Author: JK Parkin

Comic-Con International will be virtual again this summer

CCI plans to hold a smaller, in-person event in San Diego this fall.

Comic-Con International has made it official — there won’t be a live convention in San Diego again this summer. Instead, CCI has announced a three-day virtual Comic Con@Home event, like they held in 2020, with plans for a smaller, three-day in-person convention in San Diego in November.

“Never could we have imagined what the world experienced in 2020 and continues to experience today,” the statement reads on their website. “While we are buoyed by the rollout of the vaccine and the growing number of individuals being inoculated, it appears that July will still be too early to safely hold an in-person event of the magnitude of Comic-Con. For this reason, we have made the challenging decision to postpone Comic-Con 2021 as an in-person gathering until our 2022 dates, and once again hold this year’s celebration as the free online Comic-Con@Home. Unfortunately, the challenges of this past year and the multiple postponements of our two largest events have left us with limited financial resources, so this year the online experience will be reduced to a three-day event, spanning July 23-25, 2021.”

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March winds bring more MODOK Madness

March MODOK Madness kicks off with another 31 days of fan art featuring Marvel’s big-headed villain.

Pedro Delgado and Brendan Tobin have once again brought the March MODOK Madness site back to life for another year of big-headed fan art featuring the Marvel character.

If you aren’t familiar with the concept, every March artists share their interpretations of MODOK, the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing, who was created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee back in the 1960s. You can see them on the March MODOK Madness blog and on Twitter.

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What Are You Reading? | ‘Zom 100,’ ‘Uncanny X-Men’ and more

See what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately.

Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Smash Pages crew has been checking off their “to read” list lately. Let us know what you read this week in the comments or on social media.

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Sunday Comics | ‘The Perry Bible Fellowship’ celebrates 20 years

Check out new comic strips by Nicholas Gurewitch, Thom Zahler, Steve Lieber and more.

Here’s a round up of some of the best comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

The popular webcomic The Perry Bible Fellowship turned 20 this year, and to celebrate, creator Nicholas Gurewitch teamed up with 20 other creators for a series of collaborative strips. He’s been tweeting them out since Jan. 23, the official anniversary date for the strip.

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Mail Call | Black Cat kicks off Marvel’s ‘Infinite Destinies’ event this summer

Plus more news from Marvel, DC, Image, AfterShock, Dark Horse and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently that we haven’t already covered. Hit the links for more information.

Last summer the “Infinite Destinies” storyline was supposed to run through several Marvel annuals, including Iron Man, Captain America, Black Cat and Thor, among others. The story revolves around the returning “infinity stones,” those pesky don’t-call-them-infinity-gems MacGuffins that regularly take center stage at Marvel.

Anyway, like with many other things, the COVID pandemic and comics industry shutdown threw a wrench in Marvel’s plans, and those annuals were never released. But now it looks like they are back on the schedule for 2021, with an added prelude comic to kick things off — Black Cat #8 by Jed MacKay and C.F. Villa.

“Felicia Hardy- the Black Cat- gets tangled up with the Infinity Stones, some of the most dangerous prizes in the universe. Felicia may be the most accomplished jewel thief on the planet, but when those jewels hold the power of the cosmos, it’s a whole new ball game. Felicia is in a race against the others who would seek to control the stones for their own ends- like Nick Fury (and a secret someone you won’t see coming!),” MacKay said. “Who can cross the world’s most dangerous men, wrangle a pack of villains hopped up on fragments of infinite power, (hopefully) get the job done and look great all the while? The Black Cat, that’s who!”

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DC announces Batman + Fortnite crossover comic

Batman will visit the video game’s world in ‘Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point.’

DC Comics and Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite, are teaming up for a comic series that’ll feature Batman and characters from the popular video game.

Christos Gage will write Batman/Fortnite: Zero Point, “with concept and story consultation” from Donald Mustard, Chief Creative Officer of Epic. It will feature artwork by Reilly Brown, Christian Duce, Nelson DeCastro and John Kalisz.

“When DC first approached me about doing a Batman/Fortnite series I thought it would be a lot of fun,” said Gage. ”After speaking with Donald and discovering just how deeply we’d be diving into the secrets behind the world of Fortnite, I was amazed! This series will reveal things about Fortnite that have never been seen or heard before yet are very much part of the canon of the game.”

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Creative teams revealed for returning Milestone titles

‘Static,’ ‘Icon and Rocket,’ and ‘Hardware’ return later this year.

DC has revealed the creative teams for the three upcoming DC Digital First titles that were announced earlier this month.

The digital-first “extended cut” of the Milestone Returns #0 one-shot came out today, with plans for a print copy to debut in May. Milestone Returns: Infinite Edition #0 combines the original 17-page comic with an additional 24 pages of completely new material written by Reginald Hudlin and drawn by artists Denys Cowan, Nikolas Draper-Ivey, Bill Sienkiewicz and more. They also revealed the creative teams and first-issue covers:

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D + Q announces a new Jillian Tamaki + Mariko Tamaki project for 2023

The as-yet-untitled graphic novel will feature two college freshman who go on an “eye-opening trip” to New York.

Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, the creators of the award-winning, critically praised graphic novels Skim and This One Summer, will team up once again for a new graphic novel in 2023.

While the graphic novel does not yet have a title, Drawn and Quarterly revealed that it’s about two college freshman who head to New York for Spring Break.

“In 2010, Jillian and Mariko exploded the YA graphic novel market with a nuanced queer goth coming of age story filled with subtext. Skim raised the bar on what we consider young adult both in subject matter and art style,” said D+Q Publisher Peggy Burns. “With this new book, they’re now shifting their focus to early adulthood, capturing female friendship and the perils of growing up via an eye-opening trip to NYC. Their magic of being able to completely intertwine their individual art forms into a cohesive, spectacular whole is on display yet again.”

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‘They Called Us Enemy’ wins the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics

The graphic novel by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott and Harmony Becker adds another award to its shelf.

They Called Us Enemy, the graphic novel that recounts the experiences of actor George Takei and his family when they were interned by the United States government during World War II, has added another award to its already long list of accolades — the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity in Comics.

The sixth annual Dwayne McDuffie Award was presented over the weekend in a virtual ceremony hosted by actor Phil LaMarr and broadcast on Facebook.

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The State of Future State, Part 5

JK, Shane and Tom wrap up their look at DC’s Future State first issues, including ‘Legion of Super-Heroes,’ ‘Aquaman,’ ‘Suicide Squad’ and more.

And we’re back with our final look at DC’s Future State titles, as Shane, Tom and I talk about the first issues of Legion of Super-Heroes, Superman/Batman, Superman: Imperious Lex, Suicide Squad and Aquaman.

You can see what we had to say about some of the other Future State first issues in parts one, two, three and four.

This is also my last opportunity to post the Future State timeline, my best friend and lifeline while reading these titles:

The second issues of everything we talk about arrive today, as DC wraps up the event and prepares for Infinite Frontier — which will feature some of the characters we met during FS. We talk a little bit about that at the end.

And away we go …

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‘Die’ wins a British Fantasy Award

The awards recognize fantasy and horror lit across a variety of categories.

Die, Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans’ series about a group of teens sucked into a role-playing game, has won a 2020 British Fantasy Award.

“This is an amazing honour. Stephanie and I are totally humbled,” Gillen said on Twitter.

The British Fantasy Awards recognize fantasy and horror literature across a range of categories, including the “Best Comic/Graphic Novel” category. You can see the complete list of winners across all categories here. You can also see the full awards presentation on YouTube.

Other nominees in the comics category this year included 2000AD, Basketful of Heads, B.P.R.D. The Devil You Know, Vol. 3: Ragna Rok, DCeased and The Ozone Diary.

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Girls, unicorns and nuclear war

New comics and graphic novels arrive this week from John Ridley, Olivier Coipel, L.L. McKinney, Robyn Smith, Matt Fraction, Lilah Sturges, Colleen Doran, Kurt Busiek, Ben Dewey and many more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide each week to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital. This week sees the wrap-up of DC’s Future State event and the latest Ms. Marvel series, as well as debuts from AfterShock, Scout, Image and more.

Check out a few highlights below, or visit ComicList for this week’s full list of new comics arriving in stores, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally.

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