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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 checking off their “to read” list lately. Let us know what you read this week in the comments or on social media.
Continue reading “What Are You Reading? | ‘Zom 100,’ ‘Uncanny X-Men’ and more”Check out new comic strips by Nicholas Gurewitch, Thom Zahler, Steve Lieber 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.
The popular webcomic The Perry Bible Fellowship turned 20 this year, and to celebrate, creator Nicholas Gurewitch teamed up with 20 other creators for a series of collaborative strips. He’s been tweeting them out since Jan. 23, the official anniversary date for the strip.
Plus more news from Marvel, DC, Image, AfterShock, Dark Horse and more.
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.
Last summer the “Infinite Destinies” storyline was supposed to run through several Marvel annuals, including Iron Man, Captain America, Black Cat and Thor, among others. The story revolves around the returning “infinity stones,” those pesky don’t-call-them-infinity-gems MacGuffins that regularly take center stage at Marvel.
Anyway, like with many other things, the COVID pandemic and comics industry shutdown threw a wrench in Marvel’s plans, and those annuals were never released. But now it looks like they are back on the schedule for 2021, with an added prelude comic to kick things off — Black Cat #8 by Jed MacKay and C.F. Villa.
“Felicia Hardy- the Black Cat- gets tangled up with the Infinity Stones, some of the most dangerous prizes in the universe. Felicia may be the most accomplished jewel thief on the planet, but when those jewels hold the power of the cosmos, it’s a whole new ball game. Felicia is in a race against the others who would seek to control the stones for their own ends- like Nick Fury (and a secret someone you won’t see coming!),” MacKay said. “Who can cross the world’s most dangerous men, wrangle a pack of villains hopped up on fragments of infinite power, (hopefully) get the job done and look great all the while? The Black Cat, that’s who!”
Continue reading “Mail Call | Black Cat kicks off Marvel’s ‘Infinite Destinies’ event this summer”Batman will visit the video game’s world in ‘Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point.’
DC Comics and Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite, are teaming up for a comic series that’ll feature Batman and characters from the popular video game.
Christos Gage will write Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point, “with concept and story consultation” from Donald Mustard, Chief Creative Officer of Epic. It will feature artwork by Reilly Brown, Christian Duce, Nelson DeCastro and John Kalisz.
“When DC first approached me about doing a Batman/Fortnite series I thought it would be a lot of fun,” said Gage. ”After speaking with Donald and discovering just how deeply we’d be diving into the secrets behind the world of Fortnite, I was amazed! This series will reveal things about Fortnite that have never been seen or heard before yet are very much part of the canon of the game.”
Continue reading “DC announces Batman + Fortnite crossover comic”‘Static,’ ‘Icon and Rocket,’ and ‘Hardware’ return later this year.
DC has revealed the creative teams for the three upcoming DC Digital First titles that were announced earlier this month.
The digital-first “extended cut” of the Milestone Returns #0 one-shot came out today, with plans for a print copy to debut in May. Milestone Returns: Infinite Edition #0 combines the original 17-page comic with an additional 24 pages of completely new material written by Reginald Hudlin and drawn by artists Denys Cowan, Nikolas Draper-Ivey, Bill Sienkiewicz and more. They also revealed the creative teams and first-issue covers:
Continue reading “Creative teams revealed for returning Milestone titles”The creator of ‘Matty’s Rocket’ talks about his latest graphic novel, Afrofuturism, what he’s working on next and more.
Tim Fielder had been working as an artist and animator for years before making a splash a few years ago with Matty’s Rocket. A stunning Afrofuturist graphic novel, the book was a dynamic artistic triumph on so many levels.
His new book is Infinitum: An Afrofuturist Tale, which was just released by Harper Collins’ Amistad Press. It’s an original Afrofuturist graphic novel published by a major American publisher, and Fielder admits that he understands the significance — just as he understands what it means to find this success after working for decades and becoming an overnight sensation.
Infinitum is an epic in every sense of the word, about a warlord from the dawn of civilization cursed to live forever. Beyond that, as the book moves ahead centuries and millennia, are a lot of twists and turns that make it difficult to talk about it without spoiling anything, but I was thrilled to talk with Fielder again about this new project.
Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A: Tim Fielder on ‘Infinitum’”The as-yet-untitled graphic novel will feature two college freshman who go on an “eye-opening trip” to New York.
Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, the creators of the award-winning, critically praised graphic novels Skim and This One Summer, will team up once again for a new graphic novel in 2023.
While the graphic novel does not yet have a title, Drawn and Quarterly revealed that it’s about two college freshman who head to New York for Spring Break.
“In 2010, Jillian and Mariko exploded the YA graphic novel market with a nuanced queer goth coming of age story filled with subtext. Skim raised the bar on what we consider young adult both in subject matter and art style,” said D+Q Publisher Peggy Burns. “With this new book, they’re now shifting their focus to early adulthood, capturing female friendship and the perils of growing up via an eye-opening trip to NYC. Their magic of being able to completely intertwine their individual art forms into a cohesive, spectacular whole is on display yet again.”
Continue reading “D + Q announces a new Jillian Tamaki + Mariko Tamaki project for 2023”The graphic novel by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott and Harmony Becker adds another award to its shelf.
They Called Us Enemy, the graphic novel that recounts the experiences of actor George Takei and his family when they were interned by the United States government during World War II, has added another award to its already long list of accolades — the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics.
The sixth annual Dwayne McDuffie Award was presented over the weekend in a virtual ceremony hosted by actor Phil LaMarr and broadcast on Facebook.
Continue reading “‘They Called Us Enemy’ wins the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics”JK, Shane and Tom wrap up their look at DC’s Future State first issues, including ‘Legion of Super-Heroes,’ ‘Aquaman,’ ‘Suicide Squad’ and more.
And we’re back with our final look at DC’s Future State titles, as Shane, Tom and I talk about the first issues of Legion of Super-Heroes, Superman/Batman, Superman: Imperious Lex, Suicide Squad and Aquaman.
You can see what we had to say about some of the other Future State first issues in parts one, two, three and four.
This is also my last opportunity to post the Future State timeline, my best friend and lifeline while reading these titles:
The second issues of everything we talk about arrive today, as DC wraps up the event and prepares for Infinite Frontier — which will feature some of the characters we met during FS. We talk a little bit about that at the end.
And away we go …
Continue reading “The State of Future State, Part 5”The writer, artist and professor discusses his role as director of Megascope, the new publishing imprint at Abrams Books dedicated to publishing comics by and about people of color.
It’s hard to sum up John Jennings’ career. He’s a writer and artist who’s made comics like Blue Hand Mojo and collaborated on books like the recent graphic novel adaptations of Kindred and Parable of the Sower. He’s a fine artist and part of the art collective known as Black Kirby. He’s a Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Riverside. He’s co-editor of The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Blackness in Comics and Sequential Art, curated exhibitions across the country, and co-founded the Black Comic Book Festival at the Schomburg Center in Harlem, and SOL-CON. Jennings also edits the back matter of the Eisner Award-winning comic series Bitter Root.
As if straddling academia and public scholarship, fine arts and comics making wasn’t enough, Jennings is also the director of Megascope. The new publishing imprint at Abrams Books launched this year with After the Rain, an adaptation of a short story by the great Nnedi Okorafor from Jennings and David Brame.
We spoke recently about his work, the imprint and what it means. He also dropped some news and announced another Megascope title in our conversation, an adaptation of Charles Johnson’s National Book Award-winning novel The Middle Passage.
Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A: John Jennings”The awards recognize fantasy and horror lit across a variety of categories.
Die, Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans’ series about a group of teens sucked into a role-playing game, has won a 2020 British Fantasy Award.
“This is an amazing honour. Stephanie and I are totally humbled,” Gillen said on Twitter.
The British Fantasy Awards recognize fantasy and horror literature across a range of categories, including the “Best Comic/Graphic Novel” category. You can see the complete list of winners across all categories here. You can also see the full awards presentation on YouTube.
Other nominees in the comics category this year included 2000AD, Basketful of Heads, B.P.R.D. The Devil You Know, Vol. 3: Ragna Rok, DCeased and The Ozone Diary.
Continue reading “‘Die’ wins a British Fantasy Award”New comics and graphic novels arrive this week from John Ridley, Olivier Coipel, L.L. McKinney, Robyn Smith, Matt Fraction, Lilah Sturges, Colleen Doran, Kurt Busiek, Ben Dewey and many more.
Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide each week to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital. This week sees the wrap-up of DC’s Future State event and the latest Ms. Marvel series, as well as debuts from AfterShock, Scout, Image and more.
Check out a few highlights below, or visit ComicList for this week’s full list of new comics arriving in stores, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally.
Continue reading “Can’t Wait for Comics | Girls, unicorns and nuclear war”
