‘The Mask’ returns at Dark Horse

Christopher Cantwell and Patric Reynolds team up for a new politically charged miniseries starring Big Head.

Christopher Cantwell and Patric Reynolds will bring Dark Horse’s The Mask back to comics this fall for a new miniseries, The Mask: I Pledge Allegiance to the Mask!

Cantwell is the co-creator and showrunner of the AMC drama Halt and Catch Fire, while Reynolds has worked on comics like Abe Sapien, Hellboy & the BPRD, Joe Golem, Aliens and Serenity.

“In a time when we’re constantly being bombarded from every corner by absurdity, amorality, public violence, pure chaos, apathy, and real moral darkness in the country, it felt like no better time than to bring the original punk underground spirit of The Mask back to confront where we are as a nation,” Cantwell said in a statement to Forbes. “The Mask has been gone for nearly 20 years, and now, the world is completely on f—ing fire. The world is ANGRY, HATEFUL, SPLITTING AT THE SEAMS. There is no truth anymore. There is only hysteria and a cacophony of disparate shouting voices. There is so much institutional crime on an ethical and moral scale that it washes over you in waves of misery that also sadly have the effect of dental novocaine. Worse, a lot of people seem to LOVE IT.”

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John Carpenter + Anthony Burch re-team for a Joker one-shot

“Year of the Villain” tie-in will feature art by Philip Tan and Marc Deering.

If you need a scary Joker, go to the master. DC has announced that John Carpenter, the writer/director/producer behind Halloween, Escape from New York and Vampires, among many others, will co-write a Joker one-shot this October.

The Joker is the greatest villain in comics,” Carpenter said in a press release.  “I’m proud to be reunited with Anthony on this project.”

Joining Carpenter is Anthony Burch, writer of the video games Borderlands 2 and League of Legends, and who worked with Carpenter on BOOM! Studios’ Big Trouble in Little China: Old Man Jack series. They’ll be joined by artists Philip Tan and Marc Deering.

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‘Contagion’ infects Marvel’s street-level heroes in October

Weekly series pits Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, The Thing and more against a new threat.

Ed Brisson will team up with five different artists in October for a five-part weekly series called Contagion. In it, a new threat will require the attention of Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Cloak and Dagger, the Thing, Moon Knight and other street-level heroes.

Joining Brisson on the project are Roge Antonio, Stephen Segovia, Mack Chater, Damian Couciero and Adam Gorham. Juan Jose Ryp drew the covers, which you can see below.

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It’s all about the hair in Valiant’s ‘Roku’ miniseries

Cullen Bunn and Ramón F. Bachs take the deadly assassin on a globe-trotting adventure.

Roku, the former-lover-turned-adversary of Valiant’s Ninjak, will star in her own four-issue miniseries, courtesy of Cullen Bunn, Ramón F. Bachs, Stéphane Paitreau and Dave Sharpe.

“Roku is perhaps the deadliest assassin in the Valiant Universe, and this is her first solo series,” Bunn said on his blog. “I’m sending her on a globe-trotting adventure where she will not get a chance to catch her breath. This is The Killer meets Hard-Boiled meets Replacement Killers meets John Wick… with psychic assassins.”

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Loveness + Estherren fly into ‘Strange Skies Over East Berlin’

New miniseries from BOOM! Studios lands in October.

Jeff Loveness and Lisandro Estherren will bring aliens into the Cold War in Strange Skies Over East Berlin, a new four-issue miniseries coming from BOOM! Studios in October. Evan Cagle will provide covers.

“Through comics, I’ve been able to write space operas, dark religious epics and superhero stories, and now I can’t wait to write a sci-fi horror set within the bleak, creeping dread of the Cold War,” said Loveness. “The Iron Curtain surveillance state of East Germany is now far enough removed from us to seem shockingly familiar. It’s been humbling to research that world, only to see how many sad parallels of it we still endure today. There’s body-horror and sci-fi creeping through the paranoia of the story, but it’s also about what it means to be American in a world slipping away from you… a world that was perhaps never truly there to begin with.”

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Jeff Lemire is working on The Question + The Joker for DC’s Black Label

Both projects are due out this fall.

Jeff Lemire is always busy making comics, and this fall he’ll tackle two different projects for DC Black Label featuring the Joker and the Question.

First, he’ll team with his Gideon Falls collaborator Andrea Sorrentino on The Joker: Killer Smile. Lemire told io9 the series will feature “a more grounded, real-world Joker.” He’ll also team with Denys Cowan, Bill Sienkiewicz and Chris Sotomayor on The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage.

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Milligan + Allred teaming for an ‘X-Statix’ spinoff next year

This week’s ‘Giant-Sized X-Statix’ brings old friends and new surprises.

Fans who were happy to see the team reunite again in the pages of this week’s Giant-Size X-Statix #1 will be positively, um, ecstatic to see the final page.

(Spoilers for Giant-Size X-Statix #1 below)

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AHOY Comics announces more ‘Captain Ginger,’ ‘Wrong Earth’ prequel

The publisher will also bring back ‘Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter Of Terror’ in October.

AHOY Comics has announced follow-ups to three of their previous titles, including a prequel for The Wrong Earth, and sequels for Captain Ginger and Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter Of Terror.

“The third wave of AHOY Comic Magazines sees the return of some fan favorite faces,” Publisher Hart Seely said. “And what’s exciting to me, as both a reader and the publisher, is that each of these stories takes these characters to unexpected places. What happens when cats meet dogs in the far reaches of outer space? Is there something evil about being a superhero? Readers who wanted more of these stories can dive right in, but they also work as stand alone stories that provide a jumping-on point for readers who have only recently discovered AHOY.”

The three titles, with the publisher’s descriptions, are:

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Fantastic Four gets the ‘Grand Design’ treatment courtesy of Tom Scioli

The two-issue series kicks off in October.

Fans of Tom Scioli‘s creative and inspired approach to comics are in for a treat — the creator behind American Barbarian, Go-Bots and Transformers vs. G.I. Joe will turn his attention to Marvel’s first family in Fantastic Four: Grand Design.

Fantastic Four is like the Magna Carta of Marvel, this founding document, so being allowed to get my hands on it is thrilling,” Scioli told Comicbook.com. “They’ve given me a tremendous amount of creative freedom to just go for it.”

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‘John Constantine, Hellblazer’ joins the Sandman Universe titles this fall

Simon Spurrier, Marcio Takara and Aaron Campbell take the character back to his roots.

After a move to the regular DC Universe, a movie, a TV show and even the announcement of a YA graphic novel, John Constantine will go back to basics in a new Hellblazer title this fall, as part of the Neil Gaiman-curated Sandman Universe line.

The day before Halloween will bring a one-shot by Simon Spurrier and artist Marcio Takara titled The Sandman Universe Presents Hellblazer. That’ll be followed by a new ongoing titled John Constantine, Hellblazer by Spurrier and artist Aaron Campbell.

“Year One was just the start. Now you get to inhabit the worlds, books and houses we built for you,” said Gaiman. “I was thrilled when I was told that John Constantine—the original, demon-haunted one who first showed up in Swamp Thing’s ‘American Gothic’ story—is coming back to his murky and dangerous roots. More magic and more darkness and not a few gods and dreams are here for you to explore.”

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Haberlin + Hine team up for ‘The Marked’

New series from Image Comics due out in October.

Brian Haberlin and David Hine (Sonata) will re-team for a new series from Image Comics titled The Marked.

The Marked is my chance to do magical, dark and sexy,” Haberlin said in the press release. “The world may seem familiar, but what lies beneath is certainly not. A world readers of my old series Aria and The Wicked will recognize and maybe we’ll even see some characters from those books appear along the way in this new series!”

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Becky Lynch takes center ring in new ‘Smackdown Live’ comic

BOOM! Studios announces a new one-shot focused on The Man and Smackdown Live moving to the Fox network.

BOOM! Studios’ ongoing WWE comic may have been canceled, but the sports entertainment license lives on at the publisher. In their build-up to this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego, the publisher announced a new one-shot, WWE Smackdown Live #1.

Written by Kevin Panetta with art by Kendall Goode, the comic will focus on Becky Lynch, a.k.a. The Man, arguably the WWE’s most popular superstar right now. It’ll also tie into Smackdown Live, currently seen Tuesday nights on USA, moving to the Fox network in October. Panetta is the writer of Bloom from First Second and Zodiac Starforce from Dark Horse, while Goode has work on previous WWE comics for BOOM!.

“The Man is one of the most electrifying Superstars to hit the ropes, and what better way to begin a new era of SmackDown Live than with Becky Lynch in the lead?” said Chris Rosa, Editor, BOOM! Studios. “Current WWE Superstars collide with WWE Legends, who are all here for one of the biggest and most unpredictable nights that they’ll ever face in the ring.”

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