SDCC Slugfest | Star Wars, DuckTales, Thundarr + more

Today’s round-up of SDCC and related news includes items on a Junkyard Joe action figure, new titles coming from Dynamite, a big sale by Fantagraphics and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. With the San Diego Comic Con in full force, this edition covers news from today I haven’t already covered, plus a few items from the lead-up to the show. Hit the links for more information.

The first full day of the San Diego Comic-Con brought plenty of news and tiodbits from comic publishers, following a very busy couple of weeks for comic news. It’s hard to believe a week has already passed since DC’s All In announcement. But here we are! So let’s jump in.

We ‘ll start with some Star Wars comic news, which these days spans multiple publishers. Lucasfilm hosted a publishing panel today that covered several upcoming releases, including the Battle of Jakku comic coming from Marvel this fall. Today’s panel also brought the news that phase 3 of the Star Wars: The High Republic will come to a close next year, and Cavan Scott and Marika Cresta will help wrap it up at Marvel with a comic titled Fear of the Jedi:

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Dini, Burnett, Templeton team for ‘Batman: The Adventures Continue’

DC revisits the world first created in ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ in a new digital-first miniseries.

Three names that became synonymous with the classic Batman: The Animated Series are returning to that world for a new six-issue miniseries.

Paul Dini and Alan Burnett, who produced the animated series, and Ty Templeton, who worked on the comic series based on the show, are working on Batman: The Adventures Continue, which will debut digitally in April and in print in May.

“Fans familiar with the Batman of The New Batman/Superman Adventures will be right up to speed,” Dini said. “Alan and I approached the writing with the idea that we were doing the season you might have seen if we had not put the series aside to do Batman Beyond.”

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Holy cowabunga: Batman, Ninja Turtles team up for action figure sets

GameStop will offer these figures from DC Collectibles exclusively this fall.

Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have met many times now, both in the pages of comics and in an animated movie. So the only logical place this relationship could go next is action figures.

DC Collectibles will release a series of action figures from both universes, as the Bat family and the Turtles appear in two-packs that’ll be exclusive to GameStop starting in September, with a price of $49.99 each, or $249.99 for the whole set.

Check them out below:

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Hot Toys’ out-of-this-world Stan Lee action figure

Watchers not included.

Hot Toys is paying tribute to the late Stan Lee with an action figure that captures one of his most memorable cameos in a Marvel film.

“Marvel legend Stan Lee, makes a cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 just as he’s done in every Marvel Cinematic Universe movie,” Hot Toys posted to Facebook. “In his scene, which takes place on a planetoid called Xander, Stan Lee is surrounded by members of the Watchers, the ancient race who observe everything happening in the universe and who occasionally meddle in it despite a strict non-interference policy.”

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Comics Lowdown: RIP Monkey Punch, Kazuo Koike

Plus: Bill Mantlo in need, halfway through ‘Saga,’ awards and more.

The manga community has lost two legends in April, as both Lupin III creator Monkey Punch and Lone Wolf & Cub co-creator Kazuo Koike have passed away. Both men died from pneumonia six days apart, and were once considered rivals when their respective manga ran in Weekly Manga Action magazine. They also worked together on the Secretary Bird manga mini-series that ran in the magazine in 1970.

Monkey Punch, whose real name was Kazuhito Kato, was 81 when he passed away. His most famous creation, Lupin III, started as a manga and was later adapted into six animated television series, eight animated feature films, two live-action feature films, two musicals and several video games. He passed away April 11.

In addition to Lone Wolf & Cub, Koike is also known for such titles as Lady Snowblood, Crying Freeman, Samurai Executioner and many other popular series. His work influenced many American creators, including Frank Miller, who drew covers for First Comics’ publication of the series. Koike also worked on a few western series, including a Hulk manga and an issue of X-Men Unlimited. He passed away April 17 at the age of 82.

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DC to debut new ¡Lucha Explosiva! figures at Toy Fair

Superman, Batman, Deathstroke and more will get a Mexican luchadores-style makeover in a new action figure line from DC Collectibles.

In what I can only describe as the perfect marriage of two things I love, DC Collectibles has revealed a new action figure line that re-imagines their characters as luchadores — mask-wearing wrestlers that hail from Mexico.

DC ¡Lucha Explosiva! is “a thrilling and imaginative new universe that blends the action-packed world of Lucha Libre with iconic DC characters.” The first wave of figures includes Batman, Deathstroke, Superman, Metallo II, Wonder Woman and the Cheetah, and they come out in August.

“DC Collectibles is always striving to bring fans imaginative new ways to extend and celebrate DC’s most iconic characters,” said Jim Fletcher, executive creative director of DC Collectibles, said in a press release. “DC ¡LUCHA EXPLOSIVA! is a passion project for us. We’re all huge fans of Lucha Libre, and merging Mexican Luchadores with superheroes seemed like a perfect fit. Besides obvious similarities like masks, capes and secret identities, we also think there is a huge crossover between fan bases.” Heck yeah there is!

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DC Collectibles reveals new statues + props at NYCC

Sean Murphy’s Joker, Greg Capullo’s the Merciless and Batman’s cowls are coming next year.

At the New York Comic Con, DC Collectibles announced several Batman-related additions to their line or statues and props.

On the statue front, the Joker from Sean Murphy’s popular Batman: White Knight comic will debut in June of next year, along with a statue of the Merciless from Dark Knights: Metal by Greg Capullo and Harley Quinn by Frank Cho.

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DC + Funko enter the Primal Age with retro-style action figure line

Marv Wolfman and Scott Koblish will create a comic based on the new line of toys.

If you’ve ever pitted your DC figures against your He-Man figures and thought, “Man, it would be great if these figures were the same size,” then you are in luck. DC and Funko have announced DC Primal Age, a line of figures featuring “retro-style barbarian fantasy themed Super Heroes and Super-Villains from the DC universe.”

The first wave includes Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Scarecrow, King Shark, Mister Freeze and the Joker, along with two “battle rides” — Ace the Bat Hound and “The Joker Beast.” There’s also a Castle Greyskull-like Batcave playset. All the toys are now available on Amazon.com, and the Mister Freeze figure can be bought at the New Yokr Comic Con this weekend.

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Holiday shopping deals from comiXology, Drawn & Quarterly, Skybound and more

Get Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on comics, merchandise and more.

With the arrival of Black Friday come several opportunities for comic fans looking for that perfect gift or just a good deal. Here’s a rundown of some comic-related things to check out today, over the weekend and on Monday (which is Cyber Monday).

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Action figures come to life in Tom Scioli’s ‘Truth to Power’

The ‘Super Powers’ and ‘G.I. Joe vs. Transformers’ creator shares a toyline of his own creation.

After a bit of a break, American Barbarian and Transformers vs. G.I. Joe creator Tom Scioli has returned to his Tumblr ove rthe last week or so with some fun sequential art, including a page of Thor comics, something called War Dreamers and this one, Truth to Power.

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I can’t express how much I adore this Harley Quinn ‘Expressions’ figure

DC Collectibles releases images of several new ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ figures and toys, including a Jokermobile.

DC Collectibles has been releasing and revealing new action figures based on the Batman: The Animated Series designs that Paul Dini and Bruce Timm made so popular. Some of them fall into the “Expressions” line, where the figures come with extra faces with, as you might guess, different expressions. We’ve seen Batman and Joker, but at Comic-Con International this week they revealed the best one so far — Harley Quinn.

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