Month: October 2021

Winners announced for the 2021 Ringo Awards

The winners were announced in a ceremony that was livestreamed from the Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend.

The winners for the 2021 Ringo Awards were announced last night at the Baltimore Comic-Con, 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.

In addition the Ringos, a few other awards were presented during last night’s ceremony:

  • Artist Gene Ha was presented the Hero Initiative’s Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award.
  • Marvel’s Joe Quesada received the Hero Initiative Lifetime Achievement Award.
  • The Mike Wieringo Spirit Award, which is voted on by the professional jury as well as three additional, perennial jurors: Matt Wieringo, Todd Dezago, and Mark Waid, went to Folklords by Matt Kindt and Matt Smith.

You can find the replay of the event’s livestream on YouTube. The rest of the winners are:

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Ryall + Wood will launch Syzygy Publishing in January with ‘Joe Hill’s Rain’ adaptation

The imprint will publish and distribute comics through Image Comics.

World of Syxygy Publishing , the new initiative from Zombies vs Robots creators Chris Ryall and Ashley Wood, will kick off next year with an comic book adaptation of Joe Hill’s short story “Rain.”

Image Comics will publish the five-issue miniseries by the creative team of writer David M. Booher, artist Zoe Thorogood, colorist Chris O’Halloran and letterer Shawn Lee.

“You couldn’t ask for a better inaugural creative team and story with which to kick of Syzygy,” Ryall said in a press statement given to Screen Rant. “David, Zoe, and Chris all bring such immense skill and storytelling acumen to this project, and what they’ve done with Joe Hill’s gripping story is somehow both gorgeous and terrible to behold. Syzygy is defined as ‘the configuration of celestial bodies in a gravitational system and the added benefit and utter thrill to me is that Image Comics is Rain’s gravitational center. We have long admired how Image has expanded and enhanced this industry, and it’s as exciting to see that ‘i’ on our cover as it is the names of the creators involved.”

Last year Ryall left his position as president, publisher and chief creative officer of IDW Publishing to start his own publishing initiative with Wood — although he’s still involved with some IDW titles, like Hill’s Locke & Key.

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Kindt + Jenkins deliver the chills in ‘Apache Delivery Service’

The horror miniseries begins in January.

Matt Kindt, Tyler Jenkins and Hilary Jenkins, who created Dark Horse’s history-spanning Fear Case, will venture into the jungles of Vietnam for their next miniseries from the publisher, Apache Delivery Service.

The horror story involves the search for Nazi gold during the Vietnam War — which, rumor has it, is guarded by witches. Kindt said the story is “easily the most unsettling story I’ve written and for-sure the creepiest art I’ve seen Tyler and Hilary come up with.”

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Watch Wonder Woman’s induction into the Comic-Con Museum Character Hall of Fame

Marie Javins, Becky Cloonan, Liam Sharp and many other comics creators talk about Wonder Woman’s impact on pop culture and the world.

The Comic-Con Museum today inducted Wonder Woman into their Character Hall of Fame, following in the footsteps of Batman and Pac-Man.

The occasion was marked with a video on the Comic-Con Museum’s YouTube channel that featured appearances by Marie Javins, Liam Sharp, Nicola Scott, Trina Robbins, Phil Jimenez, Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, Gal Gadot, Helen Mirren, Lynda Carter, Patty Jenkins, the Teen Titans and many more.

You can watch it below:

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Marvel will celebrate 200 issues of Black Panther in January

John Ridley and Juann Cabal send T’Challa to Mars to visit his ex-wife Storm in the oversized issue.

Marvel’s latest Black Panther series will only reach issue #3 in January, but if you add up all his previous series, you get 200 issues — so Marvel’s celebrating with an oversized issue.

The comic is already pretty special, as it’s the third issue of the new series by Academy Award-winning screenwriter John Ridley and artist Juann Cabal. Ridley follows Ta-Nehisi Coates on the title and promises the comic will be a “hybrid espionage-Super Hero thriller, but at its core, it’s a love story.”

The cover to the first issue teased an appearance by Storm, and she’s front and center on issue #200:

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Comics Lowdown | DC FanDome triples its viewership

Plus: New graphic novels from the Mayo Clinic, the Andrew Carnegie Awards and more!

Viewership for last weekend’s DC FanDome tripled this year to 66 million views worldwide, according to DC. The event was available in multiple languages in more than 220 countries.

“With triple the fan traffic of last year, DC FanDome 2021 exceeded all of our expectations,” said Ann Sarnoff, Chair and CEO, WarnerMedia Studios and Networks, in a press release about the event. “We continue to innovate across the company in service of our fans, and I cannot overstate the creativity and hard work that went into this highly curated, global digital event. We gave fans what they wanted – the very best of all things DC – and their engagement and response have been fantastic. We’re as excited as they are to deliver on all the great content DC FanDome highlighted.” 

It was also a popular topic on social media, with “DC FanDome” trending at No. 1 on Twitter for eight hours in the U.S. and in the top 50 in 53 countries around the world. In addition to new Batman trailers and gold boots for The CW’s Flash, FanDome also revealed several bits of comic news, including the return of Blood Syndicate, a Wonder Woman-centric crossover event and a new Monkey Prince series.

DC will hold another virtual event today at 4 p.m. Pacific as Wonder Woman is inducted into the Comic-Con Museum Character Hall of Fame.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Casey Gilly

The writer of ‘My Little Pony: Generations’ and ‘Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer’ talks about both projects, writing licensed comics, creating new ponies and more.

Casey Gilly has been busy in the past couple years, writing comics that ranged from a short in the anthology You Died (drawn by Raina Telgemeier) to Star Wars Adventures. This fall, she’s launching two big, high-profile and very different projects.

IDW’s long-running My Little Pony series just ended, and Gilly and Michela Cacciatore team up for the five-issue miniseries My Little Pony: Generations, the first of which is out this week. It brings together the Friendship is Magic ponies with the Generation 1 ponies, along with some new characters. Then in December, BOOM! Studios launches the four-issue miniseries Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer with artist Joe Jaro, which features Buffy Summers in her 50s in a near future that — well, Gilly will explain that and more.

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Cliff Chiang sends Catwoman into a ‘Lonely City’

Check out what’s arriving in comic shops this week from Cliff Chiang, Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Scott Snyder, Francesco Francavilla, Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, James Tynion IV 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.

I should also add that the list of what is actually arriving at your local shop can vary from what’s on anyone’s official website for a myriad of reasons — so always check with your comics retailer for the final word on availability.

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Comics Lowdown | A look back at this weekend’s big comics events

Check out the news from both DC FanDome and NCS Fest, both of which had sessions you can still watch online.

This past weekend was filled with comics events of all shapes and sizes, from DC FanDome — which was about way more than comics, but they still had a strong presence — to the annual NCS Fest, which again went virtual and incorporated content from both the National Cartoonists Society and the Lakes International Comic Arts Festival in the UK.

In case you missed any of it, here’s the lowdown …

DC FanDome

This year’s FanDome was much shorter than last year’s, as DC opted for one day of livestreaming content rather than two. And it was better for it. The production was very tight, and I haven’t seen any issues raised about connection issues or the sorts of problems that can plague events like this.

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She-Hulk will put her ‘rage-filled days behind her’ in new series

Rainbow Rowell and Rogê Antônio bring the Jade Giant back to her legal practice in a new series this January.

Marvel’s upcoming She-Hulk title by Rainbow Rowell and Rogê Antônio will see the return of the Jennifer Walters we know and love, as she returns to practicing law and defending the innocent. But Marvel still promises a shocker at the end of the first issue that will “send Jen down a road she’s never traveled, one that will shake up her life and possibly the whole Marvel Universe.”

Marvel announced that Bruce Banner’s cousin would get her own title back in September, along with seven other “tentpole” titles set to debut this winter. Given the character will soon debut on Disney+, it makes sense she would return to her own title.

“She-Hulk is the best of the best,” Rowell told Marvel.com. “She’s smart, she’s funny—and she’s really and truly heroic (all that and she has the best hair in comics). Jen has always been at the top of my Marvel wishlist, and I’m thrilled to be writing her next chapter.”

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Ray Billingsley wins the Reuben Award

The creator of the comic strip ‘Curtis’ is the first African-American cartoonist to win the Reuben Award.

Ray Billingsley, creator of the long-running comic strip Curtis, has won the 2021 Reuben Award. He’s the first Black man to win the award since it was first established in the 1940s.

“This has been a huge step for me, and also a momentous step for the NCS because I’m the first Black guy to win the prestigious Reuben Award, and for that I’m very grateful,” Billingsley said in his acceptance speech. “This has been a very long journey, and I have literally lived my life on a deadline.”

Billingsley started his career drawing for KIDS Magazine when he was 12. After college and an internship with Disney, he went on to work on the nationally syndicated strip Lookin’ Fine, which ran from 1980 to 1982. He has also worked in animation, advertising and for various magazines and greeting card companies. Curtis launched in 1988 at King Feature Syndicate and is still published today. You can read it on the Comic Kingdom website.

You can watch the announcement of Billingsley’s win below, which includes his acceptance speech:

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DC + Milestone announce The Milestone Initiative

The new talent development program will provide nine weeks of training for new comic artists and writers.

Milestone Media and DC Comics have teamed up with Ally, an online financial services company, to launch the Milestone Initiative, a new program that’s meant “to identify, support and elevate emerging diverse writers and artists within the comic book industry.”

The program, which was announced yesterday during DC FanDome, will includes a week-long, in-person training seminar in DC’s Burbank, California offices next February. That will be followed by an eight-week virtual technical training course through the Kubert School. The initiative is actually part of a larger effort by DC to develop new talent called Next Generation DC.

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