Fund Me Friday | Vipers, dragons, baboons … and lemonade

Check out new crowdfunding projects from Joe Glass, Cullen Bunn, Saladin Ahmed, Dave Acosta 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. The internet also allows creators to sell their creations direct to fans, through sites like Gumroad, Etsy and of course their own websites. 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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Comics Lowdown: Standing behind retailers during the coronavirus

Plus: TCAF canceled, BookExpo postponed and more coronavirus news.

As the threat of the coronavirus continues to spread, and federal, state and local governments take action to try and stop it, “shelter in place” and social distancing orders inevitably harm small businesses, like comics retailers. Many retailers around the country have either closed up for a time or have moved to a mail order/”curbside pickup” system. In his weekly newsletter today, writer Cullen Bunn shared some tips for supprtoing your favorite shop during this time:

…SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL COMIC BOOK SHOP as much as you’re able. 

Running a comic book store can be difficult, even in the best of times. Right now, shops are taking a hit. The absolute last thing I want to see—as a reader, a fan, and a creator—is for comic book stores to disappear. It is vital that we all work together to support comic book stores as much as possible and help them get through the coming weeks. When comic book stores suffer, so does the comic book industry. A lot of stores are offering new services during this time of isolation and social-distancing. Some things you can do to help…

  • Inquiring about curbside pickup.
  • Inquiring about mail order or delivery options. 
  • Purchasing any books that are in your pull box.
  • Purchasing gift cards/gift certificates for upcoming birthdays, events, and holidays. 
  • Following your local comic shop on social media for updates on: curtailed hours of operation, events, special accommodations, and cleaning policy. 
  • Tagging your local comic shop on social media & posting photos of the comics you’ve purchased to read during self-quarantine and social distancing.

You can find a comic shop offering “safe services” during the pandemic by using this map from BOOM! Studios.

Image Comics, who issued a letter asking other publishers to help comics retailers during this crisis, also had Alex Cox, Skottie Young and Nate Piekos create a short comic on how fans can support their local shop:

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Nominees announced for the 2019 Bram Stoker Awards

Winners of the annual awards for horror/dark fiction will be announced April 18.

The Horror Writers Association has announced the nominees for the 2019 Bram Stoker Awards. The annual awards for horror/dark fiction include a “Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel” category.

Presented annually since 1987, the winners will be announced at StokerCon 2020 in Scarborough, England on April 18. The nominees in the graphic novel category are:

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Valiant revives ‘Shadowman’

Cullen Bunn and Jon Davis-Hunt tapped to bring horror back to Valiant.

Valiant’s Shadowman will return in May with a new series by Cullen Bunn, Jon Davis-Hunt, Jodie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles.

“We’re taking Shadowman in some directions he’s never been taken before,” Bunn said in a press release. “He’s confronting a growing supernatural threat that is popping up all over the world. We are introducing the concept of the Blight, which is a weakening of the veil between our world and the Deadside. And these Blights occur in places of great sorrow and misery and evil.”

Bunn added, “We’re also introducing a new villain who will be changing the face of the supernatural in the Valiant Universe.”

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Comics Lowdown: Chinese government upset by Danish coronavirus cartoon

Plus: Changes at Kodansha, Cullen Bunn goes ‘Rogue’ and whatever happened to Lion Man?

Editorial Cartoons: A cartoon in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, depicting the Chinese flag with the stars replaced by coronaviruses, has, predictably, angered the Chinese government. (Jyllands-Posten is the same paper whose cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad caused an uproar in 2005.) The Chinese Embassy in Copenhagen has demanded an apology, but Jyllands-Posten editor Jacob Nybroe has refused, and the Danish prime minister is backing him up.

The Biz: Restructuring at Kodansha USA means a promotion for Alvin Lu, previously the general manager of Kodansha Advance Media. Publishers Weekly reports that Kodansha’s subsidiaries, including its digital arm Kodansha Advanced Media and the manga and novel publisher Vertical Inc., will be folded into Kodansha USA. Lu will be the CEO, and Ivan Salazar, former public relations and events specialist at ComiXology, has been hired as senior marketing director.

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Cullen Bunn shares an unused pitch for a cosmic X-Men series

The writer shares designs for crew members of the Starship Perilous.

Cullen Bunn’s run on Uncanny X-Men saw Cyclops, Jean Grey and the other time-displaced teenaged originals joining forces with their longtime nemesis Magneto … but that wasn’t Bunn’s original pitch for the series.

His original pitch was to send some of the X-Men into space on a spaceship powered by the Siege Perilous. How cool is that?

“In 2015, I was asked to take over Uncanny X-Men,” he wrote on Twitter. “We all know that yielded the Magneto-led team. My first pitch, however, was a cosmic team with Rachel Summers in charge and a new Captain Britain.”

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‘Harrow County’ returns in new story set during World War II

Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook are joined by artist Naomi Franquiz as they journey back to Harrow County.

Cullen Bunn and Tyler Crook‘s Harrow County series may have wrapped up in 2018, but that doesn’t mean they’re done with the world they created. Tales from Harrow County: Death’s Choir, a miniseries that follows the events of the series, will kick off in December.

Written by Bunn and Crook, the miniseries will be drawn by Naomi Franquiz, who also provides the cover for the first issue:

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Smash Pages Q&A: Cullen Bunn on ‘Blossom 666’

The writer of ‘Harrow County,’ ‘The Sixth Gun,’ ‘X-Men Blue,’ ‘Unearth’ and more discusses the recently wrapped-up Archie Horror title.

Cullen Bunn has written a lot of horror comics in recent years – along with a lot of comics in a lot of other genres. In comics ranging from Harrow County to The Empty Man to Bone Parish to The Damned, he’s played with the genre in different ways.

The five-issue miniseries Blossoms 666 which Bunn made with artist Laura Braga just wrapped up, in which Cheryl and Jason Blossom compete to become the Antichrist. The Archie Comics horror line has a reputation for being shocking and brutal in a lot of strange and creative ways, but Blossoms 666 is a much quieter book compared to the others, with the horror being much more subtle and running under the seemingly placid surface.

Now that the series has wrapped up, Bunn answered a few questions about the comic and playing with an ideal version of Riverdale.

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It’s all about the hair in Valiant’s ‘Roku’ miniseries

Cullen Bunn and Ramón F. Bachs take the deadly assassin on a globe-trotting adventure.

Roku, the former-lover-turned-adversary of Valiant’s Ninjak, will star in her own four-issue miniseries, courtesy of Cullen Bunn, Ramón F. Bachs, Stéphane Paitreau and Dave Sharpe.

“Roku is perhaps the deadliest assassin in the Valiant Universe, and this is her first solo series,” Bunn said on his blog. “I’m sending her on a globe-trotting adventure where she will not get a chance to catch her breath. This is The Killer meets Hard-Boiled meets Replacement Killers meets John Wick… with psychic assassins.”

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Who will reign as the Anti-Christ? Find out in ‘Blossoms 666’ #5 [Exclusive Preview]

Cullen Bunn, Laura Braga, Matt Herms and Jack Morelli’s tale reaches its final conflict, and no one in Riverdale is safe.

The Blossom twins’ devilish schemes will come to a head in the final issue of Blossoms 666 by Cullen Bunn, Laura Braga, Matt Herms and Jack Morelli.

Part of the Archie Horror line, Blossoms 666 features the two Blossom siblings, Cheryl and Jason, competing for the title of Anti-Christ. Throw in their long-lost brother and Satanist family, and you’ve got all sorts of trouble for the rest of Riverdale.

Courtesy of Archie Comics, take a look at an exclusive preview of Blossoms 666 #5 below, which wraps up the five-issue miniseries.

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Bunn, Strahm + Rivas ‘Unearth’ a new horror series at Image

New title will debut in July.

The prolific horror/superhero comics writer Cullen Bunn will team with artists Kyle Strahm and Baldemar Rivas for a new horror series titled Unearth at Image Comics.

“I feel so lucky to be working with Kyle and Baldemar on this book,” said Bunn. “Kyle and I have such similar sensibilities when it comes to horror, but there are enough differences in our tastes that we challenge each other. And Baldemar! What an amazing talent! And he has helped us to push the boundaries of what this tale of terror is all about. We want this story to be something different and shocking and fun and surprising, and I think we’ve succeeded!”

Image describes Unearth as “The X-Files meets Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation” and said it involves a flesh-warping disease that ravages a remote village in Mexico. A scientific task force traces the source of the disease to a nearby cave system, where they discover a bizarre, hostile ecosystem and a supernatural revelation from which they may never escape.

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It’s gotta be Cheryl: ‘Blossoms 666’ imagines a Blossom twin as the Anti-Christ

Cullen Bunn, Laura Braga and Matt Herms team up to tell us which Blossom twin will destroy the Earth. Why can’t it be both?

Cullen Bunn has proven a natural at tackling the supernatural in comics (see: Cold Spots, Harrow County) as well as teenagers (see: X-Men Blue), so it only makes sense that Archie Comics would recruit him for one of their “Afterlife with Archie” titles.

Blossoms 666 teams Bunn with artists Laura Braga and Matt Herms for a different take on the notorious Blossom twins, Cheryl and Jason. According to Nerdist, “They’re wealthy, popular and likeable, but they also harbor a deep, dark secret: one of the Blossom Twins is the Anti-Christ. But neither one knows which of them is the Anti-Christ, and both want the title! In short, no one in Riverdale is safe.”

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