Smash Pages Q&A | Mike Kennedy from Magnetic Press on ‘Loba Loca’

The publisher talks with us about their latest team-up with Label 619 and more.

Magnetic Press is about halfway through their Kickstarter campaign for Loba Loca, a graphic novel set in the MFKZ Universe from creators Guillaume “Run” Renard and Guillaume Singelin of Label 619 in France. The project has already blown past its modest goal with more than $46,000 in raised funds and another two weeks to go.

The graphic novel is about Guadalupe “Guada” Mayflower, a 17-year-old who discovers her infamous luchadore father may have once saved the world. This sends her on a dangerous road trip to confront her family’s past that involves other masked luchadores, underworld figures and more.

I caught up with Magnetic Press’ Director of Publishing Mike Kennedy to talk about what drew Magnetic Press to the project, their relationship with Label 619 and, of course, the role of lucha libre in the book.

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American Manga Awards honor ‘Billy Bat,’ ‘The Summer Hikaru Died’ + more

The awards were presented last night in conjunction with AnimeNYC.

The third annual American Manga Awards were presented Thursday night at the Japan Society in New York City, in conjunction with AnimeNYC. Zack Davisson served as host for an evening celebrating the creators, publishers and localization teams behind manga released in North America.

In addition to the winners in the awards’ main categories, the ceremony presented the American Manga Award of Distinction to Princess Jellyfish creator Akiko Higashimura. The awards also inducted two new members into the Manga Publishing Hall of Fame: Chigusa Ogino, an advisor and former executive director on the board of Tuttle-Mori Agency who helped pave the way for manga’s entrance into Western markets, and the late Ioannis Mentzas, co-founder of Vertical and former editorial director at Kodansha USA.

Congratulations to last night’s winners:

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Brian Michael Bendis + Jacob Edgar return to ‘The Ones’ with ‘The Other Ones’

No, not those ‘Ones’ … the Other Ones. The creator-owned superhero comedy returns from Dark Horse in December.

Brian Michael Bendis and Jacob Edgar are bringing their creator-owned superhero comedy The Ones back to Dark Horse Comics this December with The Ones Volume II: The Other Ones.

Featuring colors by K. J. Díaz and lettering by Joshua Reed, the four-issue series follows up on the original The Ones, which debuted from Dark Horse in 2022. The first volume brought together the various “Chosen Ones” of different mythologies after a prophecy revealed that they were supposed to band together to defeat the actual Chosen One.

Jacob and I are so excited to be returning to The Ones,” said Bendis. “It’s a whole chapter in this mythological superhero comedy.  It’s kind of everything I love about making comics. Jacob is brilliant and writing for him is deeply fun. in fact, this is about as much fun behind the scenes as it could be. I can’t wait to share this complete nonsense with you.”

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Si Spurrier + Christopher Mitten get bloody with King Arthur in ‘Rampant Swine’

The duo reunites for a savage take on the Arthurian legend of Culhwch and Olwen, coming from Ignition Press in November.

King Arthur has been depicted as a noble king, a legendary warrior and the center of countless tales of chivalry. But what if he was just a brutal warlord surrounded by a bunch of equally savage knights?

That’s the premise behind Rampant Swine, a new comic from Si Spurrier and Christopher Mitten, coming from Ignition Press in November. The book takes its inspiration from the ancient Welsh tale How Culhwch Won Olwen and reimagines Arthurian legend as a bloody, psychedelic historical fantasy in the tradition of Conan the Barbarian.

“I’ve been itching to get my hands on King Arthur for years. He’s had it too easy for too long,” Spurrier said. “Rampant Swine is mine and Chris Mitten’s hallucinogenic, gore-drenched, resolutely horny take on the oldest Arthurian myth there is: How Culhwch Won Olwen. Our intention throughout has been to impale every cliche, slaughter every assumption, piss on every lazy monkish trope and have an absolute fucking blast while doing so. Rampant Swine is a historical fantasy full of self-knowledge; a tale which is annoyed by the toxic virtue-signaling of its own official version, retelling itself in a more mischievous spirit. It wears its fictionhood like armor. It slithers between the epic and the intimate, the mundane and the miraculous, all drenched in the visionary beauty of Chris’s ethereal pen. For those who loved The Green Knight or The Northman, those who thrill to the smart savagery of Conan or Red Sonja, those who delight in the interweaving dance of fact and myth, this book is relentlessly beautiful, charismatically violent, and utterly unique.”

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