Christmas comes in July in the ‘Batman/Catwoman Special’

Tom King and John Paul Leon team up for the story of Catwoman before she was Catwoman.

The Eisner-nominated team of Tom King and John Paul Leon will reunite for a one-shot interlude to the Batman/Catwoman comic book maxiseries. Dave Stewart joins them on colors.

Batman/Catwoman Special arrives in July, tracing the life of Selina Kyle from he early days to her arrival in the criminal underworld, showing how Bruce Wayne factored into her life during that time.

It also sports a fun holiday cover:

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Marvel reveals who fans chose to join the X-Men

The new X-Men team will debut during the Hellfire Gala event, and will headline their own comic starting in July.

Marvel has revealed the winner of their online X-Men poll, where they asked fans to vote for the final member of the new X-Men team that will debut during the Hellfire Gala storyline. And no, it isn’t Tempo.

If you want to avoid any spoilers, you may want to stop reading now …

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Jabba the Hutt gets his own ‘War of the Bounty Hunters’ tie-in comic

Everyone’s favorite giant space slug gets a one-shot courtesy of Justina Ireland and Luca Pizzari.

The most notorious gangster in the Star Wars universe will get his own one-shot as part of Marvel’s upcoming War of the Bounty Hunters crossover event. The comic, which is due out in July, is by Justina Ireland and Luca Pizzari.

“Getting to work on a comic at Marvel, especially a Star Wars comic about one of the most perpetually under-appreciated criminal masterminds in the whole galaxy, has been a trip,” Ireland told StarWars.com. “It’s exciting, a little scary, and really makes me wish I could time travel to tell my twelve-year-old self reading comics in the grocery store self  ‘All of this will pay off one day.’”

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Peter David writes a new X-Factor story for ‘X-Men Legends’

The ‘writer of stuff’ teams with Todd Nauck for a new story featuring Havok, Polaris, Madrox and more.

Peter David’s run on X-Factor is the next classic X-title to get the X-Men Legends treatment, as issue #5 of that title will feature a new story by David and artist Todd Nauck that is set between X-Factor #75 and #76, which came out in 1992.

The story will feature the characters you remember from his run, such as Havok, Polaris, Madrox, Wolfsbane and Strong Guy, among others.

X-Men Legends, if you weren’t aware, revisits classic X-Men runs with new, in-continuity stories by some of the original creators. Fabian Niceiza kicked off the series with a story about the Summers clan, while Louise and Walt Simonson will return to their version of X-Factor — the team that featured the original X-Men — in X-Men Legends #3.

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Marvel announces a new ‘Amazing Fantasy’ series by Kaare Andrews

Versions of Black Widow, Spider-Man and Captain America from different points in history come together in this new miniseries.

Marvel has announced a new five-issue miniseries, named after the classic series Amazing Fantasy, set on an island of high fantasy and featuring iconic versions of three of their heroes. Kaare Andrews of Spider-Man: Reign, E-Ratic and Iron Fist: The Living Weapon fame, will write and draw the series.

In the series, Red Room-era Black Widow, teenage Spider-Man and World War II-era Captain America find themselves on a dangerous “island of intrigue.”

“This is a story that combines not just different Marvel eras but different art styles to depict them,” Andrews said. “As a creator, sometimes you want to invent new heroes and villains to expand the universe into different places or ideas, but sometimes there is an even greater power in embracing what has come before. In telling fresh and passionate tales with heroes that an audience has already invested a lifetime in. There is a beating heart to these archetypes. And they need to live again!”

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CCI announces 2021 Eisner Awards Hall of Fame ballot

Judges choose six inductees who will automatically go into the Hall of Fame, and a field of 16 for voters to choose from.

Comic-Con International has announced the judge’s choices and the full ballot for the 2021 Will Eisner Awards Hall of Fame.

Six inductees will automatically be inducted this year, while voters will choose from a field of 16 once voting opens later this year. There’s no word yet on when voting will occur.

The six judge’s choices are:

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Skybound will celebrate its 10th anniversary with ‘Skybound X’

New stories featuring Rick Grimes, Clementine, Science Dog, Ultramega and more will appear in the five-issue weekly anthology series.

To celebrate its 10-year anniversary, Robert Kirkman’s Skybound will publish a five-issue miniseries featuring character from across their line, including a few new ones.

Skybound X will run weekly in July and will include new stories featuring The Walking Dead, Ultramega, Manifest Destiny, Rednecks, Stillwater, Excellence, Birthright and more. Each issue will feature a Rick Grimes 2000 story, which spins out of The Walking Dead #75 and features the re-teaming of Invincible creators Kirkman and Ryan Ottley for a different take on The Walking Dead saga. Also, Clementine from The Walking Dead Telltale Games will make her comic book debut.

“Surprise! Did you really think we would let Skybound’s 10-year anniversary pass us by without bringing back some of our favorite characters?” Kirkman said. “We are forever thankful for our community’s support over the past decade and are honored to share this special series with the larger Skybound family. None of these characters have such monumental journeys without the fans, so Skybound X is for all of you!”

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Nominees announced for the 2021 Hugo Awards

‘Monstress’ receives its fifth nomination in four years, and is joined by ‘Die,’ ‘Ghost Spider,’ and more.

The nominees were announced via YouTube today for the 2021 Hugo Awards, which includes a “Best Graphic Story or Comic” category.

Two of the six nominees were published by Image, while Dark Horse’s Berger Books imprint, Marvel, BOOM! Studios and Abrams each received one. Writer Kieron Gillen received two nominations this year in the category, while Seanan McGuire, nominated for writing Ghost Spider, was also nominated for her prose work in two other categories.

Presented annually since 1955, The Hugo Awards recognize the best science fiction in books, comics, movies, TV and more. The Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story has been awarded since 2009, with previous winners including volumes of Saga, Ms. Marvel, Girl Genius, Sandman: Overture and Monstress, which is up for the award again this year. LaGuardia won the category last year.

And the nominees for 2021 are:

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Smash Pages Q&A: Scott Snyder on ‘Nocterra’

The writer of ‘American Vampire,’ ‘Death Metal,’ ‘Batman’ and more discusses his newest creator-owned title, his Best Jackett Press imprint and more.

Scott Snyder has been in the driver’s seat for many of DC’s biggest projects over the last decade or so, including crossover titles like Metal and Death Metal, and of course his runs on Batman and Justice League. At the same time, he’s also kept a foot in the creator-owned world, writing titles like American Vampire, Wytches and Undiscovered Country, among others.

Last summer, he hit the gas on his creator-owned work, launching a Kickstarter for Nocterra, a new creator-owned series with Tony S. Daniel and Tomeu Morey that’s coming out from Snyder’s Best Jackett Press imprint. The crowdfunding effort brought in more than $200,000 and set the stage for the launch of the Nocterra ongoing title, which debuted last month from Image Comics. The explosive first issue introduced readers to truck driver Val Riggs, a woman who lives in a world where the sun stopped rising 10 years ago, plunging humanity “into an everlasting night that turns all living creatures into monstrous shades.” The only defense is artificial light; luckily Riggs’ 18-wheeler is heavily illuminated.

I spoke with Snyder about the comic, its villain, the differences between launching a creator-owned comic vs. a DC title, his plans for Best Jackett Press and more.

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Un-Locke-ing the Sandman Universe

New comics arrive in stores this week from Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez, Donny Cates, Nic Klein, Chip Zdarsky, Tom Taylor, Pasqual Ferry, Cullen Bunn, Mark Torres and 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.

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.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Alex Segura on ‘The Dusk’

The editor, author and comics writer discusses his current project that’s up on Kickstarter, as well as his next comics-themed novel, Micro-Face and more.

Alex Segura has many irons in many fires on any given day. He serves as co-president of Archie Comics, where he has also been known to write comics featuring the flagship character meeting bands like the Ramones and the B-52s. And when he’s not in Riverdale, he’s working on his own projects, whether that’s novels like the Peter Fernandez mystery series and Poe Dameron: Free Fall, or comics like The Black Ghost and The Dusk.

It’s the latter that’s occupying a lot of his time right now. It’s a new comic he’s made with Elizabeth Little, David Hahn, Ellie Wright, Taylor Esposito and Joseph Illidge, and it currently has 10 days left in its Kickstarter campaign. It’s about a lawyer/divorced dad by day, superhero by night who tries to take a different approach to fighting crime.

Segura was kind enough to speak with me about this project, as well as his next novel, Secret Identity, and an upcoming comic he’s made with the folks at NPR’s Planet Money podcast, among other topics.

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Top Cow announces supernatural noir series ‘Syphon’

The three-issue miniseries by Patrick Meaney, Mohsen Ashraf and Jeff Edwards begins in July.

Patrick Meaney, who worked on the comic book documentaries Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods and The Image Revolution, among others, is trading his camera for the keyboard as he writes a new miniseries for Top Cow.

Meaney will team up with Mohsen Ashraf and Jeff Edwards for Syphon, a three-issue “fantasy noir” miniseries about a supernatural empath.

Syphon explores how much of a burden we can take on ourselves in trying to help others and the world around us,” said Meaney. “After the past few years of world events, it feels extremely relevant to ask, how much can you do to try and save the world before you destroy yourself.”

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