Day: July 21, 2020

Chris Ryall to step down at IDW and start a new publishing venture

Ryall will leave to start World of Syzygy with Ashley Wood as IDW restructures.

Chris Ryall and IDW have jointly announced that Ryall will step down from his role as president, publisher and chief creative officer in order to launch “a new storytelling venture focused on the disparate worlds and characters that he brought to life at IDW Publishing.”

The new venture will be called World of Syzygy and is a partnership with Ashley Wood, who Ryall worked with on Zombies vs Robots, and other creators he has worked with at IDW.

“Change is often hard, and I will miss this extended family I have worked with for more than 15 years,” said Ryall. “In the past year alone, we brought on some amazing hires, expanded the scope of many of the departments, and re-focused the foundation of the business to best support the integrated multi-media company that IDW has become. Our collective success with the entertainment team on ‘Locke & Key’ has been a crowning moment for the entire company.  I’m so proud of this special place and the incredible people who work here. I know that I leave IDW perfectly poised for continued success.”

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Marvel announces a ‘permanent status quo change’ for ‘Fantastic Four’

Artist RB Silva joins writer Dan Slott on the title in October.

Marvel today began teasing some of their October comics on their website, as they tend to do. In addition to a look at the cover to X of Swords: Stasis and the reprinting of the Official Handbook of the Conan Universe, they also teased the post-Empyre direction of the Fantastic Four.

First off, RB Silva will join Dan Slott on the title with issue #25, which sports a cover by Mark Brooks:

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Get happy (or else) in Milligan + Montenat’s ‘Happy Hour’

The new series from Ahoy Comics starts in November.

What if being sad was against the law? What if the “Joy Police” brutally enforced a “cheery code” all citizens had to abide by? That’s the premise of an upcoming Ahoy Comics title, Happy Hour, by Peter Milligan, Michael Montenat and Felipe Sobreiro.

“I was a miserable child. Strangers would approach me in the street and tell me to cheer up. But I didn’t want to cheer up,” Milligan said in the July Ahoy newsletter “Years later, these feelings morphed into Happy Hour, the strange story of a society of legally-enforced cheerfulness… and a young man who just wants the right to be miserable. Finally, I feel vindicated!”

Check out the cover below:

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Exclusive: Read Morgan Pielli’s story ‘Protection’ from the ‘Pandemix’ anthology

The anthology benefits the Hero Initiative and is available via Patreon.

Last week Dean Haspiel and Whitney Matheson announced Pandemix: Quarantine Comics in the Age of ‘Rona, an anthology of comics about life during COVID-19.

“When COVID-19 sparked a global pandemic and national quarantines, I worried about my creative colleagues,” Haspiel said. “Many of us lost freelance work, and the comic book industry shuttered for a while. But I felt compelled to rally cartoonists to confront the pandemic and make art out of it. Art that can help comic creators in need.”

One of the creators featured in that anthology is Morgan Pielli, whose work has appeared in The New York Times Online, Comixcast, Sundays and Side B, as well as in the pages of the self-published Indestructible Universe Quarterly. We’re pleased to feature his contribution, “Protection,” which you can read below.

If you’re interested in buying Pandemix, it is now available digitally via Patreon. All proceeds benefit the Hero Initiative.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Jen Hickman

The artist of ‘SFSX’ discusses taking over the art for the comic, their new series from Aftershock and more.

Jen Hickman is an artist and writer who in recent years has made a splash in one comics series and one webcomic after another, showing a striking sense of design and composition and an ease at storytelling. They have been writing and drawing comics like Calvin and Long Haul, which appears on Filthy Figments, and has contributed to a number of anthologies including Femme Magnifique, Score! and Theater of Terror. Hickman remains best known for their work on a series of comics and graphic novels for a variety of companies including Jem and the Holograms: Infinite, Moth and Whisper, Test and BezKamp .

Hickman drew issues #4-7 of SFSX, and the collection SFSX: Volume 1, Protection comes out July 22. Hickman is not one for resting on their laurels, or even pausing, with a new series, Lonely Receiver, launching from Aftershock in September and more SFSX in the works.

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Dragonfly meets Dragonflyman in ‘The Wrong Earth: Night & Day’

Tom Peyer, Jamal Igle and Juan Castro bring the two versions of the same hero together.

After two miniseries together, the characters Dragonfly and Dragonflyman will finally meet face-to-face in the pages of The Wrong Earth: Night & Day, which starts next January.

Tom Peyer, Jamal Igle and Juan Castro return for another round of alternate Earths and dual identities, as the campy meets the gritty in this fun series.

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Lemire gives an update, reveals art from new ‘Sweet Tooth’ comic

The new series will come out under DC’s Black Label imprint.

After teasing the return of Sweet Tooth to comics in May, creator Jeff Lemire has revealed more details about his work on the new series in his email newsletter.

He said the new series will fall under DC’s Black Label imprint, and like the original, will be written and drawn by Lemire and colored by Jose Villarrubia.

“I know a lot of Sweet Tooth fans are anxious to know story details and also apprehensive because they liked how I ended the old series, and don’t want me to do anything that will ruin that,” Lemire wrote. “All I can say is that I had all of these exact same concerns and it wasn’t until I came up with an idea that I really believed in that I considered going back to the world of Gus and the gang.”

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