Nominees announced for the 2022 Ringo Awards

The awards will be presented during the Baltimore Comic-Con on Oct. 29.

The nominees for the 2022 Ringo Awards have been announced, marking the sixth 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. The awards presentation will take place at The Baltimore Comic-Con on Oct. 29.

And the nominees are …

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Marvel revives the Forgiven for a mini-event by Tim Seeley and Sid Kotian next year

The team, which first appeared during ‘Fear Itself,’ will team with Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Avengers across three one-shots.

Marvel is reviving an obscure team of superhero vampires that first appeared during the 2011 event Fear Itself for a mini-event that will be published next year.

Spider-Man: Unforgiven will kick things off, by Tim Seeley and Sid Kotian. Mini-events, as we’ve taken to describing them, are a series of connected one-shots that typically feature a similar theme or hero. In the past they might have been miniseries, but Marvel has brilliantly come up with a way to ensure every issue has a #1 on it.

The three-part Unforgiven will kick off with the Spider-Man issue, to be followed by one-shots featuring the X-Men and the Avengers teaming up with The Forgiven. They first appeared in the Fear Itself: Hulk vs. Dracula miniseries by Victor Gischler and Ryan Stegman.

“I love Marvel super heroes, no doubt, but I’ve got a special obsession with Marvel’s horror heroes,” Seeley told Marvel.com. “Unforgiven gives that creepy, sexy, weird underbelly a chance to shine as a horrific conspiracy unites a crew of vampires with Spider-Man, the X-Men and Captain America, and shows us the stark differences (and surprisingly similarities) of those who are gifted with the ability to fight evil, and those who have to carry evil’s curse. By the end of this epic event, we’ll have toured a lot of dark corners of the Marvel Universe, and reminded readers that monsters are at its shrunken black heart!”

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Virginia judge dismisses case against ‘Gender Queer’

The court dismissed it based on First Amendment and due process grounds.

Circuit Court Judge Pamela Baskervill has dismissed the case that sought to label the graphic novel Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe and the novel A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. K. Maas as obscene and illegal to sell.

The judge found that the statute pursuant to which the petitions were filed violated the First Amendment and the constitutional right to due process. You can read the judge’s full decision here.

Jeff Trexler from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund served as Kobabe’s co-counsel and offered more details on the decision in a lengthy Twitter thread.

“Normally an obscenity statute works the way you’d expect a criminal statute to work: a person produces, possesses, distributes, etc. certain material, gets arrested on obscenity charges, gets convicted or found not guilty,” he posted. “Virginia Code § 18.2-384 is different. It provides that a citizen or attorney of any VA county/city in which sale or commercial distribution of a book occurs can initiate a proceeding to have the book declared obscene. When that happens, the judge can issue an order to show cause that the book is not obscene & can also issue a temporary restraining order against the sale or distribution of the book!”

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DC reverses course on Jorge Molina’s Hispanic Heritage Month cover

The variant cover for ‘Titans United: Bloodpact #1’ will feature a tribute to Mexican artist and muralist Jorge Gonzales Camerena, as Molina originally intended.

Artist Jorge Molina posted on Twitter today that his original variant cover for Titans United: Bloodpact #1 will in fact be used on the comic, rather than the version that popped up on Diamond’s website.

Molina’s original cover features Green Lantern Kyle Rayner paying tribute to Mexican artist Jorge Gonzales Camerena by recreating Camerena’s “La Patria,” a famous piece used on numerous textbooks in Mexico since the 1960s.

Molina shared the final version of the cover as well:

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Alex Ross comes ‘Full Circle’ with the Fantastic Four

Check out new comics and graphic novels arriving this week from Alex Ross, Tom Taylor, Jon Sommariva, Jim Zub, Sean Izaakse, Zack Kaplan, Arjuna Susini and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital. As is normal when a month has a fifth week, Marvel and DC are heavy on the annuals and specials this week.

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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Smash Pages Q&A | Stephen Graham Jones on ‘Earthdivers’

The award-winning horror writer and university professor talks about his new IDW Originals title, the differences between writing comics and prose, and teaching ‘Secret Wars.’

Stephen Graham Jones has written an extensive library of novels and prose stories, bringing home the Locus Award, four Bram Stoker Awards, two Shirley Jackson Awards, the LA Times Ray Bradbury Prize, the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award, the Independent Publishers Award for Multicultural Fiction and a whole lot more. His novels, like The Only Good Indians and My Heart is a Chainsaw, tend to fall into what could be described as the literary horror genre, usually with a dose of sharp social commentary as well. When he’s not writing, he’s teaching creative writing, literature, pop culture and other subjects at the University of Colorado.

Or, he might be reading comics.

photo by Gary Isaacs

Jones is an old-school 1980s comics fan who discovered the medium in the time of Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars, and his love for them has only grown since. He not only teaches about them at the university level, but he’s also started writing them. His latest project is Earthdivers, a miniseries set to kick off Oct. 5 as part of IDW’s Originals line, beautifully drawn by the incomparable Davide Gianfelice. The time travel story focuses on four Indigenous survivors in a post-apocalyptic United States who embark on a mission to save the world: by sending one of them back in time to kill Christopher Columbus and prevent the creation of America.

Jones was kind enough to answer a few questions I had about the new series, as well as talk about some of his favorite comics to teach.

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DC trades Jorge Gonzales Camerena tribute for tamales on Hispanic Heritage Month cover

A cover featuring Kyle Rayner by artist Jorge Molina has been altered prior to publication.

A variant cover created to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month that pays tribute to Mexican artist Jorge Gonzales Camerena has apparently been altered prior to publication to instead feature Green Lantern Kyle Rayner holding a bag of tamales. I wish I was joking here.

The original cover by Jorge Molina was set to appear on next month’s Titans United: Bloodpact #1 as one of several covers that would be released during HHA. Here’s the original, unfinished cover, which appeared in solicitations and was already being sold by retailers:

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Quick Hits | Rachel Pollack hospitalized

Rest in peace, Lily Renée. Plus news on IDW Media, censorship in Missouri, Paul Allor and more.

Creators | Former Doom Patrol writer Rachel Pollack has been hospitalized and is currently in the ICU, according to a GoFundMe page started by Patricia Nolan. The page is seeking financial help for Pollack’s health care. “If she is able to go home, she will need 24-hour care. Up to now, we haven’t needed your help. It is time now,” the message reads. Pollack, who is also a novelist and Tarot expert, in addition to writing comics, most recently worked on the Comixology Originals title The Never Ending Party.

Passings | Lily Renée, who worked as a penciller and inker on titles for Fiction House and St. Johns Publications back in the 1940s and 1950s, has passed away at the age of 101. Trina Robbins reported the news on Facebook after hearing from Renée’s son Rick. “She died peacefully at home, as was her wish, yesterday after living a full life of more than 101 years. There is a time for all of us and her death comes on the heels of the birth of her third great grandchild earlier this year,” he said in his message.

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Marvel celebrates 60 years of the Wasp with a new miniseries

Two Wasps team up in a new story by Al Ewing and Kasia Nie.

Following up on his work on the Ant-Man miniseries, writer Al Ewing will turn his attention to Hank Pym’s partner and former wife, Janet Van Dyne, for a new Wasp miniseries that kicks off in January.

Ewing will be joined by artist Kasia Nie, while Tom Reilly, who worked with Ewing on the Ant-Man series, will provide covers. The miniseries will feature both Wasps — Janet Van Dyne and her adopted daughter, Nadia Van Dyne.

“The Ant-Man series was a whole lot of fun and gave me a new appreciation for Janet Van Dyne and her world – and when I went digging into her past, there was a whole story there just waiting to be unearthed,” Ewing told Marvel.com. “If you weren’t a fan of the Wondrous Wasp before – not to mention her adopted daughter Nadia Van Dyne – you will be when we’re done!”

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‘Skinner’ crash-lands next May

The original graphic novel about a killer stalking internet celebrities will be published by Dark Horse Comics.

Dark Horse has announced a new horror graphic novel coming your way next year — Skinner, which is written by two video game veterans, Micky Neilson and Samwise Didier.

“Sam and I are both huge horror fans,” Neilson said. “Skinner is our love letter to the genre.”

They’ll be joined by the art team of Piotr Kowalski, colorist Dennis Calero and letterer Frank Cvetkovic. Didier, who is currently Blizzard Entertainment’s senior art director, drew the cover:

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Image announces ‘The Knight and the Lady of Play’ by Jonathan Luna

The dark fantasy, non-digital one-shot finds Luna ‘drawing on paper again.’

Image Comics has revealed that they’ll publish The Sword creator Jonathan Luna’s next project, The Knight and the Lady of Play, in November.

The one-shot follows a knight returning home after fighting a war against demons — but his trip is cut short when he encounters a mysterious woman.

“I’m excited, not only to release my first work of dark fantasy, but also to create it, drawing on paper again. These are my first non-digital comic-book drawings since The Sword,” said Luna. “Also, I will be using just graphite—not ink. Of all my books, this will look the most different.”

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Mary Jane Watson teams with the Black Cat for new ‘Dark Web’ miniseries

Jed MacKay and Vincenzo Carratù bring together the former rivals in December.

Two of Spider-Man’s ex’s will team up in a new miniseries this December, as a part of the bigger Dark Web crossover event Marvel announced at the San Diego Comic Con earlier this year.

The series will be written by Jed McKay, who wrote the most recent Black Cat series as well as the Black Cat/Mary Jane one-shot that tied into the “Beyond” storyline in Amazing Spider-Man. He will work with artist Vincenzo Carratù on the series, who has drawn several series for Dynamite in recent years.

“I’ve kind of lost track of how many lives Felicia has left at this point, but she keeps coming back- and this time she’s brought a friend,” MacKay told Marvel.com. “Getting back to Mary Jane and Black Cat after their one-shot last year has been a delight—and seeing how they’ve been catching up on all the drama that’s happened since then has been, well, catnip.”

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