Tag: Ahoy Comics

‘Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Blood’ creeps in from Ahoy just in time for Halloween

Paul Cornell, Russ Braun and Dean Motter will contribute to the anthology title’s first issue.

The follow-up to Ahoy Comics’ horror title Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Terror gets a slight title tweak that can’t bode well for anyone — Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Blood will arrive from the publisher in October.

The series is the third one invoking the name of the 19th century horror master.

“Since Edgar Allan Poe is dead, we get to make any arbitrary decision we want and there’s not a thing he can do about it,” said Editor-in-Chief Tom Peyer in Ahoy’s July newsletter. “So sometimes we just make a senseless power move out of sheer contempt for the great writer and his memory. Plus, we get to start again at #1, which should attract all of the most devoted comics collectors of 1991. Everybody wins! Except Poe.”

In the first issue, Paul Cornell and Russ Braun retell Poe’s “Black Cat” — but with a dog, while Dean Motter “settles the science vs. religion debate once and for all.”

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Get happy (or else) in Milligan + Montenat’s ‘Happy Hour’

The new series from Ahoy Comics starts in November.

What if being sad was against the law? What if the “Joy Police” brutally enforced a “cheery code” all citizens had to abide by? That’s the premise of an upcoming Ahoy Comics title, Happy Hour, by Peter Milligan, Michael Montenat and Felipe Sobreiro.

“I was a miserable child. Strangers would approach me in the street and tell me to cheer up. But I didn’t want to cheer up,” Milligan said in the July Ahoy newsletter “Years later, these feelings morphed into Happy Hour, the strange story of a society of legally-enforced cheerfulness… and a young man who just wants the right to be miserable. Finally, I feel vindicated!”

Check out the cover below:

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Dragonfly meets Dragonflyman in ‘The Wrong Earth: Night & Day’

Tom Peyer, Jamal Igle and Juan Castro bring the two versions of the same hero together.

After two miniseries together, the characters Dragonfly and Dragonflyman will finally meet face-to-face in the pages of The Wrong Earth: Night & Day, which starts next January.

Tom Peyer, Jamal Igle and Juan Castro return for another round of alternate Earths and dual identities, as the campy meets the gritty in this fun series.

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‘Second Coming’ returns in December with ‘Only Begotten Son’

Mark Russell, Richard Pace and Leonard Kirk return for more stories about Jesus and his superhero roommate.

Ahoy Comics has announced a sequel to Second Coming subtitled “Only Begotten Son,” which will debut at the end of this year. Mark Russell, Richard Pace, Leonard Kirk and Andy Troy will return to tell the controversial — and also funny, touching and just plain awesome — story of Jesus and his roommate, the superhero Sunstar.

According to the solicitation text Ahoy shared, the new series will “turn back time to witness the interplanetary origin of Sunstar! Warning: portrays science denial, mass extinction and real estate sales!”

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Peyer + Robinson’s ‘Penultiman’ rescheduled for October

Ahoy Comics has a new release date for the comic, which was delayed due to the pandemic.

Ahoy Comics’s Penultiman has endured title changes, controversial contest endings and delays due to worldwide pandemics, but now “The Next-To-Last Stage in Human Evolution” looks like he might finally have a release date. Ahoy has announced the first issue by Tom Peyer and Alan Robinson will finally arrive in October.

“We’ve seen characters who represent the ultimate stage of human potential—Captain Comet and Warlock come to mind—but I don’t think we’ve met any who are just a little worse than the best,” Peyer told Alex Dueben in March. “Imagine being so advanced only to be outclassed. I guess a lot of science fiction that dealt with humans encountering extraterrestrials would have played on that anxiety, but I haven’t seen it played as comedy in a superhero comic.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: Mariah McCourt

The comics editor and writer talks about writing the new AHOY title ‘Ash & Thorn,’ creating art, baking and more.

Mariah McCourt has had a long career as a comics editor at DC and IDW. It was also at IDW that she first started writing comics, though she is an artist who attended the School of Visual Arts, majoring in illustration. Since then she’s written comics like September Mourning and Stitched, and adapted Anne Rice’s Servant of the Bones. 

Her new comic, which she wrote and created, is Ash & Thorn. Drawn by Soo Lee with colors by Pippa Bowland and covers by Jill Thompson, the book involves Lady Peruvia Ashlington-Voss arriving at the home of Lottie Thorn, the new chosen one, who will fight off the demonic hordes. She was not expecting to find an elderly retired art teacher. The result is a comedic horror tale that pokes fun at the genre.

After being delayed due to the pandemic shutdown, the first issue is out tomorrow, June 24, and McCourt was kind enough to answers a few questions about her career path, her art practice and pie.

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Mail Call | AHOY Comics moves ‘Captain Ginger’ to digital only

Featuring news from AHOY, Quarantine Comix and the CBLDF.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we received from publishers in our mailboxes recently. Hit the links for more information.

The latest issue of the Quarantine Comix guest series features Al Ewing and PJ Holden, telling a short story that’s a “riff on Animal Crossing and Wicker Man.” Proceeds for this latest issue will go to the Equal Justice Initiative and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.  Visit the Quarantine Comix website for more information.

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Comics Lockdown: Publishers react to COVID-19

With news from Marvel, Dark Horse, Humanoids, Vault Comics and more.

Marvel offers some suggestions on how to support local comic shops, along with a list of stores that are still open and what services they provide.

Christina Merkler of Discount Comic Book Service discusses the effect of the Diamond shutdown on the Collected Comics Podcast.

UK comics blogger John Freeman rounds up resources and links, including free comics sites, information on UK stores that sell by mail order, and stuff to keep homebound kids amused, at Down the Tubes.

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Diamond halts new comics shipments for April 1 and beyond

IDW and others react to the news.

The COVID-19 epidemic that has shuttered comic shops and forced the postponement of conventions around the country has also affected Diamond Comics Distributors, the sole major distributor to comics retail shops, and today, Diamond co-founder Steve Geppi announced that they will be shutting down shipments of new product:

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Smash Pages Q&A: Tom Peyer on ‘Penultiman’

The prolific writer and editor discusses his upcoming title from Ahoy Press, the state of the company and more.

Tom Peyer has been writing and editing comics for years, but in the past two years since he helped to launch Ahoy Comics, Peyer has been writing up a storm. From the two very different titles that launched the publisher, The Wrong Earth and High Heaven, to subsequent books like Hashtag: Danger and Dragonfly and Dragonflyman, Peyer has shaped the sensibility and approach of the company.

Last year Ahoy released Steel Cage #1, which contained three short comics: Bright Boy by Stuart Moore and Peter Gross, Noah Zark by Mark Waid and Lanna Souvanny, and True Identity by Peyer and Alan Robinson. Readers were encouraged to vote for their favorite, but because of voting irregularities, the company declared that all three would get their own series. Now Peyer and Robinson have their series, renamed Penultiman, launching on May 6. People can read the short comic from Steel Cage for free on ComiXology right now, and Peyer stopped by to answer a few questions about superheroes and the Silver Age, and show off some of Robinson’s artwork.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Mark Russell on ‘Billionaire Island’

The writer of ‘Second Coming’ discusses his new release from Ahoy Comics, which imagines an island where the rich escape from the end of the world.

Mark Russell has made a name for himself as one of the leading satirists in comics and a deeply subversive writer. I think it’s fair to say that no one envisioned The Flintstones or Snagglepuss the way that Russell wrote them, as these complex, thoughtful and tragic stories that addressed social issues in such pointed ways.

In addition to those books, there’s the two books where, with Shannon Wheeler, he reinterpreted The Bible (God is Disappointed in You, Apocrypha Now). He also wrote The Wonder Twins series for DC, which recently wrapped up, and Second Coming, which was originally going to be published by Vertigo, but the company dropped the series about Jesus becoming roommates with the world’s mightiest superhero. 

Russell is back with a new series from Ahoy Comics, Billionaire Island. Taking place in 2044, it concerns an artificial island where the wealthiest can take their money and avoid the problems that come from dealing with humanity – and all the problems that the wealthy created. It is funny and outrageous – and someone is probably working on how to build such an island as we speak. I spoke with Russell about the book, being outrageous and taking guidance from Winston Churchill.

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‘Penultiman’ miniseries debuts in May

Tom Peyer, Alan Robinson and Lee Loughridge bring a hero from the future and his issues to the present day.

From the pages of AHOY’s Steel Cage comes a new five-issue mini-series by writer Tom Peyer, artist Alan Robinson and colorist Lee Loughridge, with lettering by Rob Steen and covers by Robinson. Penultiman tells the story of a superhero from the future having an identity crisis of sorts.

“Penultiman, The Next-To-Last Stage in Human Evolution, is hailed as the godlike epitome of beauty, power, and compassion in the year 2020,” said Peyer. “In the far-future century he came from, however, his more advanced contemporaries saw him as a brutish evolutionary throwback and exiled him to our era. Paragon or primitive? His one chance for peace is to deny the haters and admirers alike, and discover who he really is–if he only knew how to begin.”

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