Gaiman + Dark Horse double down with ‘A Study in Emerald,’ more ‘American Gods’

Rafael Albuquerque, Rafael Scavone and Dave Stewart will turn Gaiman’s Sherlock Holmes/H.P. Lovecraft story in a graphic novel, as P. Craig Russell and Scott Hampton return for more ‘American Gods.’

Dark Horse Comics has been turning Neil Gaiman’s short stories and novels into comics over the past few years, and in the lead up to New York Comic-Con, they’ve announced two new projects with the writer of Good Omens and American Gods.

This week brings word that Rafael Albuquerque, Rafael Scavone and Dave Stewart will adapt Gaiman’s “A Study in Emerald,” a supernatural mystery set in the world of Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu. Per the release, “The heart-pounding tale features the brilliant detective and his faithful partner as they attempt to solve a horrific murder of cosmic proportions. The complex investigation takes the Baker Street investigators from the slums of Whitechapel all the way to the Queen’s Palace.”

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comiXology, Marvel announce ‘Black Panther: Long Live The King’

Novelist Nnedi Okorafor and artist Andre Araujo team up for a new miniseries from the comiXology Originals line.

comiXology and Marvel have announced another miniseries as part of the comiXology Originals line — Black Panther: Long Live The King, a six-issue bi-weekly series written by Nnedi Okorafor and with art by Andre Araujo.

Black Panther follows two comiXology Originals/Marvel joints — Immortal Iron Fists (which my kid loves; we hope Pei is going to be ok!) by Kaare Andrews and Afu Chan, and Thor vs. Hulk: Champions of the Universe by Jeremy Whitley and Simone Buonfantino. Both series can bought off comiXology and are available to comiXology Unlimited subscribers.

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Valiant unleashes ‘Harbinger Wars 2’ on two fronts next May

Each issue will feature two stories for the standard $3.99 price.

Valiant is following up their 2013 Harbinger Wars event series with the aptly named Harbinger Wars 2 — which will actually feature two complete stories in each issue detailing two different “fronts” in the war.

Each 44+ page issue will feature two complete, full-length 22-page stories “chronicling dueling fronts in the nationwide battle that will soon consume the Valiant Universe’s most powerful forces,” according to Valiant. Matt Kindt and Tomás Giorello will chronicle “the head-on collision of the Harbinger Renegades and the newly returned X-O Manowar,” while Eric Heisserer, Raúl Allen and Patricia Martín of Secret Weapons fame “will thrust Livewire and her new team of recruits into the center of a power struggle with the potential to tear America apart.” Each issue will cost $3.99 — so essentially you’re getting two comics for the price of one.

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First Second to publish Walden’s ‘On a Sunbeam’

Eisner Award-nominated comic comes to print in 2018.

Tillie Walden’s Spinning, released last month, has been racking up good reviews lately, so it’s no surprise that First Second would want to publish more of her work. And lucky for them Walden already has a completed story ready to go — her excellent “On a Sunbeam” webcomic.

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Shawn McManus looks to Kickstart zombie baseball cards

The former ‘Sandman’ and “Fables’ artist seeks to crowdfund ‘Horror at Home Plate: League of Zombies,’ a 24-card set of zombified baseball players.

Shawn McManus’ comics work runs the gambit from Heavy Metal to Saga of the Swamp Thing to Dr. Fate to Sandman and many other titles, but now he’s turned his pen to something different — baseball cards. McManus is using Kickstarter to fund a set titled “Horror at Home Plate: League of Zombies” — so there’s a bit of a supernatural twist to them.

“This project started when I decided to paint a zombie baseball player just for fun between projects,” McManus said on the Kickstarter page. “I liked the retro look of it so I did another. Followed by one more, and then one after that. Before I knew it I had 24 of them done. I can’t tell you how much fun these were to do. I showed them to some fellow artists at lunch one day and someone suggested that I should do a Kickstarter campaign card set. So here we are. This seems to be a great way to share these cards with more than just family and a few friends.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: Étienne Davodeau on ‘The Cross-Eyed Mutt’

The French creator discusses his latest graphic novel from NBM, a very serious comedy about a security guard at the Louvre.

Étienne Davodeau’s graphic novel The Cross-Eyed Mutt, recently published in a translated version from NBM, has a hilarious premise. Fabien is a security guard at the Louvre and when he meets his girlfriend’s family, they tell him that they have a painting from their ancestor. “Would our ancestor’s painting have a spot in the Louvre or is it an insignificant piece of crap?”

The book is the latest in a series of graphic novels published with the Louvre, and Davodeau uses the situation as a chance to tell a story that, like his Lulu Anew and The Initiates, manages to both poke fun at eccentrics and deeply honor unusual ways of looking at the world – sometimes simultaneously. It is a book that is profound and joyful and very funny about what we love about art and museums, about what we remember, how we see ourselves, and in the end, how we live our lives.

The Cross-Eyed Mutt is in short, a very serious comedy, and it is one of the year’s best books. Thanks to Terry Nantier and Stefan Blitz at NBM, I had a chance to speak with Davodeau about spending time in the Musée du Louvre, his own thoughts on art, and whether we might be able to get my great-uncle’s work into the museum.

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Marvel announces ‘Old Man Hawkeye’

Ethan Sacks and Marco Checchetto revisit the world of “Old Man Logan” with a prequel story about Wolverine’s road trip buddy.

The New York Daily News reports that one of their own, Ethan Sacks, is writing a 12-issue Old Man Hawkeye series for Marvel. This prequel to the Old Man Logan series will be drawn by Marco Checchetto.

“In this story, [Hawkeye is] losing his vision and that sort of forces him to confront something really horrible that happened to him personally 45 years ago, and go on his own hero’s journey while he still can,” Sacks told the Daily News. “It’s very much like a ticking clock that’s forcing him into action.”

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Comics Lowdown: Indian cartoonist Mohan Tadi has passed away

Plus: Seth Mann, Bianca Xunise, Mimi Pond, Noah Van Sciver, Peter Bagge and more.

Passings: Indian cartoonist Mohan Tadi, described by one admirer as “a humanist cartoonist” and another as “the first cartoonist to introduce European satire to telugu journalism” has died at the age of 67. (Telugu is an Indian language.) Born in Andra Pradesh in 1951, Mohan studied at Andhra University and began his career in 1970 as a sub-editor at the Vishalandra Telugu, a daily newspaper. He worked for several newspapers and as an independent journalist as well as a cartoonist; he was also the head of animation for Sakshi News.

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‘Monstress’ scares up a British Fantasy Award

Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s fantasy comic takes home another award this year, beating out fellow nominees ‘Saga,’ ‘2000AD’ and more.

Monstress took home another award this weekend, winning a British Fantasy Award for “Best Comic/Graphic Novel.”

Written by Marjorie Liu, drawn by Sana Takeda and published by Image Comics, Monstress took home a Hugo Award earlier this year. Other nominees in the category included Saga, 2000AD, Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!, Sixpack and Dogwelder: Hard Travelin’ Heroz, and the webcomic Skal.

The nominees for the British Fantasy Awards were decided by members of The British Fantasy Society, with additional nominees added by the award’s jury to ensure “egregious omissions” made the list. Winners were announced at FantasyCon 2017.

‘Plain Janes’ returns in 2019

The former Minx title finds new life in a collection coming from Little, Brown.

Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg still have one more P.L.A.I.N. Janes story to tell, and it looks like it’ll come out in 2019.

According to Publisher’s Weekly, Little, Brown has acquired the rights to Plain Janes, a pair of graphic novels originally published as part of the Minx line by DC Comics. Little, Brown will collect the first two Janes stories and an all-new third story into one volume.

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‘Black Hammer’ returns in 2018

‘Black Hammer: Age of Doom’ by Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston picks up after the cliffhanger from ‘Black Hammer’ #13.

Golden Gail, Abraham Slam, Barbalien and the rest of the displaced comic characters from Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston’s excellent Black Hammer comics series will return next year in a new series, Black Hammer: Age of Doom.

“One thing Black Hammer has always done is comment on the history of superhero comics and we live in a world where superhero universes seem to be rebooted, relaunched, and rebirthed every year,” Lemire said in a press release. “It felt like we needed to play around with that idea, but put a Black Hammer spin on it. So, starting in April, Dean, Dave Stewart, Todd Klein, and I will continue the story and the mystery of Black Hammer farm in Black Hammer: Age of Doom! It’s a new series, but everything you love will stay intact and we’ll deliver the next chapter in the story of Golden Gail, Abraham Slam, Barbalien and the rest of the gang.”

The previous series ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, which Ormston said they plan to pick up on in Age of Doom.

“Black Hammer ends with a major, game-changing revelation,” Ormston said. “Readers are super keen to find out how our heroes are stuck on the farm and more answers, twists, and turns are coming in Black Hammer: Age of Doom.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: Janice Macleod on ‘A Paris Year’

The author and painter discusses her ‘comics-adjacent’ books on the City of Lights.

Janice Macleod doesn’t make comics, but her Paris Letters are clearly comics-adjacent. For years she’s been painting images of Paris and elsewhere and combining it with text, a story or her own observations about the place or events. She detailed the story behind how she ended up in Paris, crafting these letters and selling them through etsy in her bestselling book Paris Letters. The book is essentially a how-to guide for leaving your job and becoming a flâneur in Paris, a description she enjoyed.

Her new book is A Paris Year, which is an artist’s book, a datebook-like volume of drawings, photographs and stories about the city.

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