Author: JK Parkin

Slugfest | Echo gets a Marvel’s Voices special in their November solicitations

Plus: X-Men of Apocalypse, Spider-Man Noir, 1776 and more!

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. This edition focuses on Marvel’s November 2025 solicitations. Hit the links for more information.

Marvel will mark Native American Heritage Month with a special focused on the hero Echo by Black Eyed Peas member Taboo, along with co-writer B. Earl, artists Jim Terry and Kyle Charles, and more.

Echo: Seeker of Truth, which will include the “Marvel’s Voices” branding on its cover, finds Echo in Los Angeles, where she must protect her cousin from a “wellness cult” called Wisteria Meadows. The story will also have the former Avenger and Phoenix host unlock “a mysterious new gift that will redefine her adventures in the Marvel Universe forever.”

“Being able to write our second Echo story feels like a super power or strength,” Taboo said. “As a proud Native American/ Mexican storyteller, having that platform to co-write about super heroes that resonate within our Marvel Universe, is what I call ‘good medicine’ and much needed to inspire our readers. Celebrating the beauty of Echo as our hero is like painting a vibrant mural across the comic book landscape. We aren’t just creating stories, these are like bridges to communities, empowerment, and authentic representation.”

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Exclusive | Meet Zarigazami, a new kaiju debuting in ‘Monstrous Magazine’

Check out the designs for the new creature by manga artist Itaru Kinoshita prior to the Kickstarter campaign launching next week.

Monstrous Books is making big plans for their next issue of Monstrous Magazine, and by “big” I mean “Kaiju sized.”

Monstrous: The Kaiju Issue will debut on Kickstarter soon — you can sign up to be notified when it launches — celebrating all things giant monster in an oversized issue. It’ll feature short stories, comics and artwork by author Greg Cox, publisher James Aquilone, artist Dave Swartz and more.

“When I decided to do a Kaiju issue of Monstrous Magazine I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do a Kaiju-size magazine, so we’re going from 5.5 x 8.5 to 8.5 x 11 inches,” said Aquilone. “And that’s just the beginning. We’re resizing the Monstrous Magazine back issues, too, and now, for a limited time, they will be available in the new collectible, oversized Kaiju format.”

Zarigazami is one of several new kaiju that will appear in the issue. Designed by manga artist Itaru Kinoshita, the monster will appear in black and white in the magazine, but Aquilone is offering a full-color print as one of the rewards in the campaign.

This isn’t Kinoshita’s first time drawing giant creatures. The fan-favorite creator is best known for Dinosaur Sanctuary and the series Gigante o Utte, which is also about dinosaurs. Dinosaur Sanctuary is published by Seven Seas Entertainment and was nominated for Best Continuing Manga Series at the American Manga Awards in 2024. Volume 7 is due to be published in English on Sept. 30.

Here’s a look at the print, which will be available when the Kickstarter goes live:

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Picture + Panel | Štěpánka Jislová + Sofia Szamosi on ‘the lies the TV told me’

We continue our interview series in advance of a live question-and-answer session between the two creators in Boston next week.

We continue our interview series on creators speaking at the monthly Picture + Panel event in Boston, which brings together two comic creators to talk about a specific topic — for September, Štěpánka Jislová and Sofia Szamosi will discuss “the lies that TV told me” about body image, women and relationships.

Next Monday, you can join the creators and moderator Rebecca Hains, Ph.D. for the discussion at the Boston Figurative Arts Center. You can find more details on it here.

Štěpánka Jislová is an award-winning comics artist based in Prague and the cofounder of the Czech branch of Laydeez do Comics, an international organization that promotes female comic artists and their work. Jislová collaborated with Czech writer Tereza Čechová on the 2021 Muriel prize–winning Bez vlasů, later published by Graphic Mundi in English as Bald. Srdcovka (the original Czech edition of Heartcore) received the Muriel Award in three categories in 2024, including the main prize.

Sofia Szamosi is an artist and author originally from New York City. In addition to making books, she enjoys painting and creating art in analog photobooths. Along with her debut graphic novel, Unretouchable (Lerner/Graphic Universe), she is the author of BAD KID: My Life as a Troubled Teen (Little, Brown Ink, forthcoming Spring 2026), a graphic memoir exploring her adolescence in and out of the troubled teen industry. A third graphic memoir is currently in development with Street Noise, focusing on healing from eating disorders and the journey of recovering fertility. Szamosi now lives in a small town in Massachusetts—just the right distance from New York City—with her husband, two daughters, and their elderly Pomeranian, Breakfast.

Check out the interview below, and big thanks as always to Gina Gagliano and Jason Viola, who organize the monthly series in Boston and brought this Q&A series to Smash Pages!

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Can’t Wait for Wednesday | Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez bring a ‘very superhero-forward kind of take’ to ‘Batman’

Check out new comics and graphic novels arriving this week by J.M. DeMatteis and Jim Towe, Tate Brombal and Jacob Phillips, Jordan Thomas and Daniel Gete, Maria Llovet, Sean Peacock, Chip Zdarsky and Rachael Stott, Melissa Mendes and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, your guide to what’s coming to your local comic shop this week.

I’ve pulled out some of the highlights for this week below, but for the complete list of everything you might find at your local comic shop and on digital this week, you’ll want to check out one or more of the following:

As a reminder, things can change and what you find on the above lists may differ from what’s actually arriving in your local shop. So check with your retailer to see what’s arriving at their shop this week.

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‘Ultimate Universe: Two Years In’ goes cosmic with Guardians, Daredevil + more

Deniz Camp, Alex Paknadel and more will help set up the upcoming battle with the Maker in ‘Ultimate Endgame.’

Marvel has announced a follow-up Ultimate Universe special tp last year’s Ultimate Universe: One Year In. Appropriately titled Ultimate Universe: Two Years In, the special will focus on the Ultimate Guardians of the Galaxy, who were introduced earlier this year in The Ultimates #8.

The Ultimates writer Deniz Camp, along with co-writer Alex Paknadel, will bring the team to the forefront as they continue looking for new members to join in the fight against the Maker. That will include a cosmic-level Ultimate Daredevil:

“Getting to write in the Ultimate Universe—especially as it reaches its climax—is so fun, it should be illegal,” Paknadel said. “It’s a license to rethink and reinvent your favorite characters, and Deniz and I have certainly done that here. Like all the best Ultimate versions of these characters, our Daredevil retains the essence of the original—he’s still a something without fear—but he’s been scaled up to a cosmic-level hero. I can’t wait for readers to meet him.”

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Let’s you and him fight: DC reveals all the ‘DC K.O.’ tournament participants

Dan Mora’s variant cover for the first issue of the event series reveals both expected and surprising entrants.

DC has revealed all the participants in the DC K.O. tournament, a big storyline that begins this fall and finds DC’s heroes (and some villains) competing for the honor of becoming King Omega.

Scott Snyder and Joshua Williamson are tag-teaming on the storyline, with Snyder writing the main event and Williamson working on the undercard in titles like Superman and Knightfight. Snyder will be joined by Javi Fernandez on the main miniseries, while Dan Mora did the tournament bracket cover that reveals who is all in for the fight:

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BRZRKR returns in ‘The Bleeding Tide’ this November

Marjorie Liu and Garry Brown set sail on the high seas for a story featuring BRZRKR and a crew of pirates.

BRZRKR will return this fall with another one-shot set in the immortal warrior’s past. BRZRKR: The Bleeding Tide will feature “B.”, as he’s called, being saved from the depths of the ocean by a pirate captain with a lot of secrets.

Monstress co-creator Marjorie Liu teams with artist Garry Brown of Babyteeth and The Massive fame on the title, which is the latest in a series of one-shots featuring the Keanu Reeves-created immortal warrior. It follows 2024’s BRZRKR: A Faceful of Bullets, 2023’s BRZRKR: Poetry of Madness and the original BRZRKR series co-written by the John Wick and Bill & Ted actor and his writing partner Matt Kindt.

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Can’t Wait for Wednesday | ‘Immortal Legend Batman,’ ‘The Knives,’ ‘Mortal Thor’ + more

New comics and graphic novels arrive by Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips, Al Ewing, Pasqual Ferry, James Tynion IV, Dani, Mike Mignola, Dan Watters, Michele Bandini and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, your guide to what’s coming to your local comic shop this week.

I’ve pulled out some of the highlights for this week below, but for the complete list of everything you might find at your local comic shop and on digital this week, you’ll want to check out one or more of the following:

As a reminder, things can change and what you find on the above lists may differ from what’s actually arriving in your local shop. So check with your retailer to see what’s arriving at their shop this week.

Continue reading “Can’t Wait for Wednesday | ‘Immortal Legend Batman,’ ‘The Knives,’ ‘Mortal Thor’ + more”

Hulk makes an appointment to ‘Smash Everything’ in December

Ryan North and Vincenzo Carratù send the unjolly green giant up against everyone and everything in a five-issue miniseries.

In the spirit of the various titles that showcase Deadpool, Godzilla and even the Thing taking on anyone and everyone in the Marvel Universe, Ryan North and Vincenzo Carratù will send the Hulk on a mission to smash everything in Hulk Smash Everything.

The five-issue miniseries begins in December and will feature the Hulk fighting his fellow heroes, cosmic beings and even “the very limits of reality.”

“Hulk is a perfect character, and Phillip Kennedy Johnson is doing incredible things with him in Incredible Hulk,” North said. “This series is an evergreen (no pun intended) story that features an ever-increasing series of things being smashed by Hulk across all five issues. It goes to some wild places that I promise you are not expecting (and one, if you know me, that you are) and, through all the chaos and smashing, also tells what I think is a pretty sweet story about this big green guy.”

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Here are the nominees for the 2025 Dragon Awards

Winners will be announced this weekend during DragonCon.

The nominees have been announced for the 2024 Dragon Awards, which have been presented annually during DragonCon since 2016.

The awards include multiple categories for books, media tie-ins like movies and video games, and comics. Last year Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda won the award for Best Comic Book / Graphic Novel.

The nominees in the comics and graphic novel category are:

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Slugfest | Gabriel Hardman puts a modern twist on 1980s thrillers in DC’s November solicitations

Plus: DC’s plans for the penultimate month of 2025 include a new Harley & Ivy series, a holiday special and a whole lot of DC K.O.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. This edition focuses on DC’s November 2025 solicitations. Hit the links for more information.

Fans of DC’s street-level thrillers from the 1980s, like Denny O’Neil and Denys Cowan’s The Question and Mike Grell’s Green Arrow will be happy to know that Gabriel Hardman (Invisible Republic, Green Lantern: Earth One) is bringing that same kind of storytelling to Batman/Green Arrow/The Question: Arcadia.

The four-issue Black Label series will feature Hardman as writer and artist, with colors by Romulo Fajardo Jr. and lettering by Simon Bowland.

“I’ve wanted to tell a story about Batman, Green Arrow and the Question since I was 14 years old, and I couldn’t be more excited to finally get the chance,” said Hardman. “While I’m taking inspiration from the great work of Denny O’Neil, Denys Cowan and Mike Grell, this series isn’t an exercise in nostalgia. I’m taking the grounded approach they spearheaded in the late 80s and moving forward, having these three difficult, opinionated personalities confront a contemporary brand of criminality on a global scale.”

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Marvel announces ‘Wiccan: Witches’ Road’ for December

The miniseries will spin out of ‘Imperial’ and send the young mage on a quest to save his husband.

Marvel’s Imperial is the gift that keeps on giving. The miniseries that’s redefining Marvel’s cosmic characters — and spinning off many of them into their own series — will also give us a new Wiccan miniseries.

Wiccan: Witches Road is a five-issue miniseries by Wyatt Kennedy and Andy Pereira. And while Wiccan and Hulkling have been out in space since Hulkling became leader of the Kree/Skrull Alliance, this miniseries will bring Wiccan back to his mystical roots — which should please fans of the Disney+ series Agatha All Along.

“It’s a real thrill to be able to take Billy in such an unexpected direction and put him out of his element, introducing a new villain and a surprising ally that I know fans have been wanting to see,” Kennedy said. “Obviously getting the chance to write one of Marvel’s best couples is a joy, but I’m really excited to dive deep into who Billy is as a single individual and explore what his title as Wiccan really means to both himself and the greater Marvel universe.”

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