Month: April 2024

Daniel Freedman + CROM return for a third volume of ‘Birdking’

The journey to the golden city of Atlas continues this November in the dark fantasy graphic novel.

The Raiders creative team of Daniel Freedman and CROM return to Dark Horse Comics this fall with a third volume of Birdking, their graphic novel series about a teenage girl Bianca and the guardian spirit known only as the “Birdking.”

Together, they spent the previous two volumes trying to reach the city of Atlas, but it looks like only one of them might complete the quest.

“Volume 3 marks a huge turning point for both Bianca and Birdking,” said Freedman, “ and we couldn’t be more excited for readers to experience the next stage of their journey and relish in their self-discoveries and hard-fought triumphs.”

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BOOM! welcomes the darkness in a new horror anthology this summer

‘Hello Darkness’ will include stories about everything from ‘primal fears to modern political horror’ by Garth Ennis, Becky Cloonan, R.L. Stine, Francesco Francavilla, James Tynion IV, Werther Dell’Edera and more.

Back in their very early days, BOOM! Studios released a couple of horror anthologies titled Zombie Tales and Cthulhu Tales, which ran for 12 issues each and featured stories by the likes of Mark Waid, Keith Giffen, Steve Niles, William Messner-Loebs, Joe R. Lansdale, Fabio Moon and many more. Now BOOM! is getting back into the horror anthology business with Hello Darkness, which kicks off this summer.

The title will feature “the darkest stories yet,” promising to cover everything from “primal fears to modern political horrors.” The first six issues will include a new Something Is Killing The Children story by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera.

“My whole careers started writing comic shorts, so it’s very exciting to bring it all around full circle and tell a SIKTC story in that format. The story Werther and I are going to be telling here is one that’s been in the back of my mind for almost five years, and I’m thrilled we finally have the perfect platform to bring that story to readers,” Tynion said.

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DSTLRY launches their digital marketplace

Digital comics bought from the company can now be sold to other collectors, with creators getting a stake of each sale.

When DSTLRY co-founders David Steinberger and Chip Mosher first announced the new publisher, there were three key points that seemed to set them apart from most other comics publishers — a different approach to ownership, where their “founding creators” would have a stake in the company; larger-sized editions that were more akin to the comics you find in France than you would normally see here in the U.S.; and a company-run digital marketplace, where you could buy and sell the digital editions of their comics.

It’s taken them a good year to bring that third point to life, but today DSTLRY launched their digital marketplace. If you’ve bought any of their digital comics in the past, which have only been available for a limited time, then you can now list them on the marketplace and sell them. The new owner receives access to the digital comic, along with the other benefits that DSTLRY offers, like early or exclusive sales of other digital comics, access to web streams (like they did recently with Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay) and more. According to DSTLRY, creators will receive a royalty from each resale.

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Smash Pages Q&A | Luke Arnold + Chris ‘Doc’ Wyatt on ‘Essentials’

The writing duo discusses their crowdfunding project for the new graphic novel from The Lab Press.

Luke Arnold is an actor and writer best known for his roles as Long John Silver in Black Sails and INXS frontman Michael Hutchence in Never Tear Us Apart. His first novel The Last Smile in Sunder City came out in 2020 as part of the ongoing series The Fetch Phillips Archives.

Chris “Doc” Wyatt is a writer and producer whose work includes independent films like Napoleon Dynamite and Coyote, as well as animated series like Rocket and Groot, Lego Ninjago: Dragons Rising, Ultimate Spider-Man, Marvel’s Avengers Assemble, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and many more. He’s also written comics for Marvel, Dark Horse, 1First Comics and more.

Together, they are the writing team for Essentials, a new graphic novel coming from the newly formed The Lab Press. The story centers on a mathematician who predicted the end of the world but failed to prevent it. He discovers there are other survivors, but they’re trapped in alternate realities full of zombies, robots, mythical creatures and more.

Each of these alternate realities will be illustrated by a different artist, including Vince Locke, Andrea Mutti, MK Perker,Brendan McCarthy, DaNi and Jason Howard, with colors by Jordie Bellaire, Brad Simpson and Wesley Wong, and lettering by DC Hopkins. Bill Sienkiewicz provides a chilling main cover.  

The graphic novel is currently up on Kickstarter, and has already reached its goal. (Please note that the interview was conducted prior to the project’s launch). I spoke with Arnold and Wyatt about the project, working with seven different artists and what’s “Essential” in this story. My thanks to them both for their time.

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Can’t Wait for Wednesday | The ‘Blood Hunt’ is on

A huge week of new releases brings new comics and graphic novels by Jed MacKay, Pepe Larraz, David Pepose, Jonathan Lau, Chip Zdarsky, Kris Anka, Garth Ennis, Jacen Burrows, Brian Azzarello, Eduardo Risso, Stephanie Cooke, Derek Charm, Erica Henderson, Joe Kelly, Adam Kubert, Josh Hicks and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital.

This is a huge week for comics, as the summer comics season kicks off and Free Comic Book Day follows on Saturday. Marvel’s big crossover event, Blood Hunt, begins with two versions of its first issues (not to mention a FCBD issue in Saturday), while we also have a new Space Ghost title, a House of Brainiac special, several DC annuals, new stuff from Garth Ennis and Brian Azzarello, a Cat in the Hat graphic novel and much more.

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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Jay Stephens, Jesús Hervás, Daniel Clowes, Darren Bell + more nominated in this year’s NCS divisional awards

The National Cartoonist Society has announced the divisional nominees for the 78th Annual NCS Reuben Awards.

The National Cartoonists Society has announced the 2023 NCS Divisional finalists for the 78th Annual NCS Reuben Awards, which annually recognize creators of comic strips, illustrations, comic books and more. The winners will be announced Aug. 23, and the nominees for their biggest award, the Reuben itself, should be announced soon.

The awards recognize the artist or cartoonist, so you’ll see that the specific work, the writer and the publisher aren’t called out in the nominations. This year’s nominees in the comic book category include Jesús Hervás, artist of Invasive and What If? Venom; Kelly Phillips, creator of Apricot Dumplings; and Jay Stephens, creator of Dwellings. In the graphic novel category, the nominees include The Talk creator Darren Bell, Monica creator Daniel Clowes and Sarah Bollinger, artist of Malcolm Kid and the Perfect Song.

Webcomics creators are recognized in two categories — long form and short form. In the long-form category, the nominees include Brad Guigar, Evan Dahm and Jason Chatfield. In the short-form category, Sarah Andersen, Jim Benton and Dee Fish have been nominated.

Here’s the full list of nominees across all the categories for this year:

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Mike Mignola + Ben Stenbeck team up for a new shared universe called ‘Lands Unknown’

‘Bowling With Corpses & Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown’ will debut from Mignola’s new imprint at Dark Horse in December.

Dark Horse Comics today announced Bowling With Corpses & Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown, the first publication in a new shared universe, called “Lands Unknown,” created by Mike Mignola and Ben Stenbeck.

It’ll also be the first publication to carry the name of Mignola’s new imprint at Dark Horse, Curious Objects. In recent years everyone from Stan Sakai to Brian Michael Bendis has launched an imprint with the publisher as a part of moving there — or moving back there, in Sakai’s case. So it seems only fair that the longtime Dark Horse creator, whose Hellboy is celebrating 30 years this year, would have one as well.

The release doesn’t say much more about what to expect from Curious Objects, but Mignola did share more about the Lands Unknown shared universe.

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‘Flash Gordon Adventures’ will arrive from Papercutz this fall

Art Baltazar and Franco will chronicle new kid-friendly adventures featuring Flash, Ming, Dale and more.

Papercutz, the kids comics company owned by Mad Cave Studios, has announced their Flash Gordon graphic novel series aimed at kids — Flash Gordon Adventures by the Tiny Titans team of Art Baltazar and Franco Aureliani.

Mad Cave announced the acquisition of the Flash Gordon license last year, and has since revealed several comic series they’ll be publishing this year. So this new series by Papercutz is part of that bigger plan. And bringing in Baltazar and Franco is of course a stroke of genius.

“When I was a kid, I watched the Flash Gordon serials every weekend with my dad. Then! I played with the action figures and watched the cartoons! The cartoon had all these cool aliens and colorful characters,” Baltazar said. “Flash is cool space adventuring swashbuckling hero and he did it  first!  When Papercutz announced Flash Gordon, I was like, ‘Dang! I know that guy. I can make some cool comics with him.’ So they asked, and I said, ‘Yes!’” 

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Massive Publishing + Masked Republic tag-team to launch Luchaverse comics featuring Rey Mysterio + Tinieblas Jr.

‘Luchaverse: Catalyst’ #1 will feature stories by Ivan Plaza, Marco Lopez, Ben Harvey, Diego Simone and more.

Wrestling fans have known for years that WWE Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio is a big superhero fan, based on the numerous times he’s dressed up as Wolverine, Captain America, Flash and more at big events. But now a new comic will imagine the world’s most famous luchador as a superhero himself.

Massive Publishing and Masked Republic, a company that represents luchadores outside of Mexico, are teaming up to launch The Luchaverse, a new line of comics starring luchadores like Mysterio and Tiniebelas Jr. By day they might be fighting in the ring, but at night “those with an ancient secret lineage serve humanity as monster hunters and world protectors.” Which I kind of already suspected Mysterio was doing in his off hours.

“Being able to bring some of today’s biggest names in lucha libre into our original story world and break the mold of what lucha libre films were, and what wrestling related comics have been, is a dream come true for me,” said Ruben Zamora, Masked Republic founder & CEO, and the co-creator of the Luchaverse.

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Jughead + Jaguar are up to their necks in gangsters in this preview of ‘World of Betty and Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest’ #32

The U.G.A.J. returns to comics, but does it stand for “United Girls Against Jughead” or “United Gangsters Against Jaguar”?

Courtesy of Archie Comics, we’re pleased to present a preview of a new story featuring Jughead, Jaguar, Superteen and Powerteen from World of Betty and Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #32, which comes out May 1.

The story calls back to an organization from the 1960s Jughead comics — United Girls Against Jughead. Because Jughead was anti-romance, the girls of Riverdale were afraid his opinions might influence the other boys he hung around with. So they formed U.G.A.J., and came up with plans to undermine him, like using food to try to lure him into a romantic relationship of his own. Man, the 1960s, am I right?

In this new story by Francis Bonnet, Rex Lindsey and Glenn Whitmore, Jughead discovers a secret hideout marked with the letters “UGAJ,” but they mean something different here — “United Gangsters Against Jaguar,” the heroine who recently starred in her own one-shot. When both Jughead and Jaguar are captured by the gangsters, it’s up to Betty and Veronica, as Powerteen and Superteen, to save them.

Check out the preview below, along with a complete, classic Sabrina the Teenage Witch story.

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Emily Carroll’s ‘A Guest in the House’ wins the L.A. Times Book Prize

The horror graphic novel about a woman haunted by her new husband’s dead wife adds another accolade to its shelf.

A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll has won this year’s L.A. Times Book Prize.

The graphic novel was up against four other nominees in the Graphic Novel/Comics category, including titles by Simon Spurrier and Matías Bergara, Derek M. Ballard, Sammy Harkham and Chantal Montellier.

Carroll’s latest has been stacking up accolades, appearing on the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2023 and also being nominated for a Lambda Literary Award last month.

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Three Count | Rebel, Modern Carapace, Ron Guillory on YouTube

Here are three things to download, to buy and to watch this week.

Three Count spotlights, as the title suggests, three things from comics today. It’ll be three things with links, no more, no less. Like a zombie it’ll dig itself back up again.

  1. To Download: Rebel by Ken Lowery and Gavin Guidry

I was today years old when I discovered that Ken Lowery and Gavin Guidry had done a 16-page Star Wars: Rogue One fan comic. It features Jyn Erso doing what Jyn does best — screwing up the plans of the Empire while saving orphans. It’s well done with some really great full page images that showcase Guidry’s ability to draw action shots:

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