Author: JK Parkin

Can’t Wait for Wednesday: A little ‘Decorum’ goes a long way

Check out what’s hitting comic shops this week from DC, Marvel, Image Comics and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, our look at the comics and graphic novels hitting stores this week. With this week’s column I’m very pleased to welcome back several of our colleagues, including Tom Bondurant, Carla Hoffman and Corey Blake, for their thoughts on this week’s releases.

You can see the complete list of this week’s releases over at The Comic List, and I encourage you to share what you’re planning to get in the comments below.

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Johns + Fabok’s ‘Three Jokers’ arrives in June

Jokers take the spotlight in this homage to ‘The Killing Joke.’

Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok’s long-awaited Three Jokers miniseries now has a release date — DC Comics will target the first issue for June 17.

Johns said the story would focus not only on the Joker and Batman, but also Barbara Gordon and Jason Todd, both whom have been victims of the Joker in the past.

“It goes back to the beginning when Batman first encountered the Joker, but it’s also The Killing Joke and A Death in the Family that speak to the book and that we’re building off emotionally,” Johns told Entertainment Weekly. “Barbara and Jason have gone through so much, as has Bruce, and it’s really focused on healing, on scars and wounds and what that does to somebody. If you suffer some trauma, you don’t just get over with it and move on with your life, it changes who you are. Sometimes it changes you for the better, sometimes it changes you for the worse. You can heal right, and you can heal wrong. That’s really what the book’s about: Healing right, healing wrong, and surviving.”

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Iron Circus announces Pajama Con 2020

Publisher will host livestreams and other activities following the cancellation of the Emerald City Comic Con.

Iron Circus Comics, one of the scheduled exhibitors at this year’s now-postponed Emerald City Comic Con, has announced plans to host a virtual, livestreamed convention this coming weekend called Pajama Con 2020.

Pajama Con will take place from noon to 6p.m. Central March 13-15 on the Pajama Con Twitch channel. Guests so far include Steve Leiber, Chris Roberson, Lin Visel, Genue Revuelta, C. Spike Trotman and Kate Leth, with more to be announced.

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Oni Press launches a pop-up shop in lieu of ECCC

Get deals on convention-exclusive items.

Due to growing concerns about COVID-19, a.k.a. the coronavirus, the Emerald City Comic Con made the decision last week to postpone their convention, which was originally scheduled for next weekend. Many publishers and creators who were planning to attend have been left with extra inventory — comics, graphic novels and other items they were planning to sell at the con.

One of those publishers is Oni Press, who had made the decision not to attend even before ECCC was officially cancelled. They have launched a pop-up store on their website, offering the comics, trades and merch they would have had at ECCC at a discount, with free shipping.

“While the decision not to attend was difficult for many reasons, one of our first considerations was supporting the creators and books we had planned to promote there,” said Oni Press publisher James Lucas Jones in a press release. “We realize many of our creators depend on convention income, and want to do our part to help where we can through sales of their books and merchandise. Additionally, we want to bring as much of the convention experience to fans as possible, despite our lack of a presence on the show floor.”

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‘The Witcher’ returns at Dark Horse in June

Geralt of Rivia returns to comics to help out a small town with a Foglet problem.

Dark Horse Comics is once again teaming up with gaming company CD Projekt Red for another miniseries starring The Witcher, the popular character from novels, video games and the recent Netflix show.

The Witcher: Fading Memories will be written by Bartosz Sztybor, narrative manager at CD Projekt Red and writer of comics like Jim Henson’s The Storyteller: Sirens. It’ll be illustrated by Amad Mir (Zarathustra), with a cover by Evan Cagle (seen below):

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Look (and sound) great with Brosseau’s comic book sound effect artwork and shirts

Pat Brosseau brings the sounds of comics to your torso or your wall.

Certain sound effects have become iconic in comics, whether it’s the “Snikt!” of Wolverine’s claws are the “BOOM!” of a New Gods Boom Tube. Letter artist Pat Brosseau, who has created such sound effects for many a comic, is now selling shirts and other merchandise featuring some of these sounds in an online store.

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Layman returns to the world of ‘Chew’ in new series ‘Chu’

The new series, starring Tony Chu’s sister, begins in June.

John Layman will return to the world her created with artist Rob Guillory in Chu, a new series featuring the sister of Chew‘s lead Tony Chu. Dan Boultwood will draw the spinoff series.

“After more than 60 issues of Chew, it was never a matter of if I would return to the world Rob Guillory and I created, but when,” Layman said. “I needed a break after the book ended, but it wasn’t too long after that I started missing the characters and the world, and had the itch to return. It was something I approached cautiously because, while Chew was a complete story, I wanted to return to it in such a way it would be new and say something different, and it took a while to find the right angle. Outer Darkness/Chew was a step in that direction, as well a coda, a flower on the grave that was the story of Tony Chu. Chu is a different take on the Chu family and the Chew-universe, and in many ways it is a mirror, the flip side. I’m confident readers of Chew will enjoy it, but it’s also something totally new, the story of Saffron Chu, not Tony Chu. She was completely absent from Chew, and this first story arc will tell the story of why that is.”

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ECCC postponed until summer 2020

Seattle’s biggest comic book convention won’t happen in March as planned.

Following the many exhibitors and creators who opted not to attend this year due to coronavirus concerns, the Emerald City Comic Con has announced they will postpone the convention until this summer. An exact date has not been announced yet.

“Our hearts go out to the entire Seattle community, everyone impacted by the COVID-19 virus, and all of you, the nearly 100,000 amazing human beings who look forward to this event each year,” ECCC said in a statement on their website. “Our team was incredibly excited to see you at Emerald City Comic Con next week, however, fans, artists, exhibitors and the rest of the community are what make Reedpop events so special and it is our duty to make sure that your safety comes first.”

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Berger Books to publish new edition of Romberger’s ‘Post York’

The 2012 project will be expanded into a graphic novel for the Dark Horse imprint.

Berger Books, the imprint started by former Vertigo chief Karen Berger at Dark Horse, will publish an “innovative expansion” of James Romberger’s Post York in September.

Post York was originally published by Uncivilized Books in 2012, Romberger said the idea for the story came to him when he attended Columbia University. “I wrote a few stories and made some paintings and prints, all attempts to depict what New York City would look like after the ice caps melt and the water finds its level,” Romberger told Alex Dueben back in 2012. “It seemed to me that we would become more like Venice. However, as we can see from Hurricane Sandy, most of New York is not built to withstand the strain that so much water would put on it, the old tenements would collapse and the infrastructure would fail. But, any survivors left in the city would find ways to deal with it as best they could — New Yorkers are hardy and tenacious.”

He teamed up with his son, Crosby, on the project; his son recorded a song for it that was included in the original publication as a flexidisc.

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Exhibitors, creators pull out of ECCC over coronavirus concerns [Updated]

Emerald City Comic Con offers refunds to attendees who aren’t comfortable attending.

Multiple exhibitors, including DC Comics, Dark Horse and Penguin Random House, have announced they will no longer attend this year’s Emerald City Comic Con, citing concerns over the coronavirus (COVID-19). Seattle, ECCC’s host city, has seen nine people die of the virus since Feb. 26.

In a statement to the Hollywood Reporter, DC Comics said they are cancelling all of their convention appearances for the rest of March.

In addition, several comics creators, including Jim Zub, Jen Bartel, Benjamin Percy, Richard Pace, Christian Ward and Jody LeHeup, have said they will no longer appear at ECCC.

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Can’t Wait for Wednesday: This week’s releases get a little strange

Check out what’s hitting comic shops this week from DC, Marvel, Ahoy Comics and more.

It’s the return of one of our favorite columns — or at least one of my favorite columns — our weekly look at this week’s new comics and graphic novels. It seems like only yesterday that we kicked this column off at our original stomping grounds, The Great Curve, but it’s actually been more than a decade. Yikes, does time fly …

Anyway, here are a few of this week’s comics that I’m planning on checking out. You can see the complete list of this week’s releases over at The Comic List, and I encourage you to share what you’re planning to get in the comments below.

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David Lopez’s ‘BlackHand & IronHead’ coming to print

The Panel Syndicate title arrives as a hardcover from Image Comics this fall.

BlackHand & IronHead, David Lopez’s 2017 digital comic published through Panel Syndicate, will make the jump to print later this year.

Image Comics announced via press release their intent to publish a hardcover collection of the comic in September.

“After many years working only as an artist in the big two, I’ve finally found the courage and I’ve written and drawn my own story, and I’m printing it in Image! Where the world’s best authors publish their works, this is a change of scale, suddenly my public is the whole world, can you believe it?!” said López. “BlackHand & IronHead is sincere, raw, unfiltered and personal, no obligations or compromises, exactly the story I imagined, that’s something I love as a reader and I hope people will love it from my book.”

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