#Bwahaha: Blue Beetle + Booster Gold take on social media in new miniseries

‘Blue & Gold’ by Dan Jurgens and Ryan Sook will go online in July.

Get ready, internets — Blue Beetle and Booster Gold are coming for you.

DC has announced that the duo will get an eight-issue miniseries this summer from the team of Dan Jurgens and Ryan Sook.

Blue & Gold, based on the description, returns the team to their more comical roots, as Booster Gold enlists Blue Beetle’s aid in becoming a social media star.

“To be clear, this is the third, maybe even fourth time this project has been on my board, the first in ’88 or ’89,” Jurgens said on Twitter. “Nice to have it become a reality and even better to have the incredible Ryan Sook drawing it. So good!”

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Cartoonists put the spotlight on Autism Awareness Month

Participants are posting personal comics about autism throughout April.

April is Autism Awareness Month, and more than 30 cartoonists are raising awareness around autism and neurodiversity in a series of comic strips posted under the hashtag #ASDComicTakeover on Twitter.

Rebecca Ollerton, a.k.a. Bex, is spearheading the effort. She regularly makes comics about these topics.

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DC wants you to help name Nightwing’s dog

DC has opened a poll on their community boards that ends March 30.

Nightwing’s got a new dog, and that dog needs a name. So DC is running a poll on their DC Universe Infinite community boards with four choices.

Unfortunately, you have to have a login to access the boards and the poll, which means you have to live in the United States. But writer Tom Taylor took to Twitter to offer an “informal” option for those who live outside the U.S.:

https://twitter.com/TomTaylorMade/status/1374757908311801856
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Matthew Dow Smith launches ‘Doctor Secret’ on Twitter

The creator launches his fourth and final free, serialized comic on social media, keeping a promise he made when the pandemic started.

Matthew Dow Smith has spent almost a full year posting his own comics to Twitter, and he’s not stopping now — this week he launches Doctor Secret, a three-parter that will wrap up a year’s worth of comics posted to social media.

Smith started posting comics the same week that Diamond Comics Distributors announced their pandemic-related shutdown. He started with the autobiographical My Life as Riley and continuing on with the serialized Johnny Chaos, Arch Nemesis and Amelia Shadows, the latter just wrapping up last week.

“I gave myself one year to see what would happen, hoping that the weekly comics would at least keep my career alive until the industry figured out a path forward, while secretly hoping it might lead to me finally breaking through as a writer as well as an artist,” Smith wrote on Twitter.

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DC launches a Batman ‘prelude’ comic on Instagram

The story leads into ‘Batman’ #92, which arrives in June.

Batman made his Instagram debut this week in a comic that will serve as a “prelude” to Batman #92, which is set to land in stores on June 9.

“Hey! While on break, I cooked up a handful of prelude stories with Guillem March to give you a taste of Gotham while you’re waiting for Batman to return next month,” writer James Tynion IV said on Twitter. “They’ll be on DC’s Instagram, in their stories. The first of them is up now, featuring PUNCHLINE!”

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DC deletes Batman image from social media after receiving Chinese complaints

An image promoting ‘The Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child’ sparks complaints of ‘support of Hong Kong’s rioters.’

DC Comics deleted social media postings last week featuring a promotional image from the upcoming Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child one-shot by Frank Miller and Rafael Grampa after receiving numerous complaints from Chinese commenters.

The comments said the image looked like it supported the pro-Democracy protests currently occurring in Hong Kong. The Global Times out of China said it “implied its support of Hong Kong’s rioters,” noting that many critics saw “Batman’s gesture as supportive of Hong Kong’s unrest and violence.”

Grampa, the artist of the piece, had a one-word response to the attention the piece received: “Surreal.” Here’s the image in question:

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Comics Lowdown: Camera creeps and Comic Con copyright

Plus: Paco Roca’s Ngozi Ukazu, Mike Norton, a ‘Star Wars Adventures’ update, and the Webcomics Web Archive

Con Creep: Calgary Police are investigating a Twitter account for uploading videos and photos of women and girls without consent, featuring certain body parts in a sexualized way, and even going as far as taking upskirt shots. A Calgary mother is furious that one of the victims is her 14-year old daughter that cosplayed as Harley Quinn at this year’s Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. The person responsible took these images only of cosplayers at the Expo, but of women on the streets and in malls as well. Staff Sgt. Cory Dayley of the Calgary Police Service cyber crimes unit said that the images would be classed as voyeurism under the Canadian criminal code. The Twitter account, @CanadaCreep, has been suspended. Late Wednesday afternoon, Calgary police announced they arrested a 42-year-old man on charges relating to voyeurism and publishing voyeuristic images. Police are asking anyone with additional information to contact the at 403-266-1234, case number 17243516.
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Donald Trump Slaps ‘Bloom County’ Creator with C&D [UPDATE: It’s a Hoax!]

Update #2: OK, I’m convinced. It’s a hoax. Christian Hoffer did the basic fact-checking I should have done and asked the law firm directly if the letter was real; they denied it.

Update: Have we been taken in by fake news? Uh… There’s at least one source claiming this isn’t real.

If you’re a politician, being lampooned by cartoonists is part of the deal, and even Donald Trump seems to understand that. Where he draws the line is when someone other than him might make some money from it.

Bloom County creator Berkeley Breathed just posted a letter from Trump’s attorney, Marc E. Kasowitz, on his Facebook and Twitter, demanding that he remove an altered image of Trump from his social media posts or (per his client’s wishes, he specifies) “we will ‘have your [redacted] in a sling by lunch.'”

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The comic industry remembers Tim O’Shea

On the morning of April 30th, Smash Pages lost our co-founder, contributor, and friend, Tim O’Shea from glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. Our own JK Parkin wrote a touching memorial on Sunday. Tim’s funeral service will be held at the Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Atlanta, GA on Saturday, May 20th. More details and virtual guest book can be found here.

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Comic industry pays tribute to David Bowie

News of David Bowie’s passing brought an outpouring of tributes from many who were creatively influenced and admire the pop future legend, including those in the comic industry. Bowie’s eccentric life attracted a diversity of comic industry pros who celebrated his life in their own way.

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