Can’t Wait for Wednesday | Fred Van Lente + Luca Pizzari raise the black flag in ‘Vampyrates!’

New comics and graphic novels arrive this week by Katie Skelly, Mike Maihack, Ngozi Ukazu, Scott Snyder, Francesco Francavilla, Gabriel Hardman, Dean Kotz, Kelly Thompson, Soo Lee, Nathan Fillion and more.

Welcome to Can’t Wait for Wednesday, your guide to what’s coming to your local comic shop this week. Vampires are everywhere this week, from the swashbuckling horror of BOOM!’s Vampyrates to the World War II action of IDW’s Operation: Iron Coffin. We’ve also got new graphic novels by Katie Skelly, Ngozi Ukazu, Mike Maihack and more.

I’ve pulled out some of the highlights for this week below, but for the complete list of everything you might find at your local comic shop and on digital this week, you’ll want to check out one or more of the following:

As a reminder, things can change and what you find on the above lists may differ from what’s actually arriving in your local shop. So check with your retailer to see what’s arriving at their shop this week.

Continue reading “Can’t Wait for Wednesday | Fred Van Lente + Luca Pizzari raise the black flag in ‘Vampyrates!’”

Smash Pages Q&A | Magnetic Press publisher Mike Kennedy on bringing ‘Freaks Squeele’ to America

The publisher launches all seven volumes of Florent Maudoux’s acclaimed series on Kickstarter.

Magnetic Press has been building a distinctive catalog of internationally acclaimed graphic novels since 2013. With 31 Eisner Award nominations and a win for Best Production Design in 2024, publisher Mike Kennedy has proven there’s a market in the U.S. for stories from Europe. Now Magnetic is taking on one of its most ambitious projects yet: the complete seven-volume saga of Florent Maudoux’s Freaks Squeele, a manga-inspired superhero series that’s been captivating readers around the world since 2008.

Described as “Jujutsu Kaisen meets X-Men by way of Scott Pilgrim,” Freaks Squeele follows three misfit students at a superhero university where heroism is a regulated profession and deadly tournaments are broadcast for public consumption. The Kickstarter campaign launches all seven volumes at once, featuring 1,000 pages of story — plus an exclusive artbook and a limited edition “dorm footlocker” storage box.

We caught up with Kennedy to talk about what drew Magnetic Press to Freaks Squeele, how the publisher approaches translating international works and why European comics continue to offer something American readers can’t find anywhere else.

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