NYCC: Archie announces Line Webtoon deal, South Side Serpents comic

The ‘Beyond Riverdale with Archie Comics’ panel during NYCC’s Metaverse brought news on upcoming comics releases.

Archie Comics announced several new comics projects today in conjunction with the virtual New York Comic Con, including a new partnership with the popular webcomics site Webtoon, a South Side Serpents one-shot and more details on the upcoming Riverdale: The Ties That Bind graphic novel.

The virtual version of the New York Comic Con, a.k.a. Metaverse, kicked off today, with virtual panels, exclusive merchandise and more. You can join in on the Metaverse website or on the New York Comic Con YouTube page, where all of today’s panels are available.

You can watch their panel in full below:

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Smash Pages Q&A: Alexis Fajardo

The award-winning creator discusses the latest chapter in his ‘Kid Beowulf’ graphic novel series, which is currently up on Kickstarter.

Alexis Fajardo is an Eisner Award-winning editor, writer and artist who is the editorial director at the Schulz Studio. He is also the cartoonist behind the Kid Beowulf series of graphic novels. The middle grade series focuses on Beowulf and Grendel, from the epic poem Beowulf, who in this version are twin brothers, exiled from home and wandering the world, encountering other characters from fiction and mythology.

Fajardo has just launched a Kickstarter for the fourth graphic novel in the series, Kid Beowulf: The Tarpeian Rock, which takes the brothers to Rome where they meet another set of famous brothers as the series takes a turn. He was kind enough to talk about the book, mythology and the influence of Star Wars.

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Jamal Igle illustrates the fight for racial equality in a mural in Milwaukee

The mural “merges the historical and the present fight for racial equity and fair housing through peaceful protest and voter participation.”

Jamal Igle, who you would know from such comics as Molly Danger, The Wrong Earth and Black, has drawn the artwork for a mural that’s been put up on buildings in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area.

Igle created the mural in conjunction with the organization March For Our Lives WI, and it “merges the historical and the present fight for racial equity and fair housing through peaceful protest and voter participation,” Igle said on Twitter.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Ally Shwed

The cartoonist behind World Citizen Comics’ ‘Fault Lines in the Constitution’ discusses illustrating abstract concepts, her publishing company Little Red Bird Press and more.

Ally Shwed is the writer and artist behind Fault Lines in the Constitution, the second book in the World Citizen Comics publishing line at First Second Books. Originally a text book written by Cynthia Levinson and Sanford Levinson, the book takes a look at how the United States Constitution was drafted, the debates behind its writing, and how those arguments and decisions continue to reverberate today.

People might know Shwed for her work on The Nib, where she’s written and drawn a number of excellent pieces, or for her work as one half of Little Red Bird Press where she’s edited two anthologies, Blocked and the recent Votes for Women. We spoke recently about illustrating abstract concepts, the struggle to craft a style that looks easy and what we can learn from what the suffrage movement did during a pandemic.

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Zombies, vampires and more

New comics and graphic novels arrive this week from Scott Snyder, Howard Chaykin, Rafael Albuquerque, Peter Milligan, Jerry Craft, N.K. Jemisin, Jamal Campbell and more.

We are back with a look at what’s arriving in comic shops, bookstores and on digital this week.

If you’re wondering what to get this week, check out a few recommendations below. Comic List seems to be down right now, so I’ll have to direct you to Diamond’s new release list to see (most of) what’s arriving in comic shops, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally.

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Gene Yang, The Nib and more win 2020 Harvey Awards

Awards ceremony will be held this Friday.

The Harvey Awards have announced their 2020 award recipients through their outlet of choice, The Hollywood Reporter. The awards announcement comes several days before a virtual ceremony that’s supposed to be part of New York Comic Con and MCM Comic Con’s Metaverse event.

So why are they announcing them now? Who knows — 2020 is weird. But hey, here are the winners:

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What Are You Reading? | Terminal Punks, Fantastic Four and Allie Brosh

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.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Ned Barnett

The creator of ‘Social Distancing – Life in the COVID-19 Pandemic’ discusses the pandemic, T.E. Lawrence and more.

Ned Barnett has made a series of graphic memoirs in recent years like No Rest for the Anxious, Hallo Spaceboy and last year’s Dreamers of the Day, which is part autobiographical journey and part exploration of the life of T.E. Lawrence. In these books and in short comics for a variety of outlets and anthologies, Barnett has shown a great talent for historical detail and capturing those small human elements that are often glossed over, giving readers a different and deeper look at the people and the era in the comics.

More recently Barnett made Social Distancing – Life in the COVID-19 Pandemic, which ran on Line Webtoon. From day to day the comic has taken different forms and approaches, but it is very consciously an effort to make a document of these times, of the elements of this crisis that are unique and that have precedent. He and I exchanged e-mails recently about the pandemic, T.E. Lawrence and thinking about what’s next.

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