Aaron + Manna fire off ‘BRZRKR: A Faceful of Bullets’

The one-shot starring Keanu Reeves’ creation will arrive in stores this summer.

Jason Aaron has been busy since his exclusive contract with Marvel expired, writing pop culture icons like Superman, Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Uncle Scrooge. He’ll add another icon to that list, Keanu Reeves, with BRZRKR: A Faceful of Bullets.

BOOM! Studios announced the one-shot at the ComicsPRO meeting last week. Aaron will work with Reeves and artist Francesco Manna on the project, which will take the immortal title character to  the 1800s American West. It also serves as the first of several BRZRKR: Bloodlines specials BOOM! will release.

“Having new writers and artists explore B.’s history in these Bloodlines Specials is something that is so exciting to me,” said Reeves, the creator of BRZRKR. “Jason and Francesco teaming up for a brutal, tragic Western was a perfect match for BRZRKR and the types of stories we want to tell in this universe.”

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Phillip Kennedy Johnson + SOM snap their jaws down on ‘Crocodile Black’

The new series kicks off from BOOM! Studios in May.

Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson and artist SOM will team for a new “macabre thriller” from BOOM! Studios, Crocodile Black.

It’s about a COVID-era kid who goes through a “dark reinvention,” highlighted by his new black crocodile boots.

Crocodile Black is a story about dark reinvention. It’s about hidden trauma, unchecked obsession, the power that masks give us, and a dead man’s black crocodile-skin boots. It’s about a COVID-era kid with no prospects finding something he never knew he wanted, and using it to become someone he never knew he wanted to be: a dangerous man,” Johnson said.

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Slugfest | Dark Horse resurrects ‘Lester of the Lesser Gods’

Plus: The Winx saga continues, Usagi turns 40, the Dreadnoks return and more!

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

Lester of the Lesser Gods, which was originally published by Albatross Funnybooks, is finding new life at Dark Horse this year.

Written by Eric Powell and Lucky Yates, and featuring artwork by Gideon Kendall, Lester began life as unproduced animated short before finding its way to comics.

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Fleecs + Wachter will lead you to the ‘Uncanny Valley’

The new series arrives from BOOM! Studios in April.

BOOM! Studios has announced that Tony Fleecs of Stray Dogs and Local Man fame will team with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles artist Dave Wachter for a new series called Uncanny Valley.

The story revolves around a 12-year-old named Oliver whose powers connect him to a surreal, cartoon-ish world.

Uncanny Valley is a book that I’ve wanted to make for years. I’m so excited to be making it with the impossibly talented Dave Wachter and with BOOM! Studios,” said Fleecs. “It’s a big huge story set in two giant worlds with all sorts of magic and mystery and robots and skeletons but it’s centered on this little tiny family. Those are my favorite kinds of stories.”

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Thompson + Izzo commit crimes in remote places in ‘Blow Away’

The neo-noir thriller will arrive from BOOM! Studios in April.

 Writer Zac Thompson and artist Nicola Izzo will channel their inner Hitchcock on Blow Away, a crime thriller kicking off at BOOM! this spring.

The story’s about a wildlife videographer who, while on a remote video shoot, may have witnessed and filmed a murder.

“Ever since I first watched Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, I’ve dreamt of telling a paranoid thriller story. Blow Away is that dream made manifest through an incredible collaboration with Nicola,” said Thompson, whose known for his work on Ka-Zar: Lord of the Savage LandThe Marvelous X-Men and The Dregs. “We’ve crafted a neo-noir mystery about obsession and the slippery and subjective nature of the truth. Really, it’s a big love letter to Brian De Palma and Alfred Hitchcock where suspense is the driving force on every page.”

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Campbell + Zonno gear up for the the post-apocalyptic sports comic ‘I Heart Skull-Crusher’

The first issue from BOOM! Box arrives in March.

Josie Campbell and Alessio Zonno will team for a new series from BOOM! Studios’ BOOM! Box imprint next year.  I Heart Skull-Crusher is about an aspiring player of Screaming Pain Ball, the most popular sport in post-apocalyptic America, and her journey to becoming just like her favorite pro, Skull-Crusher.

“I am BEYOND thrilled to bring I Heart Skull-Crusher to life with the talented Alessio; it’s everything I love–queer characters, anime influences, action, comedy, broken hearts, broken bones, Post-Apocalypse death matches–wrapped up in one gorgeous package. This is the story I’ve been wanting to tell for years!” Campbell said

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Pichetshote + Lonergan head to the stars in ‘Man’s Best’

The BOOM! Studios series will feature three pets tasked with saving humanity from an alien threat.

Pornsak Pichetshote and Jesse Lonergan will send three emotional support animals into hostile alien territory in Man’s Best, a new series coming from BOOM! Studios next year.

The three pets live on the Starship Horizon, which is searching for a new home “to house a humanity compromised by bad decisions and corporate greed.” Kind of like Wall-E meets We3. Things, of course, go horribly wrong for the human, and it’s up to the support animals to provide a different kind of support.

“It’s really weird to say a book about a cat in a mech suit, a golden retriever with a bionic leg, and a French bulldog with a rocket strapped to his back might be my most personal book ever, but…that’s kinda what happened?” said Pichetshote, whose resume includes InfidelSandman Universe: Dead Boy Detectives and the Eisner-winning The Good Asian. “I’ve never written anything where I can see recent realizations in my life directly incorporated onto the page as much as this book and have no idea how readers will respond. What I’m a lot more confident in is how much of an honor it is to work with Jesse Lonergan. It’s amazing how as a ‘professional writer’ I still have no words to explain how innovative his art keeps getting with each issue.”

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BOOM! announces ‘The Displaced’ by Brisson + Casalanguida + Cunniffe

The story of a forgotten Canadian city kicks off next year.

A project that was almost writer Ed Brisson’s first published comics project will finally see the light of day, as BOOM! Studios has announced The Displaced, which is about a city that has vanished without a trace and that no one can remember.

Brisson is joined by artist Luca Casalanguida, colorist Dee Cunniffe and letterer Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou on the project, which kicks off in February.

The Displaced was almost my very first published work. About a year before Comeback was picked up by Shadowline/Image, I had pitched The Displaced and had interest from a publisher. However, after months of back-and-forth notes, the book ended up veering away from the book that I wanted to do, so we amicably parted ways. It was a tough call to make, but ultimately, the right one. This book is too dear to me, I didn’t want to lose that,” Brisson said in his email newsletter. “The concept sat in a digital drawer for years. I’d periodically take it out, blow off the dust, and work on it. Yet it always felt like there was a piece missing. At some point during 2022, that piece finally fell into place and I set out to pitch it again — the first time since that 2011 experience.”

Brisson has worked with BOOM! in the past, on titles like Cluster and The Last Contract, and The Displaced marks his return to the publisher for the first time in about seven years.

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Free Comic Book Day 2024 Gold sponsors include DC, Marvel and more

Free comics featuring Spider-Man, Hellboy, Jonny Quest, Encanto and more will be available next year on May 4.

Diamond has revealed the “Gold Sponsor” comic publishers and titles for Free Comic Book Day 2024, which includes Marvel, DC, Dark Horse and more. A dozen comics from the gold sponsors will be available during next year’s event, which is scheduled for May 4.

“We’re looking forward to another great year of celebrating comic books and comic book shops!” said Ashton Greenwood, Free Comic Book Day spokesperson. “This year’s lineup has a title for everyone. Whether you’re new to comics or a longtime reader, you’re sure to find a title that grabs your attention. And with the event falling on Star Wars Day this year, that adds a little extra excitement to the day!”

Interestingly, DC returns to the list for 2024, promoting an “exciting new project” that’ll be revealed at a later date. Since DC left Diamond back in 2020, they’ve participated in the event, but their books were not promoted by Diamond nor were they included on the Free Comic Book Day website.

Here’s a look at the gold sponsor titles, many of which are teasers rather than actual announcements. The extensive silver sponsor title list will be announced later this week.

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Slugfest | ‘Titans: Beast World’ has giant starfish and lenticular covers

Plus more news and announcements on Canto, Nomads, Batman, Blue Book, Star Wars and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

DC has released a preview of the upcoming Titans: Beast World miniseries, which was announced this past summer. The crossover event will feature a main series by Tom Taylor, Ivan Reis and Danny Miki, with various tie-ins throughout.

The story centers on The Necrostar, a giant space starfish that rivals Starro and who the Titans, along with the rest of the DC Universe, team up to fight. Along the way, they somehow end up being turned into animal versions of themselves. Beast Boy, in fact, will show that it takes a giant starfish to stop a giant starfish, as he transforms into a version of Starro himself.

Here’s a preview, along with a look at the main cover, which is by Ivan Reis, Danny Miki and Brad Anderson:

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Slugfest | Soule + Alburquerque continue ‘The Shrouded College’ storyline in a new miniseries

Plus: News and announcements about Star Wars, Sea Serpent’s Heir, Richard Corben, Kingdom Come, Stranger Things and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

Charles Soule and Alberto Jiménez Alburquerque will present the second of seven interconnected miniseries in “The Shrouded College” saga that started with Soule and Will Sliney’s Hell to Pay.

The Bloody Dozen will run for six issues and kicks off in December.

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Christine Larsen’s ‘Orcs!’ return in December

The appropriately titled miniseries ‘The Gift’ will arrive just in time for the holiday season.

Christine Larsen will return to the world of her Orcs! series this winter for Orcs! The Gift, which wraps up the trilogy of miniseries published through BOOM! Studios’ KaBOOM! imprint.

“I’m stoked to finally reach the culmination of this trilogy, where my characters are put to a true test, and I can test my own ability to balance the dramatic moments and the comedy of this series,” said Larsen. “I hope everyone enjoys this final arc as much as I’ve enjoyed crafting it.”

Larsen has been working on Orcs! for at least a decade now, if you go back to the art books she self-published and crowdfunded before BOOM! started publishing the series. You can read more about their pre-BOOM! history here.

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