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See what the Smash Pages crew has checked off their “to read” list lately.
Welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Smash Pages crew has been checking off their “to read” list lately. You can play along in the comments if you wish.
Now here we go …
Continue reading “What Are You Reading? | ‘Avengers,’ Batman, ‘Bleed Them Dry’ and more”Fantagraphics will publish the 360-page graphic novel next year.
Fantagraphics has announced that they will publish Barry Windsor-Smith’s long-in-the-making Monsters next January.
Monsters is a 360-page graphic novel that has been in development for 35 years. The publisher describes it as “part familial drama, part espionage thriller, part metaphysical journey — in sum, an intimate portrait of individuals and an epic political odyssey spanning two generations of American history.”
“After putting so much time and investing so much creative energy in this project,” Windsor-Smith said in the press release, “I’m pleased that it’s finally being published.”
Continue reading “35 years in the making, Barry Windsor-Smith’s ‘Monsters’ arrives next January”The writer of ‘Left on Mission’ returns with a new comic that’s currently up on Kickstarter.
As the Head of Content for comiXology Originals, Chip Mosher already has a pretty great day job, working with creators to bring original content to the digital comics provider.
But before working there and for his previous employer, BOOM! Studios, he wanted to write comics, and in fact wrote Left on Mission, with artist Francesco Francavilla, which was published by BOOM! before he joined them to handle marketing.
Now, more than a decade later, he’s returned to the creative side and has written something new, Blacking Out, featuring artwork by Peter Krause, Giulia Brusco and Ed Dukeshire. It’s currently up on Kickstarter, where it blew past its modest $500 goal in the first 8 minutes of the campaign.
I spoke with Mosher at length about the new project, what inspired the format, how he’s promoting it and more.
Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A | Chip Mosher on ‘Blacking Out,’ bande dessinée and billboards”The story leads into ‘Batman’ #92, which arrives in June.
Batman made his Instagram debut this week in a comic that will serve as a “prelude” to Batman #92, which is set to land in stores on June 9.
“Hey! While on break, I cooked up a handful of prelude stories with Guillem March to give you a taste of Gotham while you’re waiting for Batman to return next month,” writer James Tynion IV said on Twitter. “They’ll be on DC’s Instagram, in their stories. The first of them is up now, featuring PUNCHLINE!”
Continue reading “DC launches a Batman ‘prelude’ comic on Instagram”‘Scream: Curse of Carnage,’ ‘Valkyrie: Jane Foster’ and more will not be released as single print issues.
Marvel has announced plan to release additional titles that were originally slated to be print comics as digital-only titles. These include further issues of Hawkeye: Freefall, Ghost Spider and other titles that were released digitally over the last few weeks, with a few new additions, like Valkyrie: Jane Foster and Scream: Curse of Carnage.
“These comics will only be available as digital comics for the time being; however, they will be available in print collections later this year for fans looking to add them to their Marvel bookshelves,” according to the story on Marvel.com.
Continue reading “Marvel announces more digital-only titles”Hear from writers, artists, editors and fans about the impact ‘New Warriors’ has had on them.
Special thanks to Doug Smith, who contributed additional reporting to this post.
Thirty years ago, comic shops were selling the first issue of a brand new comic book series starring a brand new Marvel Comics superhero team. The New Warriors starred a lineup of mostly forgotten and obscure characters by a creative team who had never launched an ongoing series before. Conventional wisdom at the time said the new series would fail. And yet, improbably, New Warriors not only survived, it thrived. At its peak, it was among the top 25 best-selling comics in North America and the United Kingdom.What was it about this underdog series that defied the odds?
Was it the characters? The book starred supporting characters like Namorita from Sub-Mariner and Marvel Boy from The Thing, and stars of previously cancelled comics like Nova and Speedball. Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief at the time, Tom DeFalco, assembled the team. He also included the abandoned co-star of the animated Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends TV show, Firestar, and a new character co-created with Thor artist Ron Frenz, Night Thrasher.
Was it the creators? Writer Fabian Nicieza inherited these characters and immediately embraced them as his own. The first two years of the book was tightly plotted out and featured sharp dialogue, humor, betrayal, adventure and surprise revelations. Artist Mark Bagley, initially inked by Al Williamson and later by Larry Mahlstedt, injected character-driven storytelling with fun action in every issue. After two years, Bagley was moved to Amazing Spider-Man and replaced with Darick Robertson, who brought his own dynamic and expressive storytelling visuals. Even 30 years later, the series is fondly remembered by fans and comic book professionals, even inspiring some of them to become professionals.
We reached out to a number of comic book writers, artists, retailers and others to hear in their own words what made the New Warriors so special to them. We also reached out to Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley, as well as the first editor on the series, Danny Fingeroth, and writer Evan Skolnick, who succeeded Nicieza as writer, to get their own thoughts on their time working on this secret classic.
Continue reading “30 years of changing the world: Celebrating the anniversary of the New Warriors”Marvel returns to comic shops this week, as some DC books are delayed.
Another week brings more comics back to comic shops, as this week Marvel will have new print comics in comic shops for the first time in weeks. A couple DC books, however, look like they’re delayed this week, including Flash and Aquaman. Stores getting their books from DC’s other distributors have been asked to not put them on sale yet, according to the report from Newsarama.
If you’re looking for some recommendations on what you should get, here are some thoughts from the Smash Pages crew. You can check the Comic List page to see what’s arriving in your local shop, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally.
Continue reading “Can’t Wait for Comics | Going ‘MAD’ on a ‘Rogue Planet’”The creator of the award-winning ‘The Dead Father’ discusses his latest work for Fantagraphics’ ‘Now’ anthology.
Sami Alwani is a Toronto-based cartoonist and illustrator who, by his own admission, works slowly, but in the past few years has produced a number of comics for Vice, Broken Pencil and other publications. He received a 2018 Doug Wright Award for his comic The Dead Father.
Alwani has a new comic in NOW #8, the current issue of the Fantagraphics anthology. The Misfortunes of Virtue isn’t just a good comic, but I would argue it’s Alwani’s best work to date. We spoke recently about life during lockdown, working slowly and where that title comes from.
Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A: Sami Alwani”Support creators by crowdfunding efforts by The Nib, Alex de Campi, Duncan Jones, Giannis Milonogiannis and more.
Crowdfunding continues to serve as a viable method for creators to fund their creative endeavors, as comic-related projects flourish on sites like Kickstarter, Patreon and IndieGoGo. The internet also allows creators to sell their creations 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. And that is a good thing to do, now more than ever.
Send any suggestions of your own to jkparkin@yahoo.com.
Continue reading “Fund Me Monday: Madi, Orbital Knights and more”See what the Smash Pages crew has checked off their “to read” list lately.
Welcome once again to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately. You can play along in the comments if you wish.
Now here we go …
Continue reading “What Are You Reading? | Ironheart, Midnighter and more!”Check out new comics by Matthew Dow Smith, Gabrielle Bell, Nate Powell and Rosemary Mosco.
Here’s a round up of some of the best comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.
Here’s a fun one to dive into — creator Matthew Dow Smith has been posting an amazing new comic, Johnny Chaos, on his Twitter feed. He’s currently up to chapter five, with new pages going up every Wednesday.
Continue reading “Sunday Comics | Cats + Chaos”Plus: Criminal’s ‘Cruel Summer,’ Green Lantern, a ‘Wynd’ trailer and more.
Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we received from publishers in our mailboxes recently. Hit the links for more information.
Now that they’re using multiple distributors, it makes sense that DC Comics would launch a new means for communicating distribution information vs. just limiting it to Diamond’s Previews. That seems to be DC Connect, a new, downloadable catalog they announced this week. It contains information on upcoming comics and graphic novels, with plans to expand it to include “talent interviews, preview pages from upcoming stories, behind-the-scenes looks at projects in development, multimedia content and more.”
Continue reading “Mail Call | DC announces a new monthly digital catalog”
