Brian Cunningham joins AfterShock Comics as editor in chief

AfterShock also hires Chris Ryall as a publishing consultant.

AfterShock Comics has announced that they’ve hired Brian Cunningham, a former editor at DC, as their new editor in chief. Cunningham replaces Mike Marts, who departed the company for a new position at Mad Cave Studios.

“AfterShock stands for quality comic books, and there’s a reason why they’ve grown to be a major player in the industry, as dedicated as they’ve been to working with creators to tell their best stories across a variety of genres. I’m thrilled and grateful to be called upon to carry on that tradition and build on that success,” Cunningham said in a statement.

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Mike Marts named editor in chief of Mad Cave Studios

Marts will oversee editorial for Mad Cave, Maverick and Papercutz.

Comics veteran Mike Marts has left his position at AfterShock Comics to become executive vice president and editor in chief of Mad Cave Studios.

Marts brings more than 30 years of experience in the comics industry to the company, including roles as an executive editor for Marvel Comics, group editor for DC Comics and editor in chief for AfterShock, where he has been for the last eight years.

“We are thrilled to welcome Mike Marts to Mad Cave Studios. He’s a proven leader and gifted storyteller with a keen eye for talent and quality,” said Mark London, CEO + CCO of Mad Cave Studios. “Not only does Mike himself have 30 years worth of editorial experience, but also he has proven to be a valuable source of guidance for young creators along the way. As Mad Cave continues to establish itself in the growing comic book and graphic novel industry, we can’t think of a better person than Mike to take the role as executive vice president and editor in chief.” 

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Quick Hits | Rachel Pollack hospitalized

Rest in peace, Lily Renée. Plus news on IDW Media, censorship in Missouri, Paul Allor and more.

Creators | Former Doom Patrol writer Rachel Pollack has been hospitalized and is currently in the ICU, according to a GoFundMe page started by Patricia Nolan. The page is seeking financial help for Pollack’s health care. “If she is able to go home, she will need 24-hour care. Up to now, we haven’t needed your help. It is time now,” the message reads. Pollack, who is also a novelist and Tarot expert, in addition to writing comics, most recently worked on the Comixology Originals title The Never Ending Party.

Passings | Lily Renée, who worked as a penciller and inker on titles for Fiction House and St. Johns Publications back in the 1940s and 1950s, has passed away at the age of 101. Trina Robbins reported the news on Facebook after hearing from Renée’s son Rick. “She died peacefully at home, as was her wish, yesterday after living a full life of more than 101 years. There is a time for all of us and her death comes on the heels of the birth of her third great grandchild earlier this year,” he said in his message.

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Slugfest | Lemire + Sorrentino’s ‘Ten Thousand Black Feathers’ takes flight in September

A round-up of recent comics news and announcements from Marvel, Skybound, Image, Aftershock and more.

Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino kicked off their shared universe The Bone Orchard Mythos earlier this month with the original graphic novel The Passageway, and they plan to continue the story later this year with the miniseries Ten Thousand Black Feathers.

The Passageway introduces readers to the Bone Orchard and now with Ten Thousand Black Feathers we dig in and really start to explore this new universe,” said Lemire. “This is a story of friendship, coming of age and imagination that is equal parts horrific, mysterious and heart wrenching.”

Image announced the first issue of the miniseries will hit stores on Sept. 14 and also shared a preview:

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Mail Call | Say hello to the New (Old) Fantastic Four

Check out news and announcements from Marvel, IDW, AfterShock, Drawn and Quarterly, and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of cool things we’ve received in our mailboxes from comics creators, publishers and more. Hit the links for more information.

Back in the early 1990s Wolverine, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider and Hulk had a brief team-up in the pages of Fantastic Four while the actual Fantastic Four were out of town. It was a fun story by Walt Simonson and Art Adams that only last a few issues. But now Marvel will revisit that team — and time period — in The New Fantastic Four, a limited series by Peter David and Alan Robinson.

“Although their original stint was extremely short-lived, the alternate version of the FF has had its fans for years, including myself,” David said. “I am fortunate Marvel has given me the opportunity to revisit with them and take their battles to new heights in a new location with new allies and new enemies.” 

Like Maestro and X-Men Legends, this story takes place in the past, shortly after the quartet’s first appearance.

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AfterShock officially announces ‘We Live’ sequel ‘Age of the Palladions’

The new series launches next March with two different first issues.

Brothers Inaki and Roy Miranda will return to the universe they created in the hit miniseries We Live next year, as the Age of the Palladions picks up six years after the original series.

AfterShock will actually release two version of the first issue, a “Black” version and a “White” version, with their own distinct previews and slightly different synopses.

“The story begins six years after the appearance of the Palladions in Megalopolis 9,” Co-writer Roy Miranda said. “After an ephemeral time of prosperity, the city faces a new critical situation.We are in the middle of a very delicate moment where a decision will have to be made for the survival of the population. It’s a story that deepens in the concept of heroism; a kind of heroism that few can assume when it needs to be built from a place of defeat.The readers that have followed us since the first arc will see how the universe of We Live has grown along with the characters. Especially our main characters, who have grown physically, but mostly psychologically.” 

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Mail Call | ‘TerrorWar’ debuts from Saladin Ahmed + Dave Acosta

Check out recent news and updates from Saladin Ahmed, Top Shelf, IDW, James Tynion IV, Kyle Higgins and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of cool things we’ve received in our mailboxes recently from comics creators, publishers and more. Hit the links for more information.

Saladin Ahmed posted the first pages of TerrorWar this week, the comic he first announced when he launched the paid version of his Substack newsletter. Drawn by Dave Acosta and Jay Leisten, the comic is about a city where people’s worst fears have come to life somehow, and the terrorfighters who face them with really big guns.

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Ennis + Holden take flight in ‘The Lion & the Eagle’ next year

The war comic kicks off in February.

AfterShock Comics has announced a new prestige-format war comic coming from the team of Garth Ennis and PJ Holden next year.

The Lion and the Eagle will tell the story of the Chindits, a British special forces unit active in Burma during the Japanese occupation in 1944.

“The conflict between the British and Japanese in Burma is almost lost to history now; indeed, the British soldiers who fought there came to refer to themselves as The Forgotten Army,” Ennis said. “That’s partly what drew me to their story, a chance to keep alive the memories of the men who faced Imperial Japan. There’s also the political aspect, as the two warring nations find themselves fighting for possession of Burma and India, two countries who by and large would have preferred to have neither of these foreign powers on their soil.”

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AfterShock plans to ruin your childhood with ‘Tales of Mother F. Goose’

The one-shot by Frank Tieri and Joe Eisma mashes up fairy tales with a mobster murder mystery.

Writer Frank Tieri, artist Joe Eisma, colorist Matt Herms and letterer Carlos M. Mangual are teaming up to put a new spin on some really old classics.

Tales of Mother F. Goose, a prestige format one-shot, will continue the fairy-tales-meet-gangster-movie world set up in AfterShock’s Shock anthology and the upcoming AfterDark Halloween special.

“Basically both these projects expand on the world we set up in ‘Little Red Hood’ — and they do it through the mob boss who is essentially the glue that holds all this shit together, Don Francesco Orca, our Mother F. Goose. (Orca means Goose in Italian. And yeah, his name is Francesco. What did ya think the F stood for? ;))” Tieri said.

It’s a world where the Three Little Pigs own a casino, Little Miss Muffet is a cop and The Three Blind Mice are assassins.

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Maniac Harry returns to burn down the Bronx in December

Elliott Kalan and Andrea Mutti bring back the unstoppable killing machine in ‘Maniac of New York: The Bronx is Burning.’

Elliott Kalan and Andrea Mutti’s Maniac Harry tore through a New York subway train in the pages of his first miniseries, and now he’s back to wreck havoc on the Bronx.

The seemingly unkillable slasher-killer inspired by Friday the 13th‘s Jason will return in Maniac of New York: The Bronx is Burning in December, where Kalan and Mutti team up with letterer Taylor Esposito to tell the next chapter in their story. While the first arc introduced the killer and the mayor’s aide who fought to bring him down, this one will show more of the impact he’s had on New York as a whole.

“The new arc, ‘The Bronx Is Burning,’ will give us more glimpses of how Maniac Harry has really insinuated himself into the fabric of New York life: copycat criminals, school Maniac drills, rap lyrics …” Kalan said. “We’ll also be following the Maniac into parts of the city we haven’t seen before, culminating in a huge scene at a public event that I’ve been wanting to include ever since the first series and which I can’t wait to see Andrea draw.”

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Tobin + MacDonald search for true love + kill monsters in ‘Croak’

The new title debuts from AfterShock Comics in November.

Paul Tobin and Andy MacDonald have a new comic called Croak coming from AfterShock in November that combines weaponized nightmares, monsters and … modern dating? Yeah, it’s an interesting, complicated mix, but it sounds pretty cool, as Tobin explains it:

Croak is about finding monsters and true love, and learning to tell the difference. It’s a world where dream research has ripped a hole between realities, and now legions of legendary monsters stalk the lands. The only way these dream portals can be closed is if certain people quit having nightmares, if they find peace and lead character Risa needs…to fall in love,” Tobin said. “We’re talking TRUE love. Helping her (mostly) is Croak himself, a troll with (maybe) her best interests in mind, but he’s ALSO fond of how she finds and kills monsters, because Croak eats monsters, and he’s always ravenous. So Croak—the comic—is Risa’s story of trying to navigate a world that’s both full of monsters, and monstrously bad dates. She isn’t sure which she’d rather face.”

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Mail Call | Marvel’s Free Comic Book Day titles

Get ready for Free Comic Book Day, which is coming up this Saturday. Also check out news from DC, Image Comics, IDW, AfterShock Comics and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently that we haven’t already covered. Hit the links for more information.

Marvel’s Free Comic Book Day offerings for this year have been somewhat confusing — at one point Chip Zdarsky was mentioned as contributing — but the company has put out a press release detailing what you specifically can from them this coming Saturday.

Marvel will have two books, as previously announced — Spider-Man/Venom and Hulk/Avengers, both of which will tease upcoming storylines for the four titles represented.

As previously reported, Amazing Spider-Man is getting a new creative team AND a new person under the mask, as infamous clone Ben Reilly returns to take on the mantle of Spider-Man. One of the new writers of Amazing, Zeb Wells, will team with artist Patrick Gleason for a story featuring Reilly as Spider-Man. It will be accompanied by a Venom story by the new creative team of Ram V., Al Ewing and Bryan Hitch “in a glimpse that will show you just how twisted their upcoming run will be.”

Then, in the second title, Donny Cates and Ryan Ottley will present a look at their upcoming run on Hulk. And Jason Aaron teams up with Iban Coello to “present the dangerous new threat that the Avengers will face in the next arc of his hit Avengers run.”

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