Author: JK Parkin

‘Southern Bastards,’ ‘Paper Girls’ and more take home 2016 Eisner awards

Other winners include ‘Bandette,’ ‘March Book 2,’ ‘Two Brothers’ and ‘Over the Garden Wall.’

Both Southern Bastards and Paper Girls took home multiple awards last night at the 28th annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards at Comic-Con International in San Diego. Southern Bastards won for best continuing series, while Jason Aaron took the Eisner for Best Writer. Paper Girls was named Best New Series, while Cliff Chiang was named Best Artist. Other winners included Bandette, the second March book and Peter Kuper’s Ruins.

Here’s the complete list of all nominees, with the winners bolded:

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DC, Gerard Way share more details on the ‘Young Animal’ line

At Comic-Con International, the former My Chemical Romance singer showed new artwork for “Shade The Changing Girl” and “Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye,” and news of a pretty stellar back-up coming to Carson’s title.

DC Comics and singer/Umbrella Academy write Gerard Way plan to make the DC universe weird again with the Young Animal imprint. Way, along with writers like Cecil Castellucci and Jon Rivera, will put their own unique spin on several DC mainstays, including the Doom Patrol, Shade, Cave Carson and even Gotham in the new line of comics.

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Cornell and Kelly’s ‘Saucer Country’ returns with a new name, publisher

Paul Cornell and Ryan Kelly’s excellent UFO series, previously published by Vertigo, returns next year at IDW.

Back in 2013, Vertigo cancelled the excellent UFO series Saucer Country by Paul Cornell and Ryan Kelly after 14 issues. Cornell at the time wrote on his blog about the Hugo-nominated series:

“I know that’ll disappoint our loyal audience. So I make this promise to you: I will, one day, finish Saucer Country, in one way or another, in a dramatically satisfying way. That is to say, I won’t just put up the remainder of the plot on my blog or something, I’ll find a professional means to actually complete the story, ideally in comic book form, or as a novel or, hey, go on, a movie. The rights revert to me reasonably soon. We’ll work from there.”

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Viz Media joins Comic Book Legal Defense Fund as a corporate member

Viz and CBLDF also release “The Manga Handbook” for retailers and libraries this week.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has added another company to its list of corporate sponsors — manga publisher Viz Media. Viz and the CBLDF released this week The Manga Club Handbook, available here, which is aimed at libraries and retailers so they can start manga book clubs.

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IDW celebrates Jack Kirby’s 100th birthday next year with ‘Fantastic Four Artist’s Edition’

New edition collects comics featuring by Inhumans and the first appearance of Franklin Richards, as created by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Joe Sinnott.

Legendary comics creator Jack Kirby would have turned 100 next year, and to help celebrate the occasion IDW Publishing will release Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four Artist’s Edition in January.

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DC, USPS celebrate Wonder Woman’s 75th with Forever stamps

Four stamps featuring the character go on sale in October.

DC Comics and the United States Postal Service revealed a set of Forever stamps this week celebrating the 75th anniversary of Wonder Woman.

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IDW, DC Comics announce new Star Trek/Green Lantern, Batman/TMNT crossovers

Mike Johnson and Angel Hernandez return to space for Star Trek/Green Lantern, while Matthew K. Manning and Jon Sommariva mash together the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the animated series with the classic Batman: The Animated Series.

IDW announced at Comic-Con International and via press release that they will team up with DC Comics once again on two crossovers: a sequel to last year’s Star Trek/Green Lantern crossover and another pairing of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Batman, only this time based on the animated versions of both sets of characters.

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You have a week to help save ‘The F1rst Hero’

Anthony Ruttgaizer’s book about insane extrahumans was canceled by Diamond, but you can help bring it to print through Kickstarter.

In Anthony Ruttgaizer‘s The F1rst Hero, anyone who develops super powers goes insane … until Jake Roth gains them. Then he has to decide whether he’s going to use them to help people and potentially put himself in danger from the U.S. Extrahuman Task Force, which hunts down these “extrahumans.”

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Teenagers quest for porn in ‘Smutt & Jeff’

Kody Chamberlain, Gavin Guidry, K. Michael Russell and Rob Guillory seek support to publish a new comic about one boy’s mission to find porn. Pre-internet, of course.

It’s a rite of passage that every teenage boy likely went through in the 1980s, before the internet made it so easy — seeing your first porn magazine. Now Kody Chamberlain, Gavin Guidry, K. Michael Russell and Rob Guillory are looking to bring one such teen’s mission to life in Smutt & Jeff. And they’ve turned to Kickstarter to help make it happen for Jeff.

“Jeff is a typical teenaged boy spending the last week of summer vacation stressed about high school,” their website reads. “It’s a very familiar feeling of being a boy unprepared for the journey into a man’s world. After being mocked and ridiculed, Jeff is determined to find and steal the one item he’s told will transform any boy into a real man: His very first porno magazine.”

Check out some of Guillory’s character designs below; the Chew artist will also provide covers:

Character designs by Rob Guillory
Character designs by Rob Guillory

They plan for Smutt & Jeff to be a five-issue series, and they’re offering copies of the issues, cameos in the book and creative workshops to backer. See more on Kickstarter, and check out a preview of the book below:

S&J_000_Lettered

S&J_001_Lettered

S&J_002_Lettered

S&J_003_Lettered

S&J_004_Lettered

S&J_005_Lettered

S&J_006_Lettered

Valiant lures Pokémon Go players into comic shops

Limited-time Pokémon Go lures sponsored by Valiant will be dropped at 11 retailers in New York and California.

In a move that would make Team Mystic proud, Valiant has announced they are sponsoring “special Pokémon Go sponsorship program” to lure potential new readers into comic shops in New York and California.

According to the press release, Pokémon Go players can “join the excitement as your local comic shop transforms into your next PokéStop when Valiant drops Pokémon Go Lures at a slate of specially designated comic book retailers.” If you aren’t familiar with the worldwide sensation that is Pokémon Go, the virtual-reality-meets-actual-reality game combines the popular “Gotta catch’em all” collector’s drive that naturally comes with the Pokémon franchise with getting off the couch and walking around. Some have already suggested using it as a way to lure folks to polling places this November, so why not comic shops as well?

The lures only last for a limited time, so watch Valiant’s Twitter feed for details on when they’ll be available. And hopefully they’ll spread this to other parts of the country as well. Participating retailer include:

Bulletproof Comics
4506 Fort Hamilton Pkwy, Brooklyn, NY 11219

Carmine Street Comics
34 Carmine St, New York, NY 10014

Comickaze Comics Books and More
Madison Square Shopping Center
5517 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, San Diego, CA 92117

Collector’s Paradise
7131 Winnetka Ave, Winnetka, CA 91306

Forbidden Planet
832 Broadway, New York, NY 10003

Hi De Ho Comics
1431 Lincoln Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90401

Level Up Entertainment
Hamilton Mall, 4403 E Black Horse Pike, Mays Landing, NJ 08330

Meltdown Comics & Collectibles
7522 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90046

Midtown Comics Downtown
64 Fulton St, New York, NY 10038

Midtown Comics Grand Central
459 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10017

Midtown Comics Time Square
200 W 40th St, New York, NY 10018

Lemire announces release dates for two projects

‘A.D.: After Death’ with Scott Snyder starts later this year, while ‘Roughnecks’ arrives in 2017.

Sweet Tooth and Trillium creator Jeff Lemire has revealed updated releases dates for projects he’s working on — A.D.: After Death with writer Scott Snyder from Image Comics and Roughneck, which he’s both writing and drawing himself, from Simon and Schuster’s new Gallery 13 imprint.

Announced back in January of 2015, A.D.: After Death tells the story of what happens when mankind cures death. A.D.: After Death will be serialized as three, oversized prestige format books written by Snyder and fully painted by Lemire. The first volume is due in November.

AD BOOK1 FRONT COVER

Roughneck, meanwhile, is about a former hockey tough guy living in small-town Canada, like his Essex County trilogy. It’s now due in April 2017 from Gallery 13, a new graphic novel imprint which will launch next year. In addition to Lemire’s book, the imprint will also re-release Stephen King and Bernie Wrightson’s Creepshow and will publish Alone, a French graphic novel by Christophe Chaboute, according to ICv2.

Roughneck FINAL COVER

Bryan Lee O’Malley’s next graphic novel is ‘Worst World’

Planned trilogy by the creator of ‘Scott Pilgrim’ focuses on two new characters in Los Angeles.

Just as the Snotgirl ongoing series debuts this week by Bryan Lee O’Malley with artist Leslie Hung, Entertainment Weekly reveals more details on O’Malley’s next graphic novel, coming at an undisclosed date from Ballantine Books.

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