Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Today we take a look at several projects announced this week during the ComicsPro meeting. Hit the links for more information.
This week’s ComicsPro meeting in Pittsburgh — that’s the retailers’ industry meeting where publishers present their plans to them, among many other activities — brought news from DC, Marvel, Skybound and several more publishers. We already covered DC’s new crossover series, Knight Terrors, and their manga news, as well as the new shared universe coming from Skybound. But there was a lot more revealed at the meeting.
It’s interesting to see what the ComicsPro meeting has evolved into over the years. There was a time when the meeting was pretty clandestine, as publishers talked directly to retailers, and journalists and bloggers would try to suss out what was revealed because press weren’t invited to the meeting. Well, except one — Matthew Price, who wrote about comics for the Oklahoman, is also a comics retailer, and I’d remember, when I was at Blog@Newsarama and maybe even Robot 6, following his writing to see what came out of those meetings. (Nowadays we get multiple press releases, and keynote speeches are regularly posted online — here’s this year’s).
I mention this because this week was also Price’s last week at the Oklahoman; here’s his final farewell letter for the publication, where he worked for more than two decades. Best of luck to him as he focuses not only on Speeding Bullet Comics but also his Substack, where he’ll continue to write about comics.
While DC and Skybound revealed actual details on their upcoming projects, Marvel has only issued two teasers for their projects: Contest of Chaos, seen above with artwork by Bryan Hitch, and then this Star Wars-themed teaser:
No other details have been revealed yet, but Marvel promised more details on Contest of Chaos will arrive next week.
During their presentation, Oni Press revealed a new science fiction anthology called Xino. The three issue miniseries will feature new stories by Melissa Flores and Daniel Irizzari, Christopher Condon and Nick Cagnetti, Jordan Thomas and Shaky Kane, and Phil Hester. The first issue will feature covers (shown in the gallery above) by Matt Lesniewski, André Lima Araújo, Malachi Ward & Matt Sheean, and Shaky Kane.
BOOM! released a press release about what they talk about at the meeting, which was a list of upcoming projects with few details:
-New standalone BRZRKR specials from high-profile talent.
-Brand new arcs for DAMN THEM ALL and BRIAR.
–FENCE returning to single issues with a new series.
-A journey back to the twisted Wonderland of ALICE EVER AFTER.
-Two new macabre specials from R.L. Stine’s STUFF OF NIGHTMARES.
-Brand new stories set in the universes of CODA and WILD’S END.
-And many more exciting issues from top-selling titles such as SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN and GRIM.
They also plan to kick off a new Mech Cadets series later this year timed with the release of the Netflix series, as well as Ranger Academy, an all-ages Power Rangers spinoff.
Mad Cave Studios, which also owns Papercutz now, revealed their plans for Asterix and announced they will publish Winx Club graphic novels.
“Winx Club is the perfect match for Maverick and Papercutz.” said Allison Pond, Mad Cave CMO. “On the surface, Winx hosts a magical world to be discovered and explored, but at its core Winx reveals to young readers that even a regular ‘Earth Girl’ has access to magical abilities within herself. We hope that readers will find themselves within the pages of these stories, in the same way Bloom finds herself.”
The Italian cartoon migrated to the U.S. via Nickelodeon, and comics featuring the property have been published by both VIZ and Upper Deck in the past. Netflix turned it into a live-action series that skewed a bit more adult than the cartoons, but it was cancelled after two seasons.
One thought on “Slugfest | Rounding up news from ComicsPro”