Doug Wagner + Daniel Hillyard return to the twisted world of ‘Plastic’

The prequel miniseries, ‘Death & Dolls,’ kicks off in June.

Doug Wagner and Daniel Hillyard’s Plastic gets a prequel this summer — Plastic: Death & Dolls. They’re joined on their journey into the world of serial killers and depravity by colorist Michelle Madsen and letterer Ed Dukeshire.

If you missed the first miniseries, it’s about a reformed serial killer, Edwyn, who tries to stay on the straight and narrow for the sake of his true love — a plastic doll named Virginia.

“Getting to spend some quality time with Edwyn again after… well, what seems like only yesterday, really, was just so much fun,” Hillyard said. “Who would have thought that a story about a serial killer in love with a blow-up sex doll would turn out to be so loved, and get a sequel to-boot. It’s a wild crazy ride, and I’m not just saying this, but you won’t want to miss the ending.”

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Clay McLeod Chapman + Andrea Mutti conjure up ‘Seance in the Asylum’ at Dark Horse

The historical horror miniseries begins in July.

Dark Horse Comics has brought two of the scariest words in the English language together to make something even scarier, as they’ve announced the miniseries Seance in the Asylum.

The historical horror series is by Clay McLeod Chapman, writer of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters, and artist Andrea Mutti, whose horror pedigree includes titles like A Legacy of Violence, Maniac of New York, Parasomnia, Bunny Mask and Haunt You to the End.

“Years back, I uncovered an esoteric text — The Homeopathic Principle Applied to Insanity: A Proposal to Treat Lunacy by Spiritualism by Dr. James John Garth Wilkinson — written all the way back in 1857, and I knew within my bones, my blood, that this was destined to be a story,” said Chapman. “As a lifelong acolyte of the Fox Sisters, I’ve always been obsessed with stories about tapping into the hereafter. Now it’s an honor to usher you through the veil and explore the other side… “ 

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Quick Hits | NFT collectibles company VeVe launches a digital comics platform

Plus: Dog Man teams with Little Free Library, the direct market at 50, Todd Klein and more.

Here’s another story coming out of Marvel’s South by Southwest panel in Austin yesterday — VeVe, an online collectibles site that sells NFT collectibles and artwork, has launched a digital comics storefront that now includes more than 300 titles from Marvel.

VeVe already has partnerships in place with Marvel, DC, Todd McFarlane and more to sell NFTs. Now they’ve expanded to selling digital comics that can be read in their app (much like Amazon), as well as “limited edition” versions of those same comics. These cost more but are collectible NFTs that can be sold in their marketplace and read using their augmented reality reader (which I’m very curious to see, especially if it can be used with the Apple Vision Pro). Each limited edition comic comes in a variety of variant covers, which apparently you buy “blind” and hope you get a rare one.

While Marvel is the only company currently on the platform, VeVe says they plan to expand that in the future.

“Being passionate readers and collectors ourselves, we recognized that digital comics fans have been calling for a more immersive experience,” said David Yu, CEO and co-founder of VeVe. “Our aim is to create a platform that makes comics discovery fun and easy—one that’s centered on function and design, fosters community and accessibility for all. We understood those pain points and created VeVe Comics to be the solution.”

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Paul Tobin + Arjuna Susini go big on horror in ‘The Mammoth’

The new series drops from Mad Cave Studios in June.

Paul Tobin, writer of Bunny Mask and Croak, continues his trail of terror in The Mammoth, a new horror series with artist Arjuna Susini, colorist Pippa Bowland and letterer Charles Pritchett. Tobin and Susini previously worked together on the Oni Press series Made Men.

Mad Cave Studios will publish the series, which is about four scientists investigating odd seismic activity in a town known for its local legend — a monstrous phantom that appears and disappears for decades at a time.

“I wanted horror—and I wanted it BIG!” Tobin said. “Mad Cave gave me a chance to create horror beyond comprehension, with art by my pal Arjuna Susini helping readers tumble into the story along with the characters. This ain’t no ordinary ghost. This thing is mammoth.”

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Marvel reveals nine new X-titles as a part of ‘From the Ashes’

Gail Simone, David Marquez, Eve L. Ewing, Carmen Carnero, Jed MacKay and Ryan Stegman will plot a new course for the X-Men following the end of the Krakoa era.

During their panel at South by Southwest today, Marvel revealed their plans for the X-Men post-Krakoa, which include three core titles sporting the name “X-Men” as well as six other titles.

As most fans likely guessed, Gail Simone will write one of the core titles, Uncanny X-Men, joined by artist David Marquez. Current Avengers writer Jed MacKay and artist Ryan Stegman spearhead the adjectiveless X-Men, and Eve Ewing and Carmen Carnero team up for Exceptional X-Men.

“The X-Men are fractured in the aftermath of the end of Krakoa, scattered across the globe without a central base of operation,” Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort said. “What that means in practice is that all three titles carrying the name X-Men are core X-Men series—they all center around one of the major aspects of what the team has been about at different points. This is very much by design. We want to field a wide assortment of X-titles with different styles and tones and approaches, an X-Men book for virtually any taste.”

The other titles teased at the panel include solo titles for Storm, Wolverine and Phoenix, as well as some familiar team titles — X-Factor, X-Force and NYX.

“I think X-Fans are special in that we identify with having something different about us…and you’re going to feel that in this book, and what it means to have that thing about you that’s different, or exceptional. We go deep into the emotional part of that,” Simone told the crowd in Austin.

More details on the three core titles can be found below …

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Return to the world of ‘Little Bird’ this summer in ‘Precious Metal’

Darcy Van Poelgeest  and Ian Bertram return to the world of their Eisner-Award-winning series from Image Comics.

Writer Darcy Van Poelgeest  and artist Ian Bertram will return to the world of their Eisner Award-winning comic series Little Bird in Precious Metal, a six-issue miniseries that launches in June from Image Comics.

“Precious Metal has been the biggest, and most fulfilling, undertaking of my creative career,” said Van Poelgeest. “Returning to the world of Little Bird with Ian Bertram brought on a deeper collaboration than I thought possible, and the results are something transformative—for the work and myself. After nearly five years of immersion and experimentation, I’m thrilled to finally bring this monster of a book to readers worldwide.”

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Austen + Olliffe re-team for ‘The Tormented’

The horror miniseries will launch on Comixology Originals next week.

Chuck Austen and Patrick Olliffe have reunited for another new series from Comixology Originals — The Tormented, a new five-issue digital comics series that will debut next week. They’re joined by colorist Lee Loughridge, letterer Jodi Wynne and editor Greg Lockard.

Austen, Olliffe and Loughridge previously worked together on Edgeworld, a science fiction series released by Comixology. This new series brings together horror and reality TV.

“Ryan Auster, our protagonist in The Tormented, sees ghosts, but kept it from his ghost-hunting family because he feared his family more than the ghosts, and because he’s been hiding it his whole life. Now in his 20s, he still hasn’t quite learned how to deal with the unexpected spirits, demons and otherworldly creatures that are constantly invading his life,” said Austen. “This series has been an absolute trip to create with Pat, and I hope readers have as much fun reading the story as we’ve had making it.”

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Syzygy engages in ‘Self Help’ this summer

Owen King, Jesse Kellerman, Marianna Ignazzi and more bring this ‘California noir story’ to life.

Syzygy Publishing and Image Comics have announced Self Help, a new five-issue crime noir miniseries by novelists Owen King and Jesse Kellerman, artist Marianna Ignazzi, colorist Fabiana Mascolo and designer/letterer Ian Chagren.

Described as a “California noir story,” Self Help is “a surreal and colorful world populated with two-faced talk-show hosts, cheerful Finnish mobsters, bloodthirsty white supremacists, snide English butlers and panther-wielding Euro-trash assassins.” Sounds like fun!

“I couldn’t be more excited to be working with Jesse Kellerman on Self Help,” King said. “He’s one of my favorite novelists and one of my favorite people. We’re both incredibly lucky to have the brilliant Marianna Ignazzi bringing our sun-baked noir comedy to life.”

King is best known for his novels Sleeping Beauties, which he wrote with his father, Stephen King, and The Curator. Kellerman’s novels include The Genius and The Golem of Hollywood, while Ignazzi has worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and An Unkindness of Ravens for BOOM! Studios.

“Writing Self Help has been nonstop fun—and the credit for that goes to my amazing co-writer, Owen King,” Kellerman said. “This story is the product of two good friends cutting loose and letting our imaginations run wild. And we’re thrilled by the beautiful, stylish, vivid genius of Marianna Ignazzi. We can’t wait for you to get your hands on it.”

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DC announces their plans for Pride Month 2024

The DC Pride anthology returns, along with a tribute book to Rachel Pollack, new YA graphic novels and more.

DC has announced their plans for Pride Month in June, the annual commemoration and celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community. This year will include their annual anthology DC Pride 2024, as well as two YA graphic novels and a tribute to the late Rachel Pollack.

DC has been releasing the Pride special for four years now, and the theme for this year seems to be “Journeys and Destinations,” whether we’re talking Metropolis, Gotham, the Fourth World or “the farthest edges of the DC Multiverse.” DC’s announcement spotlights five different books that’ll arrive between now and September, along with a series of Pride-themed variant covers

Read more about them below …

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Oni’s ‘Cult of the Lamb’ comic crowfunds more than $200K on its first day

The campaign will run on Kickstarter through April 11.

Earlier today Oni Press launched a Kickstarter for a new Cult of the Lamb comic, based on the video game of the same name. Within six minutes, the campaign hits its measly $10,000 goal, and a few hours later was well over $200,000 in pledges.

If you’re not familiar with Cult of the Lamb, it’s a roguelike crossed with a social simulation game — kind of like if Hades and Animal Crossing had a baby, and that baby let you run your own cult. Your character is Lamb, who begins the game being resurrected by an ancient deity and then begins gathering his followers and exploring dungeons. It’s a clever, addictive game that is both super cute and disturbing at the same time. The game’s deveklopers, Devolver Digital and Massive Monster, recently released new DLC for the game, Sins of the Flesh.

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Jeffrey Brown returns for a second ‘Batman and Robin and Howard’ graphic novel at DC

‘Summer Breakdown’ continues the story of Damian Wayne’s middle school years with his rival-turned-friend Howard.

Jeffrey Brown’s 2021 graphic novel Batman and Robin and Howard was a delight, so I’m happy to see that DC has announced a sequel to the story that featured Damian, his middle-school rival Howard and a dad joke-spouting Batman.

“Having the opportunity to make a second DC middle grade book, I first thought I’d come up with all new characters and a new story with a different superhero,” Brown said. “But as I started writing, I kept thinking about Robin and Howard (and Batman, of course), and eventually realized what I really wanted to do was continue their story. The sequel gives a different look at family life for Damian when he isn’t Robin, and more action when he is – but hopefully readers will still find all the same humor and heart that I tried to put into the first book.”

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An X-Men era ends, and a new one begins, this summer

Gerry Duggan, Kieron Gillen, Al Ewing, Lucas Werneck, Joshua Cassara, Chris Claremont, Gail Simone and more contribute to an oversized issue celebrating 700 issues of ‘Uncanny X-Men.’

If you’re looking for the comic that will put the period — or maybe exclamation point — on the X-Men’s Krakoa era, look no further than X-Men #35, which arrives in June.

According to Marvel, the issue will also mark 700 issues of Uncanny X-Men, the flagship “X” title for the past 60 years, so it’ll also be an oversized issue featuring stories by a variety of creators. Those include some from the Krakoa-era, including Gerry Duggan, Kieron Gillen, Al Ewing, Lucas Werneck and Joshua Cassara, as well as legendary Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont.

“Being a part of the Krakoan experiment has been a true thrill,” said X-Men Senior Editor Jordan D. White. “Honestly—in many ways—it echoed the experience of mutantkind itself in the era. We worked differently, we tried new things, we survived incredible new experiences. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have worked with such fantastically talented creators throughout the era, and working on the glorious ending is truly bittersweet. I will miss it with my whole heart, but I do know… Krakoa will live on within us forever.”

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