‘Star’ will shine in her own miniseries

The character’s co-creator, Kelly Thompson, will write the miniseries that spins out of ‘Captain Marvel.’

After debuting in the pages of Captain Marvel earlier this year, Marvel has announced that the new hero Star will receive her own miniseries, courtesy of her co-creator, Kelly Thompson.

“With some really exceptional standouts like the creation of Miles Morales and Kamala Khan, it’s pretty hard to get traction on a new character in modern comics, so the excitement surrounding Star has been really fun to watch,” Thompson told Marvel.com.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Fred van Lente

The veteran comics creator talks about his latest novel, “The Con Artist,” his current comics projects and more.

Fred van Lente is the comics writer best known to some of us for the series Action Philosophers!, Action Presidents and the Comic Book History of Comics. He’s also spent years writing a wide variety of books for Valiant, Marvel and Dark Horse including Archer and Armstrong, Brain Boy, Conan, Marvel Zombies, Super-Villain Team-Up: MODOK’s 11 and his current project, the Valiant series Psi-Lords.

Van Lente also has a busy career outside of comics. He’s a playwright, perhaps best known to comics fans for King Kirby, which he wrote with his wife the writer Crystal Skillman. He’s also a novelist with two crime novels under his belt, Ten Dead Comedians and The Con Artist.

The Con Artist came out last year and features a comics creator at the San Diego Comic Con who gets drawn into an elaborate web of murder and corruption in the comics industry. It manages to be both laugh out loud funny and incredibly inventive, making a book that is very much about comics and industry, but also telling a story that is firmly in the noir tradition of corruption, betrayal and violence that leads back to original sins.

Convention season is mostly over, but I asked Van Lente if he would be up for a few questions about the book and his work.

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‘Deities, demons and danger’ inhabit ‘Hidden Society’

Rafael Albuquerque and Rafael Scavone team up on a new miniseries coming from Dark Horse in February.

Dark Horse has announced a new miniseries by Rafael Albuquerque and Rafael Scavone. Hidden Society will explore “a world alongside our own full of deities, demons, and danger—where magic wins out over science and dark secrets lie in wait.”

Albuquerque and Scavone previously worked together on A Study in Emerald, an adaptation of the Neil Gaiman short story, as well as a “Red Rain” Batmna story for this year’s DC Halloween anthology.

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‘Quantum & Woody’ returns by Hastings and Browne

Valiant brings back the popular duo in January.

Valiant Entertainment has announced the return of one of their most popular titles, Quantum & Woody.

The duo — and the goat, of course — will return in January from Christopher Hastings, Ryan Browne, Ruth Redmond, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou and editor Heather Antos.

“They hunt a serial kidnapper, they clash with a brain monster, they stop government assassinations, they go undercover at a haunted high school, they take on a new mentor, and perhaps most excitingly… they get some new powers,” Hastings said about the new title.

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Third ‘Spencer & Locke’ series in the works

“His partner was imaginary… but the reckoning is all real.”

David Pepose and Jorge Santiago Jr.’s ‘Spencer & Locke’ will return for a third series … sometime.

The duo and their publisher, Action Lab, have released a teaser image for a new series. No release date has been announced, but it does have a tagline: “His partner was imaginary… but the reckoning is all real.”

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Bring your jukebox money: The B-52s meet Archie next year

Alex Segura, Matthew Rosenberg and Dan Parents bring the new wave band to Riverdale.

Alex Segura, Matthew Rosenberg and Dan Parent are bringing together The Archies and new wave band the B-52s in a new one-shot next year.

Archie Meets the B-52s sees the creators of such songs as “Roam,” “Love Shack” and “Rock Lobster” heading to Riverdale for some quirky fun.

“I’m so excited to not only revisit Archie’s legendary run of off-the-wall, awesome music crossovers, but to do it with my original partner in crime, Archie legend, Dan Parent,” said co-writer and Archie Comics Co-President Alex Segura. “The B-52s are a seminal, quirky, and groundbreaking group, and I feel so lucky to have the chance to make a little rock and roll history with them and Riverdale’s own, The Archies. Expect a lot of bonkers fun, eye-popping art, and a lot of new wave-y adventure.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: Rebeckah Murray and Jill Hackett

The creators of ‘Magical Boy Basil’ discuss their creative process, going from a webcomic to print and much more.

Rebeckah Murray and Jill Hackett are longtime friends and the creative team behind the comic Magical Boy Basil. A weekly queer webcomic about undercover teenage magicians who fight monsters, it represents the duo playing with the magical girl genre, making it about a boy and playing with a lot of the tropes and ideas found in work like Cardcaptor Sakura.

In addition to coming out weekly online, they’ve been publishing each chapter in print editions. The fourth chapter came out this summer, and I spoke with the two about how they met, the way they make the comic and how life can get in the way.

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‘Blackwood’ is back in session in February

Evan Dorkin, Veronica Fish and Andy Fish reunite for ‘Blackwood: The Mourning After.’

A new semester at the creepiest college around begins this winter, as Evan Dorkin, Veronica Fish and Andy Fish reunite for Blackwood: The Mourning After.

“I’m very happy to be able to return to the halls of Blackwood. I enjoy writing these characters and putting them through hell, and I love seeing how Veronica and Andy bring it all to life. Especially the dead things,” Dorkin said in the press release.

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Harvey Awards announce 7 for their 2019 Hall of Fame class

Mike Mignola, Alison Bechdel, Will Elder, Jack Davis, John Severin, Marie Severin and Ben Oda make up the largest class ever for the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame.

The Harvey Awards have announced seven inductees into their Hall of Fame for this year, including Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, Fun Home creator Alison Bechdel and five of Harvey Kurtzman’s core 1950s MAD collaborators. This is the largest of all Hall of Fame induction classes in the 31-year history of the Harvey Awards.

“My very first comic industry award was the 1994 Harvey Award for Best Artist on Hellboy. I never expected that award, but I took it as a sign that I might actually be on to something,” Mignola said. “It is a great honor to be inducted into the Harvey Awards Hall of Fame—something I certainly never could have imagined. And I’ll take it as proof that I haven’t embarrassed myself too badly over the last 25 years.”

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Worlds collide in comiXology’s ‘Forgotten Home’

‘At its heart, Forgotten Home is a story about family with problems, misunderstandings and imperfections, all of which play out in a fantastical and unexpected setting.’

This October will bring another new series from the comiXology Originals line — Forgotten Home, an eight-issue urban fantasy series “full of magic, mystery and family secrets.”

The digital comic providers’ latest is written by Erica Schultz, with art by Marika Cresta, colors by Matt Emmons and Jackie Von Spanks, letters by Cardinal Rae and covers by Natasha Alterici.

“I’ve had a fabulous time creating a magical world that the audience will believe truly exists,” Schultz said. “Yissel Ayala, a fashion designer for several comic books, was kind enough to take on the task of creating the initial designs for the Jannadan royal outfits. Her style is impeccable, and, coupled with Marika Cresta’s line art, this book is just gorgeous.”

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Dark Horse announces ‘Dragon Age: The Blue Wraith’

Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir and Fernando Heinz Furukawa reunite for a new miniseries by Bioware and Dark Horse.

In the lead up to the New York Comic Con, Dark Horse has announced a new Dragon Age miniseries, spinning out of the popular Bioware video game franchise. While this story takes place after Dragon Age: Inquisition, it actually focuses on a character from the second Dragon Age game — Fenris, the broody, elven former slave turned mage hunter. He’s the “Blue Wraith” noted in the miniseries’ title.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Evan Dorkin

The writer and co-creator of ‘Beasts of Burden’ discusses his long career in comics, his collaborations, ‘Blackwood’ and much more.

Evan Dorkin seems to have many careers. For many comics readers, he’s the writer and artist behind Dork, Milk and Cheese and The Elitingville Club. He wrote and drew Bill and Ted’s Excellent Comic Book series for Marvel back in 1991-92, which has since been reprinted. He’s contributed to MAD Magazine and other outlets. In television, he’s worked extensively with his wife, the noted creator Sarah Dyer, on shows like Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Superman: The Animated Series and others.

He is also the writer and co-creator of the award winning comic series Beasts of Burden. Dorkin’s approach to horror and suspense and his skill at writing animal protagonists — combined with the painted artwork of initially Jill Thompson and later Benjamin Dewey — have made the books a favorite among readers and critics. Beasts of Burden: Neighborhood Watch was just released by Dark Horse, which collects a lot of the one-shots and other stories featuring the supernatural-battling pets, including a crossover with Hellboy co-written by Mike Mignola.

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