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See what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately.
Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately — including comics from the past, present and future.
Let us know what you read this week in the comments or on social media.
Continue reading “What Are You Reading? | Black Panther, Detective #1027 and more”As video content moves to HBO Max, ‘DC Universe Infinite’ will focus on comics.
As expected, DC announced changes this week to its DC Universe app, as it shifts from an “all-in-one” video/comic delivery system into one that focuses mainly on comics. The service was launched in 2018.
Original TV shows like Titans, Young Justice, Doom Patrol and Stargirl were once the big selling point of the platform, but all of those properties are finding new homes now, mostly on HBO Max, but also on The CW, in Stargirl‘s case. The release states that original shows and “classics” — as the app included many older DC movies and shows as well — will migrate to places like HBO Max, but the price point will stay the same. The service costs $7.99 a month, or $74.99 for one year (even with the loss of content).
“Our fans love the platform’s robust library of comic books and, with the transformation, we will not disappoint,” said DC Publisher and Chief Creative Officer Jim Lee. “I’m excited to share that not only will DC Universe Infinite members still be able to read all of the great comics that they’ve enjoyed but new issues are debuting on the platform quicker than before, digital first exclusives are being created, and the members-only events will begin as soon as possible. There has never been a better time to be a DC fan!”
Continue reading “DC announces changes for its ‘DC Universe’ app”The origins of Spider-Man, Hulk, Thanos, Venom and more will be retold in the all ages series.
IDW will add to its Marvel Action line in December with Marvel Action: Origins, a new series that retells the origin stories of Spider-Man, Thanos, Venom, Hulk and more.
Christopher Eliopoulos will write the series, while Lanna Souvanny will provide the art.
“Creating a gateway for young readers to learn more about the amazing characters of the Marvel Universe is a dream job,” Eliopoulos said. “In this series, readers are going to learn about the emotions and inner thoughts of these heroes and villains while learning about values and character. It’s a series that shows the character behind the characters!”
Continue reading “IDW to retell Marvel origin stories in new series”‘M.O.D.O.K.: Head Games’ by Jordan Blum, Patton Oswalt and Scott Hepburn brings the KIrby creation into his own comic.
M.O.D.O.K. is having quite an autumn, not only appearing in the big Avengers video game, but also preparing for the debut of his own show on Hulu.
The newfound fame of the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby creation is also translating into a comic series, as Marvel as announced that Jordan Blum and Patton Oswalt, the showrunners of the upcoming animated Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K., are writing M.O.D.O.K.: Head Games. Scott Hpeburn will provide the art.
“One of the things that tickled us about M.O.D.O.K. was his insistence on keeping up this intimidating/frightening front even when all visible evidence pointed to the opposite,” Oswalt said. “Even from the git-go, those early Kirby issues, he’s still frothing and gnashing about the majesty of himself even when he’s been knocked to the ground. The malevolent Weeble was love at first sight for us. So after exploring every aspect of that in the series — showing him in lonely moments when he’s got no one to impress but this desperate self-image he keeps trying to prop up — it was super-fun to bear down on M.O.D.O.K. trying to unravel a specific mystery about his origin.”
Continue reading “M.O.D.O.K. heads into his own comic in December”‘Lumberjanes: End of Summer #1’ wraps up the series, with the promise of ‘new adventures’ to come.
BOOM! Studios has announced that their award-winning BOOM! Box series, Lumberjanes, will wrap up in December with Lumberjanes: End of Summer #1.
The oversized issue is by from cartoonist Kat Leyh, co-writer and co-creator Shannon Watters, artists Kanesha C. Bryant and Alexa Bosy, as well as returning co-creator and series artist Brooklyn Allen.
In the special — which follows November issue #75, which I guess is technically the last issue of the ongoing series — “the brave campers and counselors of Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types are in the fight of their lives against the mysterious force known as the Grey. Molly has discovered a deep and ancient forest magic which she hopes to use to protect her friends and the home they’ve all found at camp. But will she be strong enough to save everyone in the camp and the forest? Or is the all-encompassing, all-erasing Grey just too powerful for anyone to stop?”
Continue reading “‘Lumberjanes’ to end in December”In this edition, Tom Bondurant dives into the “Crisis Cycle” era that defined the Justice League before the New 52 kicked in.
For a series which only lasted five years, there’s a lot to talk about with regard to Justice League of America volume 2. Much of this involves events outside the series, both in DC’s other comics and with the people producing them. Meanwhile, the “comics blogosphere” came into its own, intensifying fan scrutiny and offering real-time commentary on controversies. This post won’t go too deeply into all that extratextual drama; but rest assured it was there, and it crept inevitably into the work.
With that said, let’s get started.
The Legends miniseries begat Justice League International and the Justice League: A Midsummer’s Nightmare miniseries begat JLA. The 2006-2011 Justice League of America similarly traced its roots to 2004’s Identity Crisis, written by novelist Brad Meltzer, pencilled by Rags Morales and inked by Michael Bair. Featuring the murder of a superhero’s spouse and reaching back into the League’s hidden history, Identity Crisis kicked off a “Crisis cycle” that churned through DC books for the next several years.
Continue reading “The Justice League at 60, Part 8: Fantasy Drafts”A round-up of news from DC, Marvel, Image and more.
Fresh from saving the Earth from being destroyed by the sun in Empyre, the Fantastic Four will get a much-needed vacation in a one-shot by new Iron Man scribe Christopher Cantwell and artist Filipe Andrade. It’s titled Fantastic Four: Road Trip, and it features family fun, a station wagon … and a Reed Richards experiment gone wrong.
Continue reading “Mail Call | Fantastic Four take a ‘Road Trip’ in December”New comics and graphic novels arrive this week from Chip Zdarsky, Ramon Perez, Christopher Cantwell, CAFU, Max Bemis, Gerard Way, Kurt Vonnegut, Sarah Mirk, Tenacious D and more.
We are back again with a look at what’s arriving in comic shops, bookstores and on digital this week. And it’s a very packed week, for both comics and graphic novels.
If you’re wondering what to get this week, check out a few recommendations below. You can check out Comic List 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 | 1,000 issues of Batman, Tony Stark suits up again and more”Although there weren’t any big comics announcements during the second day of DC FanDome, the company did reveal a few small tidbits.
This weekend DC presented the second round of their DC FanDome event, which featured pre-recorded virtual panels on their comics, movies, TV shows, video games and much more.
Although some viewers complained of technical issues when everything went online on Saturday morning, the event this time was much smoother and easier to absorb than the first day of the event, which took place back in August. For that one, everything was streamed on a continuous loop, which made it difficult to figure out when certain panels were going live — and if you didn’t have eight hours to dedicate to watching it, you were going to miss something.
This time around everything was posted on-demand style, so you could easily pick and choose what you wanted to see. If you just wanted to see the comics panels, you could pull those up and watch them without having to sit through a panel on the Flash TV show, for instance. Across five different channels, they had a LOT of content, and like before, it was only up for 24 hours. Which is a bummer — if you missed it, it’s gone, which doesn’t make a lot of sense. They could easily put at least some of it up on their YouTube channel.
If you did miss FanDome, here’s a round-up of some of the comic news that came out of the event.
Continue reading “DC FanDome: Reaction + news round-up”See what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately.
Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately — including comics from the past, present and future.
Let us know what you read this week in the comments or on social media.
Continue reading “What Are You Reading? | ‘Giga,’ ‘Hawkman’ and more”Check out recent comics from Alex de Campi, Dan Piraro, Kevin C. Pyle and more.
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.
Comics writer/editor Alex de Campi declared Aug. 28 to be “Nice Day Wanda,” a day when only good things happen to Marvel’s Scarlet Witch. If you’re familiar with the Scarlet Witch’s comic book history, you know that things don’t always go well for her — she’s accidentally destroying the Avengers one day, eliminating mutants the next, finding out her kids aren’t real, watching her husband lose his feelings … #NiceDayWanda was long overdue. To celebrate, de Campi worked with several artist on short comics where “nothing bad happens to the Scarlet Witch.”
Continue reading “Sunday Comics | Award winners, bizarre cowboys and the Scarlet Witch”‘Usagi Yojimbo,’ ‘They Called Us Enemy’ recognized in the NCS divisional awards.
This has been a very busy weekend for comics, from DC FanDome to the Small Press Expo and the Ignatz Awards to the National Cartoonist Society‘s virtual NCSFest, their annual event where the winner of the Reuben Award is announced (as well as other awards).
As announced during NCSFest, cartoonist Lynda Barry has won the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. The award has been presented annually since 1954 and was named for Rube Goldberg.
Continue reading “Lynda Barry wins the Reuben Award”
