Cast your vote for who should join the X-Men

Marvel once again gives fans the chance to pick who should join the X-Men.

Marvel is once again asking fans to vote for who they’d like to see join the X-Men, as they’ve done for the past two years. This year fans can choose from six characters — Dazzler, Cannonball, Frenzy, Juggernaut, Jubilee and Prodigy.

The voting window is pretty tight — you have until Friday of this week to cast your vote. The winner will be revealed this summer as part of the big Hellfire Gala storyline, which we now know ties into the bigger Fall of X crossover that’s coming later this year.

Marvel has provided campaign posters for each character with catchy slogans; here’s the one for Dazzler, who also coincidentally received my vote this year:

Continue reading “Cast your vote for who should join the X-Men”

DC wants you to help name Nightwing’s dog

DC has opened a poll on their community boards that ends March 30.

Nightwing’s got a new dog, and that dog needs a name. So DC is running a poll on their DC Universe Infinite community boards with four choices.

Unfortunately, you have to have a login to access the boards and the poll, which means you have to live in the United States. But writer Tom Taylor took to Twitter to offer an “informal” option for those who live outside the U.S.:

https://twitter.com/TomTaylorMade/status/1374757908311801856
Continue reading “DC wants you to help name Nightwing’s dog”

March winds bring more MODOK Madness

March MODOK Madness kicks off with another 31 days of fan art featuring Marvel’s big-headed villain.

Pedro Delgado and Brendan Tobin have once again brought the March MODOK Madness site back to life for another year of big-headed fan art featuring the Marvel character.

If you aren’t familiar with the concept, every March artists share their interpretations of MODOK, the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing, who was created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee back in the 1960s. You can see them on the March MODOK Madness blog and on Twitter.

Continue reading “March winds bring more MODOK Madness”

Voting for the X-Men: The time is right for Tempo

With Marvel allowing fans to help chose the final member of the X-Men, the Smash Pages crew shares their endorsement(s).

In the grand tradition of voting for the leader of the Legion of Super-Heroes and whether Jason Todd would live or die, Marvel has launched a website where you can vote for the final member of the X-Men.

The campaign ties into the current X-Men storyline, where Cyclops and Jean Grey have decided to recruit a new team of mutants to protect the mutant nation of Krakoa. Marvel has offered up 10 options for fans to choose from: Banshee, Polaris, Forge, Boom-Boom, Tempo, Cannonball, Sunspot, Strong Guy, Marrow and Armor.

Voting is open from now until 11:59 p.m. Eastern, Feb. 2, 2021.

We here at Smash Pages have our own thoughts about who the new member should be — with one dissension — so please read our heartfelt pleas for your vote below.

Continue reading “Voting for the X-Men: The time is right for Tempo”

March MODOK Madness kicks off for 2020

The annual tradition returns.

I know there’s plenty of “madness” in the world right now, but there’s something comforting in knowing that the March MODOK Madness site is back again for more fun fan artwork of everyone’s favorite big-headed Marvel villain. And there’s little chance this event will be cancelled.

If you aren’t familiar with the concept, every March artists share their interpretations of MODOK, the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee back in the 1960s. You can see some of them below, and all of this year’s submissions on the MMM blog. You can also follow along on Twitter.

Continue reading “March MODOK Madness kicks off for 2020”

March MODOK Madness returns for its second decade

Check out fan art featuring Marvel’s lovable, big-headed villain.

Now in its 11th year, March MODOK Madness has returned! For this month only, follow along as artists share their renditions of the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing in the form of fan artwork.

Like this comic strip from contributor John Douglas, featuring a bonus Jack Kirby creation:

Continue reading “March MODOK Madness returns for its second decade”

Comics Lowdown: ECCC volunteer suit settled

Plus: the ALA, Jillian Tamaki and more.

The former owners of Emerald City Comic Con will pay $493,227.84 to former volunteers and the attorneys who represented them under a settlement that will keep the matter from going to court. Jerry Michael Brooks, a former volunteer at the con, filed a class action suit on behalf of all volunteers who worked at ECCC in 2014 and 2015, claiming that they were treated like employees and therefore should have been paid for their work. (Seattlish posted the details of the suit when it was first filed.) Under the settlement, Eitane Emerald Corp. and the Demonakos family will pay almost $500,000 to the volunteers, with the lawyers scooping up $123,300 for their troubles, Brooks getting $5,000, and the 250 or so other “volunteers” will divvy up the rest according to how many hours they worked. Although the defendants admit to no wrongdoing, the payments to the volunteers are to be regarded as part wages, part settlement for nonpayment of wages. ReedPOP, which purchased the con in 2015 and ran the 2016 and 2017 events, does not use unpaid volunteers.

Continue reading “Comics Lowdown: ECCC volunteer suit settled”

‘March MODOK Madness’ turns 10

Congratulations to the fine folks at March MODOK Madness, who for the past 10 years have spent the third month of every year sharing their love for MODOK in the form of fan artwork. As always, they are accepting submissions if you are so inclined to draw Marvel’s lovable, big-headed villain.

Continue reading “‘March MODOK Madness’ turns 10”

Quoted: Colleen Doran on fan fiction

The creator of “A Distant Soil” not only encourages readers to create fan fiction featuring her characters, she also says she does it herself.

“There is an A Distant Soil fanfic site that sometimes links updates to the A Distant Soil webpage. I’ve been asked if I am OK with this. I am not only OK with this, I fully support not-for-sale fan activity. If you want to make fanfic and fanart of my work and link it from the FB page or the website, you are welcome to do so. I not only got my start in comics doing fanfic, but when trying to break through a creative block fairly recently, sat down and worked on some myself, posted it anonymously, and it got me through that creative block like a charm.”

A Distant Soil creator, renowned artist and fan fiction writer Colleen Doran