Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.
Dark Horse has announced plans to collect Sergio Aragonés’ Louder Than Words and Actions Speak miniseries into one volume appropriately called Louder Than Words, Actions Speak.
Both volumes came out about 20 years ago and were previously collected by Dark Horse. The collection will have a new cover by Dark Horse by Aragonés and colorist Carrie Strachan.
Here’s the description:
Louder Than Words, Actions Speak is a journey into the best gag strips of the previous and current century! In the playful, energetic style that made Aragonés famous and MAD Magazine funny, this collection is a must-have for anyone who has ever even chuckled. Sergio Aragonés proves time and time again that a picture may paint a thousand words, but one well-delivered gag is good for a million laughs.
Skybound and Tri Vuong are back with another round of LEGO Ninjago comics this May. LEGO Ninjago: Shatterspin, written and drawn by Vuong, will once again feature the young hero Garmadon, as he heads off on a quest to save Ninjago.
“I’m super excited to go on another journey with my favorite LEGO Ninjago character, Garmadon,” Vuong said. “We have a lot of exciting plans in store for him and I’m looking forward to exploring some interesting new facets to his story. I can’t wait to show the fans what’ we’ve been working on!”
Vault Comics has announced that Barbaric: Born in Blood #1 is the latest comic in their Free-to-Retailers program, offering the comic to retailers at no charge to them. Retailers can then choose to give away copies or sell them. They previously gave away copies of Unnatural Order #1 and Beyond Real #1, which collectively had more than a quarter million copies ordered.
In addition to the standard cover, Vault will offer net-priced, open order premium variant covers for the first issue by Corin Howell, Adam Cahoon, Ed Luce and Patrick Gañas, as well as a Berserk manga homage variant by Angela Wu. You can see most of those above.
Void Rivals #9 will introduce a new Autobot into the Energon Universe — Springer. Check him out on the cover by Lorenzo De Felici and Matheus Lopes.
“If you needed a reminder, Void Rivals continues to be the series where we debut fan favorite characters and also explore exciting new corners of the Energon Universe,” said Sean Mackiewicz, SVP, Publisher, Skybound. “We’re only halfway through this arc and there’s no shortage of surprises to come.”
In September, Dark Horse will release Cthulhu Cat. This trade paperback will collect artist Pandania’s stories of a Japanese high school student and the supernatural cat he found in an abandoned cardboard box.
I think every issue of Spawn could be considered a “record breaker” now, as it’s the longest running creator-owned superhero comic. In any event, Spawn #350 comes out later this month, and with it come a new costume for Spawn, a new ruler for Hell and a new artist, as Gunslinger Spawn‘s Brett Booth moves to the main Spawn title.
Here’s a look at the issue’s variant covers by McFarlane, Booth, Ryan Stegman and Jonathan Glapion:
And here’s some interior preview art:
But wait, there’s more — per Image, the shift in the rulership of Hell will have repercussions throughout all the Spawn titles, starting in King Spawn #31, Gunslinger #29 and The Scorched #27. “The events of Spawn #350 will change the status quo for these titles forever… and readers will want to see the fallout.” Carlo Barberi, former Spawn artist, will take over Gunslinger Spawn with issue #29 as Booth moves to the adjectiveless Spawn title.
Here are the covers for those issues, along with Spawn #351:
Look for the four of them to come out in March.
Haunted Girl, the miniseries by Ethan Sacks, his daughter Naomi Sacks and artist Marco Lorenzana will be collected into a trade paperback in May by Image Comics. The story “explores real-world mental health struggles” through a horror lens, and the collection will include an AFSP guide to suicide prevention resources, as well as a guide from the American Psychiatric Association on free therapy access options.
Artist Charlie Adlard of Walking Dead fame will team with writer Herik Hanna for a new Batman: Black and White story that’ll appear in March’s Batman: The Brave and The Bold #12. Check out the main cover by Simone Di Meo, a variant by Adlard and some preview pages above.
Variant covers
As always, we’ll end things with a look at recently revealed variant covers, starting with the second printing cover by Stefano Caselli for Ultimate Black Panther #1, which just came out last Wednesday:
If you missed it this week, the second printing will arrive in stores March 13.
Speaking of the Ultimate Universe, Ultimate X-Men #1 comes out March 6, and it’ll feature a variant cover by Mark Brooks:
Also in March, the X-Men ’97 miniseries begins, and it’ll feature a variant by Russell Dauterman that’s actually an updated version of some fan art he did about a decade ago:
Deadpool is back in a solo title starting in April, and the first issue will feature a foil variant cover by InHyuk Lee:
On May 1, Blood Hunt kicks off, and it’ll come with a variant by Artgerm spotlighting Tigra:
Annie Wu has created a series of variant covers for Skybound’s The Walking Dead Deluxe, which will run on issues 85-90 of the series:
In March, Marvel will once again spotlight their Stormbreakers artists with a series of variant covers that celebrate Marvel heroines, for Women’s History Month:
And speaking of Women’s History Month, Marvel also has a series of Star Wars variant covers featuring women from the franchise.
