‘Marvel Zombies: Black, White & Blood’ debuts in October

Garth Ennis, Alex Segura and more tell three-color tales of the undead.

Marvel is reviving Marvel Zombies as part of their Black, White & Blood line, which features stories by different artists and writers told with only three colors. The four-issue Marvel Zombies: Black, White & Blood will kick off in October.

Marvel Zombies join Darth Vader, Carnage, Deadpool and of course Wolverine in the line, with this new anthology featuring zombie-fied versions of Spider-Man, Daredevil, Moon Knight and more.

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Skybound announces a second ‘Creepshow’ miniseries with Hester, Cloonan, Ennis + more

The anthology will run for five issues and include stories by Michael Walsh, Dan Watters, Abigail Larson, Zoe Thorogood and more.

Creepshow, the iconic horror movie that Skybound turned into a comic last year, will return with a second miniseries in September.

Creepshow by director George Romero and writer Stephen King debuted in theaters back in 1982. Inspired by EC Comics’ horror titles like Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Horror, the film featured a kid reading a comic called Creepshow and a host, “The Creep,” who was reminiscent of the Cryptkeeper and other horror comic hosts.

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Ennis + Holden take flight in ‘The Lion & the Eagle’ next year

The war comic kicks off in February.

AfterShock Comics has announced a new prestige-format war comic coming from the team of Garth Ennis and PJ Holden next year.

The Lion and the Eagle will tell the story of the Chindits, a British special forces unit active in Burma during the Japanese occupation in 1944.

“The conflict between the British and Japanese in Burma is almost lost to history now; indeed, the British soldiers who fought there came to refer to themselves as The Forgotten Army,” Ennis said. “That’s partly what drew me to their story, a chance to keep alive the memories of the men who faced Imperial Japan. There’s also the political aspect, as the two warring nations find themselves fighting for possession of Burma and India, two countries who by and large would have preferred to have neither of these foreign powers on their soil.”

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Garth Ennis returns to DC for a Peacemaker one-shot

Ennis and Garry brown present a Peacemaker tale set before his time with the Suicide Squad this January.

No doubt John Cena and Peacemaker will be front and center during today’s DC FanDome livestream, but DC kicked the peacemaking off early this week by announcing a new one-shot starring the breakout character.

Peacemaker: Disturbing the Peace will arrive in January by the creative team of Garth Ennis and Garry Brown. The character has always seemed destined for a gritty, tongue-in-cheek Ennis story, hasn’t he?

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Ennis + Sharp team for new Batman Black Label miniseries

‘Batman: Reptilian’ kicks off in June.

Garth Ennis and Liam Sharp will bring a new terror to Gotham in the Black Label six-issue miniseries Batman: Reptilian.

“Me and my old mate Garth Ennis. Friends for over 30 years. Working together for the very first time,” Sharp posted on Twitter. “I’m so stoked!”

“It’s very Garth, but it’s not a comedy,” Sharp added. “Some dark humour though of course…”

According to the press release, the series will introduce a villain that even the other Gotham villains are afraid of — even more than Batman.

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Comics Lowdown | Court OKs contempt complaint against Indian cartoonist

Plus: Authors Guild objects to PRH-S&S deal, a look at the Eritrean comics scene and more!

Legal: The Indian Attorney General has given the go-ahead for contempt charges to be pressed against Rachita Taneja, creator of the webcomic Sanitary Panels, because of several Tweets that, the AG found, portray the Supreme Court of India as “biased towards the ruling party.” A law student, Aditya Kashyap, requested permission to begin contempt proceedings, citing three of Tanecha’s tweets, all of which are basically political cartoons.

Other Indian artists have spoken out publicly in support of Taneja, and on Dec. 2, Taneja tweeted “Thank you for the outpouring of love. I am filled with gratitude. It’s a rough time for a lot of people, and we’ll get through it by sticking together” along with a comic showing hearts pouring out of her computer:

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What Are You Reading? | Ironheart, Midnighter and more!

See what the Smash Pages crew has checked off their “to read” list lately.

Welcome once again to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Smash Pages crew has been reading lately. You can play along in the comments if you wish.

Now here we go …

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‘The Boys’ returns for a new series about Butcher’s wife

Garth Ennis, Russ Braun and Darick Robertson reunite for ‘The Boys: Dear Becky.’

Garth Ennis, Russ Braun and Darick Robertson will return to the world of The Boys with a new series subtitled Dear Becky. The first issue will debut in April, just in time for the second season of the Amazon Prime adaptation.

The Becky in the title refers to Becky Butcher, wife of Billy Butcher, one of the main characters of the original 90-issue run. Her death set off many of the events in The Boys.

“Originally I never intended to do more with The Boys at all, but for obvious reasons I’ve found myself thinking about the story and characters again over the past couple of years,” Ennis said. “There was one aspect of the original story, and one character in particular, that I never felt got a fair shake- Becky Butcher, whose demise motivates her husband Billy to do the terrible things he does, but who only actually appears in two issues of the original book. I liked writing Becky very much, almost as much as Butcher himself, and I wanted to look in greater detail at how her relatively brief appearance cast such a long shadow.”

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Ennis returns to the Punisher

Jacen Burrows joins Garth Ennis on ‘Punisher Soviet’ this November.

Garth Ennis is returning to Marvel to write the Punisher and he’s bringing his Crossed collaborator, artist Jacen Burrows, with him.

Punisher Soviet sees Frank Castle blamed for the death of 12 Russian mobsters — but he’s actually innocent this time. So he goes looking for the “kindred spirit” who beat him to the punch.

“There’s a brilliant simplicity about Frank. He never changes — in an ever-shifting and evolving world, he remains resolutely himself,” Ennis told Marvel.com.

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Jemas, Alonso return to comics at AWA

New publisher Artists, Writers & Artisans, Inc. plans to launch several titles this fall.

Two former Marvel executives are making their return to comics at a new publisher called Artists, Writers & Artisans, Inc. or AWA. They’re joined by a slew of creators, with plans to launch their new titles this fall.

Bill Jemas will serve as the company’s CEO and publisher, while Axel Alonso will serve as Chief Creative Officer, according to The New York Times. They’re joined by Jonathan F. Miller as chairman, who helped broker the deal between Netflix and Mark Millar. They plan to have a shared superhero universe in addition to publishing stand-alone titles.

“The model here really is the old United Artists model, where people who are actually doing the creative have ownership, control and decision-making power over the work that they’re doing,” Jemas told the NYT.

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Nominees announced for the British Fantasy Awards

‘2000AD,’ ‘Saga’ and the webcomic ‘Skal’ included on the shortlist of nominees in the comics category.

The British Fantasy Society has announced the nominees for the British Fantasy Awards, including the “Best Comic/Graphic Novel” category.

The nominees were decided by members of the society, with additional nominees added by the award’s jury to ensure “egregious omissions” made the list. Winners will be decided by jury and announced at FantasyCon 2017, which runs Sept. 29-Oct. 1.

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