Marvel announces plans for Black History Month

The publisher announces an anthology titled ‘Marvel’s Voices: Legacy’ and a series of variant covers by Ernanda Souza.

Marvel has announced plans to release another addition of Marvel’s Voices during Black History Month in February, similar to the one arriving this week to celebrate Indigenous history. This one is titled Marvel’s Voices: Legacy and will feature a variety of stories by Black creators.

“I don’t think comics can call itself a successful industry unless it’s reached out to all kinds of fans,” said the anthology’s co-editor, Sarah Brunstad. “Comics are a medium, not a genre, you know? So it’s immensely important to me that we bring in new readers and make them welcome in the Marvel Universe. We do that by telling all different kinds of stories with all different kinds of creators.”

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Clowns take the center ring in Prince’s ‘Haha’

The new anthology series from W. Maxwell Prince and Image Comics begins in January.

Image Comics has announced a new anthology title called Haha, written by W. Maxwell Prince and drawn by a variety of different artists. Each issue will include a done-in-one story about a professional clown, the only thing in the universe scarier than the main character in Prince’s Ice Cream Man series.

“I don’t like clowns, so I thought it’d be a good idea to write about them,” Prince said. “What a gas, to get to partner with some of comics’ best to tell these ditties about a bunch of real jokers.”

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DC resurrects ‘Batman: Black and White’

The anthology series spotlighting the Dark Knight returns in December.

DC has announced the return of Batman: Black and White, the popular series from the 1990s that featured rotating creators telling stories about Batman, his friends and his foes — all in black and white.

This new iteration will be a six-issue, prestige-format, $5.99 miniseries with an impressive lineup of creators on tap to produce colorless tales of the Dark Knight.

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Mail Call | ‘X-O Manowar’ returns, ‘Death Metal’ one-shots and more

A round-up of news from DC, Marvel, Image Comics, Valiant and more.

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

The Dark Nights: Death Metal event grew again this week, as DC announced two new anthology one-shots for November prior to releasing their full November solicitations.

The first one is focused on Lobo and is titled Dark Nights: Death Metal Infinite Hours Exxxtreme! #1. It will feature “Uncle Lobo” telling “familiar yet freaky stories of the DC Universe, exactly as he remembers them: with blood and guts and exxxtreme gratuitous violence.” The creators involved include Frank Tieri, Becky Cloonan, Dale Eaglesham and more, with a cover by Kyle Hotz.

If that one isn’t ridiculous-sounding enough, the second one, Dark Nights: Death Metal The Multiverse Who Laughs “offers the curious—and the brave—a glimpse into the nightmare realities that the Batman Who Laughs has created in tales by creators who know what it means to have a truly twisted sense of misfit humor.” As you can tell by the cover, one of those worlds features evil super pets. It includes stories by Amanda Conner, Patton Oswalt, Jimmy Palmiotti, Scott Snyder, Brandon Thomas, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson, Chad Hardin and more.

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Fund Me Monday | ‘Cupid’s Arrow,’ ‘Dagger Dagger’ and more

Check out new crowdfunding projects by Thom Zahler, Ron Marz, Matthew Dow Smith, Vincent Fiorello and more.

Crowdfunding continues to serve as a viable method for creators to fund their creative endeavors, as comic-related projects flourish on sites like Kickstarter, Patreon and IndieGoGo. If you’re looking to buy something from or support a creator directly, you’ve come to the right place. And that’s a good thing to do, now more than ever.

Send any suggestions of your own to jkparkin@yahoo.com.

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James Tynion IV launches a new horror magazine

‘Razorblades’ features comics, prose and artwork by a variety of contributors.

Batman writer James Tynion IV has launched not only a new webstore, but also a horror magazine containing comics and prose. Tynion is curating the stories with Steve Foxe, and also contributing some work of his own.

The magazine includes two new comics by Tynion: “Washing Machine” with artist Andy Belanger and a preview of “The Adventures of Killboy” with artist Ricardo Lopez Ortiz, which Tynion says he plans to serialize in the future. Other contributors include Sam Johns, DaNi, Michael Dialynas, Marguerite Bennett, Werther Dell’Edera, Lonnie Nadler, Jenna Cha, Michael Walsh, and more.

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DC boots up ‘DC Cybernetic Summer’ anthology for July

The robots will rise in a new summer-themed anthology.

DC’s next seasonal anthology will celebrate the summer in style — robot style. The publisher has revealed DC Cybernetic Summer, a collection of stories featuring Red Tornado, Robotman, Cyborg and other mechanically themed heroes, as well as Superman, Wonder Woman and others of a non-mechanical nature.

Here’s a rundown of what you can expect to find in the anthology:

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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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Make some noise: Editor Erin Bried shares how ‘Noisemakers’ came together

The founder and editor-in-chief of Kazoo Magazine discusses her first foray into comics anthologies.

Four years ago, Erin Bried made history with Kazoo Magazine, the highest-funded journalism campaign on Kickstarter ever. Envisioned as a way to “celebrate girls for being smart, strong, fierce and true to themselves,” the quarterly magazine went on to gain fans and win awards, including the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2019.

In creating Kazoo, Bried also became something else — a comics editor. Each issue of Kazoo features a comic strip by a different female creator, celebrating the life of a woman who has made history. Those comics helped jumpstart Bried’s latest project — an anthology collecting similar comics by a host of talented creators. Noisemakers: 25 Women Who Raised Their Voices & Changed the World arrived in stores today, featuring comics by, among others, Emil Ferris, Lucy Knisley, Lucy Bellwood, Maris Wicks and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell, whose strip about Hallie Daggett, the first woman hired as a fire lookout by the United States Forest Service, can be seen below.

It’s an impressive line-up of talent, and Bried took some time to answer my questions about how it all came together.

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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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Fund Me Monday: ‘You Died,’ ‘American Cult’ and more

Find out about crowdfunding projects by Iron Circus Comics, Jim Calafiore, Robyn Chapman and more.

As crowdfunding continues to be a viable method for creators to fund their creative endeavors and connect directly with fans, comic-related projects flourish on sites like Kickstarter, Patreon and IndieGoGo. Here’s a look at a few recent campaigns that caught our eyes.

YOU DIED: An Anthology of the Afterlife

Creators involved: Spike Trotman of Iron Circus Comics + a host of other creators
Deadline: Wednesday, Aug. 21
Goal: $20,000 (funded)

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‘Red Rain’ Batman sinks his teeth into ‘Secrets of Sinister House’ one-shot

DC’s annual Halloween anthology features new stories by John Layman, Paul Dini, Rafael Albuquerque, Tom Raney and more.

DC’s annual Halloween anthology will return in October with a new story set in the world of Batman & Dracula: Red Rain, among other stories.

Rafael Scavone and Rafael Albuquerque will co-write the story about vampire Batman, with art by Rafael Albuquerque. Albuquerque’s the co-creator of American Vampire, so he’s very familiar with fanged monsters. Released in the 1990s and created by Dog Moench and Kelley Jones, Red Rain was one of the earliest “Elseworlds” stories published by DC. It spawned two sequels.

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