Author: JK Parkin

Daniel Warren Johnson’s ‘Beta Ray Bill’ miniseries is getting an Artist’s Edition

The oversized collection of Johnson’s acclaimed 2021 Marvel miniseries arrives in February 2027.

Act 4 Publishing and Skybound have announced Beta Ray Bill by Daniel Warren Johnson Artist’s Edition, a 144-page, 12-by-17-inch collection of Johnson’s 2021 Marvel miniseries, arriving in comic shops Feb. 3, 2027.

The Artist’s Edition format, developed by Act 4 founder Scott Dunbier when he was at IDW, presents original art at its original size, making ink gradients, blue pencil and other nuances of the physical pages visible. The collection includes the complete five-issue Beta Ray Bill miniseries, which Johnson wrote and drew, along with an introduction by Walt Simonson, who created Beta Ray Bill during his epic run on Thor in the 1980s.

“I’ll never forget the first artist edition I bought: Jack Kirby’s New Gods. It’s still in my studio, treasured, inspiring me to this day,” said Johnson. “It’s an honor to have Scott Dunbier give my story the same treatment.”

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Dare to Be Super: Weird Al Yankovic teams with the World’s Finest in September

Batman, Superman and the king of musical parody unite to save two dimensions from a plague of boringness in a new one-shot.

Weird Al Yankovic is no stranger to comics, having edited an issue of MAD Magazine, appeared on various covers at DC and even had his songs turned into comics over at Z2. But now he’s going one step further by teaming up with Batman and Superman in Batman/Superman/Weird Al: World’s Weirdest #1.

The 40-page one-shot from writer Mark Waid and artist Dan Schoening, with “vibes” by “Weird Al” Yankovic himself, arrives in September. Naturally, it features Mr. Mxyzptlk.

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Marvel celebrates 50 years of Spider-Woman in September

Ann Nocenti, Dan Watters and more contribute to the one-shot.

Jessica Drew is the latest Marvel character to hit a big anniversary — almost 50 years, having debuted in Marvel Spotlight #32 — and to celebrate, Marvel is dedicating a one-shot to the character with stories by Dan Watters, Andrea Broccardo, Ann Nocenti and more.

Spider-Woman 50th Anniversary Special #1 will arrive in September and brings Nocenti back to a character she has some history with. In the 1980s, Nocenti wrote the final four issues of Spider-Woman’s ongoing series, not only ending the original series with issue #50 but also killing Jessica Drew off in that final issue. But you can’t keep a good hero down, so she was resurrected in the pages of Avengers a short time later.

“In the 1980s editor Mark Gruenwald gave me the assignment to ‘retire’ Spider-Woman, ending the book’s run with issue #50, so returning to write a story about how Jess’s friendships and battles are hard won feels redemptive,” she said. “Added bonus—with art by the spectacular Stefano Raffaele, the story will be gorgeous!”

Nocenti will team with Raffaele for a detective story set in L.A. that features the Flying Tiger.

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Smash Pages Q&A | Juan Gedeon on ‘Super Mondo Mega Mutts’

The artist of ‘The Jurassic League,’ ‘C.O.W.-boys of Moo Mesa’ and more talks about his newest book with writer Curt Pires, which kicks off in July.

Juan Gedeon has wanted to draw comics since he was a kid staring at a Spawn cover and thinking about Greg Capullo’s artwork. The Argentina-born artist, who has moved from working in animation to American mainstream comics, has made a name for himself on projects like Ghost Racers, Venom, The Jurassic League and C.O.W.-boys of Moo Mesa, among many others.

And now turning his attention to four mutant dogs on a tear through Los Angeles.

Super Mondo Mega Mutts #1 arrives from Oni Press in July, written by Curt Pires and drawn by Gedeon, and it is, by his own description, considerably more violent than the Saturday morning cartoons that inspired it. We talked about designing dogs with distinct personalities, what it means to go cartoony in a superhero book and the projects he’s got waiting in the wings.

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Marvel revisits the Mangaverse for its 25th anniversary

The weekly event series returns to the manga-inspired alternate Marvel universe this September.

Marvel is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Marvel Mangaverse with five weekly one-shots releasing throughout September, bookended by a two-part story from writer Joe Kelly, his son Jack Kelly and artist Kenny Ruiz.

The Mangaverse launched in 2000 as a line of one-shots presenting manga-inspired re-imaginings of Marvel characters, and this anniversary event picks up as if the line had been publishing continuously ever since.

“Every week my dad and I talk for hours about everything that’s happening in our favorite comics and manga, so being asked to do this for Marvel has been an honor,” said Jack Kelly.

The original Mangaverse kicked off with Marvel Mangaverse: New Dawn, written and drawn by Antarctic Press founder Ben Dunn. It introduced a female Iron Man, a kaiju Hulk and President Steve Rogers. A sequel, New Mangaverse, followed in late 2005 and early 2006. The line was a mixed bag, with an ambitious concept but an uneven execution, with its alternate-universe Spider-Man becoming the most enduring character to emerge from it thanks to all the Spider-verse books we’ve had in recent years.

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Surprise, it’s Rom! Skybound surprises ‘M.A.S.K.’ blind bag buyers with a new ‘Rom’ #1

Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici bring the space knight into the Energon Universe in a standalone issue available only through the blind bag program.

Today brought another signature Skybound surprise, kind of like that time they ended The Walking Dead without telling anyone it was ending, included a Spider-Man comic in their mix of Battle Beast #1 blind bags and stealth-launched the Energon Universe.

Today’s surprise, really shouldn’t be a surprise based on their track record, but it’s a fun one: some of the blind bags for M.A.S.K. #1 included completely different comics, with one of them being Rom #1, a standalone issue by Void Rivals co-creators Robert Kirkman and Lorenzo De Felici that introduces the space knight into the Energon Universe.

In a press release, Skybound said the character has been a fan request since Skybound launched the shared universe. Longtime Marvel fans know he previously published by them in the 1980s, following his introduction as toy by Parker Brothers. The toy was kind of a dud when it launched, but the comic proved popular, as he was integrated into the Marvel Universe and met everyone from the X-Men to Galactus. Later IDW Publishing reintroduced him to comics when they held the Hasbro license.

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Smash Pages Q&A | Mel Gillman on ‘The Goblin Throne’

The webcomic-turned-graphic novel is now being crowdfunded by Iron Circus Comics.

Mel Gillman’s The Goblin Throne begins with a broken promise and the consequences that follow when you think you can outrun it.

The graphic novel, the latest from the creator of As the Crow Flies and Stage Dreams, follows a young woman who makes a pact with the Goblin Queen for peace and safety, then flees when confronted with the true cost. What she doesn’t realize is that all roads lead back to the Goblin Kingdom.

The Kickstarter campaign from Iron Circus Comics has already blown past its funding goal, with more than $20,000 raised as I type this. I spoke with Gillman about sapphic fairy tales, colored pencil illustration and more.

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Exclusive | Take a first look at the insides of ‘Babs: The Black Road South’ #4

Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows’ sword-and-sorcery comedy returns with its fourth issue, arriving June 17 from Ahoy Comics.

Courtesy of Ahoy Comics, today we have an exclusive first look at Babs: The Black Road South #4, the latest issue of the ongoing sword-and-sorcery comedy from Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows that goes on sale June 17 from Ahoy Comics.

If you haven’t caught up with the series yet, Babs is a gleefully irreverent take on sword-and-sorcery fantasy. The title character is a foul-tempered barbarian who is very good at violence but not much else, and she cuts through goblins, ogres and various other fantasy nuisances with equal parts competence and chaos. Fans of Ennis’ comedic work on Hitman and Dicks should enjoy it.

The Black Road South is the second Babs miniseries from the team. In this six-issue run, Babs and her partner Izzy find themselves dealing with the unexpected consequences of a gladiatorial windfall. Issue #4 finds the pair, along with a new companion named Culpepper, adrift on a raft (that’s actually a corpse) navigating a sea of something deeply unpleasant, with the added complication that their vessel may not be entirely dead.

The issue is titled “Harsh Language,” which you can expect from the comic and this preview:

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‘Absolute Cassandra Cain’ will spin out of ‘Absolute Catwoman’

Che Grayson and Matias Bergara bring everyone’s favorite bad ass Batgirl to the Absolute Universe.

It seems like anything “Absolute” is going to sell out these days, and this Wednesday’s Absolute Catwoman is no exception. DC announced today plans to reprint the first issue and publish a spin-off one-shot, Absolute Cassandra Cain: The Shadow’s Hand #1, in September.

Absolute Cassandra Cain: The Shadow’s Hand #1 will be written by Absolute Catwoman co-writer Che Grayson, with art and a variant cover by Matias Bergara. Absolute Catwoman artist Bengal provides the main cover:

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Mike Mignola wins Bram Stoker Award for ‘Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown’

The Hellboy creator’s Dark Horse graphic novel beat out four other nominees at the Horror Writers Association’s annual gala in Pittsburgh.

Mike Mignola’s first project in his shared universe with Ben Stenbeck has won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel. Bowling With Corpses and Other Strange Tales From Lands Unknown, which was published by Dark Horse in January of 2025, took home the award Saturday night at StokerCon in Pittsburgh.

“It all started with an Italian Folktale about a boy who goes bowling with corpses,” Mignola said about the story back when it was announced. “I fell in love with the story as soon as I discovered it but I wanted to play fast and loose when adapting it, so I created a whole new world. Not TOO different than our world a few centuries ago, but with a lot more gods and monsters. Once I created that world new characters and stories just started pouring out of it. There is a whole lot to play with here and I expect to be at it for a very long time.”

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‘Mary Shelley’s School for Monsters: The Killing Stone’ wins first-ever Nebula Award for Best Comic

Jessica Maison and Anna Wieszczyk’s graphic novel beat out seven other nominees in the inaugural category.

Mary Shelley’s School for Monsters: The Killing Stone has won the first-ever Nebula Award for Best Comic. The award was announced this weekend at the 61st annual Nebula Awards, presented annually by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association.

The Killing Stone is the second book in the graphic novel series, written by Jessica Maison and illustrated by Anna Wieszczyk, with lettering by Matt Krotzer. The series reimagines the Frankenstein author as having become an immortal monster who founded a school for other misunderstood creatures.

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Can’t Wait for Wednesday | Chip Zdarsky, Delio Diaz + Frank Alpizar drop ‘Armageddon’ on the Marvel Universe

This week brings several big debuts, including the Energon Universe’s ‘M.A.S.K.,’ ‘Ultimate Catwoman,’ ‘Skate Ali’ and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, your guide to what’s coming to your local comic shop this week.

I’ve pulled out some of the highlights for this week 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 check with your retailer to see what’s arriving at their shop this week.

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