Tag: A Wave Blue World

Return to the world of ‘Mezo’ for ‘The Trial of Roden’ this May [Exclusive Preview]

Tyler Chin-Tanner, Val Rodrigues, Gab Contreras and Varga Tomi are joined by Jarred Luján for the next chapter in the magical Mesoamerican saga.

Things will go from bad to worse for Roden, the soldier who showed mercy to his enemy in 2022’s Mezo: Battle at Coban Rock. Creator and writer Tyler Chin-Tanner and artists Val Rodrigues, Gab Contreras and Varga Tomi
return to the world of Mezo this May with Mezo: The Trial of Roden.

The five-issue miniseries from A Wave Blue World will kick off on May 1, when Chin-Tanner will welcome co-writer Jarred Luján to the team. While Mezo is set in a past where magic is real, the book’s strength comes from its gripping wartime adventure, political intrigue, old-world combat and character moments.

“There really is some beautiful character work in Mezo, and this entire volume, I think, speaks to that,” Luján said. “While the book obviously centers on Roden after his arrest for sparing Uhna’s life, one of my favorite parts really is Kyma and her quest for vengeance against Phegor. A lot has happened in two volumes of this series, but this really feels like the biggest collision point since Vuh started this war back in the debut issue.”

Courtesy of A Wave Blue World, we’re pleased to present an exclusive preview of Rodrigues’ art from the first issue.

“One of the things I was most excited for when we got back to Mezo was to see how Val would apply some of his new art techniques. He’s been visualizing this unique fantasy world through volumes 1 and 2, and he’s taking it to a whole new level with volume three. You can see how he’s starting to play around with page layout and make the visual style of this series his own,” said Chin-Tanner.

Check out the first issue’s covers, solicitation information and the preview below.

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‘It’s about to get real’ in ‘Tower #4’ by Camrus Johnson, Kelsey Barnhart + Loyiso Mkize

Check out an exclusive preview of the penultimate issue of the miniseries from A Wave Blue World.

Courtesy of A Wave Blue World, we’re pleased to present a preview of Tower #4, the penultimate issue of the miniseries written by Camrus Johnson and Kelsey Barnhart, with art by Loyiso Mkize.

The comic falls into the “dystopian competition” genre — one of my favorite genres — where real-life contestants try to make it to the top of what appears to be a virtual Tower. The story focuses on three of them, who “have to smarten up and join forces if they intend to survive, using their individualized weapons and animal assistants to outsmart deadly traps and ambushes.”

This fourth issue brings a change in artist, as Mkize takes over from ChrisCross. Johnson and Mkize previously worked together on a story for Batman: Urban Legends featuring Batwing, the character Johnson played on The CW’S Batwoman.

“First, I have to shout out Loyiso Mkize who takes over on art for issues #4 and 5, and absolutely crushes it. His work is beautiful and I can’t wait for people to see all of it because he blew me away,” Johnson said. “Tower #4 might just be my favorite issue; there’s just so dang much that goes down! We get a glimpse inside all three of our leads’ minds, not just Casandra’s. Now that our main three are officially no longer a team and in separate parts of the Tower making their way to the top, they each have their own journeys that we get to track. And each has an absolutely massive change that affects the way they’ll move throughout the next and final issue. If you thought there was a ton of action before, this penultimate issue is jam packed with it, including my favorite fight of the whole series. Oh and I just have to say, I love the final panel. It’s about to get real.”

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‘Young Men in Love,’ ‘Poison Ivy’ win GLAAD awards

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation recognized comics from DC and A Wave Blue World in their 34th annual Media Awards.

Poison Ivy and Young Men in Love were honored by The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, as winners in their 34th annual Media Awards.

Poison Ivy by G. Willow Wilson, Marcio Takara, Atagun Ilhan, Brian Level, Stefano Gaudiano, Jay Leisten, Arif Prianto, Ivan Plascencia and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, took home the award for Outstanding Comic Book. The DC title was up against nine other comic series in the category.

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Slugfest | ‘The Ambassadors,’ ‘Stranger Things’ and more

Check out news and announcements featuring Shazam!, Jeff the Landshark, Chispa Comics, Crash & Troy, and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you from comics creators, publishers and more. Hit the links for more information.

Mark Millar will team with six artists for his next project, The Ambassadors — a six-issue miniseries where each issue is set in a different country.

Frank Quitely, Travis Charest, Olivier Coipel, Matteo Scalera, Matteo Buffagni and Karl Kerschl will join Millar on the project, which was announced in The Hollywood Reporter. Here’s the premise:

It takes place in a world in which the superhuman genome has been cracked, and the scientist behind it is a Korean billionaire who builds the world’s first superhuman headquarters in Seoul and alerts the world that she will turn six ordinary people into super-people. This sparks a global competition for people who want to join a team that will be on call 24/7 for superhuman emergencies.

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‘Crash & Troy’ reaches its explosive conclusion in December [Exclusive Preview]

Check out an exclusive preview of ‘Crash & Troy’ #4 by writer Jarred Luján and artist Kyler Clodfelter.

A Wave Blue World’s classic sci-fi buddy miniseries comes to a close in December, as writer Jarred Luján and artist Kyler Clodfelter bring the banter-filled adventures of Crash & Troy to their climatic, explosive conclusion with issue #4.

The fourth and final issue finds the super-strong Crash and their handler Delphi in jail, with Troy 3.0 seemingly dead. But can you really kill a sentient software arts aficionado?

“Issue #4 is my favorite of the series,” Luján told Smash Pages. “Writing the action was a blast, especially because we finally got to unveil what Troy, in all his irreverence, is capable of doing as a mercenary in a way only Troy could think of. Best of all, it ties everything together so well and we cap it off with some of the funnest, most explosive moments yet—but there’s another layer here. I think folks are going to be surprised with how emotional this issue is and how intensely it lays out what Crash & Troy is all about.”

This issue also brings a scene that Clodfelter has been itching to draw for awhile.

“Drawing issue 4 was extremely liberating for me because I finally got to let loose and draw some imagery that I’ve had swirling in my head for years. Jarred and I have always worked really well together, but there’s this cool thing I wanted to happen in the story that Jarred was game for and it was probably my favorite scene to draw in the entire issue. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it surprisingly doesn’t even have anything to do with fists or that Jarred asked me to tell him what my favorite fight scenes of all time were. But I mean, those things should also inform you of what you’re in for!” Clodfelter said. “I think ultimately, we’re just thrilled that everyone has finally had a chance to read the book, and I hope people have had as much fun reading it as we did making it.”

Courtesy of A Wave Blue World, we’re pleased to present an exclusive preview of the fourth and final issue of Crash & Troy. Check out the cover, preview and solicitation text below:

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Preview | ‘Mezo: Battle At Coban Rock’ #1

The new miniseries by Tyler Chin-Tanner, Val Rodrigues, Gab Contreras and Varga Tomi debuts in May.

Courtesy of the fine folks at A Wave Blue World, we’re pleased to present a preview of their new title, Mezo: Battle at Coban Rock, which kicks off in May.

The five-issue miniseries by writer Tyler Chin-Tanner, with artwork by Val Rodrigues, Gab Contreras and Varga Tomi, continues the story set up in Mezo: Rise of the Tzalekuhl. Though Mezo has some “show-stopping magical moments,” at its heart it’s a gripping wartime adventure filled with political intrigue and old-world combat, as the daughter of a fallen chief tries to form new alliances to turn the tides against the rising Tzalekuhl empire.

Below, you can check out the cover by Rodrigues, the variant cover by Terry Blas and five pages from the first issue.

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Comics Lowdown | Eisner judges announced

Also: Batman manga coming to Japan, Ohio legislators complain about anime text, and a chat with the creator of the ‘Sickos’ meme

Eisner Awards: The judges for the 2021 Eisner Awards have been announced: Retailer Marco Davanzo, who is the executive director of ComicsPRO); Shelley Fruchey, a member of the Comic-Con Board of Directors; Pamela Jackson, Popular Culture Librarian and Comic Arts Curator in Special Collections and University Archives at San Diego State Universit; Keithan Jones, founder and owner of the independent publisher KID Comics; Alonso Nuñez, executive director, and lead instructor of Little Fish Comic Book Studio in San Diego; and independent comics scholar Jim Thompson.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Tyler Chin-Tanner, Matt Miner & Eric Palicki

‘Maybe Someday: Stories of Promise, Visions of Hope’ launched on Kickstarter this week, offering ’25 inspiring stories about a brighter future.’

Tyler Chin-Tanner, Matt Miner and Eric Palicki have worked together in the past on the anthologies This Nightmare Kills Fascists and All We Ever Wanted, both of which were published by A Wave Blue World. This is of course in addition to the many other comics they’ve written.

Their new comic anthology is Maybe Someday: Stories of Promise, Visions of Hope. I honestly don’t know whether this is the best or the worst time to kickstart an anthology of optimistic science fiction stories, but they’ve gathered a talented group of creators to tell stories about possibilities, hope and the promise that our struggles today will lead to a better tomorrow.

The Kickstarter just launched and the three were kind enough to answer a few questions about the project.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Tyler Chin-Tanner

The co-publisher of A Wave Blue World discusses his latest writing project, “Mezo: Volume One,” and much more.

Tyler Chin-Tanner is the founder and co-publisher of A Wave Blue World, which in the past few years has built a reputation as a dynamic small publisher with an editorial focus and point of view all its own. The company has published a long run of anthologies like Dead Beats, From Hell’s Heart, All We Ever Wanted: Stories of a Better World and This Nightmare Kills Fascists. That’s in addition to books like Dead Legends, Kismet: Man of Fate, The Killing Jar and the recently released Cayrels Ring. In the past year the company has been ramping up production, hired new people including comics veteran Joseph Illidge.

A Kubert School graduate, Chin-Tanner has been making comics of his own for years including Adrenaline with James Boyle. He has written a new project that the company just released, Mezo: Volume One, Rise of the Tzalekuhl. The first volume of a fantasy series, it draws upon Mesoamerican lore and settings for a story that doesn’t look and feel like a typical fantasy story. Chin-Tanner talked to me recently about the book’s origins, the company’s name and plans for the future.

Please note this interview was conducted earlier this year, before the coronavirus made its impact on, among other things, the comics industry.

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Exclusive Preview: ‘Cayrels Ring’

Shannon Lentz, Alchemichael, Farel Dalrymple and more come together to tell a unique science fiction story.

It’s been about three years since Shannon Lentz launched a Kickstarter for the first issue of Cayrels Ring, a science fiction comic that chronicles life in a far-off galaxy colonized by humans. Since then he’s produced and crowdfunded more than 130 pages of his anthology, working with artists like Farel Dalrymple, James Stokoe, Alchemichael, Simon Roy and more to tell the story of an aging scientist looking for his long-lost granddaughter.

Earlier this month Lentz announced that the anthology will be collected by A Wave Blue World, publisher of comics like Dead Beats, All We Ever Wanted, Mezo and many others. As a backer of the original Kickstarter, it’s cool to see this come to fruition, and I’m happy to post an exclusive preview from the anthology, courtesy of the publisher.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Joe Corallo

The comics writer and editor discusses his latest anthology ‘Dead Beats,’ the miniseries ‘She Said Destroy’ and more.

Joe Corallo is a comics writer and editor, who some might know for his journalism on the website ComicMix.com. He co-edited the award-winning anthology Mine! and this year saw the release of She Said Destroy, an ambitious miniseries made with artist Liana Kangas that comes out in trade next month.

This week, Dead Beats, the anthology he co-edited with Eric Palicki, arrives in stores from A Wave Blue World. A horror anthology centered around music, the book has an incredible lineup of talent including Vita Ayala, Eva Cabrera, Cameron DeOrdio, Jen Hickman, Kwanza Osajyefo and Nadia Shammas. It also features a story written by Rachel Pollack, drawn by Richard Case and lettered by John Workman, reuniting years after their acclaimed run on Doom Patrol.

To mark a year with an anthology and a series that feature the best work he’s done so far in his career, I wanted to ask Corallo about the two projects, building teams and what he’s thinking about next.

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