Goth Jumanji: Gillen + Hans team for new series ‘Die’

Fantasy gets real this December from Image Comics.

Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, who previously worked together on Marvel’s Journey into Mystery, are rolling the dice on a new comic this December called “Die.” Clayton Clowes will letter the project.

“Stephanie and I have been wanting to work together forever – Journey Into Mystery 645 is one of my favourite things I’ve ever done, and this comes straight from there,” Gillen said in his weekly email newsletter. “The Earth needs a fantasy world created by Stephanie Hans, and I had to enable it.”

The story revolves around a group of teens who regularly play tabletop role-playing games. One night they mysteriously disappear, only to reappear two years later. Actually, forget my explanation — you can read this for yourself on this lovely, handy teaser the team put together:

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Smash Pages Q&A: Jordan Ellis on ‘The Sartorial Geek’

The founder of the clothing line Jordandené discusses the crowdfunding campaign for the quarterly “geeky lifestyle magazine.”

Jordan Ellis is the founder of the clothing line Jordandené, a geeky chic clothing line that’s handmade and sweat-shop free. Based in Brooklyn, the company has had a presence at shows across the country, and this year they launched The Sartorial Geek, a quarterly magazine that Ellis co-edits.

With articles that range from Sally Bowles to gatekeeping, Jane Eyre to cosplay to conversations with artists and designers, the magazine doesn’t read like anything else out there right now. Currently they’re running a Kickstarter before sending the third issue out. I reached out to Ellis to ask why anyone would launch a print magazine in this environment and trying to do something no one else is doing.

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AdHouse celebrates 10 years of ‘Skyscrapers of the Midwest’

New limited-edition comic and slipcase edition highlight the publisher’s plans to celebrate.

Joshua W. Cotter‘s debut comic, Skyscrapers of the Midwest, came out 10 years ago from AdHouse Books, and to celebrate the publisher is releasing a new Cotter comic, Skyscrapers Inc., and a limited slipcase edition of the original series.

“It seems like only yesteryear when a youngish publisher was walking the floor of the MoCCA Festival (when it was COOL and at the PUCK, you kids!) when he happened upon one of those skinny, unkept cartoonist types standing in line,” AdHouse publisher Chris Pitzer said on the company’s blog. “It wasn’t so much the cartoonist that caught his eye, but the comic that he held in his hands. You see, he had just heard tell of this comic winning the first ever Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics. The publisher then approached this cartoonist, and even though a table wasn’t between them, he offered to buy said Mini-Comic. Was it bought, or was it given? Only time and possibly the cartoonist knows!”

Since then Cotter has gone on to create Driven by Lemons, Nod Away and other works, but Skyscrapers still stands as a strong look at childhood by an artist with a unique style and voice.

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D + Q to publish Rumi Hara’s ‘Nori’

The Ignatz Award-nominated story about a girl and her grandmother gets the graphic novel treatment in 2020.

Drawn and Quarterly has announced plans to publish Nori, the the debut graphic novel from Rumi Hara, in the spring of 2020.

“Nori is quietly enchanting, drawing you into the adventures of this little girl,” Drawn & Quarterly Publisher and acquiring editor Peggy Burns said. “At times it’s surreal and haunting yet simultaneously a light-hearted depiction of childhood and friendship. Rumi’s draftsmanship is gorgeous and she draws in many folkloric elements in the standalone stories.”

Nori’s story began in a series of minicomics. “It started as a minicomic first printed in 2016 about a little girl and her grandma’s encounter with an army of bats,” Hara said on her website. “I couldn’t stop thinking about this little sassy girl, and now there are 3 minicomics completed in the series.”

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Jim Zub, Stuart Immonen and more win 2018 Joe Shuster Awards

Annual awards recognize outstanding achievement in the creation of comic books, graphic novels and webcomics by Canadians.

The Joe Shuster Awards — Canada’s national award that honors and raises the awareness of Canadians that create, self-publish and sell comic books, digital comics and graphic novels — have announced their winners for 2018, which include Jim Zub, Jeff Lemire, Stuart Immonen and more.

Established in 2004, The Joe Shuster Awards are Canada’s national award recognizing outstanding achievement in the creation of comic books, graphic novels and webcomics. Named in honor of Superman co-creator Joe Shuster, the awards recognize the best of the Canadian comics world; nominees must be either Canadian citizens or permanent residents in Canada. The winners were chosen by a jury.

Winners are below. You can see the complete list of nominees here.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Mike Norton on ‘Lil’ Donnie’

The wonderfully multitalented artist discusses his work on his political satire webcomic, the first collection of which was just released by Image Comics.

Mike Norton has been working in comics for years. He’s drawn books in a wide range of genres including The Waiting Place, Jason and the Argobots, Gravity, It Girl! and the Atomics, and Revival. He drew a fill in on Astro City, in addition to Queen and Country, The Adventures of Archer and Armstrong, and many other comics. Norton has also been writing and drawing various projects like the webcomic Battlepug, and comics like The Answer and The Curse. He’s drawing the new miniseries Grumble, which starts this November.

Norton is currently working on a couple comics series, but he’s also been making a comic strip, Lil’ Donnie. A mocking satire of the Trump administration, Norton admitted that he’s an unlikely political cartoonist. The strip was initially a webcomic and is also available on gocomics. Now Image Comics has just released a collection of the strip, Lil’ Donnie: Executive Privilege and I asked Norton about the strip and how he works.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Dylan Meconis, Ben Coleman and EA Denich’s ‘The Long Con’

The creators of the “comic convention gone horribly wrong” series from Oni Press discuss the series, their own convention experiences and more.

The new Oni Comics series The Long Con is set “Five Years and One Apocalypse” in the future. At the center of the quarantine zone, the Los Spinoza Event Center, where a comic con was in full swing when disaster struck. Victor Lai was a third-rate journalist before the disaster and one of the last people to leave the convention hall before the disaster. Now he’s been convinced to return and finds that everyone inside the convention hall survived – and the convention never stopped.

Meconis is well known to readers for her comics Bite Me!, Outfoxed, and the ongoing webcomic Family Man. She’s currently finishing Queen of the Sea, a middle grade graphic novel coming out next year. Coleman is a journalist and a critic at the Portland Mercury, who has also written for the great radio show Live Wire. Artist EA Denich is know by comics readers for having drawn Yes, Roya, the acclaimed and beloved erotic graphic novel written by Spike Trotman, which was published last year. She’s contributed to various anthologies and comics including Oh Joy, Sex Toy, Rick and Morty, and has a story in the upcoming Smut Peddler Presents Sex Machine anthology, whose Kickstarter recently ended. I spoke to them about the series and Oni provided a look at issue #2, which is out Sept. 5.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Bill Schelly’s ‘Sense of Wonder’

The writer and biographer discusses his latest book, which details his youth as a comic fan in the 1960s and beyond.

Bill Schelly is one of the great writers about comics. Currently the Associate Editor of Alter Ego, he’s written biographies of Harvey Kurtzman, Joe Kubert, Otto Binder and others in addition to writing and editing a number of art books and anthologies. Among his many awards are an Eisner Award and an Inkpot Award. Besides being one of the very best biographers who has taken on cartoonists and comics as a subject, Schelly is also one of the great writers about fandom in books like The Golden Age of Comic Fandom and Founders of Comic Fandom.

This year saw the publication of Sense of Wonder: My Life in Comic Fandom–The Whole Story. Schelly had originally published an earlier version of the book, where he wrote about his youth in comics fandom. For this new edition he rewrite the original book and expanded it to nearly twice the length. Schelly has been involved since the 1960s, editing and contributing to various fanzines as a writer and artist. One aspect of this new edition of Sense of Wonder is Schelly talking openly about growing up gay in the 1960s and finding a place in fandom. He also talks about more recent decades, how he got back into reading comics, finding a creative outlet, and other aspects of his life, including the death of his son. I’ve read and admired Schelly for many years, though we’ve never met and I asked if we could talk about his new book.

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DC Universe app debuts Sept. 15

New streaming service, which includes access to comics, TV shows and more, rolls out on Batman Day.

DC’s upcoming streaming/comics service, DC Universe, will launch on Sept. 15 — “Batman Day,” appropriately enough. As previously announced, the service will cost $7.99 a month and will include comics, in an “all you can eat” subscription model similar to Marvel Unlimited and comiXology Unlimited.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Nate Powell on ‘Come Again’

Following his work on the ‘March’ trilogy, the National Book Award recipient discusses his most recent graphic novel, punk rock, politics, his influences and more.

Nate Powell is the only cartoonist to receive the National Book Award. In recent years he’s been busy drawing the March trilogy, and continues to educate and  talk about the book series, the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement and John Lewis. Of course Powell had a long career in comics before March, beginning with self-published zines before moving onto a series of Eisner and Ignatz Award winning graphic novels including Swallow Me Whole, Tiny Giants and Any Empire.

Powell’s new book, his first solo graphic novel in many years, is Come Again. A story set at the end of the 1970’s, it’s about a commune that is fracturing, it’s about secrets, it’s about parents and children. At the heart of the book is a supernatural force, but as in the work of Ray Bradbury and others, the force isn’t a metaphor, but it plays a key but muted role in the story, preying on people in a way that is familiar and terrifying. Powell and I have been talking for years – since before he became famous, and we talked about this new book of his, punk and politics, trying to balance personal work like this with collaboration, and the political work – artistic and otherwise – that he’s come to see as so vital.

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Small Press Expo announces the 2018 Ignatz Award nominees

The Ignatz Awards celebrates outstanding achievement in independent comics and cartooning.

The Small Press Expo (SPX), celebrates the outstanding achievements of independent comics, graphic novels and alternative political cartoons with the annual Ignatz Awards. The Ignatz Awards have been handed out since 1997 and this year will be presented at the gala Ignatz Awards ceremony held on Saturday, September 15.

Ignatz image by 2017 Promising New Talent winner Bianca Xunise.

The nominees for the ballot were determined by a panel of five of the best of today’s comic artists, Mita Mahato, Carolyn Nowak, kevin czap, Leila Abdelrazaq, and Taneka Stotts.

The votes for the awards will be cast by the attendees during SPX, which takes place in Bethesda, Maryland on September 15-16.

The Ignatz, named after George Herriman’s brick-wielding mouse from his long running comic strip Krazy Kat, recognizes exceptional work that challenges popular notions of what comics can achieve, both as an art form and as a means of personal expression.

And the nominees are:

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Comics Lowdown: Russ Heath, Yim Yee-King pass away

Plus: Jerusalem cartoonist fired over drawing of Prime Minister Benjamin Nettanyahu, comics at Walmart, Thi Bui and more!

Passings: Eisner Hall of Fame artist Russ Heath passed away last week after battling cancer, his grandson, Lee Kosa, reported on Twitter. “His mastery of the craft of illustration encouraged me to pursue the arts and it is a joy to see my son now filling his own sketchbooks. Thank you for passing along the joys of drawing and storytelling,” Kosa wrote.

In the late 1940s, Heath began his career at Timely Comics, which eventually became Marvel Comics. While there, he drew many of their Western titles like Two-Gun Kid and Kid Colt. Later his work expanded to include their superhero titles, as well as war comics for EC Comics and DC Comics, where he co-created The Haunted Tank and worked on Sea Devils, G.I. Combat and Our Army at War, among other titles. He also worked on the “Little Annie Fanny” strip that appeared in Playboy, even moving into the Playboy Mansion in Chicago for a time while working on it. Later he’d move into animation, where he worked on G.I. Joe, Godzilla and “Pryde of the X-Men.” Heath was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2009 and received the National Cartoonists Society’s Milton Caniff Award in 2014. He was 91 when he died.

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