The Warworld Saga ends in August, bringing Clark back to Earth

Big Daddy Superman will finish up in space, then return home for a crossover with his son.

The Warworld Saga, which took Clark Kent off planet while his son Jon Kent took over as Superman on Earth, will wrap up this August in Superman: Warworld Apocalypse #1.

Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Brandon Peterson and Will Conrad will present the final battle between the forces of Superman and Mongul’s Unmade Champions.

“Superman: Warworld Apocalypse is everything we’ve been building to with the Warworld Saga, with the final battle between Superman and Mongul, between the Authority and the Unmade, and the long-awaited reveal of the real mastermind in the shadows,” said Johnson. “There are some frankly shocking moments in this issue, and some huge reveals that will have long-lasting repercussions in the DC Universe.”

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Sentinels, powerbombs and a brand new Mythos

New comics and graphic novels arrive from Daniel Warren Johnson, Jae Lee, Scott Snyder, Charles Soule, Jeff Lemire, Eric Powell, Sofia Warren, Andrea Sorrentino, Tim Seeley, Fred Van Lente, Paul Tobin and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital this week. Another new Captain America title, this one featuring Steve Rogers, makes its debut, along with the first Bone Orchard Mythos project, an Undiscovered Country one-shot and the best Archie comic — ever.

I’ve pulled out some of the highlights 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 always check with your comics retailer for the final word on availability.

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Quick Hits | Lambda Literary Award winners, Russ Manning nominees announced

Plus: News on Ghostbusters comics, Webtoon and more.

Awards | Lee Lai’s Stone Fruit has once again won an award, this time a 2022 Lambda Literary Award for best LGBTQ comic. The awards celebrate “the very best in LGBTQ literature” and were given out this past weekend in a variety of literary categories. Stone Fruit also won the Lynd Ward award for graphic literature earlier this week.

Awards | Comic-Con International has announced the nominees for the Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award, which is given out during the Eisner Awards ceremony every year in San Diego. This year’s nominees include:

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What Are You Reading? | A ‘Dark Crisis’ comes calling

See what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately.

Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our look at what the Smash Pages crew has been checking off their “to read” list lately. Today’s reviews include the first issue of Dark Crisis, the Marvel/Fortnite crossover, The Very Last Final Girls and more.

Let us know what you’ve been reading lately in the comments or on social media.

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Love, Marvel Style, arrives on Infinity Comics

A new line-up of romance comics debut on the Marvel Unlimited app, with the first story featuring Ms. Marvel and Red Dagger.

Love is in the app — the Marvel Unlimited app — as Marvel announces a new line of Infinity Comics featuring Ms. Marvel, Red Dagger, Viv Vision, Wolverine and more, as they look for romance in all the right places. Love Unlimited kicked off last week.

The first comic features Ms. Marvel and Red Dagger, whose chemistry is “off the scale” in a new comic by Nadia Shammas, Natacha Bustos and Ian Herring.

“This [arc] puts Ms. Marvel and Red Dagger in each other’s paths while trying to chase down the same villain,” Shammas said. “The last time they saw each other, things ended awkwardly and were unresolved. That tension, that push-pull, is totally the heart of this dynamic. Will they deny the feelings that are already there? Can they make that final leap? Read to find out.”

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‘Stone Fruit’ by Lee Lai wins the 2022 Lynd Ward prize

Lai and Fantagraphics add another award to a growing list.

Stone Fruit, Lee Lai’s graphic novel about a queer couple and their relationships with their families, has added another award to its growing collection. Penn State University Libraries has awarded it the Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize for 2022. The graphic novel was published by Fantagraphics in May of 2021.

The award comes with a $2,500 prize, and the winner is chosen by a jury. In their write-up, the jury said, “Lee Lai’s ‘Stone Fruit’ is one of those rare graphic novels where everything — story, text, images, style — comes together in full complement to create a memorable, moving experience for readers.”

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Harley + Ivy adorn these new Pumas designed by Jen Bartel

DC’s power couple appear on shoes and shirts designed by the artist, which can be found on the Foot Locker website.

Puma has released a new collection of shoes and shirts designed by artist Jen Bartel featuring Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. The shoes went on sale on the Foot Locker website and in select Foot Locker stores earlier today.

“This collab was truly a labor of love that started nearly 2 years ago, and of all the collections I’ve had the opportunity to design for Puma, it’s definitely my favorite,” Bartel said in her Substack newsletter. “Very excited to finally be able to share it with you in full!”

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Sgt. Rock takes on ‘Army of the Dead’ in a new miniseries from Campbell + Risso

The first issue arrives in September.

Bruce Campbell, who has literally fought zombies*, will put what he learned to good use in DC Horror Presents: Sgt. Rock Vs. The Army of the Dead. Eduardo Risso will illustrate the six-issue series.

Campbell has appeared in numerous televisions shows and movies over the years, including Burn Notice, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., Evil Dead, Army of Darkness and most recently he had a cameo role in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Risso is probably best known for his work on 100 Bullets, the long-running Vertigo series.

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Nominees announced for the Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards

Pop Culture Classroom will recognize graphic novels across four categories, plus a new reader’s choice category.

Pop Culture Classroom, an organization that provides educational resources to classrooms that use comics, graphic novels and other pop culture media, has announced the nominees for the 2022 Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards.

The awards have been presented annually since 2018, and recognize creators and their works across four categories, based on the targeted age group.

“We’re thrilled to be celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Excellence in Graphic Literature Awards,” said Pop Culture Classroom Education Program Manager Matt Slayter. “Our juries and advisory board have carefully evaluated this year’s submitted works, and these graphic novels represent the best and most inclusive titles published in 2021. This list will help libraries and classrooms build diverse and educational graphic novel collections with titles that readers AND teachers of all ages will love!”

The nominees are:

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Three Count | Roachmill, George Pratt, Kevin Conroy

Here are three things in comics to support, to see and to watch today.

1. To support: Roachmill returns from It’s Alive!

The 1980s saw a huge explosion in the number of comics coming from independent comics publishers. It was mainly driven by a couple of factors, one being the creation and growth of the direct market, and also by what’s known as the black-and-white comics boom (and subsequent bust) that was sparked by the creation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and fueled by a speculator’s market of low print run, and often low quality, B&W comics. But there were certainly some gems amongst the garbage.

One of the companies in the mix back then was Blackthorne Publishing, a company born when Pacific Comics closed down, who would go on to be quite successful for a number of years publishing 3-D comics, comic strip reprints, licensed comics and original stuff. One of those originals was Roachmill, by Rich Hedden and Tom McWeeney, which was definitely a gem.

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Segura + Gallagher + Kambadais resurrect ‘The Black Ghost’ this summer

The Comixology Originals title returns digitally in August and in print from Dark Horse next year.

Following an intriguing debut back in 2019, The Black Ghost will once again haunt your digital devices when it returns from Comixology Originals in August.

The new five issue miniseries by writers Alex Segura and Monica Gallagher, artist George Kambadais, colorist Ellie Wright, letterer Taylor Esposito and editor Greg Lockard will be collected by Dark Horse in January.

“When Hard Revolution, the first arc in our series was received so warmly – and got the attention of places like The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and a print edition from Dark Horse Comics – we started to think of more,” Segura said. “I could almost feel Monica and I looking at each other from across the country and thinking, ‘Well, what do we do now?'”

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‘New Mutants’ #30 will mark the team’s 40th anniversary

Vita Ayala, Alex Lins, Jason Loo, Emma Kubert, Alyssa Wong, Bob McLeod and more will contribute to the oversized issue.

Although they don’t look that much older than when they first debuted, Marvel will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original New Mutants #1 in issue #30 of the current series, which comes out in September.

The oversized issue will include a collection of shorter stories starring “classic and new characters alike,” and will feature the work of Vita Ayala, Alex Lins, Jason Loo, Emma Kubert, Alyssa Wong and more. Wong, actually, will write a new Deadpool story for the comic, as Deadpool made his first appearance in New Mutants #98.

The New Mutants were co-created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod back in 1982, and they debuted in an original graphic novel that was released in September of that year. The first issue of their ongoing series followed a couple months later and lasted 100 issues before morphing into X-Force during the 1990s. Marvel has revived the title and concept a few times since then, including the current title, which features several of the original members with newer characters.

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