Day: July 19, 2022

Cesare + Stoll present a ‘shopping spree from Hell’ in ‘Dead Mall’

The first issue of the four-issue miniseries arrives in October.

Horror novelist Adam Cesare, whose books include Clown in a Cornfield and Summer Job, will work with artist David Stoll (Pantomime) and letterer Justin Birch on Dead Mall, a new miniseries coming from Dark Horse Comics later this year.

The story takes place in — and is narrated by — the Penn Mills Galleria, a former mall that’s about to be demolished when a group of kids decide to visit it one last time — only to find it isn’t so empty.

“The first comics I remember buying as a kid, during my first trips to the comic shop with my dad, were issues of Dark Horse Presents. It’s surreal, 30ish years later, to be talking about Dead Mall,” Cesare said. “I wanted to tell a story that readers of my books would enjoy, but also something that couldn’t be done–or couldn’t be done *best*–in prose. A supernatural, monster-filled, body-horror-tinged combination of Chopping Mall and The Ruins, where the mall itself is narrating the story? That sounded like a lot! Something that could only be achieved in the collaborative medium of comics. And what a collaborator to have in David Stoll, whose art is immaculate and storytelling sense is unimpeachable. Then there’s Justin Birch and the rest of the team at Dark Horse, a dream to be working with them. We’re just so excited for readers to enter Penn Mills Galleria.”

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Posehn + Duggan + Koblish will host a ‘Halloween Party’ this October

‘The Secret History of the War on Weed’ team brings back Scotch McTiernan to spread more mayhem.

The team behind The Secret History of the War on Weed have set their sights on Halloween, and the holiday will never be the same again.

Scotch McTiernan, who Brian Posehn, Gerry Duggan, and Scott Koblish introduced to readers earlier this year, returns to battle the real-life horrors that have made Halloween not so scary.

“I stopped trick-or-treating after I witnessed Michael Myers as he terrified horny teenagers in an Illinois suburb at the end of the seventies. My pals Gerry, Scott and I figured after our 4/20 book it was on us to be like our hero John Carpenter and ruin trick-or-treating and Halloween once again. Suck it, my favorite holiday,” said Posehn.

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Smash Pages Q&A | Brian Doherty

The author of ‘Dirty Pictures’ talks about ‘how an underground network of nerds, feminists, misfits, geniuses, bikers, potheads, printers, intellectuals, and art school rebels revolutionized art and invented comix.’

Brian Doherty’s new book Dirty Pictures tells the story of – as the subtitle puts it – “How an underground network of nerds, feminists, misfits, geniuses, bikers, potheads, printers, intellectuals, and art school rebels revolutionized art and invented comix.” The book is simply the best and most comprehensive look at underground comics published to date.

In the book, Doherty tries to capture a wide range of what was happening in underground comix and with the people who were involved. Indeed it was the people, their lives and their stories that fascinated him more than the comics. But more than simply an account of a fascinating group of people and a notable body of work, Doherty wants to argue that comics as we know it today, which is studied in academia and widely read and respected, can be traced back to this deeply transgressive art movement.

To make the book, Doherty talked to, well, just about everyone. It is a fascinating, at times hilarious and sometimes moving account of a generation of artists, the work they made and the changes it wrought.

Doherty is an editor at Reason Magazine and the author of a number of books, including This is Burning Man. He took time out recently to talk about how the pandemic affected research, the people he wasn’t able to interview, and his relationship to underground comix.

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Can’t Wait for Comics | ‘Judgment Day’ comes to the Marvel Universe

Check out new comics and graphic novels by Kieron Gillen, Valerio Schiti, Scott Snyder, Hayden Sherman, Gene Yang, Marcus To, Al Ewing, Javier Rodríguez, Paul Cornell, Steve Yeowell, Danie Stirling and more.

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

I’ve pulled out some of the highlights below, but for the complete list of everything you might find at your local comic shop and on digital this week, you’ll want to check out one or more of the following:

As a reminder, things can change and what you find on the above lists may differ from what’s actually arriving in your local shop. So always check with your comics retailer for the final word on availability.

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