SDCC | Brian Azzarello + Vanesa Del Rey bring ‘The Creeping Below’ to BOOM!

The black metal revenge tale begins in October.

With the San Diego Comic Con on the horizon, BOOM! Studios continues to roll out announcements on their “Road to SDCC.” Yesterday brought a big one, as they announced a new revenge story by Brian Azzarello, Vanesa Del Rey and Hilary Jenkins called The Creeping Below.

BOOM! says the new series will be filled with “black metal, magic and Norse mythology,” as a woman killed at a black metal festival in Norway gets a second chance at life.

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Slugfest | BOOM! celebrates 25 years of ‘Farscape’

Plus: ‘Life,’ ‘Remote Space,’ Fantagraphics’ fall schedule, Minecraft, Dog Man and more.

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

Farscape, the Australian-American science fiction television series created by Rockne O’Bannon and the Jim Henson Company that ran on SciFi, will return to comics in August courtesy of BOOM! Studios, who published the previous Farscape series.

The 25th anniversary special one-shot will be the first Farscape comic published since 2010, and it’ll feature stories by  Keith R.A. DeCandido, who wrote many of BOOM!’s previous Farscape comics, along with Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly, Sarah Gailey, Sina Grace and more.

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DSTLRY announces three more titles that will debut next spring

Titles by Scott Snyder, Francesco Francavilla, James Tynion IV, Christian Ward, Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso will arrive next year.

DSTLRY has announced three more titles that spin out of its recent anthology The Devil’s Cut, all of which will debut next spring.

The titles include White Boat by Scott Snyder and Francesco Francavilla, Spectregraph by James Tynion IV and Christian Ward, and The Blood Brothers Mother by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso.

DSTLRY, the new comics company formed by former Comixology execs David Steinberger and Chip Mosher, released The Devil’s Cut in print back in August and a digital edition a couple of weeks ago. They’ve also released print editions of Gone by Jock and Somna by Becky Cloonan and Tula Lotay, which were followed this month by limited-edition digital releases (The digital Somna #1 should go on sale on the DSTLRY site this week). Blasfamous by Mirka Andolfo was announced to come out this week.

With these three announcements, that leaves two more titles that were featured in The Devil’s Cut that you can expect to see in the future — one by Elsa Charretier and another by Marc Bernardin and Ariela Kristantina.

Here’s more info on the three titles:

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Two Comixology vets return to comics with DSTLRY

The new publisher will offer creators an ownership stake in the company.

If you’ve been wondering what comiXology co-founder David Steinberger and former comiXology Originals head Chip Mosher have been doing lately, wonder no more. Today the duo have launched DSTLRY [pronounced “distillery”], a “next-generation comics publisher that redefines creator-owned comic books and collectibles.”

The new company will offer “limited physical and digital item drops, available online or in-store at local comic shops, while providing creators with fairer deals alongside company ownership.” There’s a lot to unpack from their press release, so let’s jump in … but first, here’s an image of DSTLRY’s founders drawn by Tula Lotay:

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Mail Call | DC announces ‘Milestones in History’ anthology

Check out news, announcements and previews from DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Image, Z2 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.

DC Comics and Milestone Media revealed more details about the anthology they plan to release this coming February during Black History Month, which was initially announced during DC FanDome last month.

Milestones in History will feature Hardware, Icon, Static and more narrating stories “Black trailblazers from across human history,” including Hannibal, the Queen of Sheba, Alexandre Dumas and more.

The 96-page prestige one-shot will cost $9.99 and arrives Feb. 15.

Here’s the full solicitation:

Celebrate Black History Month the Milestone way, as the superpowered citizens of Dakota (including Static, Icon, Rocket, Hardware, and more) narrate the true stories of Black trailblazers from across human history! Witness the military campaigns of Hannibal and the Queen of Sheba, the literary accomplishments of Alexandre Dumas, the World War One dogfights of Eugene Bullard against the legendary Red Baron, and many, many more, all written and drawn by a who’s who of comics and literary talent! On sale February 15th, this 96 page anthology honors Black History from around the world in a beautiful, prestige format book.

Written by REGINALD HUDLIN, ALICE RANDALL, TOURÉ, MICHAEL HARRIOT, and more
Art by VARIOUS
Cover by CHRISCROSS
Variant cover by DOUG BRAITHWAITE
$9.99 US | 96 pages | Prestige Format | One-shot

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International artists interpret the Dark Knight in ‘Batman: The World’ hardcover

The new hardcover collection will arrive in stores just in time for this year’s Batman Day.

DC Comics will release Batman: The World, a hardcover collection of stories featuring the Caped Crusader by creators from around the world, in September.

The release comes just in time for Batman Day on Sept. 18, and will feature stories about Batman set in locations across Europe, Asia and South America. Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo will kick the anthology off with a story set in Gotham where Batman “realizes that the call for justice knows no borders,” setting up the rest of the stories in the book.

“Batman has grown into a true pop culture icon, known the world over,” said DC publisher and chief creative officer Jim Lee. “Batman: The World is DC’s way of showing fans everywhere that Batman is more than a character; Batman is a phenomenon that transcends languages and borders.”

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DC announces Batman, Suicide Squad and more for Free Comic Book Day 2021

A ‘Fear State’ tie-in, a King Shark story and two previews aimed at younger readers highlight DC’s line-up this year.

DC Comics has announced their plans for this year’s Free Comic Book Day, revealing the four titles they plan to have available on Aug. 14.

The event is run by Diamond Comics Distributors, which DC stopped using last year as they migrated to Lunar Distribution. While Diamond won’t provide DC’s comics to retailers, they did say DC was more than welcome to participate.

Here are the four DC titles you can look for in August, which include a preview of the Batman event “Fear State” and a tie-in to the second Suicide Squad film:

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‘Birds of Prey’ soars again in October

The Birds are back in town, courtesy of Brian Azzarello, Emanuela Lupacchino, Ray McCarthy and Trish Mulvihill.

Just in time for the film of the same name, DC has announced a new Birds of Prey series featuring Black Canary, Harley Quinn and the Huntress. Writer Brian Azzarello and the art team of Emanuela Lupacchino, Ray McCarthy and Trish Mulvihill will bring the three heroines together to battle a new threat called Las Esposas de la Muerte.

“It’s cool to have a story to tell about these characters I’ve never worked on before, with Ema, a terrific artist I’ve never worked with before,” Azzarello said in the release. “Having Harley involved screws with the new BOP dynamic—hell, with every dynamic. She’s chaos, but she might be the most together member of the team. Canary, Huntress, and Montoya have a lot of damaged baggage. Ema and I are gonna unpack it.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: Brian Azzarello and Sierra Hahn

The writer and editor of Faithless from BOOM! Studios discuss the lead character, working with artist Maria Llovet and more.

Faithless is a new miniseries written by Brian Azzarello, and it’s a somewhat different project for him.

It’s the story of a young woman who is playing around with magic, and by the end of the first issue, it’s clear that she’s in much deeper than she thought. Which admittedly, structurally sounds like a lot of the crime stories that Azzarello has written.

I spoke recently with Azzarello and Faithless editor Sierra Hahn. The two have known each other for years but never worked together, and we spoke about how this project came together, working with artist Maria Llovet, and Dante Alighieri.

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DC’s Black Label debuts in September, adds ‘beloved existing titles’ to the line

Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo’s ‘Batman: Damned’ miniseries kicks the imprint off in September.

DC Comics’ new Black Label imprint promises standalone, out-of-continuity comics from “top talent” like Frank Miller, John Romita Jr., Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, John Ridley and many others — and it looks like we’ll see the first new output from the line in September.

DC revealed that Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo’s Batman: Damned miniseries will run for three bimonthly issues starting on Sept. 19. It will be followed by Frank Miller and John Romita Jr.’s Superman: Year One three-issue miniseries in November, and John Ridley’s The Other History of the DC Universe, a seven-issue series, in December.

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DC’s Black Label imprint to offer out-of-continuity comics from ‘top talent’

DC Comics has announced Black Label, a new imprint aimed at giving creators the freedom to create out-of-continuity stories and future “perennially best-selling, critically acclaimed books.”

“Many of our perennially best-selling, critically acclaimed books were produced when we unleashed our top talent on standalone, often out-of-continuity projects featuring our most iconic characters, a prime example being Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns,” DC Entertainment co-publisher Jim Lee said in a statement about the new imprint. “Creating DC Black Label doubles down on our commitment to working with all-star talent and trusting them to tell epic, moving stories that only they can tell with the highest levels of creative freedom.”

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