own title this fall in ‘Superior Octopus’

Christos Gage and Mike Hawthorne chronicle the adventures of Doctor Octopus and his new identity.

One of Spider-Man’s greatest foes — you know, the one who took over his body for a while? — is getting his own series. Superior Octopus by Christos Gage and Mike Hawthorne will launch this fall, spinning out of the Spider-Geddon event that will also bring us the new Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider title.

For those who aren’t up on their Spider-lore, Doctor Octopus traded bodies with Peter Parker in Amazing Spider-Man #698, setting the stage for Superior Spider-Man, where the villain took over Parker’s dual identities. Eventually Parker took control again, and the good doctor ended up in a new body during the “Clone Conspiracy” storyline. His Superior Octopus challenged Spider-Man during the whole Hydra Cap/Secret Empires story, and he showed up at the end of Dan Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man run to save Aunt May. Love never dies.

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Spider-Gwen gets a relaunch, new creative team — and a new name

Seanan McGuire, Rosi Kämpe and Bengal leap into action as the creative team on ‘Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider.’

Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez wrapped up their run on Spider-Gwen this week, finishing up their story of the alternate reality Gwen Stacy who gained the Spider- powers instead of Peter Parker. But that’s not the end for the character — Marvel announced in San Diego this week that the character will return in a new title with a new name — Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider

The new series will be written by Seanan McGuire, an award-winning novelist and filker. She expressed her excitement over her new writing gig on Twitter:

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Monstress and Monsters rule the 2018 Eisner Awards

Diversity wins as ‘Monstress’ sweeps with 5 awards with Liu is the first woman to win Best Writer, and ‘My Favourite Thing is Monsters’ gets 3.

Last night at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel during Comic-Con International, the 2018 Eisner Awards were presented in a passionate and empowering three-hour ceremony.

It was the night for monsters as Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda won five Eisner Awards including best continuing series, best painter/multimedia artist, best cover artist and best publication for teens. Liu made history by becoming the first woman to ever win the best writer award in the 30-years of the Eisners being handed out. Liu was in attendance to receive all of the awards for Monstress, but used FaceTime so Sana Takeda, in Japan, can “be on stage” with her to receive the best continuing series award.

My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris won three including best graphic album, best coloring and best writer/artist. “You did it again. You made an old lady cry, ” declared Ferris as she accepted the best coloring award.

Mister Miracle by Tom King and Mitch Gerads, The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill, and the Akira 35th Anniversary Edition each received two of the coveted awards.

The award winners were noticeably diverse as a large number of people of colour, women, and LGBTQ+ creators all received awards.

Surprise celebrity guests graced the stage Nichelle Nichols, Phil Lamar, Cas Anvar, Benedict Wong, and Felicia Day were on hand to present awards.

Check out the complete list of winners and some reactions below.

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Vertigo shares a bunch of art from their upcoming relaunch

Check out artwork from ‘Border Town,’ ‘Safe Sex,’ ‘Goddess’ and more.

Earlier this summer DC’s Vertigo imprint announced seven new titles as part of their 25th anniversary relaunch. At Comic-Con International in San Diego this week, they shared a whole bunch of art from several of those titles.

Let’s take a look:

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Donny Cates + friends bring back ‘Marvel Knights’ for its 20th anniversary

Daredevil, Black Panther, Punisher and more will be featured in ‘MK20’ #1 this fall.

It was 20 years ago that two creators at a small publishing house called Event Comics got the green light to take over several Marvel titles. Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti helped usher Marvel out of the dark ages of the 1990s and into the future, bringing in creators like Kevin Smith, Brian Michael Bendis, Garth Ennis, Steve Dillon, Christopher Priest and many others to tackle Daredevil, Black Panther, Punisher, Inhumans and several other Marvel characters.

Overall it is was very successful, especially from a storytelling perspective; Quesada eventually took over as Marvel editor-in-chief, and the tone of the stories set the course for much of Marvel’s success over the past two decades. The Marvel Knights imprint eventually evolved into something else, featuring high-profile miniseries, and went dormant about five years ago.

Until now.

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No laughing matter: Snyder + Jock bring back ‘The Batman Who Laughs’

The ‘Dark Knights: Metal’ villain gets his own miniseries starting in November.

One of the evil Batmen who plagued the DC Universe in the big crossover event series Dark Knights: Metal will return this fall, as The Batman Who Laughs gets his own six-issue series by Scott Snyder and Jock.

Metal, for those who aren’t familiar, pitted the DC heroes against evil amalgamations of Batman + another character. The Batman Who Laughs, you may have guessed, is a mash-up of Batman and the Joker. As this image by Jock will attest, he’s bad news:

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‘Star Wars Adventures’ get creepy with ‘Tales from Vader’s Castle’

Fear leads to the dark side as a host of horror descends on the Star Wars universe.

IDW is heading to the even darker side with a new miniseries that combines Star Wars with “campfire ghost stories” — Star Wars Adventures: Tales from Vader’s Castle.

The five-part series will run for five weeks in October (of course!) and will feature stories by Cavan Scott, Derek Charm, Kelley Jones, Chris Fenoglio, Corin Howell, Robert Hack and Charles Paul Wilson III, and covers by Francesco Francavilla (again, I say, of course!)

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Tom Scioli brings back the Go-Bots

The 1980s toy line gets a comic book reboot thanks to IDW Publishing and the man behind ‘Transformers vs. G.I. Joe.’

It’s always a good day when you find out what Tom Scioli is up to next. IDW Publishing announced in San Diego that the creator of Transformers vs. G.I. Joe is working on a new comic starring the Go-Bots.

“This is a dream project – I’m writing, drawing, coloring, and hand-lettering this book. It’s a labor of love,” Scioli said in the press release. “When these characters were conceived of in the ’80s, the idea of robots with human personalities was science fiction. Now, it’s history. The world of living machines is here – we’re living it. The time is right for Go-Bots!”

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Titan to bring ‘The Prisoner: Shattered Visage’ back into print

Motter and Askwith’s comic book sequel to The Prisoner returns to print for the first time in decades.

Back in the late 1980s Dean Motter and Mark Askwith created a comic book sequel to the cult classic TV show The Prisoner, which was published by DC Comics. In San Diego this week, Titan Comics announced that they will republish the long out-of-print story, The Prisoner: Shattered Visage, with Motter’s character sketches and notes.

“When I was approached to do a series based on The Prisoner, I leapt at the chance. It was one of my favorite TV shows when it first aired. My thinking turned to doing it as a post-modernist fable – one that took place in the current era, but that would re-open the questions from the original saga,” Motter said in a press release. “However, doing the research was going to take more resources than I had – so I drafted my friend and colleague Mark Askwith to help me with that aspect of the project. It became a collaboration almost instantly. I am honored to see it re-presented as part of Titan’s ongoing celebration of The Prisoner‘s ongoing 50th anniversary.”

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Top Shelf announces ‘Surfside Girls’ sequel

Sam and Jade solve mysteries once again in a new volume from Kim Dwinell.

Top Shelf has announced a sequel to one of last year’s “perfect summer reads,” as our own Brigid Alverson called it. Surfside Girls (Book Two): The Mystery at the Old Rancho, finds best friends Sam and Jade tackling a two-hundred-year-old mystery to help one of the local ghosts.

“I’ve had so much fun this last year watching readers of all ages discover Sam and Jade’s world,” says author Kim Dwinell. “I packed Surfside Girls with Southern California sunshine, and I hope everyone enjoys spending time with it as much as I do. I’m absolutely stoked to show you what the girls get up to in Book Two!”

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‘Spencer & Locke 2’ takes aim at all the comic strips

David Pepose and Jorge Santiago Jr.’s hard-nosed cop and his imaginary friend return this Winter.

One of last year’s pleasant surprises in the comics world was Spencer & Locke, David Pepose and Jorge Santiago Jr.’s re-imagining of Calvin & Hobbes by way of Sin City. Now a Ringo Award-nominated series, Spencer & Locke is getting a sequel that will introduce their take on other comic strip characters. The villain, Roach Riley, may look familiar to fans of Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey.

“We’ve told fans from the beginning that there was a much larger universe for Spencer & Locke to explore — and we’re excited to expand their world further with their latest adversary, Roach Riley,” Pepose said. “Half The Deer Hunter, half Heath Ledger’s Joker, Roach is only the beginning of Locke’s latest gauntlet, as every classic comic strip from your childhood will be fair game for parody in our action-packed sequel.”

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