JK Parkin

Clover Press announces a new art book celebrating ‘Marvel Masterpieces’ artist Dan Dos Santos

The Kickstarter will begin in the new year.

Clover Press is expanding their Marvel Art Of… series with a new volume dedicated to award-winning artist Dan Dos Santos, set to launch on Kickstarter next month.

The Marvel Art of Dan Dos Santos will showcase Dos Santos’ distinctive oil painting style, which brought Marvel’s heroes to life with remarkable realism. The artist is perhaps best known for hand-painting more than 135 traditional oil pieces for the 2022 Marvel Masterpieces trading card set, and this book collects all of those stunning works alongside pieces from the 2023 set and never-before-seen artwork.

“Over 30 years ago, as a young teen, it was my exposure to a similar collection of Marvel art that set me on the path of wanting to be a professional artist in the first place,” Dos Santos said. “So it is incredibly apt, and really thrilling, to see it all come full-circle in this new collection of my own. This book represents years of work, and contains hundreds of paintings that I feel are my finest work to date. I labored tirelessly to breath as much life and backstory into each of these modern mythological heroes as I could. It is my hope the next generation of young artists and fans will find these characters as inspiring as I found them so many years ago.”

Jessica Jones returns in ‘Alias: Red Band’

Sam Humphries and Geraldo Borges helm a five-issue, adult-oriented miniseries to celebrate the character’s 25-year anniversary.

Alias, the comic series that introduced Jessica Jones to the Marvel universe, turns 25 next year, and to mark the occasion Marvel will release Alias: Red Band, a five-issue miniseries by Sam Humphries and Geraldo Borges, with covers by David Mack.

“No one does it like Jessica Jones. She’s sharp, bitterly funny, and tenacious as hell. Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos snapped when they created her, a totally singular character with a unique POV on the superhero game,” Humphries said in an interview with Polygon. “I’m excited to push the limits of the kind of cases Jessica Jones can investigate, and how far she’ll go to solve them.”

He said making the series a Red Band series brings her “closer to her Max origins,” as the original series debuted as part of the adult-oriented Marvel line in 2001.

Penguin Random House officially announces Comics Giveaway Day for May 2

The first ever Comics Giveaway Day will coincide with next year’s Free Comic Book Day.

Comics distributor Penguin Random House has officially announced Comics Giveaway Day, their competitor/compliment to Free Comic Book Day, the annual comics event that is now owned by Universal Distribution.

Last week we learned that Universal Distribution and Lunar Distribution had teamed up to bring Free Comic Book Day back to comic shops in 2026, following the bankruptcy and dissolution of Diamond Comics Distributors. They announced they would offer free titles by the various publishers they distribute, including DC, Image Comics, Archie, Dynamite and more.

Missing from the list were any publishers that are now distributed by Penguin Random House, and now we know why — titles by Marvel, BOOM!, Dark Horse and others will be released on Comics Giveaway Day, which just so happens to fall on May 2 as well.

So, everyone wins, right? Free comics for everybody, even if some of them will have a different events log on them.

DC levels up in March with Batwoman, Lobo + Deathstroke

DC Next Level kicks off in the spring with three new series — and more to come.

DC has revealed three new titles and their creative teams for June, as they reveal the first wave of “DC Next Level” titles they plan to roll out in 2026.

As announced at the New York Comic Con, DC Next Level is the “second act of the publishing initiative that began with the DC All In Special and the launch of DC’s Absolute universe” last year. Both Scott Snyder and Joshua Williamson will still steer the ship here in the post All In, post DC K.O. universe.

“Josh and I are excited to enter the second phase of DC All In with Next Level,” said Snyder. “From the launch of the DC All In Special, to the introduction of an Absolute universe, and into the DC K.O. event that we’re right in the middle of now, we’re determined to build on all of the fan enthusiasm, and the retail support and story momentum, by continuing to take big swings in 2026.”

The first three Next Level titles are:

Lobo, written by Skottie Young with art by Jorge Corona
Batwoman by Greg Rucka and DaNi
Deathstroke the Terminator by Tony Fleecs and Carmine Di Giandomenico

You can find more details and lots of cover art for each below.

Skybound celebrates Invincible Month with Spider-Man/Invincible team-up reprint, more Battle Beast

Get ready for the return of the ‘Invincible’ animated series with several comic projects.

Skybound has declared next March as Invincible Month, which will coincide with the fourth season of the Invincible animated series on Amazon Prime. So far the publisher has announced two projects to help celebrate: a reprinting of an intercompany crossover and the return of Battle Beast.

Let’s start with that crossover. Back in 2005, Robert Kirkman was writing Marvel Team-Up and having a pretty good time with the title — while at the same time writing Invincible. Issue #14 of MTU turned out to be a very special issue for Kirkman fans, as he and Cory Walker brought their creator-owned character to the Marvel universe, teaming him up with Spider-Man (and the Avengers). It came at a time when Marvel wasn’t doing a lot of intercompany crossovers, so it was unexpected and fun.

The comic hasn’t ever been reprinted and was never collected by either Marvel or Image, for obvious reasons, but that changed earlier this year when Skybound introduced their “blind bag” variant cover program for Battle Beast #1 — and boy, these blind bag variant things have really taken off, haven’t they? Seems like just about every comic publisher is doing them. Anyway, Battle Beast took an interesting approach, not only offering variant covers, but also mixing in a few original comics for a few lucky fans who happened to buy the right bag — including the second issue of Battle Beast and copies of Marvel Team-Up #14.

Can’t Wait for Wednesday | Kyle Starks delivers a heist you won’t see coming in ‘Wrestle Heist’

The time is now for this week’s comics, as new stuff arrives this week by Kyle Starks, Leah Williams, Mirka Andolfo, John Layman, Pete Woods, Mark Russell 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:

Penguin Random House (Marvel + IDW + Dark Horse + more)
Lunar Distribution (DC + Image + Mad Cave + more)
ComicList (Pretty much all of the above)
Amazon/Kindle new releases (digital comics)

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.

Marvel will publish a prequel to the upcoming Darth Maul animated series

‘Star Wars: Shadow of Maul’ kicks off in March from Benjamin Percy and Madibek Musabekov.

Disney+ will launch a new series featuring the fan-favorite Star Wars villain Darth Maul next year, but before it arrives, Benjamin Percy and Madibek Musabekov will present the prequel comic series Star Wars: Shadow of Maul.

The animated Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord doesn’t have a release date yet, but we know it’ll be set afetr the events of the animated Clone Wars series and, of course, will feature Darth Maul. Maul first appeared in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, where he supposedly died at the hands (and lightsaber) of Obi-Wan Kenobi. As we say in comics, “he got better” after being bisected, with some help from his brother and the Nightsister Mother Talzin, and appeared in not only Clone Wars but also in Solo: A Star Wars series. In comics, he most recently appeared in the Darth Maul: Black, White & Red anthology, which featured a story by Percy.

“I’ve said it before: I’m a giant Star Wars nerd,” Percy said. “My previous experience writing in a galaxy far, far away—Darth Maul: Black, White & Red—was an absolute delight. But those were one-shots. Flirtations with the franchise. With Shadow of Maul, I’m able to share a more expansive story about one of my favorite characters, while also exploring a fresh angle on the Star Wars universe.

Free Comic Book Day will return in 2026

Comics’ favorite day returns, and one publisher has already announced the first title that’ll be offered.

The Free Comic Book Day website has sprung back to life with an announcement that says the annual promotional event will return on May 2, 2026.

Universal Distribution, one of the suitors as Diamond Comics Distributor and its many businesses went up for auction following Diamond’s bankruptcy, now owns Free Comic Book Day and its branding. In addition to comics, they’re a major game distributor, and they plan to expand the day into “friendly local game stores” as well.

Not every publisher has signed up for FCBD, however; right now the site lists Archie Comics, DC Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, Image Comics, Mad Cave Studios, Oni Press, Titan Comics, Udon Entertainment and Vault Comics have signed on, all publishers who fall under Lunar Distribution. According to ICv2, Universal has partnered with Lunar and Diamond UK to distribute titles. On the games side, Upper Deck and Wizards of the Coast are also getting involved.

Smash Pages Q&A | Rafael Scavone on ‘Devil’s Luck: A Hailstone Story’

Scavone talks about bringing greed, gold and the supernatural together in his latest return to the world of ‘Hailstone.’

Writer Rafael Scavone returns to the world of Hailstone with Devil’s Luck: A Hailstone Story, a five-issue horror thriller now available on Comixology Originals.

Set during the Great Depression, the series follows Tim Beacon, a desperate dentist who becomes entangled in a sinister plot involving a mysterious patient’s golden teeth. Teaming up with artist Eduardo Ferigato, Scavone weaves a tale of greed, betrayal and the supernatural that takes the Hailstone universe into darker territory than ever before.

I spoke with Scavone about his journey into comics, revisiting the world of Hailstone and crafting this chilling new story.

DC reveals their ‘Superman/Spider-Man’ creative teams

Like the recent ‘Batman/Deadpool’ one-shots, the issue will feature stories by several creators, including Mark Waid, Jorge Jiménez, Matt Fraction, Steve Lieber, Tom King and more.

As retailers discuss why the recent Batman/Deadpool isn’t selling as well as Deadpool/Batman, DC has announced the creative teams for next year’s Superman/Spider-Man crossover, which arrives in March.

Marvel was the first out of the gate with their crossover issue, as Deadpool/Batman came out in September, followed by the DC issue in November. For this next crossover, they’ll follow a similar plan, with each publisher releasing an anthology headlined by the title characters — only this time, DC’s will arrive in shops first. Marvel has not yet announced when Spider-Man/Superman will arrive.

The two publishers announced back in October that they planned more crossovers in 2026, starting with reprints of the issues where Spider-Man and Superman first met back in the 1970s. They also surprised announced a couple of digital crossovers last month on their respective digital platforms. After decades of staying on opposite sides of the streets, it’s fun to see that these crossovers have returned.

Smash Pages Q&A | Magnetic Press publisher Mike Kennedy on bringing ‘Freaks Squeele’ to America

The publisher launches all seven volumes of Florent Maudoux’s acclaimed series on Kickstarter.

Magnetic Press has been building a distinctive catalog of internationally acclaimed graphic novels since 2013. With 31 Eisner Award nominations and a win for Best Production Design in 2024, publisher Mike Kennedy has proven there’s a market in the U.S. for stories from Europe. Now Magnetic is taking on one of its most ambitious projects yet: the complete seven-volume saga of Florent Maudoux’s Freaks Squeele, a manga-inspired superhero series that’s been captivating readers around the world since 2008.

Described as “Jujutsu Kaisen meets X-Men by way of Scott Pilgrim,” Freaks Squeele follows three misfit students at a superhero university where heroism is a regulated profession and deadly tournaments are broadcast for public consumption. The Kickstarter campaign launches all seven volumes at once, featuring 1,000 pages of story — plus an exclusive artbook and a limited edition “dorm footlocker” storage box.

We caught up with Kennedy to talk about what drew Magnetic Press to Freaks Squeele, how the publisher approaches translating international works and why European comics continue to offer something American readers can’t find anywhere else.

From Tromaville with love: Exclusive ‘Toxic Crusaders’ #4 cover premiere

Take a look at Tristan Wright’s cover, which arrives in stores next February.

Courtesy of Ahoy Comics, we’re pleased to present a look at Tristan Wright’s cover for The Toxic Crusaders #4, which will arrive in stores Feb. 18.

If you hadn’t heard, the mutant misfits are back and grosser than ever. Based on the animated series that turned toxic waste into Saturday morning gold, the five-issue miniseries reunites the Toxic Avenger with his fellow freaks: No-Zone, Junkyard, Major Disaster and the brand-new addition Fungirl.

Written by Matt Bors, the two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and founder of The Nib (which I still miss), this series is a blend of environmental satire and superhero splatter, and continues to channel the spirit of the Toxic Avenger revival at Ahoy. Wright, who is also the interior artist for the series, brings a gloriously grotesque visual style that captures the spirit of the original show.

Issue #4 features the backstory of Headbanger and the emergence of a mutated counter-Crusaders force. The solicit promises “cultists merged with animals and objects to become living turduckens” in what’s described as an “epic and sickening fight scene.”

Check out the cover reveal below:

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