Month: November 2021

Fund Me Sunday | Top Cow celebrates 30 years of ‘Cyberforce’

Pledge today to get a hardcover edition of ‘Cyberforce Complete Collection Volume 1.’

Top Cow is celebrating the 30th anniversary of the debut of Marc Silvestri’s Cyberforce with a crowdfunding project for a hardcover collecting many of the early stories featuring the characters.

The project is already live on Kickstarter and has blown well past its $30,000 goal, with more than $100,000 raised thus far.

The collection will include Silvestri’s original Cyberforce series from 1994, which has never been collected, in addition to volume 2 of the series, several miniseries and one-shots, and a crossover with Jim Lee’s WildCATS. In addition to Silverstri and Lee, the hardcover will feature early Image work by Todd McFarlane, Walter Simonson, David Finch, Joe Chiodo, Scott Williams, Brian Haberlin, Joe Benitez and Michael Turner.

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Mail Call | DC announces ‘Milestones in History’ anthology

Check out news, announcements and previews from DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Image, Z2 and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of cool things we’ve received in our mailboxes recently from comics creators, publishers and more. Hit the links for more information.

DC Comics and Milestone Media revealed more details about the anthology they plan to release this coming February during Black History Month, which was initially announced during DC FanDome last month.

Milestones in History will feature Hardware, Icon, Static and more narrating stories “Black trailblazers from across human history,” including Hannibal, the Queen of Sheba, Alexandre Dumas and more.

The 96-page prestige one-shot will cost $9.99 and arrives Feb. 15.

Here’s the full solicitation:

Celebrate Black History Month the Milestone way, as the superpowered citizens of Dakota (including Static, Icon, Rocket, Hardware, and more) narrate the true stories of Black trailblazers from across human history! Witness the military campaigns of Hannibal and the Queen of Sheba, the literary accomplishments of Alexandre Dumas, the World War One dogfights of Eugene Bullard against the legendary Red Baron, and many, many more, all written and drawn by a who’s who of comics and literary talent! On sale February 15th, this 96 page anthology honors Black History from around the world in a beautiful, prestige format book.

Written by REGINALD HUDLIN, ALICE RANDALL, TOURÉ, MICHAEL HARRIOT, and more
Art by VARIOUS
Cover by CHRISCROSS
Variant cover by DOUG BRAITHWAITE
$9.99 US | 96 pages | Prestige Format | One-shot

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TKO goes Rogue with new prose imprint

New novels by Joshua Dysart with MK Perker and Alex Grecian with Andrea Mutti will debut in January.

TKO Studios has announced TKO Rogue, a new prose imprint that will release illustrated novels by authors and artists “from the literary and pop culture worlds.”

The first two books they plan to release are Brood X by Joshua Dysart with art by MK Perker, and One Eye Open by Alex Grecian and Andrea Mutti.

“The launch of TKO Rogue is the next step in the evolution of TKO Studios and bridges the vibrant worlds of novelized fiction and comics with works from a renowned pair of award- winning, bestselling authors and internationally recognized artists,” said Tze Chun, co-founder of TKO Studios, in a statement. “We invite readers to enjoy these new books and join us as we develop an exciting roster of original prose titles.”

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Victor Santos launches ‘Ginger Revenges’ through Substack

The free webcomic will be available a page at a time through his newsletter.

Victor Santos, known for projects like Polar, Moon Eaters, Paranoia Killer and more, will syndicate a new comic through his Substack newsletter, the creator revealed.

Ginger Revenges is about a teenager who seeks vengeance against her gangster dad after her mom dies. Santos says he plans to post one page per month, but that each page will have “a lot of panels, like a digital modern version of the Sunday Pages from the old American newspapers.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: Jon Adams + Ellis Rosen on ‘Send Help!’

The two cartoonists talk about their latest project — a collection of comics, games, puzzles and more about being stranded on a desert island.

Jon Adams and Ellis Rosen are cartoonists and illustrators who separately have contributed to The New Yorker, MAD, McSweeney’s and many other outlets. Together they’ve teamed up to edit the new book Send Help!: A Collection of Marooned Cartoons.

More than just a collection of comics, it includes a forward by Emma Allen, an afterward by Bob Mankoff, along with biographies of people famously stranded on desert islands, games and puzzles, along with cartoons by artists familiar to comics readers including legends like Rob Chast and Mort Gerberg, and many others like Ivan Brunetti, Liza Donnelly, Liana Finck, Emily Flake, Matt Furie, S Gross, Pia Guerra and Ian Boothby, Miriam Latin, Peter Kuper, Terry LaBan, Hartley Lin, Michael Marlin, Hilary Price and Shannon Wheeler.

Adams and Rosen answered a few question about their hilarious and bizarre book, which is out now, and that after more than a year of pandemic lockdown feels very timely and very timeless. 

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Dark Horse will publish all-ages ‘Star Wars’ titles starting next year

Dark Horse returns to a galaxy far, far away next spring.

Dark Horse is back in the Star Wars business.

Starting next year, the publisher will once again tell stories set in the Star Wars universe, publishing all-ages comics and graphic novels in partnership with Lucasfilm.

“Dark Horse has a rich history publishing Star Wars comics and graphic novels,” said Mike Richardson, Dark Horse Comics CEO. “Star Wars is near and dear to all of our hearts and I’ve been a fan since I saw the original film 19 times during its original release. I am thrilled that Dark Horse will once again bring new stories to life from this incredible galaxy and I’m not exaggerating when I say we can’t wait to bring these new adventures to fans of every age.”

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Webtoon expands to graphic novel publishing with Webtoon Unscrolled

Former Marvel and DC exec Bobbie Chase will oversee a line of graphic novels that will bring popular Webtoon comics to print.

The popular mobile comics juggernaut Webtoon has announced plans to launch a new graphic novel imprint, Webtoon Unscrolled, that will be headed up by former DC, Marvel and Disney publishing executive Bobbie Chase.

Webtoon Unscrolled will publish print versions of their online comics, starting with the popular Tower of God by SIU and True Beauty by Yaongyi next fall.

“Webtoon has transformed the comics landscape, helping creators find new fans all over the world,” said Ken Kim, Chief Executive Officer, Webtoon Entertainment in a statement. “As the global leader in digital comics and IP, Webtoon’s storytelling technology and creators are fueling a Literary Creator Economy, ushering in a new era of publishing and entertainment. With Webtoon Unscrolled, we’ll bring some of the biggest names and undiscovered talent from Webtoon to bookshelves.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: Francis Manapul on ‘Clear’

The artist of ‘Flash,’ ‘Justice League’ and more discusses his new creator-owned title with writer Scott Snyder.

Francis Manapul has been drawing comics for more than 20 years now. He became an artist to watch while working on Top Cow comics like Witchblade before moving on to DC Comics. While there, he drew Legion of Super-Heroes, Detective Comics and Justice League, among other titles, but he might be best known for his work on The Flash, which he eventually wrote in addition to drawing it.

After years at DC, Manapul is collaborating with his former Justice League partner-in-crime, Scott Snyder, for a new creator-owned comic called Clear. It’s one of several titles written by Snyder as part of his deal with comiXology Originals, and the second issue became available on the digital comics platform yesterday. Snyder and Manapul are clearly having fun with the neo-noir science fiction environment they’ve created that’s a departure from the bright world of superheroes, as Snyder said in our interview with him that was posted yesterday.

“People think of [Manapul] as doing this bright vibrant exuberant superhero work with a lot of emotionality that has a light, painterly feel,” Snyder said. “With this he’s showing that he has this whole range that hasn’t been explored with darkness and nightmarish kinds of abilities that he didn’t get to do much in superheroes.”

I spoke with Manapul at length about the origins of Clear, the opportunities that working on a digital comic have given him and drawing on the styles of other artists to create the “skins” featured in the first issue.

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Synchronized swimming: Aquamen unite in a new series from DC

Jackson Hyde, Arthur Curry and the rest of the Aquaman family headline a new ongoing title by Chuck Brown, Brandon Thomas, Sami Basri and Adriano Lucas.

When Jackson Hyde took up the mantle of Aquaman in his new series, it begged the question, “So what’s going to happen to Arthur?” The answer: nothing; he’s still around, and in fact the old and new Aquaman will both star in the new title Aquamen.

Chuck Brown, Brandon Thomas, Sami Basri and Adriano Lucas will bring us new adventures of the underseas heroes, starting with a conspiracy involving an Atlantean suicide bomber in Middle America.

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Can’t Wait for Comics | DC Round Robin champ ‘Robins’ flutters into stores

New comics arrive this week from Tim Seeley, John Timms, Stephanie Phillips, Ram V, Anand RK, Mike Hawthorne and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital.

The list of comics distributor websites has become quite the cornucopia lately. Here are some options to get the full picture of what’s arriving this week:

Something to keep in mind, though, is that the list of what is actually arriving at your specific local shop may 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.

And on that note, I’m afraid there’s bad news: this week will again bring delays for products shipped by Diamond, as they continue to recover from a ransomware attack. Their temporary website where they’ve been giving updates is still live and has current updates for retailers, and their regular website has also been restored. But their PreviewsWorld website is missing some information on this week’s books, so I’d suggest using one of the sources listed above.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Scott Snyder on ‘Clear’ and more

The writer and teacher discusses the first three comics released through his exclusive deal with comiXology Originals.

Scott Snyder made a splash earlier this year by announcing eight new comics coming out digitally through comiXology and then in print from Dark Horse Comics.

Three very different first issues have already come out from the line:

  • We Have Demons, which re-teams Snyder with Greg Capullo after the duo’s long run on Batman and other DC projects.
  • Clear, a cyberpunk tale featuring art and colors by Francis Manapul.
  • And Night of the Ghoul, a monster horror tale drawn by Francesco Francavilla.

With these three books out, I checked in with Snyder about the books and how they represent what he’s thinking about right now.

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Spurrier + Bergara reunite on ‘Step by Bloody Step’

The project is a co-production between Image Comics and Éditions Dupuis, and will arrive in both English and French next year.

Image Comics has announced Step By Bloody Step, a four-issue, “text free” miniseries by the team of Si Spurrier, Matías Bergara and Matheus Lopes.

The series is co-produced by Éditions Dupuis, which will release a French edition next summer titled Saison de Sang. Image decribes the story as “a bittersweet fantasy opus about a nameless child and her giant guardian.”

“My last collaboration with Matías Bergara, Coda, has picked up awards and nominations everywhere it’s gone. We knew our follow-up had to be even more ambitious. We set our sights on nothing less than a step-change in fantasy comics,” said Spurrier. “Step By Bloody Step resounds with all the elements I love most—magic, mystery, monstrosity and the bond between two lost souls—but above all it’s an opportunity for Bergara and Lopes to shatter your senses with peerless storytelling spectacle and raw emotion. Love, after all, transcends any mere language.” 

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