SDCC | Jordan Thomas + Daniel Gete enforce over-the-top thrills in ‘Skin Police’ this October

When black market clone babies go bad, the Skin Police are on the case.

Writer Jordan Thomas and artist Daniel Gete have teamed up for a new series that Oni Press calls “one of the most ecstatically over-the-top series” they’ve published.

Skin Police, which debuts this fall, is a fast-paced, science fiction action thriller set in a future where black market clone babies are the norm, but one out of every four turns into a psychopathic killing machine. That’s where The Skin Police come in.

“Skin Police set up shop in my brain as a combination of my love for Blade Runner and my fear of having children,” Thomas said. “It was an idea that wouldn’t go away, which is always a sign that it is one of the good ones. I wanted to take the base human fear of not being able to protect our offspring as well as the general existential fears most of us have about the direction the world is heading and smash it together with adrenaline-fueled, violent, unforgiving action, so the audience gets carried away with the sheer thrill of what is taking place before closing each issue and finding themselves thinking deeper about the more human and terrifying themes that underpin the thrills.”

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SDCC | Brian Azzarello + Vanesa Del Rey bring ‘The Creeping Below’ to BOOM!

The black metal revenge tale begins in October.

With the San Diego Comic Con on the horizon, BOOM! Studios continues to roll out announcements on their “Road to SDCC.” Yesterday brought a big one, as they announced a new revenge story by Brian Azzarello, Vanesa Del Rey and Hilary Jenkins called The Creeping Below.

BOOM! says the new series will be filled with “black metal, magic and Norse mythology,” as a woman killed at a black metal festival in Norway gets a second chance at life.

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Can’t Wait for Wednesday | Top Cow unsheathes a new ‘Witchblade’ title this week

This week brings new comics and graphic novels by Marguerite Bennett, Giuseppe Cafaro, Stephanie Phillips, Alessandro Miracolo, Kelly Thompson, Paulina Ganucheau, Gerard Way, Shaun Simon, Chris Weston, Melissa Flores, Francis Portela, Joe Matt, Mike Maihack, Jason Aaron and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital.

This week is pretty stacked, with not only a new Witchblade comic debuting, but we also have another X-Men: From the Ashes release, a new Gerard Way comic, Jason Aaron’s return to Marvel, the final Joe Matt comic and much more.

I’ve pulled out some of the other highlights for this week below, but for the complete list of everything you might find at your local comic shop and on digital this week, you’ll want to check out one or more of the following:

As a reminder, things can change and what you find on the above lists may differ from what’s actually arriving in your local shop. So always check with your comics retailer for the final word on availability.

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Check out an exclusive clip from the ‘She Could Fly’ game by Wowbagger Productions

Christopher Cantwell and Martín Morazzo’s Berger Books series has been adapted into a video game about OCD and mental health.

She Could Fly by writer Christopher Cantwell and artist Martín Morazzo achieved liftoff in 2018 from Dark Horse Comics’ Berger Books imprint. It was the first published comic written by Cantwell, and also one that was very personal, as it featured a main character with OCD — something he’s spoken about suffering from since he was 10 years old.

Now She Could Fly has become part of a “documentary game” — the She Could Fly Documentary Escape Game, which is a point and click game from Wowbagger Productions that takes players on a looping adventure to explore OCD.

“For me, in the graphic novel, flying is a form of relief or freedom for the main characters,” Cantwell said. “In my life, what I look for, in terms of relief or freedom, is not happiness but peace of mind. Real peace of mind. Peace of mind is very important to me, and it’s something I’m always striving for. And I hope that by playing this game or reading our story, it helps you find some peace of mind as well.”

The game features artwork by Morazzo and colorist Miroslav Mrva from She Could Fly as part of the gameplay elements, and the creators hope it puts a spotlight on, and helps people understand, how OCD can affect someone.

“The work we do at Wowbagger Productions is very much about collaborating with creatives from marginalised perspectives to share less-known stories,” said Wowbagger Productions founder Sara Kenney, who wrote, directed and produced the game. “This is our first digital game and decades of storytelling and producing experience meant we ensured the comic, documentary and gameplay works together and flows in a meaningful way. Games for impact are an arena that the team at Wowbagger Productions are passionate about and want to continue our work, not just combining art and science, but also the different disciplines of games, comics and film.”

Check out our exclusive video clip below, which shows how some of the comic pages from She Could Fly are used in the game:

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Smash Pages Q&A | Jordan Morris on ‘Youth Group’

The writer of the new graphic novel from First Second talks about his comic book origins, character playlists, collaborating with Bowen McCurdy and more.

If you ever participated in church youth groups as a teenager, you owe it to yourself to check out Youth Group by Jordan Morris and Bowen “Bones” McCurdy.

The genuinely funny story features Kay, whose mom coerces her into attending the youth group at their church in Orange County, where Kay gets to participate in singalongs featuring pop songs where the words have been changed to celebrate Jesus and encourage abstinence, and meet overenthusiastic leaders like Meg. She also discovers that she’s a “Blight,” a person who can’t be possessed by demons, which is both helpful and a hindrance because the Stone Mission Church youth group is really a front for a group of demon hunters fighting a war, and her Blight blood makes her a target.

First Second will publish the graphic novel this week, and Morris was kind enough to answer some of my questions about it

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Bad Idea announces ‘Planet Death’ by Derek Kolstad, Robert Venditti + Tomás Giorello

The last surviving soldier of a battalion sent to destroy an alien weapon must continue his mission alone.

Bad Idea, the boutique comics publisher founded in 2020, has announced a new title coming next year from John Wick screenwriter Derek Kolstad, Hawkman and Green Lantern writer Robert Venditti, and Star Wars artist Tomás Giorello.

Planet Death centers on the lone survivor of an invasion force sent to destroy an alien weapon on a hostile planet. After his battalion is decimated, he continues on alone to try and finish their mission.

“Planet Death is my love letter to all of the comics and books I read, movies I watched, and games I played – late into the night with a grin on my face…from Hard Boiled and Ronin by Frank Miller to the films of Alistair MacLean like The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare to Bradbury, Asimov, and Heinlein, to games like Starcraft and everything in between,” said Kolstad. “Some of my favorite stories are the ones that blend science fiction with elements of the war genre, from Starship Troopers to Aliens and Edge of Tomorrow. With Planet Death we take this tradition and add all those things we love so much about comic books.”

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Sunday Comics | Read these 2024 Eisner nominees online

Check out webcomics by Joe S. Farrar and Guilherme Grandizolli, Jared Lee and Cross, Evan Dahm, Haley Newsome, Cam Marshall, Velinxi and more.

With the Eisner Awards less than two weeks away, I thought I’d highlight some of this year’s nominees that you can find online.

Let’s start with the “Best Short Story” category, where Joe S. Farrar and Guilherme Grandizolli’s “The Lady of the Lake” is nominated. It originally appeared in BUMP: A Horror Anthology #3, which Farrar funded through Kickstarter and now sells on his ko-fi site. But in celebrating the nomination, Farrar posted the short story in full on Twitter, which I think is always a brilliant move, as it’s hard to vote for something if you haven’t read it.

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James Robinson + J. Bone reunite for ‘Welcome to the Maynard’

The new series about a magical hotel opens its doors at Dark Horse Comics in November.

James Robinson’s return to comics continues in November, as he and his Saviors collaborator J. Bone check into the Maynard, a magical hotel for with witches and otherworldly creatures. Dark Horse Comics will publish the four-issue miniseries.

Welcome to the Maynard will focus on the hotel’s newest bellhop and amateur detective, as she tries to stop a magical thief. The series will follow ‘Patra, which is also written by Robinson and debuts in August.

“It’s a thrill to be reunited with my dear friend J. Bone,” said Robinson. “I love his art and his collaborative spirit, both, so Welcome To The Maynard has been a joy to write. I’m also excited to do a series (akin to Leave It To Chance, back in the day) that can be enjoyed on different levels, by readers young and old.”

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Bloodhunting 3 | The quiet and then the storm

The Smash Pages crew plants a stake into the third and fourth issues of Marvel’s ‘Blood Hunt,’ as well as some of the crossover issues.

Marvel’s Blood Hunt crossover is more than halfway over now and heading toward its final issue. Once again, the Smash Pages team — myself, Shane Bailey and Tom Bondurant — has come together to talk about the event, with our third “Bloodhunting” roundtable. You can read our thoughts on the first issue here and the second one here.

In this edition, we talk about Blood Hunt #3 and #4, as well as crossover issues featuring Doctor Strange, Doctor Doom, Moon Knight and more. Please note there are un-polybagged SPOILERS in this discussion related to the story, so only enter if you dare — or if you’ve just been freed from an Asgardian prison, and need to catch up on things quickly.

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Caitlin Yarsky’s ‘Living Hell’ debuts from Dark Horse this fall

The new series features a demon who escapes from hell to become a bartender.

While you might know Caitlin Yarsky mainly as an artist, of comics like Black Hammer Reborn, Coyotes, Catwoman and more, that’s about to change. This fall, she’ll write and draw Living Hell, a new series coming from Dark Horse Comics.

The comic will feature a demon named Jerome Jameel, who escapes from Hell to become a bartender on Earth. But his transgressions lead him to become a bailiff for the underworld, hunting down dieties, monsters, ghosts and more.

“Almost every mythology around the world has its own version of an underworld—a land of the dead, the embodiment of despair,” Yarsky said. “Living Hell explores the lengths we’ll go to transcend generational trauma and the prisons of our past. It’s a story about family, the fantasy of a clean slate, and of course, cool monsters.”

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Quick Hits | Counting down to San Diego

Are hotels too expensive during Comic Con? (Yes!) Plus news on the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award, the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award, DSTLRY goes exclusive, 23rd Street Books and more.

The 55th annual San Diego Comic Con is coming up in two weeks, so expect to see a lot of news between now and then not only on upcoming comics and the like, but also on the convention itself, pop culture trends, its impact on the economy and whatever other angle news outlets can squeeze from the event. I’m sure there are mainstream journalists chomping at the bit to do cosplay round-ups as I type this.

One question that comes up every few years related to the con is, “Will it always be in San Diego?” San Diego is an events city with a huge convention center and a welcoming downtown area, and SDCC means big business for the businesses in the area. But this article by Rob Salkowitz for Forbes notes that the Comic-Con International team is concerned about hotel price gouging in the city during the convention, as hotels are putting fewer rooms into the block offered by CCI every year because they can book them for more on the open market.

“We would never want to leave, but if push came to shove and it became untenable for us, it’s something that we would certainly have to look into,” David Glanzer, Chief Communication and Strategy Officer for Comic-Con International, told Forbes. “As event planners, we’re always contacted by different cities and it would be reckless for us to not at least acknowledge that.”

CCI has a contract with San Diego through 2025, so any changes would have to come after that.

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The Wicked Trinity brings trouble to movie night for Sabrina in this preview of ‘Archie Jumbo Comics’ #352

Check out an exclusive preview of a new story coming in next week’s digest from Archie Comics.

Seeing Sabrina the Teenage Witch in the classic Riverdale setting is always magical, but in this preview of Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #352, her appearance unfortunately comes with some baggage — in the form of her nemesis, Amber Nightstone, and her Wicked Trinity minions.

Fresh off their recent appearance in their own one-shot, Amber, Jade Kazane and Sapphire Gill are looking to make trouble for Sabrina as she attempts to set up a “horror movie fest” for her friends in Riverdale. But I’m sure Sabrina and Salem have some tricks of their own in store for the Wicked Trinity.

The story is by Tania Del Rio, with art by Holly G! and Jim Amash, coloring by Glenn Whitmore and lettering by Jack Morelli, and a cover by Dan Parent.

Check out the preview below:

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