75th annual NCS Reuben Awards nominees announced

Winners will be revealed in October.

The National Cartoonist Society has trickled out the nominees for this year’s Reuben Award and the accompanying NCS Divisional Awards over the last few months, as they prepare for the big awards ceremony in October.

The divisional awards include categories that cover comic books, webcomics, political cartoons and more. I’ve included the nominations that are relevant to the world of comics, but you can find the complete nominations lists here and here.

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Campbell will bring back ‘Shadoweyes’ on Substack

‘Shadoweyes for Good’ will find new life on Sophie Campbell’s just-launched email newsletter.

Sophie Campell, known for her work on Wet Moon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and more, has announced she’s joined the Substack Revolution and will share her next Shadoweyes project, Shadoweyes for Good, through her new email newsletter.

“BIG NEWS: I’m doing my next book, Shadoweyes For Good, on Substack!!!” she posted to Twitter. “Yes I am aware of the discourse but they’re paying me a ton of money and I could really use it (for expensive kaiju figures).”

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Image will publish John Leguizamo’s ‘PhenomX’

The comic, which was crowdfunded in 2019, will be drawn by artist Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez.

PhenomX, a superhero comic by Spawn actor John Leguizamo and artist Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, will arrive in stores in November courtesy of Image Comics and Todd McFarlane, who will provide a variant cover for the first issue.

The all-Latino creative team for the project includes Miranda-Rodriguez—author of the comic series La Boriqueña—as well as cover art by Jim Muñiz, José Marzán, Jr. and Juan Fernández.

“In today’s world, it’s incredibly important to support Latin artists,” said Leguizamo. “There is a lack of Latin representation in Hollywood, and it’s important to showcase Latin superheroes.”

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Williamson + Molina to pit Batman against the new villain Abyss in December

Williamson takes over the flagship Batman title following the departure of James Tynion IV.

Following the departure of James Tynion IV from Batman, Joshua Williamson has announced on Twitter that he’ll write the title beginning with issue #118, with Jorge Molina on art.

“As Batman leaves Gotham, I’m starting a new storyline called ‘Abyss’ drawn by the awesome Jorge Molina,” he said. “We’re honoring the plan that the other books in the bat-line are doing while telling a brand-new story for Bruce Wayne as Batman in the DCU.”

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Nominees announced for the 2021 Ringo Awards

Winners are scheduled to be announced at the Baltimore Comic-Con in October.

The nominees for the 2021 Ringo Awards have been announced, marking the fifth year for the awards program named for artist Mike Wieringo, who passed away in 2007.

Nominees were chosen by fans, along with a panel of judges that included retailer and online host Amy Dallen, Teaching Graphic Novels author Dr. Katie Monnin, podcaster/broadcast journalist John Siuntres, cartoonist Steenz and artist Brain Stelfreeze.

The fifth annual awards presentation will take place at The Baltimore Comic-Con on Oct. 23.

Here are the nominees:

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Young reveals new artist, Substack plans for ‘I Hate Fairyland’

Brett Parson joins Young on the ongoing series from Image Comics, while Substack premium subscribers will receive short stories set in the ‘I Hate Fairyland’ universe.

I Hate Fairyland creator Skottie Young has detailed his future plans for the comic, which he wrote and drew from 2015 to 2018.

Those plans include a new artist, Brett Parson, for the ongoing series, plus a series of short stories by various artists that he plans to post for premium subscribers to his Substack mailing list.

“In 2015 I launched my first creator owned book at Image Comics called I Hate Fairyland,” Young wrote.  “I was nervous that something as wacky and over the top as IHF wasn’t going to find a place with readers but man, was I wrong! Over the next few years, the book sold really well, I received tons of fan art, photos of tattoos and a wild amount of IHF cosplay. I was blown away!”

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Superman fights Lobo, DarkHawk soars and King Spawn reigns this week

New comics and graphic novels arrive this week from Todd McFarlane, Tim Seeley, JH Williams, Chip Zdarsky, Mark Bagley, Kyle Starks, Bastian Vivès 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.

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 releases, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally.

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Felix the Cat returns to comics

Source Point Press will publish a new Felix the Cat comic next year by Mike Federali and Tracy Yardley.

Felix the Cat — the wonderful, wonderful cat — will return to comics next year in a new series by Source Point Press and Dreamworks Animation. Writer Mike Federali and artist Tracy Yardley will tell new stories about Felix, his friends and his trusty bag of tricks.

“Over the years, I’ve gotten to work with some iconic characters, and Felix the Cat is as iconic as they come,” Yardley said. “Drawing his bold, graphic style and his classic cast of friends has put a feline feather in my comics cap.”

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Sunday Comics | Afghanistan, masks and killer bees

Check out recent comics by Jay Hosler, Alex de Campi, Christine Larsen, MariNaomi, B.J. Mendelson 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 or on social media.

As the United States ends its occupation of Afghanistan, political cartoonist and The Nib founder Matt Bors looks back at the comics he created as a result of a trip he took to the country in 2010:

In August of 2010 I embarked on a month long trip through Afghanistan with fellow cartoonists Ted Rall and Steven Cloud. We traveled unembedded throughout the North of the country and in the capital of Kabul. It was the ninth year of the war and, at the time, the height of the Taliban insurgency and US troop presence.

The goal of the trip was to hear from Afghans directly, see the occupation for ourselves, and share those experience—through writing, comics, and photography. I captured a lot in sketchbooks and filed a series of comics through my syndicate where papers normally ran my political cartoons. The following comics are a series of vignettes on Afghanistan and represent some my earliest attempts at more realistic nonfiction comics. These originally ran online at Cartoon Movement, but appear to be lost to web decay, so I wanted to publish them again here—for posterity and for any insight they still hold.

You can see his comics here.

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What Are You Reading? | At the halfway point, ‘Batman/Catwoman’ gets ‘a provisional thumbs-up’

Plus: The Smash Pages crew talks about ‘The Trial of Magneto,’ ‘Nightwing,’ ‘Superman and the Authority,’ ‘Bermuda,’ ‘Dragon Racer’ and more.

Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Smash Pages crew has been checking off their “to read” list lately. This time around we talk about several recent releases that range in setting from tropical islands to deep space to, um, scenic Bludhaven.

Let us know what you’ve been reading lately in the comments or on social media.

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‘White Ash’ returns this fall from Scout Comics

The next chapter in the series by Charlie Stickney, Conor Hughes and Fin Cramb picks up right after the first series.

Season two of White Ash, a crowdfunded comic about a small town in Pennsylvania where elves and dwarves live in secret,will kick off Nov. 17 from writer Charlie Stickney, artist Conor Hughes, colorist Fin Cramb and publisher Scout Comics.

White Ash has been an ambitious undertaking from the start,” said Stickney, who is also the co-publisher of Scout Comics. “The scope of the world I was looking to build, the timeline I was looking to cover and the breadth of characters and themes I wished to explore, was a daunting proposition. With Conor, I not only found an incredibly skilled storytelling partner, but one who rather shirking from the challenge, said, ‘but what if we also add…’  And from that moment I knew, I’d found a kindred sprit, with whom I look forward to together, creating many years of White Ash adventures.”

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Mail Call | Jim Mahfood’s ‘Grrl Scouts’ returns in November

Check out news, previews and announcements from Marvel, Image, IDW, BOOM! Studios 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.

Image Comics has announced a new six-issue Grrl Scouts miniseries from creator Jim Mahfood, titled Grrl Scouts: Stone Ghost. The first issue will arrive in November.

“I’m extremely excited about this new Grrl Scouts series and I think fans and new readers alike will be very entertained and definitely get a lot of bang for their buck with this one,” said Mahfood. “I’m introducing an entire new cast of characters, expanding on the mythology of the Grrl Scouts, and handling every aspect of the production of the book: writing, drawing, coloring, and lettering, to make this a very unique experience! This series is for fans and collectors alike who are looking for something different and off-beat when they’re staring at that wall of new releases in the comic shop.”

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