Month: September 2022

Comixology Originals will publish the debut graphic novel from Xavier Saxon

‘Night at the Belfry’ arrives on the platform Oct. 18.

Comixology Originals has announced plans to publish Night at the Belfry, the debut graphic novel by writer and artist Xavier Saxon.

The story is about a 73-year-old former postman who starts remembering his time as a recreational boxer in the 1980s and “hatches a life altering plan to regain the control he believes he’s lost.”

“Night at the Belfry is my first book and I am super proud of it, but it is not where I would have expected myself to start off in the world of comics,” Saxon said. “I don’t have much of an interest in boxing, I’m not a 70-plus year-old retiree (yet), and my preferences in terms of fiction have always skewed more towards the fantastical, genre-based stuff. The idea came from a few places. It started purely visually, the idea of a boxing match in a church belltower. But as I developed the story I became fascinated with the idea of applying undue importance to an, in retrospect, insignificant period of one’s own life. Mostly, though, the book came from a place of frustration. I wanted to finish something. And now that I have, I hope what I’ve made will resonate with readers.”

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McNamara + Massaggia explore history, privacy + serial killers in ‘Past Tense’

The new graphic novel from Dark Horse Comics arrives next year.

Jason McNamara and Alberto Massaggia will team up for a new graphic novel, Past Tense, that’s set to come out from Dark Horse next year. They’ll be joined by colorist Paul Little and designer Sonia Harris on this new story about serial killers and the loss of privacy.

“To me, horror works best when it reflects real-world concerns,” McNamara said. “If we have a modern bogeyman, it is our loss of privacy. I wanted to couple that with my fascination with unsolved mysteries. What if we could send a hidden camera back through time, not to change history, but to view it as it truly occurred?”

McNamara is the writer of Ghost Band, The Cicada, Sucker, The Rattler and many other graphic novels and comics that feature monsters, serial killers, dystopian futures and more. So he’s no stranger to horror — they probably play pool together. Massaggia, meanwhile, is the artist of the Behemoth Comics series Hotline Miami: Wildlife.

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Snyder + Jock open the ‘Book of Evil’

The creators of ‘Batman: Black Mirror’ reunite for a new illustrated prose series for Comixology Originals.

As part of his eight-book deal with Comixology Originals, Scott Snyder will once again team with artist Jock for The Book of Evil, a “visionary serialized horror story” that blends Snyder’s prose with Jock’s illustrations.

The story follows four young friends growing up in world where over 90 percent of the population are born as psychopaths, but they don’t know it until they become a teenager. Despite the danger, the four friends “set off together on a journey that will take them down the roads and rivers of this transformed America in the hope of finding a place where goodness still lives.”

Snyder shared more about it in his newsletter:

“It imagines that not long from now, 92% of the population start being born sociopaths. Nobody knows why, nobody knows if it’s a toxin or a mutation or evolution. But suddenly, the vast majority of people being born present as sociopaths when they hit adolescence. So when you’re about 13 or 14, you switch over into either being part of the majority, a psychopath, or you’re one of what they call ‘subs,’ a ‘subhuman’ person who still has the vestigial limb of empathy or compassion or a conscience, and you’re relegated to the terrible hard labor of this world. So it’s a really dark book,” he said. “I’m very, very, very proud of this one. It’s prose with spot illustrations and it’s presented as the journal, like an artifact by a kid in this world named Homer, who’s growing up with his three best friends in the slums that they keep kids in until they present one way or another. And it’s about an adventure they have to try and escape all of the terrors of this future.”

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Pour yourself a glass of ‘Pink Lemonade’

The Roadie! Tim Drake! Flawed! Sgt. Rock vs. zombies! And Saladin Ahmed wraps up his run on Miles Morales: Spider-Man in this week’s comics.

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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D + Q will publish Winnie-the-Pooh by Travis Dandro next year

The graphic novel adaptation of the A. A. Milne/E. H. Shepard classic will wander into stores next year.

Drawn and Quarterly has announced that Travis Dandro, the creator of Hummingbird Heart, is working on a new Winnie-the-Pooh graphic novel for the publisher.

“It’s amazing to see Travis make a turn from his hilarious and heart-rending autobiographical series of graphic novels to one of the most sublime children’s classics. Seeing a cartoonist of this kind of skill reinterpreting great literature is rare and thrilling,” said Executive Editor Tom Devlin.

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Tini Howard + Sweeney Boo take over ‘Harley Quinn’ next March

DC celebrates 30 years of Harley with a new creative team and more.

As DC celebrates 30 years of Harley Quinn — she first appeared on Batman: The Animated Series in 1992 — they’ve announced that next March, Tini Howard and Sweeney Boo will take over the Harley Quinn ongoing series.

Neither creator is a stranger to Gotham City, as Howard currently writes Catwoman and will write the upcoming Punchline miniseries. And Boo was the artist for the Punchline back-ups that ran in The Joker’s recent ongoing series.

Here’s a look at the cover for their first issue:

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Put some horror into your holidays with Archie’s ‘Happy Horror Days’ one-shot

Frank Tieri, Joe Eisma, Joanne Starer and more put the ‘ho, ho, ho’ into horror this December.

The Archie Horror line returns with a vengeance this fall, starting this week with Chilling Adventures Presents . . . Weirder Mysteries and continuing on into October with several new titles. But if you think you’ll be safe after Oct. 31, think again — Archie has announced Happy Horror Days, a one-shot holiday special that will add a bit of fright to your holiday festivities.

The one-shot will feature three stories, including a new Jughead: The Hunger tale by Frank Tieri and Joe Eisma, a Sheila Wu story by Joanne Starer and Butch Mapa, and a Sugar Plum story by Joe Corallo and Patrick Piazzalunga.

“In ”Twas the Night Before the Hunger,’ X-Mas turns into an X-Massacre when Jughead finds himself up against none other than a pissed off Krampus one fine Christmas morn. It’s a nice little tale of ho-ho-horror where we may see more than just Christmas cookies and hamburgers getting eaten,” Tieri said about his and Eisma’s story, which returns to the world where Jughead is a werewolf.

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‘Nubia: Real One’ wins an Ignyte Award

The DC graphic novel by L. L. McKinney and Robyn Smith was honored during an awards ceremony this past weekend.

L. L. McKinney and Robyn Smith, who re-imagined Wonder Woman’s sister in the YA graphic novel Nubia: Real One, have won a 2022 Ignyte Award.

The awards “celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscapes of science fiction, fantasy and horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts toward inclusivity of the genre.”

The creative team won in the “Best Comics Team” category. Other nominees this year included the creative teams on Abbot: 1973, Count, Shadow Life and Squad. Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, which was adapted into a graphic novel by Damian Duffy and John Jennings, won the award last year.

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Eric Powell brings Albatross Funnybooks to Dark Horse

The creator of ‘The Goon’ will once again work with Dark Horse, this time on a new line of comics.

Eric Powell, the award-winning creator of The Goon, will return to Dark Horse to head up his own imprint where he’ll publish his own comics and those made by others.

The imprint is called, naturally, Albatross Funnybooks, the name of Powell’s publishing company that he’s been operating since 2002. Over the years Powell has not only published his own work, but also comics by Fabian Rangel Jr., Logan Faerber, Brendon Small, Rebecca Sugar and others. Dark Horse published The Goon starting in 2003 for 42 issues before it went on hiatus, then popped up again at Albatross.

“I couldn’t be happier to be returning to Dark Horse and bringing Albatross over as an imprint,” said Powell. “This partnership will allow me to focus more on what I want to be doing, making books. I’m very excited for what the future holds and the new opportunities to be found.”

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Dark Horse moves to Penguin Random House for direct market comics distribution

Dark Horse will move their comic shop distribution from Diamond to Penguin Random House starting next June.

Penguin Random House’s overall footprint in the direct market will grow again next year, as Dark Horse has announced plans to move their business to the growing comics distributor.

Dark Horse follows Marvel and IDW in moving away from their longtime distributor, Diamond, to partner with Penguin Random House Publisher Services.

“It’s an exciting time for the industry, and our move to Penguin Random House for direct market distribution comes after our successful partnership in bookstore distribution,” Dark Horse Founder and CEO Mike Richardson said. “Random House will help us expand our reach to retailers and fans around the globe.

Effective June 23 of next year, Penguin will handle distribution of Dark Horse’s newly published and backlist comic book periodicals, graphic novels, and manga to the Direct Market comic shops. Penguin was already the distributor of Dark Horse’s graphic novels to the book channel.

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Edward Sorel awarded the Reuben; Powell, Petersen + more win NCS awards

The National Cartoonist Society recognized cartoonists and artist across several categories this past weekend.

The National Cartoonist Society has named Edward Sorel as the 2021 Cartoonist of the Year, presenting him with their annual Reuben Award.

The Reuben, along with the annual NCS Divisional Awards, were announced over the weekend during the Reuben Awards gala dinner.

Sorel’s work has appeared in The Nation, New York Magazine, The Atlantic, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Village Voice, National Lampoon, Fortune, Forbes, Time, Esquire and countless other publications. The 92-year-old artist’s memoir, Profusely Illustrated, was published last year.

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IDW’s final G.I. Joe comic features more than 300 characters on one of its covers

Larry Hama wraps up 40 years of writing a ‘Real American Hero.’ as IDW potentially sets a new world record for ‘most comic book characters on a single issue cover.’

With G.I. Joe set to leave IDW for, um, somewhere else at the end of the year, IDW is pulling out all the stops on their big finale for the line. Their last comic, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #300, will arrive in stores in November, featuring a story by longtime G.I. Joe scribe Larry Hama, with art by SL Gallant, inks by Maria Keane, colors by J. Brown and letters by Neil Uyetake.

“I handed in the plot to G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #300, which is the final issue of the series for IDW, with a mix of sadness and amazement. Sad, that a storyline I began in 1982 is coming to an end, and amazement that it has lasted this long,” Hama said.

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