Can’t Wait for Comics | Time to get dolled up for ‘The Hellfire Gala’

Scholastic’s Miles Morales OGN arrives, plus new Rick and Morty, Brecht Evens, ‘North Force,’ ‘The Nice House on the Lake’ and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital this week. This week brings new comics and graphic novels from Marvel, DC, Image Comics, Dark Horse and more.

Check out a few highlights below, or visit Diamond’s website for this week’s almost complete list of new comics arriving in stores — you can visit Lunar Distribution’s home page to see DC’s release — and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally.

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Guns that shoot stars: The Heroes Reborn roundtable, week 4

Carla, Tom, Shane and JK assemble once again to discuss Marvel’s latest comics event.

We are back this week for our fourth Heroes Reborn roundtable, where we break down the latest Marvel crossover issue by issue. This week Shane Bailey, Tom Bondurant, Carla Hoffman and I talk about Heroes Reborn #4, which puts the spotlight on the very unlikable Doctor Spectrum, as well as three tie-in issues: Magneto and the Mutant Force, Siege Society and Young Squadron.

You can read part one of our roundtable discussions here, part two here and part three here.

So let’s jump right in …

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Vault Comics’ Wonderbound imprint reveals its 2022 titles

Vault Comics’ young adult line announces new graphic novels by Colleen Coover, Paul Tobin, Michael Moreci and more.

Wonderbound, the middle grade/young adult-focused imprint of Vault Comics, has announced their 2022 line-up of graphic novels.

The slate of nine graphic novels includes new work by Agnes Garbowska, Shea Fontana, Colleen Coover, Paul Tobin, Galaad, Sam Beck, Michael Moreci, Brian Middleton and more. It also includes several sequels to works Wonderbound will publish later this year, when their first graphic novels debut in the fall, like Verse and Wrassle Castle.

“One of our goals with Wonderbound Year 2 was to present a wide range of genre graphic novels for young readers, but what blew me away was how each of these books also showed the depth of what genre stories can be for this age group,” said Wonderbound Managing Editor Rebecca Taylor. “I have laughed loudly and cried openly while watching pages come in on every single one of our 2022 titles. The sincerity and imagination at work in this slate–whether in a story about time traveling knights, orphaned detectives, or maniacal snowmen–is truly stunning, and I cannot wait for young readers to dive in!”

Here’s the complete list:

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Mail Call | Green Lantern Tai Pham returns in a new graphic novel next year

A round-up of recent announcements from DC, Marvel, IDW, Image, Diamond 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.

Tai Pham, the Green Lantern that debuted in the pages of the Green Lantern: Legacy graphic novel, will return in 2022 in Green Lantern: Alliance.

Pham’s adventures will once again be told by Minh Lê and artist Andie Tong, as he once again comes face-to-face with his nemesis, Xander Griffin, but this time he’ll have some help from a new Kid Flash.

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Check out Travis Mercer’s packaging for Foam Armory’s prop armor

The faux armor can be used for cosplay, Halloween costumes and more, and is currently available on Kickstarter.

For full disclosure purposes, I’ll start by saying that Stephanie Chan is one of the founders of Smash Pages, and contributes not only content for the site but also behind-the-scenes on the tech side. When she’s not doing that, though, she works for Foam Armory, a start-up she co-founded with aeronautical engineering technologist and special effects expert Ben Eadie. Together they create faux armor prop components  for stage, screen, cosplay and more.

Now those two worlds have come together, as they’ve enlisted comic illustrator Travis Mercer (Red Hood: Outlaw, Green Hornet)  to design packaging for their EVA Foam ScaileMaille, which is currently available through a Kickstarter campaign. The campaign has raised more than $36,000 and runs until May 31.

“Travis’ work is high energy and dynamic,” said Chan. “I personally have a lifetime history with comics, and I wanted to bring that world together with my new venture. And after one brief teleconference call, he immediately designed a mascot I would want to cosplay as myself!”

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‘Bite-Sized Archie’ arrives on TinyView, comiXology

Archie Comics’ fun web series gets a syndication deal and a digital collection.

Bite Sized Archie, the fun webcomic that appears on Archie Comics’ website and social media channels, can now be found on TinyView and soon on comiXology as well.

The strip is the brainchild of two Archie employees — Ron Cacace, director of publicity & social media for Archie, and Vincent Lovallo, who serves as art director. They’ve done more than 20 strips featuring Archie characters, including the traditional Archie gang as well as some of their horror line characters, like Vampironica.

“We created Bite Sized Archie because we were looking for a new way to deliver funny and relevant comics content directly to our dedicated fans on social media,” said writer and Archie Comics Director of Publicity & Social Media Ron Cacace. “We’re continually amazed and humbled by the positive feedback from readers of all ages. And getting to add the series to a platform like Tinyview, where a whole new audience will be able to follow along weekly alongside our current readers on social media, it’s such a wonderful feeling and we’re so grateful for the opportunity.”

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‘Cosmoknights’ webcomic returns June 4

Hannah Templer’s ‘epic lesbian-gladiators-in-space adventure’ returns to the web next week, with another graphic novel planned for 2022.

Hannah Templer’s Cosmoknights will return to the web next week, while Top Shelf plans to collect the second volume into a graphic novel next year.

The first volume, which was recently nominated for Nutmeg Award, introduced a universe where “mech-suited warriors duel over the daughters of the aristocracy, and a fledgling resistance of lady knights aim to bring down the system from within.”

Templer has also revealed the cover for the second volume:

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It’s Suicide Squad vs. Robins in the finals of DC’s Round Robin tournament

Vote for your favorite by June 2.

DC’s Round Robin tournament, which asks fans to vote on which pitch should become a series, has entered its final round. Voting is now open on the DC Community site and ends June 2.

On one side you have Robins, by the creative team of Tim Seeley, Baldemar Rivas, Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Steve Wands. They made it past Green Lanterns: Underworld on Fire in the previous round. On the other side, you have Suicide Squad Seven, by Rex Ogle, Diogenes Neves, Rex Lokus and Tom Napolitano, which beat out Blue Beetle.

They’re two different kinds of stories; on the one hand, you have a bunch of former Batman proteges teaming up; on the other, El Dorado! If you’re having a hard time deciding, DC has provided 10 page previews of both titles, starting with Robins:

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International artists interpret the Dark Knight in ‘Batman: The World’ hardcover

The new hardcover collection will arrive in stores just in time for this year’s Batman Day.

DC Comics will release Batman: The World, a hardcover collection of stories featuring the Caped Crusader by creators from around the world, in September.

The release comes just in time for Batman Day on Sept. 18, and will feature stories about Batman set in locations across Europe, Asia and South America. Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo will kick the anthology off with a story set in Gotham where Batman “realizes that the call for justice knows no borders,” setting up the rest of the stories in the book.

“Batman has grown into a true pop culture icon, known the world over,” said DC publisher and chief creative officer Jim Lee. “Batman: The World is DC’s way of showing fans everywhere that Batman is more than a character; Batman is a phenomenon that transcends languages and borders.”

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Melo + Cavia compose a ‘Ballad for Sophie’

Top Shelf will release the graphic novel this September.

Top Shelf will publish Ballad for Sophie, a new music-themed graphic novel by Filipe Melo and Juan Cavia in September.

Melo, a Portuguese musician, award-winning film director and comic book writer, teams with his frequent artistic partner for this new graphic novel about a musician who tells his life story to a journalist in a story that spans the 20th century.

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David Gallaher will script Rob Liefeld’s ‘The Shield’ one-shot for Archie Comics

The announcement comes after Liefeld left the project over a variant cover reveal by a different artist.

Archie Comics has announced that they’ve hired David Gallaher (Only Living Girl, High Moon) to script Rob Liefeld’s The Mighty Crusaders: The Shield one-shot.

The one-shot will still arrive on June 30 as planned. Archie positioned Gallaher as scripting “a new story for The Shield one-shot based on Mr. Liefeld’s artwork.”

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Rosenberg + a host of artists piece together ‘The Joker Presents: A Puzzlebox’

The Clown Prince of Crime has a story to tell and a puzzle to solve, starting in August.

How would you like to attend a murder mystery party — hosted by the Joker?

DC Comics has announced The Joker Presents: A Puzzlebox, a new seven-issue series written by Matthew Rosenberg (Hawkeye, 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank) with art by Jesús Merino, Joshua Hixon and Ulises Arreola. They’ll be joined by Keron Grant, Dani, Domo Stanton, Juni Ba, Vanesa Del Rey, Ricardo Ortiz, Christopher Mooneyham and others, as The Joker lays down his clues in the Gotham Central interrogation room.

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