Author: JK Parkin

Ferris, Nowak, Fink and more take home 2017 Ignatz Awards

Annual awards presented at this weekend’s Small Press Expo honor excellence in independent comics.

My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris continued to rack up accolades this weekend as it took home two Ignatz Awards last night. Other winners at the annual awards presentation included Jess Fink’s Chester 5000, Ben Passmore’s Your Black Friend and Carolyn Nowak’s Diana’s Electric Tongue.

Named after the brick-throwing mouse from Krazy Kat, the awards honor “excellence in independent comics” and are selected by a jury of five creators and voted on by attendees of the Small Press Expo. The jurors for this year’s nominations were Neil Brideau, Glynnis Fawkes, Sara Lautman, Trungles and David Willis.

The complete list of nominees can be found below, with the winner in bold.

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‘Hellboy Omnibus Collection’ collects the series from the start

The adventures of Mike Mignola’s heroic half-demon will be collected in six volumes.

Clear some room — a lot of room — on your bookshelves. Dark Horse Comics will publish Mike Mignola’s signature, award-winning series Hellboy in Omnibus format, collecting the entire run in chronological order.

“I’m very excited to finally have all the Hellboy stories collected in chronological order,” Mignola said. “And I’m especially excited to have the three Duncan Fegredo books—all the stuff with Alice and the Queen of Blood—together in one collection for the first time.”

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Batman and the Ninja Turtles to team up again in December

When Bane invades the TMNT universe, Donatello looks to Batman for assistance.

Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will meet again in Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II, a six-issue miniseries by James Tynion IV and Freddie Williams II.

“What DC and IDW started with Batman/TMNT in 2015 continues to spark interest with fans of these characters that have worldwide recognition,” said Hank Kanalz, DC SVP Editorial Strategy & Administration. “We can’t wait to see what James and Freddie deliver this time around.”


In addition to the 2015 crossover series, the characters also met in 2016’s Batman/TMNT Adventures — although that crossover featured the animated versions of both.

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IDW Publishing launches Kickstarter for quarterly hardcover ‘magazine’

New project out of their Portland, Oregon office will offer interviews, opinion pieces and more about ‘all aspects of the creative culture.’

IDW Publishing has launched a Kickstarter for Full Bleed, a hardcover “magazine” curated and edited by IDW Publishing’s Dirk Wood and CEO and Publisher Ted Adams. This is the first project coming out of their Portland, Oregon office, which was announced late last year.

Not to be confused with Matt Maxwell’s Full Bleed column-turned-book about the comics industry, IDW describes the project as a “brand-new quarterly, hand-crafted, print only, 200-page hardcover.” It will include interviews, short stories, opinion pieces and of course comics, covering “all aspects of the creative culture, and beyond — comics, music, film, TV, fine art, photography, design, politics and more.”

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Santa Claus is coming to ‘Dead of Winter’ [Preview]

The second issue of Kyle Starks and Gabo’s horror-comedy miniseries finds our zombie-fighting heroes getting some help from a drunk mall Santa.

I enjoyed the first issue of Dead of Winter, Kyle Starks and Gabo’s horror-comedy miniseries based on the game by Plaid Hat Games. Oni Press has sent out a preview of the second issue, which features our zombie-fighting heroes getting some help from the man in red and white — Santa Claus. Or a drunk mall Santa, to be precise.

You can find the preview and solicit info below. Dead of Winter #2 comes out on Wednesday.

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Cullen Bunn’s prose work collected in ‘A Passage in Black’

OmahaBound collects 27 ‘back-woods horror’ prose stories by Bunn, with illustrations by Tim Mayer.

When he’s not writing comics — and sometimes it’s hard to imagine that there’s a time when he’s not writing comics, based on all the projects he has going on — Cullen Bunn (The Sixth Gun, Harrow County) writes short stories, usually (and not surprisingly) in the horror genre. Now 27 of those stories are being collected by publisher OmahaBound.

A Passage in Black & Other Stories will include eight never-before published stories, along with 19 that were only released in the small press. Artist Tim Mayer will provide 23 illustrations for the collection, as well as the cover for the trade paperback version. Tyler Crook, Bunn’s collaborator on Harrow County, created the cover for the limited edition hardcover that will only be available on OmahaBound’s site. The publisher describes the stories as “back-woods horror, creepy and terrifying tales that only Cullen Bunn could tell.”

The collection is due out Oct. 6. Check out the two covers below.

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Writer, editor and Hall of Famer Len Wein passes away

The co-creator of Swamp Thing, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Human Target and so many more characters passes away.

Len Wein, co-creator of Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Storm and Swamp Thing, has passed away at 69, according to multiple comics industry professionals, including Paul Kupperberg.

While no cause of death has been reported, the 69-year-old Hall of Fame member has suffered from poor health over the last few years and has been in and out of the hospital for foot surgery over the last few months, according to posts on his Facebook and Twitter feeds.

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Mignola, Stewart, Dark Horse support Hurricane Harvey victims with special print

Limited Edition Hellboy print will be available at this weekend’s Rose City Comic Con, with proceeds going to the Houston Food Bank.

Portland may be a long way from Houston, but comic fans attending this week’s Rose City Comic Con can lend a hand to people in Texas by purchasing a limited edition Hellboy print by Mike Mignola and Dave Stewart.

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Walker, Brown and Greene harvest a ‘Bitter Root’ next year

New title from Image Comics will showcase a family during the Harlem Renaissance protecting the world from supernatural forces.

David Walker, Chuck Brown and Sanford Greene will team up on a new comic set during the Harlem Renaissance, Bitter Root, next year from Image Comics. The new series was announced today at the Rose City Comic Con in Portland, Oregon.

“Bitter Root is going to be unlike any comic book people have seen,” said Walker. “We’re mixing action and horror, with a cast of characters unique to the medium to tell an epic tale of the Sangerye family and the sacrifices they are willing to make for humanity. I’m excited for this series for several reasons. It gives me the chance to work with Sanford again, Chuck, who is a great co-writer, and Image, which publishes some absolutely amazing comics.”

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IDW, Hasbro to launch Stretch Armstrong comic

Tie-in to the Netflix cartoon ‘Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters’ launches in January.

The nostalgia wave continues with the re-introduction of Stretch Armstrong, the flexible action figure from the ’70s. Following his re-release by Hasbro and the upcoming Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters cartoon on Netflix, IDW has announced plans for a comic featuring the stretchy heroes, due out in January.

The comic will be written by series executive producers and head writers Kevin Burke and Chris “Doc” Wyatt, with art by Nikos Koutsis. Cover art will be provided by Aluir Amancio and Koutsis. Burke & Wyatt developed Stretch Armstrong for television in collaboration with fellow executive producer, Victor Cook.

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Lion Forge donates $25,000 to support Gulf Coast retailers

Publisher offers support through the Book Industry Charitable Foundation to help comic retailers affected by Hurricane Harvey.

Comics publisher Lion Forge has donated $25,000 to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation to support comic retailers affected by Hurricane Harvey, which devastated the Gulf Coast region of Texas and Louisiana late last month.

Lion Forge founder and owner David Steward II and Chief Creative Officer Carl Reed made the announcement via video, which was posted to their social media accounts:

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Archie & friends rock out in ‘The Archies’ #1 [Preview]

Archie, Jughead and the rest of the band hit the road to rock your socks off — and meet other bands.

After a series of successful music-oriented one-shots, Alex Segura and Matt Rosenberg have teamed up with Joe Eisma and Matt Herms for The Archies, an ongoing series featuring Archie Andrews and friends as musicians.

The series will show what happens when Archie, Jughead, Betty & Veronica, and Reggie leave Riverdale as they begin their first tour across the country, where they’ll meet other bands along the way — like CHVRCHES, who will appear in the second issue.

Solicitation text, a preview and cover art for the first issue can be found below.

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