Pollack + Corallo + Cabrera host ‘The Never Ending Party’ at Comixology

The digital miniseries debuts on Amazon June 7.

Author and former Doom Patrol writer Rachel Pollack will return to comics next week with The Never Ending Party from Comixology Originals. She’s joined by co-writer Joe Corallo (She Said Destroy), artist Eva Cabrera (Kim & Kim), colorists Cons Oroza and Claudia Aguirre, letterers Zakk Saam and Micah Myers, and editor Noah Sharma.

“This was great fun to work on,” Pollack said. “I got to write a Tarot reading heroine, play with how a street smart wild trans woman from the 1990s might look at our current world, and turn the Greek God of ecstasy, Dionysus, into a super-villain who’ll destroy the world just to keep the party going!  And best of all, co-write a book with Joe Corallo.”

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Halloween comes early for Archie Comics in August

Lil’ Jinx hosts an Archie Horror one-shot, while a classic Archie story revisits the world of “Mirrordale.”

Archie Comics is starting the Halloween festivities early this year — well, early for most people. My wife actually starts decorating for Halloween at the beginning of September, and she’d probably go even earlier if I let her.

But I digress — Archie’s solicitations bring news of three Halloween-themed projects for the publisher. First up is Jinx’s Grim Fairy Tales, an anthology of spooky stories hosted by Lil’ Jinx, a character created in 1946 by Joe Edwards.

“Jinx is a character we’ve been wanting to explore more and we’re so excited we finally get the chance to . . . and what better way than having her as the cool babysitter who scares kids with creepy stories?” said Jamie L. Rotante, Archie’s senior director of editorial . “I mean, her name is JINX, how perfect is that? We were so happy we were able to blend the framework of spooky fairy tales and Jinx as our eager narrator and protagonist.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: Claudia Aguirre

The artist of ‘Lost on Planet Earth’ shares some early character designs for the comic and discusses her process for creating characters, working with Magdalene Visaggio and more.

Claudia Aguirre has been working in comics for years as an artist and colorist on books like Morning in America, Hotel Dare, Kim & Kim and Open Earth. She’s one half of Boudika Comics with Eva Cabrera. Her new project is the comiXology Originals series Lost on Planet Earth, which she made with her longtime collaborator Magdalene Visaggio.

The slice-of-life science fiction tale launched last month and with issue #2 coming out on May 19, I asked Aguirre a few questions about how she works, and she provided some character designs to show how she thinks – and give a first look at a character appearing in the new issue.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Eva Cabrera

The artist of ‘Kim & Kim’ discusses most of her recent comics work, Boudika Comics and much more.

Kim & Kim artist Eva Cabrera has been on a lot of people’s radar since 2016 for her skill at drawing body language and emotion; conveying complex emotions in a loose, cartoony style; and the ways that she manages to dynamically draw action sequences. Her action sequences are all the more impressive because often there aren’t many major fights or moments of violence. Her skill is at how she’s able to capture those moments before and after, at suggesting so much and depicting the buildup and the aftermath that it feels as though the reader has experienced it alongside the characters.

Besides all three Kim & Kim series, Cabrera drew most of the series Betty and Veronica: Vixens; drew the Oni/Limerence graphic novel Open Earth, a much quieter book with sex scenes instead of fight scenes; filled in on Oh Joy, Sex Toy; had a story in the anthology Dead Beats; and worked on #Guardian, the first issue which was released in January. She’s one half of Boudika Comics, a studio consisting of her and artist Claudia Aguirre (Morning in America, Hotel Dare).

I’ve been reading Cabrera for years ,and her artwork and design work are always excellent and always a joy, so I reached out to see if she would answer a few questions about her work.

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Smash Pages’ favorite comics of 2018

See what the Smash Pages’ staff enjoyed reading this past year.

With 2018 winding down, Smash Pages’ contributors take a look back at some of their favorite comics of the year, from Hey Kiddo and Spectacular Spider-Man #310 to Wet Moon and The Secret Voice.

Brigid Alverson

Silver Spoon, by Hiromu Arakawa (Yen Press)
Arakawa is best known as the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist, but you couldn’t get any farther from that series than Silver Spoon, a comedy about a city boy who goes to agricultural school in rural Hokkaido. Yuugo Hachiken worked hard and did everything he was told, but he still didn’t get into an elite high school, so he takes what he thinks is the easy way out by going to a school that’s not academically focused—or so he thinks. In fact, the students at Ooezo Agricultural High School are very knowledgeable in their fields, but those fields are things like genetics and animal husbandry. The rubber really hits the road in the practical lessons, though, and Hachiken quickly realizes he is out of his depth when it comes to herding chickens, riding a horse, or fetching a stray calf. There’s a lot of city mouse-country mouse comedy in this series, but it’s also a fascinating look at where our food comes from (at least in Japan), and the different agricultural models espoused by different farmers. In fact, like Hachiken’s classmates, this book is very smart and sophisticated in addition to being endlessly entertaining.

Meal, by Blue Delliquanti and Soleil Ho (Iron Circus)
The idea of eating bugs may elicit an “Eeeww” from most people, but Delliquanti and Ho go beyond the ick factor in this romance about an insect cuisine enthusiast and a chef who wants to start a new restaurant based on the dishes of her youth—dishes that include ants, grasshoppers, and tarantulas. There’s a love story woven in there as well. Yarrow has just moved to a new city in hopes of getting a job in the kitchen of Chandra Flores, insect chef extraordinaire, who is about to launch a new restaurant. Milani, her neighbor, is friendly and helpful but the two have a little trouble making it click. At the same time, Chandra suspects that Yarrow is only into insect cuisine because it’s sensational, while to her, it’s part of her heritage. There’s a lot in this slim volume: Love, food, bugs, and bugs that are food, and the creators even include a couple of recipes at the end of the book.

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Betty and Veronica re-imagined as biker chicks in ‘B&V Vixens’

New series by Jamie Rotante and Eva Cabrera launches in November.

Archie Comics continues its wave of “re-imaginations” of its characters with B&V Vixens, a take on Betty and Veronica as leaders of a biker gang in Riverdale. The idea for the series came from Archie editor Jamie Rotante, who will be joined by artist Eva Cabrera.

“I couldn’t be more honored and excited for the opportunity to not only let pop culture’s two most recognizable BFFs take center stage, but to give them the opportunity to kick a whole lot of ass along the way,” Rotante said to The Hollywood Reporter. “Betty and Veronica aren’t just two young ladies who happen to like the same boy — they’re two hard-working, intelligent and strong women who maintain a friendship despite their differences; consistently defying all expectations to overcome the odds stacked against them. That’s something I really wanted to explore with this series — and not just Betty and Veronica, many of the female Archie Comics characters will get a chance to tell their own unique stories in a way that’s fun and action-packed.”

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