Steve Niles, Marcelo Frusin take over ‘Kick-Ass’ with issue #7

After a decade of kicking ass, Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. hand over the reigns to their creator-owned title.

Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. returned to the world of Kick-Ass this year with a new title and a new character under the mask. And now, with issue #7 of the series, the duo will bring in a new creative team — Steve Niles and Marcelo Frusin.

“When we sold Millarworld to Netflix, the one and only downside was not being able to write more Kick-Ass with my new executive role, and so I did the next best thing—I got my favorite writer to continue Patience Lee’s adventures,” said Millar. “Steve Niles is without question my favorite writer in comics, and I rank 30 Days of Night as my favorite graphic novel of the last 20 years. I’m honored he’s taken the time to do this and slightly in awe that, like Jeff Lemire on Hit-Girl, he’s already outclassed me on this book. I finally get to enjoy Kick-Ass as a reader!”

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Smash Pages Q&A: Audrey Mok on ‘Archie’ and more

The ‘Heroine Chic’ artist discusses her work on ‘Josie and the Pussycats,’ the latest issue of ‘Archie,’ how she works and more.

Audrey Mok made a big impression when Josie and the Pussycats #1 came out in late 2016. Some of us knew her for her work on the comic Heroine Chic, but her work on Josie managed to straddle the original work of Dan DeCarlo and put her own spin on the characters and their designs. She found a way to visually balance the madcap humor with honest emotion, and find interesting ways to draw both battle scenes and concert scenes with equal ease.

Since Josie wrapped, Mok has been drawing Archie beginning with issue #23. Issue #31 of the series is out this week, and I asked Mok a few questions about her career and how she works.

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Comics Lowdown: Cartoonists entitled to freedom of expression in India

Parents fight to remove Alison Bechdel’s ‘Fun Home’ from school curriculum, Hope Larson’s ‘All Summer Long’ and more!

Legal: The high court in Madras, India, has ruled that political cartoonists are entitled to freedom of expression, stating that since it is their job to sway public opinion, often by making fun of public figures, they should not be vulnerable to lawsuits:

Upholding cartoonists’ unbridled freedom of expression, Justice Swaminathan stated that the “art of the cartoonist is often not reasoned or even-handed, but slashing and one-sided.”

He went on to quote extensively from US Supreme Court Justice William Rhenquist’s celebrated judgement in Hustler Magazine Inc v Falwell (1988): “The political cartoon is a weapon of attack, of scorn, ridicule and satire; it is least effective when it tries to pat some politician on the back. It is usually welcome as a bee sting, and it is always controversial in some quarters.”

The judge and several other commentators made numerous references to American cartoons, including the New Yorker cover depicting Donald Trump naked.

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Waid, Augustyn, Krause send Archie to war in ‘Archie 1941’

This fall Archie and the gang prepare for World War II in a new miniseries.

Archie writer Mark Waid will team with two frequent collaborators for Archie 1941, a new alternate history miniseries that puts Riverdale on the road to World War II.

Waid is joined by co-writer Brian Augustyn, who he has worked with on the Flash, as well as Peter Krause, who drew the Waid-written Irredeemable and Insufferable. Archie 1941 — which, not coincidentally, so also the year Archie made his first appearance in Pep Comics #22 — finds Riverdale dealing with the impact of the impending conflict on the small town and in the personal lives of Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead and Reggie Mantle.

“Deep-diving into the characters and their parents from a whole new perspective, Brian Augustyn and I have been able to find a new, rich vein of stories to be told as America edges into World War II and what it’ll mean to the kids,” Waid said in a press release. “It’s been an exciting project made only more thrilling by the chance to be able to work alongside my longtime co-conspirator on Irredeemable and Insufferable, Peter Krause!”

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Faerber + Montenat team for ‘pilot’ issue of ‘Glacier City’ from Panel Syndicate

New series stars a cop with no back-up in a secluded Alaska town.

Jay Faerber (Copperhead, Noble Causes) and Michael Montenat (Dead Squad, The Fallen) have teamed up to produce a “pilot” issue of a new comic from Panel Syndicate — and if it’s well-received, they plan to do more.

Glacier City, which is available now on the Panel Syndicate website, tells the story of Police Chief Wes Cutter, the only law enforcement in a secluded Alaskan town “where everyone has a secret and his closest backup is hours away.”

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comiXology expands their ‘Originals’ line with creator-owned titles, print-on-demand

comiXology moves into print comics with an ‘experiment’ using Amazon’s print-on-demand capabilities.

comiXology Originals debuted in 2016 and have since published comics in conjunction with Marvel, BOOM! Studios, Valiant Entertainment and the estate of Harvey Kurtzman — and even earned an Eisner nomination. Now the Amazon-owned company is branching out to include creator-owned comics as part of the program.

The company announced four new titles that can be found on comiXology’s storefront, with the promise of more to come. Interestingly, comiXology is expanding beyond digital and will offer three of the four books through Amazon’s print-on-demand service — giving consumers the opportunity to buy comiXology material directly, rather than through a traditional comic book publisher.

The new comiXology Originals releases include: Savage Game created by NFL player Ryan Kalil, written by Shawn Kittelsen, and art by Chris B. Murray; Superfreaks from writers Elsa Charretier and Pierrick Colinet, with artist Margaux Saltel; Elephantmen 2261: The Death of Shorty from writer Richard Starkings, and artists Axel Medellin and Boo Cook; Ask For Mercy from writer Starkings and artist Abigail Jill Harding.

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The 2018 Joe Shuster Award Nominations

Awards celebrate excellence in the Canadian comic creators and publications.

The nominations for the 2018 Joe Shuster Awards have been announced this week.  Commonly nickednamed “The Shusters”, they are Canada’s national comic book awards that honours and raises the awareness of Canadians that create, self-publish and sell comic books, digital comics and graphic novels.

The award winners will be chosen by a jury vote to ensure every nominee is given adequate consideration.

The ceremony will take place at the Montreal Comic Con July 6-8, 2018 at the Palais des congrès, Montreal, QC.

And the nominees are:

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Comics Lowdown | Chinese authorities crack down on Rage Comics

Censorship: The Chinese government has banned rage comics (Baozou Manhua, or Baoman) channels from a number of online platforms, claiming violations of the recently enacted Law on the Protection of Heroes and Martyrs. In addition to the censorship, the article discusses how rage comics migrated from 4Chan to Chinese youth culture and why this is important: They are now a big-money business.

Besides the shutdown of the various social media channels, the closure of the baozoumanhua.com media empire is a huge blow to its fans and creators. The website’s founder Wang Nima’s net worth is estimated to be around 4 billion yuan (±US$628 million), according to Daily Economic News (每日经济新闻).

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‘Monstress,’ ‘My Favorite Thing is Monsters’ win NCS Divisional Awards

Glen Keane honored with the Reuben as 2017’s ‘Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year,’ while John Allison and Gemma Correll win in the webcomics categories.

My Favorite Thing is Monsters by Emil Ferris and Monstress by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda continued their winning streaks this weekend, as the National Cartoonists Society honored both with divisional awards. Ferris’ work won for “Best Graphic Novel” while Monstress won for “Best Comic Book.”

In addition, John Allison was honored for his work on Bad Machinery in the “Online Comics – Long Form” category, while Gemma Correll won in the “Online Comics – Short Form” category.

The Daily Cartoonist reports that Academy Award-winning animator and Disney Legend Glen Keane won the 2017 Reuben Award, presented to the NCS’s pick for “Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.”

The Reuben Awards ceremony took place Saturday at the National Cartoonists Society’s annual get-together in Philadelphia. The complete list of nominees, with the winners in bold, can be found below:

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Celebrating local comic creators is the best thing to do today

From Eisner winning heavyweight Fiona Staples to industry newbie H.C. Gislason, Panel One’s Comic Creator Festival spotlights local talent.

In the age of Hollywood-driven mega-cons, the Panel One Comic Creator Festival promises to bring the spotlight of comic conventions back to (gasp!) comics! Now in its third year, the Festival, which is held in Calgary, seems small and humble, but truly packs a punch for local creators, that feel lost and forgotten at the big shows. In its short life, the Panel One Comic Creator Festival has been renowned as “THE” place for creators to sell comics, some noting they have larger sales at this tiny festival as opposed to the 100,000 people attended monolith cons. This isn’t Artist Alley, so you won’t find fanart here, but this is the perfect market for the curious and the diehard comic fan to discover and buy new comic books.

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‘Me the People’ collects Pia Guerra’s political cartoons

Politically charged hardcover arrives in October from Image Comics.

Pia Guerra‘s recent editorial cartoons have been spot on, and just in time for the midterm elections, they’re getting collected by Image Comics. Covering a wide array of topics, from gun control to the Trump administration, the hardcover collection Me the People will arrive in October.

Comic fans probably know Guerra best from her work on Y: The Last Man, but it’s just as likely you’ve seen her work in the New Yorker, or maybe in the Washington Post or even on The Nib.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Maximilian Uriarte on ‘Terminal Lance’

The cartoonist and Marine discusses his ongoing strip about the military and its recent collection.

Maximilian Uriarte began making the comic strip Terminal Lance when he was still an active duty Marine. He continued making the strip while in art school and since. The strip has become a phenomenon, but Uriarte gained a larger audience with the publication of his 2016 graphic novel The White Donkey.

Little Brown has just released Terminal Lance: Ultimate Omnibus, which collects much of Uriarte’s strip along with notes and commentary. The strip skirts the brutal realism of The White Donkey and is instead strange and surreal, funny and weird. It’s easy to see why the strip became so popular. So often marines are portrayed in very one-dimensional ways, but what runs through all of Uriarte’s work is the desire to show them as human. This is not propaganda, this is not a recruitment tool; rather, in both the comic strip and the graphic novel, Uriarte seeks to be honest above all. Sometimes it’s funny or absurd, sometimes disturbing, sometimes brutal. I spoke with Uriarte about the strip and the collection.

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