Celebrity chef Kim-Joy teams with artist Alti Firmansyah for the OGN ‘Turtle Bread’

The graphic novel arrives on digital from Comixology Originals in May and in print from Dark Horse this fall.

The Great British Bake Off finalist and bestselling cookbook author Kim-Joy is collaborating with Alti Firmansyah on her first graphic novel, Turtle Bread: A Graphic Novel About Baking, Fitting In, and the Power of Friendship. The project will arrive on digital via Comixology Originals in May, to be followed in print from Dark Horse Comics in October.

They’ll be joined by letterer Joamette Gil, designer Cindy Leong, and editors Felix Horne and Allison O’Toole for a project that explores not only friendship and baked goods, but also mental health issues.

Turtle Bread is a book about self-awareness,” said Kim-Joy. “It’s about that feeling of loneliness, of not fitting in or feeling good enough, of self-criticism, and the path towards self-acceptance. This is explored through baking, and in particular, the symbolism of the turtle–coming out of its shell and moving forward; however slowly that may be. Hence: Turtle Bread! (And yes, there’s actual turtle themed bread! Plus loads of other recipes). It’s NOT a magical story about how baking and friendship fix everything, but a story about the small steps forward (and sometimes sideways and backwards) gradually adding up.”

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Comixology Originals announces ‘Trick Pony’ by Greg Lockard + Anna David

The new graphic novel will arrive on the platform on Feb. 28.

While we ponder the fate of Comixology amidst all the layoffs and what that means for all those digital comics we’ve “acquired” from them, I guess there’s some solace in the fact that there are still new releases and announcements coming from their original comics line, Comixology Originals. That has to be a good sign, he says, as he realizes contracts were likely signed months in advance and maybe they just haven’t had time to sunset that program yet. Hey, don’t ruin my Sunday, okay?

Until Amazon is willing to share more (or not; their PR email seems to be a black hole) let’s focus on what we do know — that GLAAD award-nominated writer Greg Lockard has teamed up with artist Anna David and letterer Lucas Gattoni for a brand new western graphic novel, Trick Pony, which will arrive on the site on Feb. 28. It’s about a gay rodeo star named Jimmy.

“Trick Pony is a project that has been germinating in my head and heart for over a decade,” Lockard said. “It’s a love letter to all my favorite Western stories but through a distinctly modern lens. Jimmy’s adventure is about self-fulfillment on the path to making your dreams come true… and accepting that some shadows are going to follow you for life.”

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Comixology hit in latest round of Amazon layoffs

The corporate giant plans to lay off a reported 18,000 employees overall.

Some Comixology employees are posting to social media today that they’ve been impacted by the latest round of layoffs from their parent company, Amazon.

Journalist Jason Del Rey, who regularly reports on Amazon for Recode, shared a leaked letter from Amazon retail CEO Doug Herrington about the layoffs. According to news reports, Amazon plans to lay off 18,000 employees in this latest round, or roughly 6% of their global workforce. Herrington’s letter says they hope to have their U.S., Canada and Costa Rica employee notifications done today, with other regions to follow in the weeks ahead.

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Karma gets a new first name in Trung Le Nguyen’s ‘Karma in Love’

The Vietnamese character now has a first name more befitting of her background and culture.

A classic New Mutant received a name change — well, more of a name tweak — in a recent Marvel Unlimited Infinity Comic. Karma, whose real name was Xi’an, is now Xuân.

The Magic Fish creator Trung Le Nguyen, who is also Vietnamese like the character, wrote and drew “Karma in Love,” the story where the new name was noted. He spoke to Marvel.com about the change.

“I’ve had quite a journey around Karma’s civilian name. As a reader who spoke Vietnamese as a child, it was really difficult for me to connect with Karma because I knew her name was gibberish,” he said, noting that the “sh” sound in “Xi’an,” which was shown to be pronounced as “Shan” in various comics, didn’t exist in the Vietnamese language.

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Comixology Originals announces ‘Retroverse’ by Bunn + Bivens

The new series will arrive on the platform next week.

Master of horror comics Cullen Bunn will team with artist John Bivens for Retroverse, a new science fiction title about a a teenage girl who finds herself in an alternate reality where she died.

“After a wild, drunken party, 19-year-old Kacy Martin wakes up in an alternate universe—one where she has been dead for 13 years,” said Bunn. “She must navigate the heartbreaking waters of a world that seems to have turned out much better without her in it. And she must do so while wielding newly discovered, terrifying abilities against alien horrors.”

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DC Universe Infinite adds 5,000 Vertigo, Black Label titles

Subscribers to the “Ultra” tier can now access ‘The Books of Magic,’ ‘The Unwritten,’ ‘Shade the Changing Man’ and much more.

Despite the fact that DC shut down its Vertigo imprint at the end of 2019, the publisher still seems to find ways to keep the brand relevant, whether that’s by bringing back beloved properties like Fables and Sandman, or by adding more than 5,000 mature reader titles from the imprint to their DC Universe Infinite digital comics service.

Today Dc announced the addition of a “metric ton” of Vertigo titles to the service — everything from Sheriff of Babylon to Sandman Mystery Theatre — along with some more recent Black Label titles like Wonder Woman: Dead Earth and Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child. These new titles are only available to subscribers to the recently revealed Ultra tier, which also gives you access to new comics about a month after release.

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Scott + Jack Snyder team for a post-apocalyptic game of The Floor is Lava in ‘By A Thread’

The father and son duo are joined by Valeria Favoccia and Whitney Cogar for the Comixology Originals title.

Scott Snyder, who has extended his deal with Comixology Originals through 2023, has announced a new title he’ll debut on the platform — By A Thread, which will be co-written by his son Jack. Valeria Favoccia and Whitney Cogar are the art team for the project.

By A Thread is described as “a post-apocalyptic adventure about kids surviving in a future after a mysterious and deadly infection spreads across the Earth, making the very ground we tread on untouchable…” The ground is LAVA, kids — stay off of it!

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Comixology will release Liniers’ ‘The Ghost of Wreckers Cove’ this Tuesday

The Middle Grade graphic novel will feature ghosts, pirates and magic on the coast of Maine.

Comixology Originals will release The Ghost of Wreckers Cove, a “wildly imaginative” Middle Grade graphic novel that blends historical fiction and magical realism, on their platform this Tuesday. The new story is by Liniers (The Big Wet Balloon, Good Night, Planet, Written and Drawn by Henrietta), his frequent collaborator Angelica del Campo, colorist Christian Argiz and editor John Lind.

The new graphic novel about two young girls on the coast of Maine will feature ghosts, pirates, stolen treasure, seashells, swimming and a young lighthouse keeper. 

“Liniers’ work is so profoundly beautiful, spirited, and touching,” Bryce Gold, Comixology Originals Lead, said in the press release. “It is an honor to bring The Ghost of Wreckers Cove to English language audiences worldwide for the first time and my hope that readers of all ages, alive, spectral, or otherwise, enjoy it.”

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New DC Universe Infinite tier gives you access to new issues a month after release in comic shops

DC has announced DC Universe Infinite Ultra with an ‘industry leading one-month windowing of digital comics.’

Starting on Monday, DC’s digital comics platform, DC Universe Infinite, will add a new “Ultra” tier that will give subscribers access to new issues one month after their release in comic stores. The new tier will cost $99 per year — the “introductory pricing rate” — compared to the current $74.99 it costs to subscribe to the service.

“We’re excited to introduce the industry leading one-month windowing of digital comics with DC Universe Infinite’s Ultra tier,” said DC Senior Vice President and General Manager Anne DePies. “This new offering is part of DC’s vision of being everywhere our fans are–online and at comic shops. With a shorter digital release window, fans can enjoy our fantastic new stories, anywhere, anytime-while continuing to find the latest issues at comic shops.”

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Comixology Originals will publish the debut graphic novel from Xavier Saxon

‘Night at the Belfry’ arrives on the platform Oct. 18.

Comixology Originals has announced plans to publish Night at the Belfry, the debut graphic novel by writer and artist Xavier Saxon.

The story is about a 73-year-old former postman who starts remembering his time as a recreational boxer in the 1980s and “hatches a life altering plan to regain the control he believes he’s lost.”

Night at the Belfry is my first book and I am super proud of it, but it is not where I would have expected myself to start off in the world of comics,” Saxon said. “I don’t have much of an interest in boxing, I’m not a 70-plus year-old retiree (yet), and my preferences in terms of fiction have always skewed more towards the fantastical, genre-based stuff. The idea came from a few places. It started purely visually, the idea of a boxing match in a church belltower. But as I developed the story I became fascinated with the idea of applying undue importance to an, in retrospect, insignificant period of one’s own life. Mostly, though, the book came from a place of frustration. I wanted to finish something. And now that I have, I hope what I’ve made will resonate with readers.”

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Snyder + Jock open the ‘Book of Evil’

The creators of ‘Batman: Black Mirror’ reunite for a new illustrated prose series for Comixology Originals.

As part of his eight-book deal with Comixology Originals, Scott Snyder will once again team with artist Jock for The Book of Evil, a “visionary serialized horror story” that blends Snyder’s prose with Jock’s illustrations.

The story follows four young friends growing up in world where over 90 percent of the population are born as psychopaths, but they don’t know it until they become a teenager. Despite the danger, the four friends “set off together on a journey that will take them down the roads and rivers of this transformed America in the hope of finding a place where goodness still lives.”

Snyder shared more about it in his newsletter:

“It imagines that not long from now, 92% of the population start being born sociopaths. Nobody knows why, nobody knows if it’s a toxin or a mutation or evolution. But suddenly, the vast majority of people being born present as sociopaths when they hit adolescence. So when you’re about 13 or 14, you switch over into either being part of the majority, a psychopath, or you’re one of what they call ‘subs,’ a ‘subhuman’ person who still has the vestigial limb of empathy or compassion or a conscience, and you’re relegated to the terrible hard labor of this world. So it’s a really dark book,” he said. “I’m very, very, very proud of this one. It’s prose with spot illustrations and it’s presented as the journal, like an artifact by a kid in this world named Homer, who’s growing up with his three best friends in the slums that they keep kids in until they present one way or another. And it’s about an adventure they have to try and escape all of the terrors of this future.”

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Segura + Hart + Eisma make a ‘Blood Oath’ for Comixology Originals

The digital series arrives on the platform next week.

Novelists Alex Segura and Rob Hart have come together to write Blood Oath, a new miniseries that debuts from Comixology Originals on Aug. 30. They’ll be joined by artist Joe Eisma, colorist Hilary Jenkins and letterer Jim Campbell, all under the watchful eye of editor Heather Antos.

Blood Oath is set during Prohibition in 1922 and will feature a woman who runs a “secret business” who crosses paths with the mafia and their “sinister partner.”

Blood Oath is a blend of some of our favorite things, in terms of story and genre – historical fiction, the early days of organized crime, and horror – all things we wanted to explore, and they blended together perfectly to ask a key question: what if there was a secret, monstrous crime family that’s been part of the underworld for decades?” Segura said.

Segura, of course, is no stranger to comics, having worked in the industry for more than two decades and having written comics like The Dusk, The Black Ghost and many more. (He also has a Spider-Verse novel coming out, which was announced today). Hart’s new to comics, but has written several novels like The Paradox Hotel and The Warehouse. He and Segura have also collaborated before, teaming their two literary characters, Ash McKenna and Pete Fernandez, together in a short story called “Bad Beat.”

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