Month: August 2023

Thanos faces a new Illuminati in a miniseries by Cantwell + Pizzari

Marvel will release the first issue in November.

Mr. Fantastic, Doctor Strange and Iron Man will unite with Emma Frost and the Blue Marvel just in time to face Thanos, as the Mad Titan returns to Earth in a new four-issue miniseries.

“I’ve had the honor and joy of writing some of Marvel’s greatest villains, so you can imagine how excited I am to not only tackle the Mad Titan himself, but pit him against some of the most powerful brains and fists out there—this latest lineup of the Illuminati,” Cantwell said. “But I think folks will find the backdrop of this story quite unexpected, mischievously funny, and heartbreakingly human, for what has drawn Thanos back screaming into the universe is a singular pain and desire for connection that he believes only one essence in existence (and non-existence) can give him… while this being is in turn grappling with some deeper questions about what they are, and what they want to be. Plus, Thanos hot-wires a pickup truck.”

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Vault will publish ‘He Who Fights With Monsters’ graphic novels

The first adaptation of the hit fantasy series will arrive in 2024.

Vault Comics will team with Podium Publishing to bring He Who Fights With Monsters, the popular series of books by Travis Deverell, to comics.

“He Who Fights With Monsters is among the best long-form fantasy series I’ve ever read,” said Vault CEO Damian Wassel in a press release. “I just can’t get enough of it. The whole team at Vault is so excited to bring Shirtaloon’s amazing world to life in the graphic novel medium.”

Deverell, whose pen name is Shirtaloon, has written nine books in this “Literary Role Playing Game” series, with a 10th arriving in November. It’s about an office-supplies-store middle manager who becomes a heroic interdimensional adventurer who battles cannibals, cultists, wizards, monsters and more.

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Nominees announced for the 2023 Ignatz Awards

The annual awards celebrate outstanding achievement in independent comics and cartooning.

The Small Press Expo, aka SPX, has announced the nominees for the 2023 Ignatz Awards.

The Ignatz Awards, which have been handed out since 1997, celebrate the outstanding achievements of independent comics, graphic novels and alternative political cartoons. Named for the mouse that appears in the Krazy Kat comics by George Herriman, the logo changes each year as a new artist draws the mouse and his weapon of choice, the brick. The logo for this year was drawn by 2022 Ignatz Promising New Talent Winner Juni Ba.

The nominees were chosen by a panel of comics professionals that included Ellen Lindner, Juniper Kim, L. Nichols, Ally Shwed, Jason Little and Kotaline Jones.

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Marvel announces a new ‘Sentry’ miniseries by Jason Loo + Luigi Zagaria

Look for the first issue in stores in December.

The Sentry, Marvel’s “forgotten” mega-powered hero created by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee, may be dead, but his memory and power lives on in a new miniseries by Jason Lee and Luigi Zagaria.

Bob Reynolds, the original Sentry, debuted in 2000 as part of the Marvel Knights line. The middle-aged man started remembering he had another life, as a superhero who was best friends with Mister Fantastic and fought the villainous Void — who was later revealed to be Reynolds’ other half. Sentry would appear again in Avengers and Dark Avengers, and most recently appeared in the King in Black crossover, where he was killed by Knull.

In this new miniseries, Reynolds is still dead, but his memories and powers start to pop up in ordinary people around the world. Misty Knight and Jessica Jones begin to investigate these strange occurrences.

“This new chapter of the Sentry has an intriguing concept: on top of all the responsibilities and struggles a single person has to deal with in their everyday life, can one also handle the power of a million exploding suns?” Loo said. “It’s a fun opportunity for me to create new characters that readers can see themselves in and bestow them these earth-shaking powers.”

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Nominees announced for the 2023 Dragon Awards

The awards, which include a comics category, have been presented annually during DragonCon since 2016.

The nominees have been announced for the 2023 Dragon Awards, which have been presented annually during DragonCon since 2016.

The awards include multiple categories for books, media tie-ins like movies and video games, and comics. This year the “Best Comic Book” and “Best Graphic Novel” categories have been combined into a single category — “Best Comic Book or Graphic Novel.”

The nominees in the comics and graphic novel category are:

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Foxe + Borelli’s ‘Spider-Woman’ will continue the fight after ‘Gang War’

The new series begins in November.

This is good news: the “Gang War” Spider-Woman miniseries that was announced at Comic-Con is actually an ongoing series. Steve Foxe and Carola Borelli will continue to tell stories about Jessica Drew after the events of Gang War (which will be the subject of the first four issues).

“Jessica Drew has been my favorite Marvel heroine since I was a kid,” Foxe said. “From the instantly classic costume to her complex backstory, there’s just so much to her. She’s a spy, a street-smart detective, a superheroic best friend, an Avenger, a Spider-Verse-hopper, a mother and a survivor. Getting the chance to do it alongside Carola, as well as Eric Koda on our prologue, has been bioelectric heaven.”

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Emily Carroll, Fall of X, Knight Terrors, Wayne Family Adventures + more

Check out new comics and graphic novels arriving this week by Noah Van Sciver, Kendra Wells, Joshua Williamson, Greg Pak, Takeshi Miyazawa, Chris Condon, Jacob Phillips, Jay Stephens 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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Chichester returns to Daredevil for the first time since the 1990s for ‘Daredevil: Black Armor’

The retro miniseries kicks off in November.

Writer D.G. Chichester and artist Netho Diaz will return to the scene of the crime in Daredevil: Black Armor, a “retro” series from Marvel that will return to the time period when Daredevil wore armor.

“If someone told me earlier that I’d have another chance to put on Daredevil’s horns (let alone horns attached to a suit of black armor) I’d have thought they’d taken one too many whacks to the head with a billy club. But apparently my passport to Hell’s Kitchen still works just fine!” Chichester said. “It’s an unexpected (but welcome!) thrill to visit Matt Murdock’s neighborhood again, and to work with Marvel on going back in time to discover a new adventure for the man without fear.

Chichester wrote Daredevil for about four years in the early 1990s, including the “Fall of the Kingpin” storyline. He also wrote the Daredevil/Batman crossover that came out in 1997, but hasn’t done much in comics since the 1990s.

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Howard the Duck celebrates his 50th with Zdarsky, Quinones, Kibblesmith, Wu + more

Marvel will publish an anthology one-shot in November.

Howard the Duck, the little cupcake of a drake created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik in the early 1970s, celebrates his 50th birthday this year, and to celebrate, Marvel’s throwing a party — or putting out a one-shot, anyway.

The giant-sized Howard the Duck #1 will include a story by Chip Zdarsky and Joe Quinones, the creative team who brought the character back into the limelight about eight years ago.

“That’s right! Me and Joe Quinones are back and contributed a short story to this issue,” Zdarsky said in his Substack newsletter. “It was really fun getting to write our stupid gags again, and Joe has already had a cover shot down by Legal so you just know we’re bringing our A-game again!”

Ed McGuinness’ cover was not rejected by Legal:

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Dark Horse will publish Mosher + Krause’s ‘Blacking Out’ in 2024

Set in Southern California, the graphic novel follows an ex-cop’s investigation into an unsolved murder.

Dark Horse has announced plans to publish the graphic novel Blacking Out next year. The SoCal crime story was written by Chip Mosher, one of the co-founders of DSTLRY, with artwork by Peter Krause, Giulia Brusco, Ed Dukeshire and Tom Muller.

The project began its life on Kickstarter and raised more than $40,000 back in 2020, at the start of the pandemic. I spoke with Mosher about it at the time, and he told me the project was inspired by the French bande dessinée format.

“Creators really take their time producing the work and it shows,” he said. “And these albums are just beautifully crafted, beautifully done, and I really just wanted to do something like that. I just really wanted to do something that just had absolutely no compromises.”

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Captain Commando saves the day and steals the spotlight in this preview of ‘World of Archie Jumbo Comics Digest’ #132

Check out an exclusive preview of two new stories coming in next week’s digest from Archie Comics.

Courtesy of Archie Comics, we’re pleased to present a preview of two new stories from World of Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #132, which comes out Aug. 9.

The first story finds Archie and the gang at the beach, where Captain Commando keeps stealing the spotlight and Archie gets a little bit jealous of the amphibious hero. Dan Parent writes and draws this one, with Bob Smith inking, Glenn Whitmore providing color and Jack Morelli on letters.

For the second story, Whitmore and Morelli worked with writer Tom DeFalco, artist Bill Galvan and inker Jim Amash on a Little Archie story featuring Captain Valor. This time our hero is teaching Archie self-defense just in time for a confrontation with the bully Fangs Fogarty.

Check out both preview below, along with a classic Little Archie story by Bob Bolling and Henry Scarpelli that features a baseball game against the Southside Serpents, an appearance by Chick Cooper and some visitors from another world.

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DeFalco + Olliffe will reveal what happened between the pages of ‘Secret Wars’

Marvel will release a four-issue miniseries, subtitled ‘Battleworld’ and set during the original 1980s event.

Marvel’s trip down nostalgia lane continues in November with Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars: Battleworld, a miniseries that will “expose never-before-told secrets behind one of the significant conflicts in Marvel history.”

Tom DeFalco, who edited the original miniseries, will team with artist Pat Olliffe on the miniseries — reuniting the team behind the long-running Spider-Girl title.

“Pat Olliffe and I were handed a daunting creative challenge,” DeFalco told Marvel.com. “We were asked to do a sequel/new tale of a classic Marvel story that first saw print 40 years ago and created ripples that are still felt throughout the universe today. Since we share a kinship with a certain web-swinger (and his family), we were also compelled to do a story that ripped to his core and defined his unique place in the Marvel Universe while examining the budding relationship with his new black costume. With the aid of editors Mark Basso and Drew Baumgartner, Pat and I constructed a tale that we believe has repercussions for today’s readers and creative ripples that we hope will still be felt 40 years from now.”

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