Author: JK Parkin

Oh, Knull: Venom takes the spotlight in December’s ‘King in Black’

Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman bring the god of the symbiotes to Earth for a showdown with the heroes of the Marvel universe.

Fans of Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman’s run on Venom have known that “Knull is coming” for quite sometime, and now Marvel has revealed when exactly he’ll arrive — in King in Black, which starts in December.

Knull — which means “Fuck” in Swedish — is the god of the symbiotes, and in King in Black, he’ll be taking on not just Venom, but the Avengers, the X-Men, the Hulk and more.

“As far as event books go, this is the coolest, darkest, most heavy metal, Cthulhu dark horror thing I’ve ever been able to do,” Cates said in an announcement video. “I still can’t believe that Marvel is letting us go as dark and scary as we’re going.”

You can watch the video below, featuring Cates and Stegman talking about the book.

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‘Virtually Yours’ by Holt + Beals arrives July 14 from comiXology Originals

The new graphic novel is a “rom-com for the digital age.’

ComiXology Originals has announced another new graphic novel that they plan to release July 14 — Virtually Yours, a “rom-com for the digital age” by writer Jeremy Holt and artist Elizabeth Beals, with lettering by Adam Wollet.

“If the quarantine has been an indicator, access to high-speed internet has become society’s lifeline. As connective as this new virtual landscape has and can be, it cannot replace the absence of interacting in a three-dimensional space,” Holt said in the press release. “Particularly when it comes to all stages of a romantic relationship. Virtually Yours focuses on one particular aspect, which is the notion that a simulated online connection can be equally as genuine as a random face-to-face one. In this day and age, I’d argue that they’ve become interchangeable. With the advent of robust chat software, online dating has evolved from simply facilitating an eventual in-person meet up to hosting dates in their entirety. This has dynamically altered our ideas, notions and expectations of courtship because the physicality component has been removed. Creative problem solving is the name of the game, and I for one support the notion of pioneering new and sustainable ways to be human.”

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Marvel reverses decision on several ‘digital only’ titles

Issues of ‘Hawkeye: Freefall,’ ‘Ant-Man’ and more will now be printed.

After stating they would only release digital copies of several titles that were held up by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent shutdown by Diamond Comics Distributors, Marvel has told retailers they will now release print copies of most of those titles, including issues of Hawkeye: Freefall, Ant-Man, Ghost Spider and Valkyrie: Jane Foster.

The Beat reports that Marvel sent a message to retailers this week that print copies of many of these titles would ship to them starting in August. The list of comics and their release dates are:

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Marvel, Scholastic team up for graphic novel line

‘Miles Morales: Shock Waves’ will be the first OGN released as part of the partnership.

Marvel is teaming up with Scholastic for a line of graphic novels featuring Ms. Marvel, Shuri and other Marvel characters. The line will kick off next spring with Miles Morales: Shock Waves, an original graphic novel by novelist Justin A. Reynolds (Early Departures) and artist Pablo Leon (The Journey).

The new line of OGNs will be part of Scholastic’s Graphix Media line, the home of Bone, Dog Man and Raina Telgemeier’s books, among others. It follows Marvel and Scholastic’s prose collaboration program that was announced last year.

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Koren Shadmi’s ‘Bionic’ coming from Top Shelf this fall

The boy-meets-cyborg story will arrive in October.

Top Shelf will publish Koren Shadmi‘s next graphic novel, Bionic, in October. The coming-of-age tale details the romance between Victor, a geeky teenager, and Patricia, a girl who becomes a cyborg after an accident.

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Comics Lowdown | More allegations against CBLDF’s Brownstein brought to light

Plus: News on Diamond, Art Spiegelman, Dragon Con and more.

Writing for The Comics Journal, Michael Dean has a long article detailing additional allegations against Charles Brownstein, the former executive director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. Dean spoke with many former CBLDF, employees, including former Development Manager Cheyenne (Shy) Allott, who had been under an NDA about her time at the CBLDF until recently.

“My trouble with Charles started three days into my employment, at ComicsPro in Memphis, Tennessee,” Allott said. “Upon arrival at the show, I went to check into my hotel room only to discover that Charles had booked us in the same room together. I was instantly uncomfortable with this arrangement and for the first time, I saw Charles drop his charming facade and switch into an accusatory tone. He stated that it wasn’t fiscally responsible for me to have my own room, as we were a non-profit. I felt like I was misusing funds simply by asking that question.” Brownstein did not respond to TCJ’s request for comment.

The Comics Journal also sent questions to the CBLDF board, which CBLDF President Christina Merkler responded to. You can read her responses here, but one thing she addressed was whether CBLDF was still viable — a question many have been asking over the last couple weeks:

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‘The Far Side’ website adds new strips from Gary Larson

Larson has created three new strips for the site using, for the first time, a digital tablet.

It looks like the cows have finally come home — Gary Larson’s The Far Side website has unveil new work by the man himself.

Three new strips can be found on the site, but older fans of the Far Side may find them a bit … different than his previous work. Larson’s now using a digital tablet to create them, following some issues he had with a “clogged pen” while creating his annual Christmas card.

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Run with it

New comics and graphic novels arrive this week from Jeffrey Brown, Dan Slott, RB Silva, Mark Waid, Grant Morrison, Chris Claremont, Nick Derington and more.

Summer event season continues this week with part 2 of Marvel’s prelude to the big Empyre event. Meanwhile, DC offers up the final issue of Batman before he jumps into his own big event, “Joker War.” There’s also plenty of new stuff to find from IDW, BOOM!, Image, Fantagraphics and more.

If you’re wondering what to get this week, check out a few recommendations below. You can check the Comic List page to see what’s arriving in your local shop, and the comiXology new releases page for what’s available digitally. As always, you should check with your local shop on their hours, curbside pick-up and mask restrictions, due to COVID-19. Stay safe out there.

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Chris Gooch heads ‘Under-Earth’ in his next graphic novel

New graphic novel by the promising young talent will arrive from Top Shelf Comix in October.

Top Shelf has announced that the next project by Chris Gooch, Under-Earth, will arrive in October. The 560-page graphic novel is about inmates in an underground prison who “struggle to build meaningful lives in a broken system.”

The publisher released the Melbourne-based cartoonist’s impressive debut, Bottled, in 2017. It’s an unsettling graphic novel about Millennial life and a disintegrating friendship; this one, however, is tackling a different subject.

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Sunday Comics | 2020, gnomes and Funky Winkerbean

Check out recent comics by Thom Zahler, Tom Kaczynski 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.

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What Are You Reading? | Stargirl, the Beatles, psychics and more

See what the Smash Pages crew has checked off their ‘to read’ list lately.

Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately.

This week’s edition is ripe with not only nostalgic looks at the past, including some that go all the way back to the 1940s, but also at the future of comics by the bright stars of today and tomorrow.

Let us know what you read this week in the comments.

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Orlando + Tinto investigate the death of compassion in ‘Commanders in Crisis’

The new series debuts from Image Comics in October.

Following his well-received runs on comics like Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman and Midnighter, Steve Orlando will next take his superhero sensibilities to Image Comics for a creator-owned series, Commanders in Crisis, with artist Davide Tinto (IDW’s Marvel Action: Spider-Man).

“Commanders in Crisis is all the energy and creativity I’ve served for the past five years, now completely unchained!” said Orlando. “No rules, no restraints, the type of strange and passionate ideas that brought me into the medium in the first place. Comics should be bold, comics should be big, and comics should be badass. This is my first freelance launch since 2015, and we’re taking a nuclear shot across the bow. No vanilla vengeance here! This is a fight for comics as they need to be.”

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