The Comics Super Blog!
Plus: The Winx saga continues, Usagi turns 40, the Dreadnoks return and more!
Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.
Lester of the Lesser Gods, which was originally published by Albatross Funnybooks, is finding new life at Dark Horse this year.
Written by Eric Powell and Lucky Yates, and featuring artwork by Gideon Kendall, Lester began life as unproduced animated short before finding its way to comics.
Continue reading “Slugfest | Dark Horse resurrects ‘Lester of the Lesser Gods’”The Italian artist joins Bartosz Sztybor on a story that finds Geralt of Rivia eyeing retirement.
Italian comics legend Corrado Mastantuono will make his U.S. debut on The Witcher: Corvo Bianco, an upcoming miniseries from Dark Horse Comics.
Mastantuono will work with writer Bartosz Sztybor, who has written several previous series starring Geralt of Rivia. They’ll be joined by colorist Matteo Vattani and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou on a tale focused on a different kind of challenge for Geralt — retirement.
“For all who know Geralt, Corvo Bianco is his endgame,” Sztybor said. “The end of his journey, one and only place where he can retire – taking a break from killing monsters and trying to figure out how to make his own wine. As a fan of pop–culture and postmodern genre mixing, that setup above sounded like a perfect premise for a western. A western in The Witcher world – that’s something that was never done before! So I quickly got excited and thought about getting on board someone who really knows what western is.”
Continue reading “Corrado Mastantuono will make his U.S. debut on ‘The Witcher: Corvo Bianco’”Check out new comics and graphic novels arriving this week by Joel Priddy, Kid Cudi, Kyle Higgins, Marco Locati, Steve Foxe, Vincenzo Carratù, Olivia Cuartero-Briggs, Roberta Ingranata, Kiel Phegley and more.
Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital. This week is a “fifth week” for January, which are typically lighter than normal. Wednesday is also the last day before Black History Month begins here in the U.S., and DC, Marvel and Dark Horse all have projects spotlighting Black creators and stories out 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.
Continue reading “Can’t Wait for Comics | Marvel, DC + Dark Horse celebrate Black History Month”DSTLRY titles will feature variant covers by Kodansha artists, starting with a Shūzō Oshimi cover for ‘Somna’ #3.
DSTLRY has announced a new cover artist exchange program with manga publisher Kodansha, starting with a variant cover for Somna #3 by Shūzō Oshimi.
DSTLRY, the new comics company formed by former Comixology execs David Steinberger and Chip Mosher, began releasing comics last August with The Devil’s Cut, which was followed by print editions of Gone by Jock and Somna by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay. The company has gone all in on variant covers, offering them through retail channels, their own website and on the limited-edition digital comics they started releasing late last year.
“I was drawn to the story of Somna where dreams and reality intermingle, and the way it’s expressed through different artistic styles,” Oshimi said. “Drawing the variant cover was fun!”
According to the press release, this variant cover by Oshimi will be the first of many by Kodansha artists:
Continue reading “DSTLRY + Kodansha announce cover artist exchange partnership”Actor Paul Reiser + team will write a story asking what would have happened if Carter Burke had lived.
If you’ve ever seen Aliens, the second and arguably best movie in the Alien franchise, then you’ll probably remember Carter Burke, the shady company man played by Paul Reiser who wanted to capture a xenomorph for his employers. And like any shady company man in a horror movie, he got what was coming to him … or did he?
Marvel has announced a new What If? miniseries set in the Alien universe that asks the question “What If… Carter Burke has lived?” Reiser will work with his son Leon, TV producer Adam F. Goldberg, Brian Volk-Weiss and Hans Rodionoff on a story that seems to be taking a “writer’s room” approach. Guiu Vilanova is drawing the five-issue miniseries.
“For years, people have asked me about Burke, what it was like to play such a ‘bad guy,’ to which my response was always ‘You say ‘bad,’ I say ‘misunderstood.’ Now the world will find out,” Reiser said.
Continue reading “‘What If?’ comes to the ‘Alien’ universe in March”Landry Q. Walker, Pannel Vaughn and Justin Greenwood bring a tale of gruesome folklore to life in a new miniseries.
Landry Q. Walker, Pannel Vaughn and Justin Greenwood will hit the backroads of the Pacific Northwest for a folk horror tale in The Butcher’s Boy, a new miniseries coming from Dark Horse Comics later this year.
Walker, known for the excellent Danger Club, will co-write the series with Vaughn. Greenwood, who worked with Walker on The Last Siege, is the artist, along with colorist Bard Simpson. Letterer Pat Brosseau rounds out the team.
“Appetite – whether it be desire for food, affection, or power – and the ability that hunger has to drive you to become unrecognizable – even to yourself – has always sat at the heart of my favorite horror stories,” Walker said. “Writing this book has led me down some dark psychological pathways that border somewhere between healthy obsession and self-destructive spirals. On some level, you need to feel what you write. The goal of this story is to take that discomfort, that yearning appetite (in all its myriad forms) and contextualize it as a malignant and conscious force. As a story, one that is finally ready for consumption.”
Continue reading “Dark Horse serves up ‘The Butcher’s Boy’ in May”Tyler and Hilary Jenkins will illustrate the six-issue digital series.
All families have their crazy backstories, but few could fuel a crime comic. Writer Dennis Hopeless will tell a story based on his own life in She’s Running on Fumes, coming next month from Comixology Originals. He’s joined by artists Tyler Jenkins and Hilary Jenkins, letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou and editor Heather Antos.
“When I was 3 years old, my mother started a chop shop with a half-wit junkyarder named Corn Dog,” Hopeless said. “Dad was the criminal. Mom had never broken a law in her life, but with him brain-damaged, $50,000 of cocaine gone missing and hospital bills piling up, grand theft auto was our only hope.”
Continue reading “Dennis Hopeless draws from his real-life childhood for the crime comic ‘She’s Running on Fumes’”Plus: News on the Eisners, Brett Lewis, Bill Griffith and more.
British cartoonist and illustrator Posy Simmonds has been awarded the Grand Prix at France’s annual Angoulême International Comics Festival. Simmonds beat out Daniel Clowes and Catherine Meurisse to capture the prize, and is only the fourth woman to be awarded the Grand Prix in its 50-year history.
Simmonds, 78, has done it all in her career, including comic illustration, daily press cartoons, weekly comic strips, best-selling albums, children’s books and screen adaptations. Her debut graphic novel, True Love, is one of the first British graphic novels, and she went on to create the well-regarded Gemma Bovery, Tamara Drewe and Cassandra Darke. She began her career doing comic strips for the Sun, the Times and the Guardian, where she spent the majority of her career. Later in life, she would start creating children’s books, and her most famous, Fred, went onto become an Academy Award-nominated short film, Famous Fred.
“I always think in a perfect world, the gender of a prize winner shouldn’t be remarkable,” Simmonds told the Guardian. “But it’s an imperfect world and the comics and bande déssinée world has always been a masculine milieu, a bit of a boys’ club. But, bit by bit, especially over the last decade, women have infiltrated it, so I’m pleased to be one of them, of course.”
Continue reading “Quick Hits | Posy Simmonds wins the 2024 Grand Prix at Angoulême”The former comics publishing arm of Heavy Metal magazine has spun off into its own company, with several new titles planned for this spring.
Magma Comix launched back in 2020 as the comics publishing arm of Heavy Metal, the legendary science fiction and fantasy comics magazine that came to an end last year. Instead of letting the endeavor die off, the Magma team decided to spin the operation off and become an independent comics publisher.
“We are fortunate to have secured funding that will ensure Magma will maintain its creative freedom and independence, while providing capital and support necessary to establish long-term stability in an unpredictable industry,” said Magma Comix Founder and CEO Denton J. Tipton back in July. “Magma will lower the barriers to entry by making our line easy to navigate and by reducing risk for our retail partners. But above all, our team’s unique combination of creator relationships, industry knowledge, and passion for storytelling will unleash a creative eruption that we hope sets a new standard for comics.”
Earlier this week Magma began announcing plans for their comics line, starting with an impressive list of creators they’re working with that includes Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Eamon Winkle, Jason Starr, Dalibor Talajić, Steve Orlando and Megan Huang. They’ve also started announcing their first titles, which will arrive in April.
“Surely one of the most potent drugs in the world is the thrill of creation and I can confidently say our creators must be off their heads at this point,” said Magma Comix Editor-in-Chief Bobby Curnow. “All of our teams are pouring everything they have into their books, creating some of the best comics I’ve read in my fifteen years of editing. It’s been a real pleasure to help bring these stories into the world.”
Here’s a look at the two that have been announced thus far:
Continue reading “Magma Comix has big plans for 2024”The Roxxon Age of Comics is upon us.
Thor will get a corporate makeover of sorts in April, as Marvel’s longtime evil oil company, Roxxon Energy Corporation, “takes over” Marvel in April and releases their own Thor comic.
Roxxon Presents: Thor is a one-shot by current Immortal Thor writer Al Ewing and, probably the perfect artist for a project like this, Greg Land. Roxxin’ Thor will “be there to defend big business and the sanctity of shareholder value,” as he smashes woke environmentalists at the bequest of longtime Thor villain and Roxxon CEO Dario Agger, a.k.a. the Minotaur.
Continue reading “Roxxon wages a hostile takeover against Thor + Marvel this spring”Check out a preview of a new one-shot by Keryl Brown Ahmed and Tango.
Courtesy of our friends at Archie Comics, we’re pleased to present an exclusive preview of next month’s The Jaguar one-shot by Keryl Brown Ahmed, Tango, Ellie Wright and Jack Morelli.
“I absolutely loved updating The Jaguar, a character with a rich history and a few different iterations,” Brown Ahmed said. “First of all, I’m a cat person, so a feline-themed superhero delights me to no end. I chose to center this story on Ivette embracing her heritage because, coming from a multiethnic background myself, it’s something I struggle with. I think it’s important for first- and second-generation Americans to find ways to connect with their family’s cultures of origin because, in my experience anyway, it increases self-worth and gratitude for those who came before us.”
Zoologist Ivette Velez is the current Jaguar and star of the one-shot. Her predecessor, Ralph Hardy, debuted in 1961 and passed the mantle on to her in a New Crusaders story by Ian Flynn and Ben Bates about 10 years ago. This new story has Velez heading to Peru to investigate the mysterious deaths of the Pampas cats of Northern Peru.
“I appreciate that Ivette is a character who clearly still carries much of her trauma pretty close to the surface,” Tango said. “Keryl organically shows that in the ways Ivette maintains an aloof (and catlike), antisocial streak in her approach to others. That also takes on new layers when she shifts into her Jaguar persona.”
Check out the preview and solicitation text below, and look for The Jaguar when it hits store shelves on Feb. 21.
Continue reading “Exclusive Preview | ‘The Jaguar’ leaps back into action next month at Archie Comics”Dark Horse Comics will publish the miniseries beginning in May.
Drive Like Hell writer Rich Douek will team with artists Gavin Smith and Nicholas Burgdorf on Heartpiercer, a new miniseries coming from Dark Horse Comics later this year. They’ll be joined by letterer Justin Birch.
In the story, a monster hunter named Atala is tricked into killing the last unicorn, plunging the world into darkness.
“Fantasy is the first genre I fell in love with as a reader,” Douek said. “And my earliest work in comics is deeply rooted in it. In a lot of ways, Heartpiercer is a return to my roots as a writer; an epic, dark fantasy about love, vengeance and coming to terms with the sins of your past. I can’t wait for readers to see the world we’ve built.”
Continue reading “The death of the last unicorn sends the world into darkness in Rich Douek + Gavin Smith’s ‘Heartpiercer’”
