Tag: David Pepose

Slugfest | Black Widow gets ‘Venomous’ in a new one-shot

Plus news and announcements on Hellverine, Misty, Nick Cagnetti, Paul Pope, Blood Hunt, Briar, Joy Operations and more!

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you that we haven’t otherwise covered. Hit the links for more information.

If you’ve been reading Venom of late, you know that the Black Widow — who already has a cool spider name — has gone and gotten herself a symbiote. This summer, writer Erica Schultz and artist Luciano Vecchio will “unleash Natasha Romanoff’s full potential as a symbiote warrior” in a new one-shot.

Black Widow: Venomous will not only show the super-spy figuring out how to work with her new partner, but will also set the stage for the upcoming Venom War event.

“Who doesn’t want to write Natasha Romanoff? And with a badass symbiote, it didn’t take much to convince me,” Schultz said. “Luciano Vecchio’s art is so amazing. It’s been so fun to delve into Nat’s spy craft techniques, and you just may learn something new about her.”

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David Pepose and Dave Wachter introduce a new Punisher this fall

A retired SHIELD agent will take up the mantle, becoming ‘the Danny Ketch to Frank’s Johnny Blaze.’

Spencer & Locke co-creator and former Savage Avengers writer David Pepose will team with Planet of the Apes artist Dave Wachter on a new Punisher series, as a retired SHIELD agent named Joe Garrison takes up the mantle once held by Frank Castle.

“The man might be different, but the punishment remains the same,” said Pepose. “I wanted to introduce the Danny Ketch to Frank’s Johnny Blaze.”

Now that is a great analogy. If you read the recent Jason Aaron-written Punisher series, you know (SPOILER!) that Frank Castle has moved on from this earthly plain. No, he isn’t dead, but he’s on Weirdworld, helping kids and not being the Punisher. So now someone new is stepping into the role.

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Scarlet Scarab will make her comic book debut in July

The character from the ‘Moon Knight’ show on Disney+ will appear in a Moon Knight miniseries.

Layla El-Faouly, the character played by May Calamawy in the Disney+ show Moon Knight, will make her comic book debut in Moon Knight #25, with her costumed identity, the Scarlet Scarab, soon to follow.

The character will be shown in flashbacks as a member of the Karnak Cowboys, a mercenary group that Marc Specter was a part of. The character will then make her superhero debut in Moon Knight: City of the Dead, a new miniseries by David Pepose and Marcelo Ferreira.

Jed MacKay, writer of Moon Knight, said that the character will debut in one of three stories that will appear in Moon Knight #25, an oversized issue featuring art by Alessandro Cappuccio, Alessandro Vitti and Partha Pratim. 

“Working on Moon Knight #25 was a bit of a mammoth task… 70 pages of story, cutting between three stories, each with their own artist,” Jed MacKay told IGN. “It was a really exciting opportunity to have that much space to work in, telling a Moon Knight story in a longer form than we’re usually used to.” 

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‘Avengers Unlimited’ coming to Infinity Comics

David Pepose, Farid Karami and Alan Robinson present a story featuring Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and more.

Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort revealed in his Substack newsletter over the weekend plans for a new Infinity Comics series called Avengers Unlimited.

“The idea is to curate a mixture of longer and short stories from all across the length and breadth of the Avengers concept,” Brevoort explained. “But they’re all new, all designed for this format, and all taking place within current mainstream Marvel continuity.”

Marvel’s Infinity Comics line lives on its Marvel Unlimited service and offers “vertical stories” formatted to easily scroll through on a mobile device. Avengers Unlimited follows last year’s X-Men Unlimited, which featured various mutant characters by rotating creative teams.

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‘Only the Savage will survive’ in Pepose + Magno’s ‘Savage Avengers’

A new team led by Conan the Barbarian takes on an evil Deathlok in the series, which debuts in May.

The Savage Avengers will return in May with an eclectic line-up and a new creative team, as David Pepose and Carlos Magno pit Conan and a new team of “loners, berserkers and killers” against an evil Deathlok cyborg.

Joining Conan on this time trek are Anti-Venom, Black Knight, Cloak & Dagger, Weapon H and Daredevil — aka the assassin formerly known as Elektra.

Pepose, whose credits include Scout’s Honor, Going to the Chapel and The O.Z., makes his Marvel debut on the title.

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Fund Me Friday | Iron Circus kickstarts ‘Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales: North America’

Plus: ‘The O.Z.’ and ‘The Baboon’ return, Cary Nord 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 and Patreon. The internet also allows creators to sell their creations direct to fans, through sites like Gumroad, Big Cartel 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.

Iron Circus Comics launched their latest project, Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales: North America, earlier this week, and they’ve already blown well past their $20,000 goal by almost $100,000. And they’ve still got 14 days to go! That’s all in a day’s work for the publisher, who are up to 30 successful campaigns, and, according to publisher Spike Trotman, they aren’t stopping anytime soon.

“I’ve grown an audience that’s interested in what I do and everything that I publish,” she told Forbes. “At this point my audience kind of knows my tastes and knows my inclinations and even if it doesn’t fit like a glove, it’s something they can get behind.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: David Pepose enters ‘The O.Z.’

The writer of ‘Spencer & Locke’ and ‘Going to the Chapel’ discusses his latest project, which is now up on Kickstarter.

Most online comic fans probably first knew David Pepose as a reviewer for the comic site Newsarama, where he contributed to, and eventually took over, their Best Shots review column. He recently left that position to pursue a growing career as a comics writer, having written two Spencer & Locke miniseries and the excellent Going to the Chapel miniseries, all with publisher Action Lab.

For his latest project, Pepose is taking a new path, as he branches out into crowdfunding and self-publishing. Much like he did with Spencer & Locke, Pepose is taking a beloved, iconic property — in this case, The Wizard of Oz — and remixing it with another genre. The O.Z. stands for Occupied Zone, and features the granddaughter of Dorothy Gale, a war veteran, entering the war-torn land of Oz. Pepose is joined by artist Ruben Rojas, colorist Whitney Cogar and letterer DC Hopkins on the project.

The O.Z. Kickstarter is now live. I spoke with Pepose about his first crowdfunding project, L. Frank Baum and more.

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Third ‘Spencer & Locke’ series in the works

“His partner was imaginary… but the reckoning is all real.”

David Pepose and Jorge Santiago Jr.’s ‘Spencer & Locke’ will return for a third series … sometime.

The duo and their publisher, Action Lab, have released a teaser image for a new series. No release date has been announced, but it does have a tagline: “His partner was imaginary… but the reckoning is all real.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: David Pepose on ‘Going to the Chapel’

The writer of ‘Spencer & Locke’ discusses the upcoming action/romcom miniseries from Action Lab.

Fans of David Pepose and Jorge Santiago Jr.’s two Spencer & Locke miniseries might be surprised to see something very different from Pepose for his sophomore project. Going to the Chapel is one part romcom, one part action heist, with a host of interesting characters, one-liners and twists along the way. And that’s just the first issue.

Pepose teams up with Gavin Guidry and Liz Kramer for this four-issue miniseries, which arrives in comic shops this September. I spoke with Pepose about his approach to the series, its influences, the differences between it and his previous work, and more.

Also, you can meet Pepose at this week’s Comic-Con International at the Action Lab Booth #1737, where they will be selling the first issue with a convention-exclusive cover by MJ Erickson.

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Pepose + Guidry team for wedding day mayhem in ‘Going to the Chapel’

Four Elvises and a wedding collide in a new miniseries from Action Lab Entertainment.

What should be Emily Anderson’s best day ever goes off the rails and turns into a hostage situation in Going to the Chapel, a new series by David Pepose (Spencer & Locke) and Gavin Guidry (The Death Defying).

In the upcoming miniseries from Action Lab Entertainment, Emily’s wedding day is going south –and then four Elvis-themed crooks show up, bringing more mayhem to her already crazy day.

“Dating back to my catastrophic turn as best man for my oldest friend’s wedding, Going to the Chapel has been an irreverent passion project long in the making,” Pepose said. “Think Die Hard at a wedding — or Dog Day Afternoon meets The Runaway Bride. With our unique mashup of action, humor, romance and heart — not to mention our sprawling, diverse and downright dysfunctional cast — fans of romcoms and thrillers alike are going to find lots to love about our offbeat and eclectic series.”

The new project follows Pepose’s sequel to Spencer & Locke, which kicks off in April. I interviewed Pepose about the influences behind the series last month.

Check out a preview below:

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Smash Pages Q&A: David Pepose on the influences behind ‘Spencer & Locke’

With a sequel set to debut in April, the writer of the surprise hit series breaks down the comics DNA of the book.

It’s been called “What if Calvin and Hobbes grew up in Sin City?” but David Pepose and Jorge Santiago Jr.’s Spencer & Locke proved to be more than that. While it does wear those two inspirations on its sleeve, the DNA of this particular project goes deeper than its tagline.

With the followup to the surprise hit set to debut in April (and a movie in the works), I spoke with David about some of the influences on the series that go beyond the surface, including Moon Knight, Criminal, Batgirl and more. Admittedly this was a really fun interview to conduct, as it gave me an excuse to re-read several great comics and discover one that I need to add to my own “to read” list.

You can find out more about Spencer & Locke 2 on Twitter or Facebook. And you can buy the first volume at your local comic shop or ComiXology.

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‘Spencer & Locke 2’ takes aim at all the comic strips

David Pepose and Jorge Santiago Jr.’s hard-nosed cop and his imaginary friend return this Winter.

One of last year’s pleasant surprises in the comics world was Spencer & Locke, David Pepose and Jorge Santiago Jr.’s re-imagining of Calvin & Hobbes by way of Sin City. Now a Ringo Award-nominated series, Spencer & Locke is getting a sequel that will introduce their take on other comic strip characters. The villain, Roach Riley, may look familiar to fans of Mort Walker’s Beetle Bailey.

“We’ve told fans from the beginning that there was a much larger universe for Spencer & Locke to explore — and we’re excited to expand their world further with their latest adversary, Roach Riley,” Pepose said. “Half The Deer Hunter, half Heath Ledger’s Joker, Roach is only the beginning of Locke’s latest gauntlet, as every classic comic strip from your childhood will be fair game for parody in our action-packed sequel.”

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