Fred Van Lente and Jesus Barrios pit Aric against Ravenrok in this ‘Resurgence of the Valiant Universe’ tie-in.
The Resurgence of the Valiant Universe continues next Wednesday with a one-shot featuring one of the pillars of Valiant’s line, and we’ve got your exclusive preview right here.
Resurgence of the Valiant Universe: X-O Manowar finds Aric on an alien world, separated from his sentiment alien armor and being hunted. Can he survive without his armor? This issue is by Fred Van Lente and Jesus Barrios, and features our favorite Visigoth warrior in a showdown with Ravenrok, who may be a new threat to Aric , but Valiant readers will recognize from Van Lente’s work on Psi-Lords.
You can check out the preview below, along with the issue’s variant covers by Leo Lujan, Richard Ortiz and Guillermo Fajardo.
The one-shot tie-in to ‘Resurgence of the Valiant Universe’ introduces an ages-old enemy of the Eternal Warrior.
The Resurgence of the Valiant Universe is in full swing, with the first issue in stores now and the second scheduled for release later this month. But before that, Alien Books will release Eternal Warrior: Resurgence, a one-shot tie-in focused on Gilad, the Eternal Warrior, and we’ve got your exclusive preview of it right here.
The one-shot is written by Fred Van Lente, one of the architects behind the broader Resurgence miniseries, with artwork by Alvaro Papagiani, Exequiel Fernandez Roel, Camila Jorge, and more. It’ll introduce The Kaggen, a new enemy who has risen from the ashes of Ancient Rome to battle the Eternal Warrior through the ages.
Check out the preview below, which includes a quick recap of Gilad’s origin, a guest appearance by Pontius Pilate and more. The issue will arrive in stores next Wednesday.
The miniseries by Fred Van Lente, Emiliano Urdinola and Exequiel F. Roel wraps up this Wednesday, just in time for ‘Road to Resurgence.’
The Road to Resurgence of the Valiant Universe continues next week in the wrap-up to the two-issue Archer & Armstrong miniseries by Fred Van Lente, Emiliano Urdinola and Exequiel F. Roel. And courtesy of Alien Books, the new home of the Valiant line, we have an exclusive look at issue #2.
Van Lente is of course no stranger to Archer & Armstrong, having written numerous issues of the series prior to its move to Alien Books. The “Assassin Nation” story is a sequel to his previous run, bringing in several familiar characters and also spotlighting a change in the dynamic between the pair — Archer has acquired Armstrong’s immortality, which throws them both off. It’s not great timing, as they’re also dealing with possessed nun out to murder them, the usual conspiracy theories and, according to the solicit text, “even a porn-sized penis.” (Which I should note does not appear in the preview, as it is SFW).
The comic arrives in stores next Wednesday, and you can check out the exclusive preview, along with the cover by Nico Di Mattia and its variant by Andres Ponce, below. It’s one of the final stops before Resurgence of the Valiant Universe kicks off later in September.
The graphic novel that explores the history of all your favorite tabletop RPGs is currently funding on Kickstarter from Clover Press.
Fred Van Lente and Tom Fowler are no strangers to creating engaging comics that not only entertain, but also inform. Together they worked on the Re: Ignition, a tie-in of Nick Dragotta’s Howtoons series that encouraged kids to take part in do-it-yourself science projects. And Van Lente has been working for many years with artist Ryan Dunlavey on Action Philosophers and other non-fiction comics that use the medium in a fun, educational way.
Combine that with Fowler’s background in drawing for tabletop roleplaying games, and you’ve got the perfect team to create Gamemasters: The Comic Book History of Roleplaying Games. Clover Press launched a crowdfunding project for the graphic novel earlier this week, which you can find on Kickstarter.
“Fred and Tom are both hardcore gamers, and it shows in this meticulously researched history of the tabletop RPG,” said Clover Press Publisher Hank Kanalz. “Their passion for gaming comes through in their dramatic and often humorous take on how and why these games work, and why we love them so.”
The project has already blown past its goal like a fireball flying down a dungeon corridor, looking to roast a host of kobolds. But you can still get in on the fun; the crowdfunding project will run through Aug. 22.
I spoke with the two creators about the project, what attracted them to it and their own histories with RPGs.
The horror/mystery from Mad Cave Studios drops its ropes in October.
Writer Fred Van Lente and artist Chris Panda will set a madman loose inside the “Storybook Kingdom” theme park down in Florida in Murder Kingdom, a new title coming from Mad Cave Studios this fall.
Any similarities to existing Florida theme parks is, of course, coincidental. But Murder Kingdom is about a slasher who starts killing cast members, and it’s up to one fairytale princess to unmask the killer.
“Murder Kingdom riffs on classic slashers and classic fairy tales in equal measure,” said Fred Van Lente. “It’s a giallo whodunit with a tomboy princess detective who has to make sure she and her best friend live to see the sunrise—and that means unmasking the killer. One of my first jobs was as a fry cook at a theme park and I feel like I’ve been working on this project ever since. I’m so thrilled that the team at Mad Cave have helped me bring it to bloody life. And I am so lucky to have Chris on artwork. His work is equal parts adorable and terrifying, resulting in some of the most shocking kills I’ve seen in any horror comic ever.”
Check out new webcomics by Derek Laufman, Leigh Luna and more.
Here’s a round up of some of the best and most interesting comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.
Wayne Family Adventures, the Webtoon comic that features Batman and all his kids, has returned for a third season. The comic first debuted back in 2021 and has also been collected in print.
Writer CRC Payne and lead artist StarBite are back with more of tales that fall into my favorite Tumblr sub-genre — “BatFam eats dinner together”:
The writer of ‘Action Philosophers,’ ‘MODOK’s 11’ and more discusses his work on Archie’s 80th anniversary one-shot, which arrives in stores next week.
Fred Van Lente is well known as the writer behind Action Philosophers, The Comic Book History of Comics, Archer and Armstrong, MODOK’S 11 and many more. He’s written novels like The Con Artist and Ten Dead Comedians, and he co-wrote the play King Kirby, which premiered earlier this year as a podcast.
Van Lente is also the writer of the new comic Everything’s Archie. The one-shot from Van Lente and artist Dan Parent is a collection of linked short comics that center around Archie trying to make enough money to buy a new guitar. To do that, Archie signs up for an app and what follows is a satire of the gig economy with multiple jokes about late stage capitalism, and yet, it still feels like an Archie comic we’ve seen before.
Van Lente and Parent’s comic is paired with an Archie story from 1997 by the late George Gladir and Stan Goldberg, Betty in High School 2021 A.D. The story went viral because of remote learning and other not entirely inaccurate predictions about this rather unusual year. I spoke with Van Lente recently about the comic, which is out next week.
‘Everything’s Archie’ will present a new story in the classic Archie art style.
Archie Andrews celebrates his 80th anniversary this year, and Archie Comics will acknowledge the milestone with a new one-shot, Everything’s Archie. Fred Van Lente and longtime Archie artist Dan Parent will craft all-new story told in the traditional Archie Comics art-style.
The comic is the first in a series of classic-styled one-shots celebrating the anniversary.
“You can always tell a great franchise because it quickly and easily updates to any era, and bringing Archie, Betty, Veronica, Reggie and Jughead into our world of social media insanity and real life anxiety was…pretty effortless,” said Van Lente. “Turns out the Riverdale gang is your perfect guide to modern living, even if half the time they can’t figure it out for themselves!”
The two collaborators discuss adapting their play about Jack Kirby as an audio drama.
Fred Van Lente is well known to comics readers for his many comics, including The Incredible Hercules and Archer and Armstrong, his novels The Con Artist and Ten Dead Comedians, and a string of great comics he’s made with Ryan Dunlavey including Action Philosophers, The Comic Book History of Comics and The Comic Book History of Animation. Crystal Skillman is a playwright and scriptwriter best known for the plays Open and Rain and Zoe Save the World and the musical Mary and Max.
The two have collaborated in the past by writing the Webtoon series Eat Fighter, and they wrote the play King Kirby, about the legendary Jack Kirby. Originally produced in 2014, the play is currently being released as a four-part audio drama from the Broadway Podcast Network. Edited and with original music by Bobby Cronin, King Kirby stars Steven Rattazzi, Amy Lee Pearsall, Nat Cassidy, Joseph Mathers and Timothy McCown Reynolds.
The fourth episode of King Kirby is out today, a day before the release of issue #4 of The Comic Book History of Animation by Van Lente and Dunlavey, and tonight is the live reading of Pulp Verite, a new play written by Skillman. We spoke recently about Jack Kirby, theatricality and working in audio drama.
Check out projects by Jim Lawson, the Cartoon Art Museum, Jakob Free and Alchemichael, and more.
As crowdfunding continues to serve as a viable method for creators to fund their creative endeavors, comic-related projects flourish on sites like Kickstarter, Patreon and IndieGoGo. The internet also allows creators to sell their projects 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.
Here’s a look at a few recent projects that fall into those buckets that caught my eye. Send any suggestions of your own to jkparkin@yahoo.com.
The veteran comics creator talks about his latest novel, “The Con Artist,” his current comics projects and more.
Fred van Lente is the comics writer best known to some of us for the series Action Philosophers!, Action Presidents and the Comic Book History of Comics. He’s also spent years writing a wide variety of books for Valiant, Marvel and Dark Horse including Archer and Armstrong, Brain Boy, Conan, Marvel Zombies, Super-Villain Team-Up: MODOK’s 11 and his current project, the Valiant series Psi-Lords.
Van Lente also has a busy career outside of comics. He’s a playwright, perhaps best known to comics fans for King Kirby, which he wrote with his wife the writer Crystal Skillman. He’s also a novelist with two crime novels under his belt, Ten Dead Comedians and The Con Artist.
The Con Artist came out last year and features a comics creator at the San Diego Comic Con who gets drawn into an elaborate web of murder and corruption in the comics industry. It manages to be both laugh out loud funny and incredibly inventive, making a book that is very much about comics and industry, but also telling a story that is firmly in the noir tradition of corruption, betrayal and violence that leads back to original sins.
Convention season is mostly over, but I asked Van Lente if he would be up for a few questions about the book and his work.
Jason Mehmel shares what he learned about Jack Kirby during his time directing the play “King Kirby” in Calgary in 2016.
All this week we’re celebrating the life and influence of comics legend Jack Kirby, who would have turned 100 on Aug. 28. Today we present a guest editorial from Jason Mehmel, a professional director and producer of theatre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, who had a unique opportunity related to Jack Kirby.
by Jason Mehmel
I’ve known about Jack Kirby for years… his style is as unique as a fingerprint. Crazy designs, often using circles. Crackling energy balls of negative space (later called ‘Kirby Krackles’). It represented the platonic ideal of superheroes, particularly the Marvel characters he created, and the subsequent artists, composing with better anatomy, perspective or even composition, are still ultimately riffing on the energy behind Kirby’s pencil, and the choices it led him to.
Robert Klein as Jack Kirby (Jeff McDonald/Sage Theater)
Two years ago, I came across a theatre script about the life of Kirby and found myself running a theatre company. I decided to jump at it and produce King Kirby: A Play by Crystal Skillman & Fred Van Lente, which walked through the pivotal moments in Kirby’s life:
How he came from poverty, his early love of science fiction and big ideas, and of telling them visually. How he got into comics from that love, and the birth of Captain America, just before his own wartime experience. How Marvel Comics as we know it exploded from his pen, and those of his fellow pencillers, though it would be hard to compete with the sheer volume of characters and stories Kirby developed in those years.
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