Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently that we haven’t already covered. Hit the links for more information.
Marvel will pay tribute to the 80th anniversary of Captain America next year with a special project involving John Cassaday, Alex Ross, Marguerite Sauvage, David Lapham, Declan Shalvey and many more. Captain America Tribute #1, coming from Marvel in March, will feature a bunch of current artists redrawing both Captain America Comics #1 and Avengers #4, with each page by a different artist.
Captain America was introduced to the world in 1941, in a comic by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, and he made his modern-day debut in Avengers #4 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Marvel did something similar for the anniversary of X-Men #94.
There’s a new Batman in town, or at least there will be when Future State kicks off. And DC has revealed just who that is under the mask — Tim “Jace” Fox, estranged son of Batman ally Lucius Fox. Doug Braithwaite and Diego Rodriguez drew the variant cover for Future State: The Next Batman #2, which features the unmasked character. John Ridley and Olivier Coipel will also have a story featuring the character — and his new sidekick — in an upcoming Batman: Black & White issue.
From one icon to another … Z2 Comics has announced Elvis: The Graphic Novel by Chris Miskiewicz and Michael Schelfer., which tells the life story of the rock ‘n’ roll legend.
“Elvis is one of the most universally celebrated names in entertainment,” says Z2 publisher, Josh Frankel. “His name transcends music itself as one of the larger-than-life figures in the history of pop culture. We hope to make this graphic novel an origin story for Elvis fans akin to what Alan Moore’s Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow is for the Son of Krypton.”
Rob Liefeld, whose Mighty Crusaders project was just announced this week, is very busy: he’s also drawing a series of variant covers for Marvel celebrating the 30th anniversary of Deadpool.
“When the opportunity to illustrate 30 variant covers commemorating Deadpool’s 30th anniversary came up, I literally jumped at the chance! I went over a quick checklist with the Marvel brass and I think we’ve picked a great array of Marvel’s biggest and brightest stars to pair with the Mighty Merc over 30 unique covers!” Liefeld says. “It’s giving me a chance to draw Deadpool with Marvel stars I’ve never drawn before, like Miles Morales and Silver Surfer! This is going to be grand, I hope the fans enjoy this special event, it’s a blast putting it all together!”
AfterShock’s Undone by Blood will return for another round next year, this time with a story set in the 1930s by Lonnie Nadler, Zac Thompson and Sami Kivela. The story follows Silvano Luna Del Rio, a postman working in Buttar, Texas at the height of the Great Depression as the Midwestern Dust Bowl begins to form. He decides to rob the first skyscraper West of the Mississippi.
Next April Top Shelf will bring Edgar Camacho’s Onion Skin to the United States. It’s about a man who leaves his job and starts up a food truck with a woman he just met named Nera. The book was the winner of Mexico’s first ever National Young Graphic Novel Award.
The latest Humble Bundle is now available, featuring a range of comics from Image Comics. You can pay what you want, choose a charity to support — either Make A Wish Foundation, ComicBooks For Kids! or St. Jude’s Hospital — and then get a bundle of digital comics. The bundle includes Rumble, Bitter Root, Skyward, Elephantmen and much more.
Marvel’s King in Black miniseries event will wrap up in March, and Marvel has revealed Ryan Stegman’s cover for that final issue — along with several one-shots that will tie into the event that month, featuring Ghost Rider, Scream, Wiccan and Hulkling, and more.
Dark Horse shares Jill Thompson’s variant cover for the first issue of Crimson Flower, a new series coming next year from Matt Kindt and Matt Lesniewski.
Mariko Tamaki and Yoshi Yoshitani will team up next year for I Am Not Starfire, a YA graphic novel starring Starfire and her daughter(!). Mandy navigates high school and life with the added pressure of having a super famous, superhero mom.
“Creating this graphic novel has been a real dream come true,” said Yoshitani. “Partnering with Mariko Tamaki to create a world filled with familiar characters from my childhood, brand-new faces, and flashy superpowers, underpinned with feelings of teenage angst all while trying to do justice to longtime DC readers and those picking up comics for the first time has been a fulfilling whirlwind. We did a lot of great work, and I’m proud of what we made. I can’t wait for readers to pick it up!”
Check out some pages from it below. The graphic novel comes out next August.
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