Month: February 2020

Dini, Burnett, Templeton team for ‘Batman: The Adventures Continue’

DC revisits the world first created in ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ in a new digital-first miniseries.

Three names that became synonymous with the classic Batman: The Animated Series are returning to that world for a new six-issue miniseries.

Paul Dini and Alan Burnett, who produced the animated series, and Ty Templeton, who worked on the comic series based on the show, are working on Batman: The Adventures Continue, which will debut digitally in April and in print in May.

“Fans familiar with the Batman of The New Batman/Superman Adventures will be right up to speed,” Dini said. “Alan and I approached the writing with the idea that we were doing the season you might have seen if we had not put the series aside to do Batman Beyond.”

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DC announces plans for ‘Green Lantern 80th Anniversary 100-page Super Spectacular #1’

Liam Sharp, Geoff Johns, Darryl Banks, Mike Grell, Jeff Lemire, Ron Marz and more help celebrate DC’s 80th anniversary.

Following the footsteps of Batman, Superman, Wonder and the Flash, Green Lantern will break out into his own 80th anniversary special issue this May.

DC announced the 100-page special will include contributions from Geoff Johns, Darryl Banks, Charlotte Fullerton McDuffie, Sina Grace, Mike Grell, Jeff Lemire, Ron Marz, Denny O’Neil, Fernando Pasarin, Ivan Reis, Rafa Sandoval, Mariko Tamaki, Peter J. Tomasi, James Tynion IV, Robert Venditti and more, with a cover by current Green Lantern artist Liam Sharp. Strangely, current Green Lantern scribe Grant Morrison isn’t listed.

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DC announces the metal-er ‘Death Metal’ miniseries

Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo get the band back together for a sequel to the ‘Metal’ event series.

If DC’s Metal event wasn’t “metal” enough for you, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo are coming back in May for an encore — Dark Knights: Death Metal. It promises to be “metal-er” than Metal. Metal!

“I’ve been waiting to do this story since we finished Dark Nights: Metal,” said Snyder. “As much as it was a complete event, we left some threads hanging there for sure. I’d hoped that if people liked the first series enough, we’d have a chance to set up something bigger, and that’s our plan for Death Metal.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: Robin Galante

The San Francisco-based artist discusses her work for the podcast ‘Nocturne,’ ‘The Bold Italic’ and more.

Robin Galante is a San Francisco-based artist whose work I first noticed as part of the great podcast Nocturne, where she drew the show’s logo and makes an illustration for each episode. Last year she published two visual essays in The Bold Italic, and continues to post work on Twitter and Instagram.

One of her biggest subjects is her neighborhood and more broadly, the city of San Francisco. Galante depicts the ways that the city is changing, and in documenting it is celebrating what is there and what we need to fight for to make urban life worth living. We spoke recently about her work

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North +Monteys’ ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ adaptation arrives Sept. 9

Archaia will bring Kurt Vonnegut’s classic anti-war novel to comic shops.

Archaia’s adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade became unstuck in time this week, as the BOOM! Studios imprint announced the graphic novel will arrive in comic shops Sept. 9 and in bookstores Sept. 15.

The anti-war novel will be adapted by writer Ryan North (The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl) and artist Albert Monteys (Universe!), with colors by Ricard Zaplana. Archaia also revealed the cover:

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Smash Pages Q&A: Gengorah Tagame

Alex Dueben goes back to the vault to share an interview with the legendary creator from 2017 on ‘My Brother’s Husband.’

Gengoroh Tagame is a comics legend, though many fans around the world may not know his work. He has long been acclaimed and beloved for his series of gay erotic comics, something that he’s achieved more attention for in recent years here in the U.S. with the publication of The Passion of Gegoroh Tagame and other books. His most recent project is the award-winning My Brother’s Husband, which after being released in hardcover in two volumes, is available now in an oversized paperback.

The book tells the story of Yaichi, a divorced father in suburban Tokyo who is visited by the widower of his twin brother, Ryoji. Mike wants to know and understand his late husband’s family, and Yaichi’s daughter is eager to, but what follows is a thoughtful meditation on prejudice, gender, conformity and identity. It is a hopeful and moving story about family life, masterfully told by one of the great cartoonists of his generation. At one point in the interview I mentioned the late Robert Mapplethorpe, an artist who remains beloved and perhaps best known for his erotic work, but who was a great portrait photographer with a gift for capturing people. Tagame has spent his career working as an artist, but while most straight people might be able to simply say that he was a great draftsman, he’s much more than that. What has made him great is his skill at body language, at conveying subtlety, depicting hidden or buried emotion. This is a project where he is putting those skills to work in a different way, and one that will hopefully introduce him to even larger audience.

I had the opportunity to interview Tagame in 2017, when the first volume was released in North America, although the article was never published. The collected paperback edition of My Brother’s Husband comes out today from Pantheon Books, and I’m happy to show this conversation with one of the world’s great cartoonists.

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Kurt Busiek returns to Marvel for a history-spanning series

Busiek teams with artist Yildiray Cinar for a new series that could include just about any Marvel character.

Kurt Busiek’s known for his work on a lot of different comics, from Avengers to Arrowsmith, but his latest project seems to marry the themes from two of his past projects: Marvels and Astro City.

The Marvels, which will feature artwork by Yildiray Cinar, will tell “stories that span decades and range from grand adventure to intense human drama, from street-level to cosmic, starring Marvel’s very first heroes to the superstars of tomorrow,” according to Marvel.com.

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Fantagraphics to publish Tenacious D’s ‘Post-Apocalypto’ graphic novel

Jack Black and Kyle Gass bring their unique brand of musical humor to comics.

Jack Black and Kyle Gass, a.k.a. the comedy metal duo known as Tenacious D, will make the jump to comics later this year with a project written by the duo and drawn (really!) by Black.

The graphic novel, Post-Apocalypto, will arrive in stores in September from Fantagraphics.

“When we finished this book there was only one publisher we ever really considered,” Tenacious D said in a press statement. “Fantagraphics has been the shining beacon of creativity in comic books for decades. We are thrilled to release our magnum opus with the undisputed greatest and best comic book publisher in the world. Fantagraphics 4 life.”

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Fund Me Sunday: ‘Jupiter Jet,’ ‘Wipe Out,’ ‘Nocturnal Commissions’ and more

Check out projects by Roger Langridge, Rick Geary, Jason McNamara and more.

As crowdfunding continue to become a viable method for creators to fund their creative endeavors, comic-related projects flourish on sites like Kickstarter, Patreon and IndieGoGo. The internet also allows creators to sell their projects direct to fans, through sites like Gumroad, Etsy and of course their own websites. If you’re looking to buy something from or support a creator directly, you’ve come to the right place.

Here’s a look at a few recent projects that fall into those buckets that caught my eye. Send any suggestions of your own to jkparkin@yahoo.com.

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‘Ley Lines’ reveals its 2020 lineup

Victor Martins, Simon Moreton, Xia Gordon and Brendan Leach will each create an issue of the quarterly series.

The Ignatz-nominated comics series Ley Lines will return this year with four new issues, giving cartoonists “a platform … to directly engage with influences beyond the realm of comics.”

Published by Grindstone Comics and Czap Books, each issue of Ley Lines features a different artist’s take on an artist’s work. Previous issues have featured Gloria Rivera tackling the work of author and naturalist John Muir, Diana Chu channeling singer Patti Smith and W.T. Frick focusing on science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin. L Nichols oversees the project.

Now in its sixth year, the 2020 lineup includes:

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DC shares details on their 2020 Free Comic Book Day titles

Wally West and Wonder Woman take center stage in this year’s ‘gold’ title.

DC has revealed the contents of their two Free Comic Book Day 2020 titles, which were first announced in December without any details.

Their gold title, Generation Zero, “sets the stage for the past, present and future of the DC Universe, ” according to the press release. It will feature Wally West, who has gone through a lot recently in DC continuity, if you’ve been following the story that started in Heroes in Crisis.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Niki Smith

The creator of ‘The Deep and Dark Blue’ discusses the graphic novel, its main characters, reversing tropes, the color blue and not owning a pencil.

Niki Smith’s second graphic novel, The Deep and Dark Blue, is a departure from her first book Crossplay. Blue, out now from Hachette, is a middle grade story of twin princes who, after a coup, have to hide out as girls in The Communion of Blue, an all-female magical order based around weaving and spinning and the magical properties of the color blue. The book plays with the trope of gender bending that has been popular for centuries, but for one of the twins, living as a girl isn’t an annoying burden, but offers her the chance to live as her true self.

The book is also a great medieval adventure as two sheltered children are given a crash course in the world around them that involves politics, conspiracies and magic. The book itself is designed and colored in a way that practically jumps off the page. Smith and I have talked before, and I was thrilled that we had the chance to discuss Grayce and Hawke, the color blue and not owning a pencil.

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