Author: JK Parkin

Welcome back to Horrorland: IDW announces ‘Goosebumps’ comics

New series will feature three-issue arcs by a variety of creators as R.L. Stine’s creation returns to comics.

In conjunction with the 25th anniversary of the “spooky” children’s series Goosebumps, IDW announced today that they will publish a comic series based on R.L. Stine’s popular books by a rotating series of creators. The first issue arrives in October.

“My first reading thrill when I was a kid were the EC horror comics, Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror,” said R.L. Stine. “They introduced me to the excitement of reading. Now all these years later, I have another thrill–seeing my stories and characters come to life in a comic book series of their own.”

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Stephan Franck puts a stake in a third volume of his vampire heist series ‘Silver’

The animator returns to Kickstarter to fund a third volume of his graphic novel series that pits conmen versus vampires.

When he’s not helping to make animated hits like The Iron Giant and Despicable Me, Stephan Franck turns to his first love, comics. The son of two comic retailers, Franck started his own company, Dark Planet Comics, to publish Silver, a pulp-inspired heist story involving vampires.

Franck has used Kickstarter to crowd fund two volumes of the series already, and now a new campaign has launched for the third volume. I spoke with Franck about the project, the campaign and the appeal of working on comics.

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Live Through This: ‘Royal City’ homages ’90s alternative album covers

Jeff Lemire recruits Jeffrey Brown, Emi Lenox, Nate Powell and more to pay tribute to album covers by Weezer, Hole and more.

The second story arc for Jeff Lemire’s excellent Royal City will take the Pike family back to the early 1990s, and to help set the mood, Lemire has enlisted a bunch of great artists to draw music album tribute covers.

“This new arc takes a major shift as the story jumps back to the year 1993 and we follow the last week in the life of Tommy Pike!” Lemire wrote on his blog. “Meet the Pike siblings when they were all just teenagers in the 90’s and the tragedy that will come to haunt their family is still in the future.”

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DC Comics recruits horror writers for ‘DC House of Horrors’

The Halloween-themed one-shot arrives Oct. 25.

DC Comics will once again bring some frightening fun to the DC universe with a Halloween-themed one-shot titled DC House of Horrors.

The anthology will feature stories by horror writers Brian Keene, Weston Ochse, Edward Lee, Mary SanGiovanni, Wrath James White, Nick Cutter, Ronald Malfi and Bryan Smith. They’ll work with Rags Morales, Bilquis Evely, Howard Porter, Scott Kolins, Dale Eaglesham and other artists “for some short stories that will keep you reading late into the night.”

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New season of ‘Kaijumax’ starts on Wednesday [Preview]

Check out a preview of Zander Cannon’s giant monsters-in-prison epic, which returns for a third miniseries this week.

Hard times return for the inmates in Kaijumax prison this week, as the third “season” kicks off with gang tensions, mind-controlled murders and the Creature from Devil’s Creek maybe getting a break. Zander Cannon is in fine form for the latest Kaijumax miniseries from Oni Press, who provided a preview of the first issue.

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Get an early look at Davis-Hunt’s cover to ‘The Wild Storm’ #7

Writer Warren Ellis shares the cover and some hints about the story coming up in the comic’s second arc.

On his “Orbital Operations” mailing list today, The Wild Storm writer Warren Ellis shared Jon Davis-Hunt’s cover to issue #7 “a little early.”

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Sean Gordon Murphy pits ‘White Knight’ Joker against Gotham’s biggest threat — the Batman

‘White Knight,” a new seven-issue miniseries by Sean Gordon Murphy, introduces a world where a cured Joker tries to go straight — but still has it in for the Dark Knight.

Punk Rock Jesus creator Sean Gordon Murphy will take on Batman and the Joker in a new seven-issue miniseries called White Knight. According to DC Comics, the story will feature “a massive cast of heroes and villains” and explore a world where a “cured” Joker goes after Gotham’s greatest threat — Batman.

“We know Joker’s a genius, we know he’s relentless, and we know he can play the crowd, so why not make him a politician?” Murphy said. “Why not strip away the psychosis (the thing that’s holding him back) and let him challenge Batman unimpeded? And to make it even scarier, what if he did it legally and without breaking any rules, so that Batman couldn’t stop him?”

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Frank Miller’s ‘300’ prequel due next year

Check out new preview art for ‘Xerxes: The Fall of the House of Darius and the Rise of Alexander.’

Entertainment Weekly reports that Frank Miller’s 300 prequel will arrive next year from Dark Horse Comics.

With quite the mouthful for a title, Xerxes: The Fall of the House of Darius and the Rise of Alexander will “focus on the Persian emperor Xerxes, the so-called ‘King of Kings’ who raised a massive army to invade Greece in the fifth century B.C. to get revenge for his father’s death and become a god,” according to EW. “The title suggests the story will also look forward to the rise of Alexander the Great, who destroyed the Persian Empire a few centuries after Xerxes’ reign.”

Miller has talked about doing the comic for a while, at least as far back as 2009-2010.

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DC & Archie & Harley & Ivy & Betty & Veronica & Dini & Andreyko & Braga

Creators Paul Dini, Marc Andreyko and Laura Braga team up for a crossover tale starring DC’s Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy as they meet Archie Comics’ Betty and Veronica.

The distance between Gotham City and Riverdale is about to get much, much smaller, as DC Comics and Archie Comics bring together four of their most popular female characters for a big crossover: Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Betty and Veronica.

Harley Quinn co-creator Paul Dini will team with Marc Andreyko to write Harley & Ivy Meet Betty & Veronica, which will feature art by Laura Braga.

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Sharknife returns in Corey Lewis’ ‘Sun Bakery’ #5

The popular character who previously appeared in two graphic novels makes his triumphant return in August.

Corey Lewis’ infectiously fun restaurant defender, Sharknife, will return in the creator’s Sun Bakery anthology this summer.

Last seen in 2012, Sharknife previously appeared in two graphic novels published by Oni Press. An employee of The Guandong Factory, Caesar Hallelujah protects the restaurant from the monsters that live inside its walls by transforming into the heroic Sharknife — much to the delight of the establishment’s customers.

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Prepare for winter with Benjamin Dewey’s ‘Game of Thrones’ prints

Have Jon Snow and Daenarys Targaryen face off on your wall before they face off on TV.

Benjamin Dewey, artist for The Autumnlands and creator of The Tragedy Series, will help hype you for the return of A Game of Thrones with these two prints, featuring everyone’s favorite Mother of Dragons and King in the North.

It’s more than likely that we’ll see Jon Snow and Daenarys Targaryen stand face to face at some point before the series ends, so why not hang these two prints up facing each other and live out that scene now?

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Image Comics pulls ‘Divided States of America’ #4 cover after widespread criticism

After criticism from creators and fans, Image Comics announced that they would not use the controversial cover to Divided States of America #4 that was originally solicited. Instead, they will use the planned cover for issue #6 on issue #4.

The quick version:

1. Released with Image Comics’ September 2017 solicitations, the original cover to Divided States of Hysteria #4 featured an image of a Pakistani man being lynched, his pants down with his genitals mutilated, and a name tag with the slur “Paki” on it.

2. The cover was met with criticism from creators, fans and critics; these reactions followed quickly on the heels of negative reactions to the first issue and its portrayal of a trans sex worker being attacked.

3. Image Comics released a response over the weekend, which included the announcement that they would not use the original cover, replacing it with what would have been the cover for issue #6.

So what’s this all about? Let’s break it down …

[NOTE: The original cover to Divided States of America #4 is pretty graphic, but I’ve included it below and have attempted to hide it … but given differences in browsers, there’s no telling if the code doing so will work as intended in every browser instance. So, please be warned.]

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