Cartoonists go all out for Hourly Comics Day 2024

Check out comics by Karen Czap, James Chapman, Mel Gillman and more.

It’s February, which means its time for the annual #HourlyComicsDay, where cartoonists commit to making and posting a comic every hour for a day.

That’s certainly a different task than 24-Hour Comics Day, where a creator will try to make a complete comic in a day. Because of the fast nature of trying to post a new comic every hour, most hourly comics typically fall into the “autobiography” or personal journal category, as participants detail their day in comics form.

Here are a few I saw this year. You can also find them by searching for “Hourly Comics Day” on your social media site of choice, be it BlueSky, Tumblr, Instagram or the site formerly known as Twitter.

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This is … Spinal Cord!

Dark Horse will release a new heavy metal-themed graphic novel by David Braña and Pahito this fall.

The Midnight: Shadows isn’t the only music-themed graphic novel coming from Dark Horse this year. This week the publisher also announced Spinal Cord, a heavy metal horror graphic novel written by David Braña and illustrated by Pahito.

It’s a tale as old as time — a heavy metal band wants to make it big, so they enter a competition that ends up being more than they bargained for.

“The idea of Spinal Cord had been in my head for a long time,” said Braña. “I wanted to write about a music band trying to make its way in today’s complicated industry. Pahito and I both love metal music, so after talking, the creative sparks flew for Spinal Cord. It has been a pleasure to travel Route 666 in his company. We have paid a well-deserved tribute to the music and we have let ourselves be carried away on an adventure with different styles of horror, with characters who feel and suffer and who try to achieve their dreams, like most of us. Now I just hope readers enjoy this journey too!

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Dark Horse teams with synthwave band The Midnight for a new graphic novel

Zack Kaplan, Stephen Thompson and Jahnoy Lindsay will bring the band’s music to the comics page.

Music and comics will collide in a new graphic novel this fall, as the synthwave band The Midnight teams with Dark Horse for The Midnight: Shadows.

Written by Zack Kaplan with art by Stephen Thompson and artist Jahnoy Lindsay, the graphic novel is about a soon-to-be father who gets literally sucked into a cyberpunk video game from his youth called The Midnight. Colorist Thiago Rocha and letterer DC Hopkins round out the team.

“Before I got the privilege to write this graphic novel, I was a fan,” Kaplan said. “Intoxicated by the immersive beats and heartfelt lyrics since their very first demo. It was no surprise to me to see them become one of today’s best synthwave bands. Their presence is so narrative that it was dying to be shared in this form. And it’s been a joy to bring it all to comic life, to partner with Dark Horse for such a vivid and mind-bending series, and to create this electrifying world with a powerhouse creative team, Stephen, Jahnoy, Thiago and DC, that will blow your mind with one visually stunning page after the next. Whether you are a listener of the music or you just love a good sci-fi adventure, we cannot wait to take you to that place half in dark and half in light, where arcade dreams are a reality, where heroes battle monsters. Get ready for a truly epic, synth wave adventure.”

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Quick Hits | ‘Demon Slayer,’ Dav Pilkey, Bill Watterson top 2023 graphic novel sales charts

Plus: ‘Monica’ wins in Angouleme, the Bram Stoker Awards ballot and more.

Pulling information from Circana BookScan, ICv2 has listed the top 20 graphic novels sold in 2023 in the superhero, manga and “author” categories. They’ve also posted lists of the top adult and kid’s graphic novels.

Looking through the lists (which don’t provide exact numbers, just rankings), it looks like the first volume of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba by Koyoharu Gotouge is the big winner, topping both the manga chart and the adult graphic novel chart. Or maybe I should say “a big winner,” because over on the kid’s graphic novel chart, Dav Pilkey rules supreme, as Dog Man and its Cat Kid Comics Club spinoff took 13 of the 20 positions, including the top 3.

Also, I’m not exactly sure how the superhero and author categories are defined. For instance, the Invincible Compendium shows up on the author list — which makes sense, given how popular the Amazon show is — with Robert Kirkman listed as the author. But I would have expected it to be on the superhero list, given it’s about superheroes and Kirkman isn’t the sole author.

Then for superhero graphic novels, IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin hardcover topped the list, followed by Tokyopop’s Nightmare Before Christmas: Battle for the Pumpkin King manga. I think you could make the argument that the Last Ronin is a superhero title, but the Nightmare Before Christmas manga seems like it’s in the wrong place. But maybe I’m misunderstanding the catgeories.

All that aside, sales numbers for comics disappeared during the pandemic when the industry went from a single distributor to multiple distributors, so seeing any kind of data like this is appreciated and interesting.

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Slugfest | Dark Horse resurrects ‘Lester of the Lesser Gods’

Plus: The Winx saga continues, Usagi turns 40, the Dreadnoks return and more!

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

Lester of the Lesser Gods, which was originally published by Albatross Funnybooks, is finding new life at Dark Horse this year.

Written by Eric Powell and Lucky Yates, and featuring artwork by Gideon Kendall, Lester began life as unproduced animated short before finding its way to comics.

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Corrado Mastantuono will make his U.S. debut on ‘The Witcher: Corvo Bianco’

The Italian artist joins Bartosz Sztybor on a story that finds Geralt of Rivia eyeing retirement.

Italian comics legend Corrado Mastantuono will make his U.S. debut on The Witcher: Corvo Bianco, an upcoming miniseries from Dark Horse Comics.

Mastantuono will work with writer Bartosz Sztybor, who has written several previous series starring Geralt of Rivia. They’ll be joined by colorist Matteo Vattani and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou on a tale focused on a different kind of challenge for Geralt — retirement.

“For all who know Geralt, Corvo Bianco is his endgame,” Sztybor said. “The end of his journey, one and only place where he can retire – taking a break from killing monsters and trying to figure out how to make his own wine. As a fan of pop–culture and postmodern genre mixing, that setup above sounded like a perfect premise for a western. A western in The Witcher world – that’s something that was never done before! So I quickly got excited and thought about getting on board someone who really knows what western is.”

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Can’t Wait for Comics | Marvel, DC + Dark Horse celebrate Black History Month

Check out new comics and graphic novels arriving this week by Joel Priddy, Kid Cudi, Kyle Higgins, Marco Locati, Steve Foxe, Vincenzo Carratù, Olivia Cuartero-Briggs, Roberta Ingranata, Kiel Phegley and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Comics, your guide to what comics are arriving in comic book stores, bookstores and on digital. This week is a “fifth week” for January, which are typically lighter than normal. Wednesday is also the last day before Black History Month begins here in the U.S., and DC, Marvel and Dark Horse all have projects spotlighting Black creators and stories out this week.

I’ve pulled out some of the highlights 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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DSTLRY + Kodansha announce cover artist exchange partnership

DSTLRY titles will feature variant covers by Kodansha artists, starting with a Shūzō Oshimi cover for ‘Somna’ #3.

DSTLRY has announced a new cover artist exchange program with manga publisher Kodansha, starting with a variant cover for Somna #3 by Shūzō Oshimi.

DSTLRY, the new comics company formed by former Comixology execs David Steinberger and Chip Mosher, began releasing comics last August with The Devil’s Cut, which was followed by print editions of Gone by Jock and Somna by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay. The company has gone all in on variant covers, offering them through retail channels, their own website and on the limited-edition digital comics they started releasing late last year.

“I was drawn to the story of Somna where dreams and reality intermingle, and the way it’s expressed through different artistic styles,” Oshimi said. “Drawing the variant cover was fun!”

According to the press release, this variant cover by Oshimi will be the first of many by Kodansha artists:

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‘What If?’ comes to the ‘Alien’ universe in March

Actor Paul Reiser + team will write a story asking what would have happened if Carter Burke had lived.

If you’ve ever seen Aliens, the second and arguably best movie in the Alien franchise, then you’ll probably remember Carter Burke, the shady company man played by Paul Reiser who wanted to capture a xenomorph for his employers. And like any shady company man in a horror movie, he got what was coming to him … or did he?

Marvel has announced a new What If? miniseries set in the Alien universe that asks the question “What If… Carter Burke has lived?” Reiser will work with his son Leon, TV producer Adam F. Goldberg, Brian Volk-Weiss and Hans Rodionoff on a story that seems to be taking a “writer’s room” approach. Guiu Vilanova is drawing the five-issue miniseries.

“For years, people have asked me about Burke, what it was like to play such a ‘bad guy,’ to which my response was always ‘You say ‘bad,’ I say ‘misunderstood.’ Now the world will find out,” Reiser said.

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Dark Horse serves up ‘The Butcher’s Boy’ in May

Landry Q. Walker, Pannel Vaughn and Justin Greenwood bring a tale of gruesome folklore to life in a new miniseries.

Landry Q. Walker, Pannel Vaughn and Justin Greenwood will hit the backroads of the Pacific Northwest for a folk horror tale in The Butcher’s Boy, a new miniseries coming from Dark Horse Comics later this year.

Walker, known for the excellent Danger Club, will co-write the series with Vaughn. Greenwood, who worked with Walker on The Last Siege, is the artist, along with colorist Bard Simpson. Letterer Pat Brosseau rounds out the team.

“Appetite – whether it be desire for food, affection, or power – and the ability that hunger has to drive you to become unrecognizable – even to yourself – has always sat at the heart of my favorite horror stories,” Walker said. “Writing this book has led me down some dark psychological pathways that border somewhere between healthy obsession and self-destructive spirals. On some level, you need to feel what you write. The goal of this story is to take that discomfort, that yearning appetite (in all its myriad forms) and contextualize it as a malignant and conscious force. As a story, one that is finally ready for consumption.”

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Dennis Hopeless draws from his real-life childhood for the crime comic ‘She’s Running on Fumes’

Tyler and Hilary Jenkins will illustrate the six-issue digital series.

All families have their crazy backstories, but few could fuel a crime comic. Writer Dennis Hopeless will tell a story based on his own life in She’s Running on Fumes, coming next month from Comixology Originals. He’s joined by artists Tyler Jenkins and Hilary Jenkins, letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou and editor Heather Antos.

“When I was 3 years old, my mother started a chop shop with a half-wit junkyarder named Corn Dog,” Hopeless said. “Dad was the criminal. Mom had never broken a law in her life, but with him brain-damaged, $50,000 of cocaine gone missing and hospital bills piling up, grand theft auto was our only hope.”

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Quick Hits | Posy Simmonds wins the 2024 Grand Prix at Angoulême

Plus: News on the Eisners, Brett Lewis, Bill Griffith and more.

British cartoonist and illustrator Posy Simmonds has been awarded the Grand Prix at France’s annual Angoulême International Comics Festival. Simmonds beat out Daniel Clowes and Catherine Meurisse to capture the prize, and is only the fourth woman to be awarded the Grand Prix in its 50-year history.

Simmonds, 78, has done it all in her career, including comic illustration, daily press cartoons, weekly comic strips, best-selling albums, children’s books and screen adaptations. Her debut graphic novel, True Love, is one of the first British graphic novels, and she went on to create the well-regarded Gemma Bovery, Tamara Drewe and Cassandra Darke. She began her career doing comic strips for the Sun, the Times and the Guardian, where she spent the majority of her career. Later in life, she would start creating children’s books, and her most famous, Fred, went onto become an Academy Award-nominated short film, Famous Fred.

“I always think in a perfect world, the gender of a prize winner shouldn’t be remarkable,” Simmonds told the Guardian. “But it’s an imperfect world and the comics and bande déssinée world has always been a masculine milieu, a bit of a boys’ club. But, bit by bit, especially over the last decade, women have infiltrated it, so I’m pleased to be one of them, of course.”

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