The Comics Super Blog!
See what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately.
Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately.
Let us know what you read this week in the comments or on social media.
Continue reading “What Are You Reading? | ‘Iron Man,’ ‘Commanders in Crisis,’ ‘American Flagg!’ and more”Check out recent news and announcements from DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse and more.
Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently. Hit the links for more information.
Following the end of the Joker War storyline, DC’s current Batgirl series will wrap up with its extra-sized 50th issue this Tuesday. DC has revealed that this issue will also see the debut of Ryan Wilder, the character taking over the Batwoman mantle on The CW’s Batwoman TV show.
Will this new character also take over as Batwoman in the comics? I guess we’ll find out. You can see a preview of that issue here.
Continue reading “Mail Call | New ‘Avatar,’ ‘Abbott’ and a ‘Batgirl’ debut”‘Dead End Kids: The Suburban Job’ explores the lives of the kids from the first series post-9/11.
Frank Gogol and Nenad Cviticanin will team up once again for Dead End Kids: The Suburban Job, a sequel to the previous Dead End Kids series about teens who searched for the killer of one of their friends in the late 1990s. This new series follows the kids into the 2000s as they deal with their trauma following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York.
“At first, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to write more Dead End Kids, but with the success of the first book, I started to wonder if there was more to say,” said Frank Gogol. “I decided to go back to the core concept of the original series — childhood trauma and how it affects us as we get older — and I kept coming back to this idea of September 11th.”
Continue reading “‘Dead End Kids’ returns from Gogol + Cviticanin in January”The prequel to ‘Blade Runner’ will kick off in February.
Titan Comics will take a look back at the creation of the Blade Runner division from the popular film franchise in a new series called Blade Runner Origins.
The creator team for the series will be Mike Johnson, co-writer of Titan’s Blade Runner 2019; K. Perkins of Batwoman, Wonder Woman and Supergirl fame; and screenwriter Mellow Brown (American Gods).
Continue reading “Titan Comics announces ‘Blade Runner Origins’”Annual awards ceremony recognizes ‘the creativity, skill and fun of comics.’
The winners for the 2020 Ringo Awards were announced today, marking the fourth year for the awards program named for artist Mike Wieringo, who passed away in 2007.
The awards were presented virtually as part of the Baltimore Comic Con‘s online programming, and started with an introduction and keynote from Kevin Smith and Geoff Johns. It was also live, which led to some logistical/technical issues as they tried to “cut over” to winners for their acceptance speeches.
Here are the winners, in the order they were presented during the ceremony. They include the “fan favorite” awards, which have a different process than the rest of the awards. You can find more details on the process here.
Continue reading “Ringo Awards winners announced”Check out crowdfunding campaigns featuring John Stanisci, Emma Kubert, Kyle Higgins, Lance Briggs, Danilo Beyruth, Liana Kangas, Scott Bryan Wilson, Ross Radke and more.
Crowdfunding continues to serve as a viable method for creators to fund their creative endeavors, as comic-related projects flourish on sites like Kickstarter, Patreon and IndieGoGo. The internet also allows creators to sell their creations direct to fans, through sites like Gumroad, Big Cartel and of course their own websites. If you’re looking to buy something from or support a creator directly, you’ve come to the right place. And that’s a good thing to do, now more than ever.
Send any suggestions of your own to jkparkin@yahoo.com.
Continue reading “Fund Me Friday | ‘The Trap,’ ‘Foundlings’ and Christmas with Karl Kesel”The one-shot arrives in January.
Following the Immortal Hulk: The Threshing Place one-shot earlier this month from Jeff Lemire and Mike Del Mundo, Marvel has announced another one-shot featuring the character, this time written and drawn by Declan Shalvey (Bog Bodies, Moon Knight).
“What Al Ewing and Joe Bennett have accomplished with Immortal Hulk is astounding. I love how the book has given the character a new twist that has expanded what can be done with (and said about the) character,” Shalvey told Marvel.com. “To get to play in this particular sandbox with this one-shot is such a thrill, it’s a great challenge as a storyteller, to add to this new mythology as both a writer and artist. Big, Hulk-sized boots to fill, I hope it lives up to the great work already accomplished by the Immortal Hulk team.”
Continue reading “Declan Shalvey pits Immortal Hulk against a new villain in ‘Flatline’”The writer and instructor discusses the new ‘Legacy of Mandrake the Magician,’ her work at The Kubert School and more.
Mandrake the Magician was one of the great classic adventure strips. Created by Lee Falk, who also created The Phantom, the strip ran from 1934 until 2013 and told of a stage magician and hypnotist who also traveled the world fighting criminals and occasionally supernatural forces.
The comic strip ended in 2013, but now has a new life in comic books in the new series Legacy of Mandrake the Magician. The new series from Red 5 Comics and StoneBot Comics launches next week; it’s about a young teenager named Mandy who’s trying to figure out her own talents and her own relationship to the original Mandrake.
The writer behind the comic is Erica Schultz, who readers might know from her work on comics like Forgotten Home, M3, Xena and Charmed. She’s also an instructor at The Kubert School and was kind enough to answer a few questions about what’s essential about the character, what elements needed updating and why Mandy has a secret identity.
Continue reading “Smash Pages Q&A: Erica Schultz”The middle grade graphic novel will be published by Dark Horse.
Eric Grissom and Will Perkins, the creators of Gregory Suicide, will team up once again for a new middle grade graphic novel, Goblin.
The story’s about a goblin named Rikt who embarks on a journey of loss, self-discovery and sacrifice. Dark Horse will publish it next summer.
“Time and time again, from folklore to video games, goblins have been seen as an enemy to be overcome, a monster a ‘hero must defeat,” said Grissom. “With Goblin, I wanted to tell a story that flipped that idea. Not every monster is a villain, and not every person that looks like a hero acts like one. We set out to make the world of Goblin a wonderful, mysterious place, and I can’t wait for readers to get lost within it.”
Continue reading “‘Goblin’ coming from Grissom + Perkins next year”Peter David and Javier Pina tell more stories of the Hulk’s evil, future self.
Peter David will once again dive into the futuristic dystopia created by the Hulk in Maestro: War & Pax. This time he’s joined by artist Javier Pina to tell the story of the Hulk’s futuristic, evil alter-ego, who was introduced in the landmark Future Imperfect miniseries.
“I am thrilled that, 20 years after I created him, the Maestro still intrigues people so much that the first series garnered the sort of success that demanded a follow-up,” David told Marvel.com. “As long as folks want to keep reading about him, I’m happy to keep giving them stories.”
Continue reading “Maestro returns in January for another miniseries”Image Comics will still release collected editions of the comic.
Michel Fiffe will once again self-publish his popular Copra series, starting with issues #38 and #39. Both are available for pre-order via his Etsy shop.
After self-publishing Copra for 31 issues, Fiffe moved the comic to Image Comics last year. The publisher released collections of all the previous issues, as well as six single issues, which were re-numbered. Fiffe is picking up with the previous numbering with the new issues.
“Snapping back into legacy numbering. Original paper stock was called in. Copra Press has reopened its doors,” Fiffe said on Twitter. He also noted that digital editions will be released around the time the physical issues become available.
Continue reading “Michel Fiffe returns to self-publishing ‘Copra’”Lesniewski will write and draw the horror/science fiction graphic novel.
Following the news that Matt Lesniewski will work with writer Matt Kindt on the miniseries Crimson Flower, Dark Horse has announced plans to publish an original graphic novel from Lesniewski title Static.
The Eisner-nominated creator of The Freak will write and draw the OGN, with Carlos Badilla providing colors.
“Before ever writing or drawing a thing, I had been thinking about the idea for this story for several years,” Lesniewski said. “It went through many different iterations, but the core idea never went away: a character who one day realized their life had passed them by, leaving them ‘stuck’ in place all this time with no idea how to break from the cycle they’ve been in all these years. Hence, the title Static. Ironically, this story would sometimes leave my mind, but it always came back, never really going anywhere.”
Continue reading “Dark Horse to publish Lesniewski’s ‘Static’ in 2021”
