Author: JK Parkin

Jeff Lemire conjures ‘Minor Arcana’ at BOOM! Studios

The new series will be written, drawn and colored by Lemire, and it launches in September.

Jeff Lemire has revealed his new project with BOOM! Studios that was teased back in April — Minor Arcana, an ongoing series that he will write, illustrate and color.

The series is about the daughter of a small-town “psychic” who returns to town to take care of her ailing mother — only to discover that unlike mom, she may have actual psychic powers.

“If Black Hammer was my love letter to the superhero comics I grew up reading then Minor Arcana is my love letter to the classic Vertigo comics of my teenaged years, but all filtered through my own style,” Lemire said in his newsletter. “I really want to get back to doing a true ongoing series that focuses on the importance of single issues again.”

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Pornsak Pichetshote assembles an all-star creator line-up for ‘The Horizon Experiment’

The project includes five one-shots by Terry and Rachel Dodson, Sabir Pirzada, Michael Walsh and more.

With all the great comics Pornsak Pichetshote has been writing over the last few years, sometimes it’s easy to forget he used to edit award-winning books at Vertigo. He’s putting both skills to work with The Horizon Experiment, a line of one-shots by various creative teams “featuring original protagonists from marginalized backgrounds set in a popular genre and inspired by pop culture icons.”

Pichetshote is working with co-editor Will Dennis on the line, which will feature contributions from Sabir Pirzada, Michael Walsh, Tananarive Due, Kelsey Ramsay, J. Holtham and more. Pichetshote is also writing the first one-shot, The Manchurian, which will feature artwork by Terry and Rachel Dodson.

“I’m fascinated with taking popular genres, like horror and noir, and seeing what they’d look like from diverse perspectives—I explored this in my Image Comics books Infidel and The Good Asian. But, I’ve been limited to my own experiences. So, for The Horizon Experiment, I decided to use the same mentality but open it up to other people, inviting some of the most talented people I know to work on it,” Pichetshote said. “Each one-shot is the equivalent of a pilot for a new creator-owned series, with the potential of continuing should there be demand for more. Each team of creators have had different approaches—all of them have knocked me out, and I couldn’t be more proud that the end result is five very unique books, all connected by the same ambitious spirit.”

Here’s a look at each of the one-shots, starting with The Manchurian:

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Corporate greed + revenge fuel the new series ‘The Body Trade’ from Mad Cave Studios

Zac Thompson, Jok and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou kick off the neo-noir series this September.

Writer Zac Thompson, artist Jok and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou are heading down to Florida for the tale of an ex-convict trying to find his son’s corpse in The Body Trade, a new series coming from Mad Cave Studios this fall.

“I’ve wanted to create this comic for years and collaborating with Jok is a dream,” Thompson said. “Through his lines and colors he’s built this incredible mood on the page that captures the gaudy excess of Florida balanced against the horrific stylings of an industry of death. Together we’ve created a story that’s both a fierce revenge yarn and an interrogation into a seedy corporate underbelly of America. The Body Trade is a raw and unflinching neo-noir where an ex-convict goes up against the intense might of corporate power and will do anything to win. But what when there’s nothing illegal about what you’re up against—how do you expose the truth?! And will anyone care when you do?”

Thompson has been quite busy lately, with Into the Unbeing, Blow Away and Cemetery Kids Don’t Die all debuting in the first half of 2024.

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Daniel Warren Johnson + Riley Rossmo team up for ‘The Moon Is Following Us’

The new series will debut from Image Comics in September.

Daniel Warren Johnson and Riley Rossmo are teaming together for a new creator-owned series coming from Image Comics this fall. The Moon Is Following Us is “about family and about parenthood, but it also has sweet snake monsters,” Johnson said, as two parents go to extreme lengths to rescue their daughter.

In his email newsletter, Johnson revealed a look at the project, which he will write and then split the art duties with Rossmo. Mike Spicer will color the series.

“Needless to say, we are both bringing everything we got with this one,” Johnson writes. “Also, while I am writing it, we’re also splitting interior art duties, with Riley taking about 85%, and me the rest. It’s a super collab, and I haven’t seen different art styles used this way in storytelling yet.”

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Donald Duck proves himself worthy this fall

‘What If Donald Duck Became Thor?’ by Steve Behling, Riccardo Secchi, Lorenzo Pastrovicchio + more brings the thunder in September.

We’ve seen everyone from Captain America to Beta Ray Bill to even Wonder Woman deemed “worthy” to hold Thor’s enchanted hammer, Mjolnir, and this fall you can add another name to the list — Donald Duck.

Following Marvel’s foray into the world of Disney’s Duckburg later this month in Uncle $crooge and the Infinity Dime #1 and July’s Donald Duck/Wolverine mash-up, What If Donald Duck Became Thor? will explore what happens when Donald Duck discovers an ancient cane that allows him to transform into Thor — much like another Donald, Donald Blake, did back in the 1960s. It sounds like you can expect the one-shot to pull from a lot of that early Thor lore.

“When we saw the designs for the Stone Ducks of Saturn and The Destroyer we literally laughed out loud,” the book’s editor, Mark Paniccia, said. “I can honestly say I never thought I’d see something like this in my career. I gotta pinch myself to make sure it’s not a dream.”

This particular mash-up comes courtesy of writers Steve Behling and Riccardo Secchi and artist Lorenzo Pastrovicchio.

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Cullen Bunn + Christopher Mitten enter ‘The Autumn Kingdom’ this fall

An author and his family discover a dark fantasy kingdom in the new miniseries coming from Oni Press.

Sept. 4 may technically still be summer, but autumn is coming early this year. Oni Press has announced The Autumn Kingdom, a new miniseries by horror masters Cullen Bunn and Christopher Mitten, will launch on that day.

The Autumn Kingdom is about an author and his family who head to an isolated cabin in Sweden so he can finish his latest dark fantasy novel, only to land in one themselves. The miniseries is colored by Francesco Segala and lettered by Taylor Esposito.

“The words ‘The Autumn Kingdom’ have been written in one of my oldest journals for decades,” Bunn said. “Over the years, I’ve returned to them again and again. I knew I wanted to tell a dark fantasy tale about the fairy realms. I just wasn’t sure what that story might be until I stumbled onto the idea of Sommer and Winter, a pair of young sisters who find themselves alone, facing the forces of a supernatural realm. Their lives—and the lives of their parents—are on the line. Thank goodness they’ve discovered a nasty, death-dealing blade that seems to hunger for the blood of elves and trolls and goblins. Sommer and Winter are thrown down a violent path from which there may be no escape. No matter what, they won’t get through this journey unscathed and unchanged.”

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Nelson Greaves + Davide Castelluccio enroll at ‘The Carlyle School for Kings’ this fall

Class is in session at Dark Horse Comics this October.

School is in session at The Carlyle School for Kings this fall, which features classes in revenge, friendship, romance and betrayal.

The story is by screenwriter Nelson Greaves, who wrote the 2014 film Unfriended, and artist Davide Castelluccio. They’re joined by colorist Francesca Vivaldi and letterer Frank Cvetkovic for the story of Emmelene Heron and her time at a school that prepares you to be king.

“Carlyle was born from the trauma I experienced as a country boy at a cut-throat Ivy League university,” said Greaves, who attended Harvard. “The culture encouraged us to win by any means necessary, and it wasn’t a Monday if you weren’t getting torn down, mocked and stabbed in the back. Unlike Emme, no one actually tried to kill me, and there wasn’t a giant living under my dining hall, but school still felt like a fight for my life, and I wanted to tell a story for anyone who’d felt that way, too.”

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Christopher Cantwell + Alex Lins combine body horror + superheroes in ‘Plastic Man No More’

The DC Black Label series begins in September.

Plastic Man isn’t the first character that comes to mind when I think “Who should star in a Black Label series?” but when you throw in the words “body horror,” suddenly it all comes together.

DC will release Plastic Man No More, a four-issue miniseries featuring a Plastic Man who suffers “catastrophic cellular damage,” loses control of his body and faces the prospect that he could die. It’s by writer Christopher Cantwell and artist Alex Lins, who work together on BOOM!’s Briar series.

“I don’t know about you, but when I think about Plastic Man, I immediately think of David Cronenberg,” Cantwell said. “There is an element of body horror to his story that I have always found fascinating. And I also found myself wondering recently—How would Plastic Man actually die? What would that look like? Is he immortal? And then I thought of the long and particularly nasty way real plastics and petroleum products break down when and if they finally do. That’s how I learned about depolymerization and the chemical process of ‘unzipping,’—from a particularly morose afternoon on the ol’ Internet, picturing what might happen to Eel if his entire cellular structure started to give way.”

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Exclusive: Clover Press brings back a popular tier for their ‘The Marvel Art of Michael Turner’ Kickstarter

The art book collects much of the work that the creator of ‘Fathom’ and co-creator of ‘Witchblade’ did for Marvel before his death in 2008.

Boutique publisher Clover Press has been working with Marvel to crowdfund high-end art books centered on some of their top artists, including David Mack, Alex Maleev, David Nakayama, Russell Dauterman and more. Their latest Kickstarter is for The Marvel Art of Michael Turner, and we’re pleased to share exclusively this morning that they’re bringing back a popular rewards tier to the campaign.

“The Ultimate,” as they billed it (AKA Tier K), included everything you’d find in previous tiers — including a slipcase edition of the hardcover book, art prints, metal trading cards, stickers, a puzzle and more. That includes everything being offered in the “Mystery” tier, so you get “get absolutely everything on the campaign (so far),” according to Clover Press.

It initially sold out in a few hours, so you’ll want to act fast if you’re interested.

“Michael Turner became a fast fan favorite, and this book is the clear evidence as to why,” said Clover Press Publisher Hank Kanalz. “We’re ecstatic to bring such a comprehensive collection of Turner’s Marvel work together in one volume.” The campaign surpassed its goal quickly, and right now is at over $160,000.

Here’s what you’ll find in the returning tier:

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The first volume of ‘The Hunger and the Dusk’ is $1.99 on Comixology today

Catch up on G. Willow Wilson and Chris Wildgoose’s epic fantasy before the second arc begins next month.

Last year award-winning writer G. Willow Wilson teamed up with artist Chris Wildgoose on The Hunger and the Dusk, a “high fantasy tour de force,” as the marketing billed it, and they weren’t lying. The series featured a dying world inhabited by humans and orcs who were once mortal enemies, but had to put their differences aside to face a powerfully brutal ancient race called the Vangol that threatened them both.

If that sounds intriguing, then this is your lucky week: not only has IDW released the first six issues — book one — as a trade paperback, but its available for the low price of $1.99 right now on Comixology.

And it comes at an opportune time, because next month will bring the the first issue of Book Two.

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Marvel’s 2024 Pride Month plans received internal criticism

An article in the Advocate quotes a Marvel employee who thought Marvel’s ‘ally’ covers were a ‘prank.’

Marvel’s approach to Pride Month this year received not only external criticism but also concern from their own employees, as an Advocate article revealed last week. An anonymous Marvel employee spoke to the publication about their reaction to an internal email about Marvel’s “ally” variant covers, which many have said put the spotlight on non-LGBTQ+ characters during a month aimed to spotlight and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. “I thought, ‘they’re really erasing us,’” the employee told the publication.

What was different about Marvel’s approach this year? First, they opted not to call this year’s Pride special a Pride special. The Marvel’s Voices: Pride anthology, as they’ve called it in years past, was replaced with X-Men: The Wedding Special — which featured the wedding of Mystique and Destiny, the first time a wedding between two women was shown in a Marvel comic. The comic also featured additional stories that tied into the main story, by creators like Yoon Ha Lee, a trans science fiction author, and M. Louis, creator of the webcomic Agents of the Realm. While it served a similar function, showcasing stories about LGBTQ+ characters, it did so without the word “Pride” in the title (although it did sport an emblem on the cover that noted it was “A Very Special Edition of Marvel Voices: Pride.”)

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Mad Cave Studios launches their 2024 Talent Search

Entries are due by the end of August.

Mad Cave Studios has announced their 2024 Talent Search, which they’ve conducted for the past seven years. Previous winners have gone on to work with Mad Cave and other publishers, including Anthony Cleveland, Jay Sandlin, David Hazan, Shane Connery Volk and many more.

The type of talent they’re looking for changes every year; up until 2022, they were looking for writers and artists, but that year they expanded it to include colorists and letterers. This year they are doubling the number of winners in each category, as they are looking for two writers, two illustrators, two colorists and two letterers to work on upcoming projects.

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