Tag: graphic novels

‘Holler’ tells the story of the ‘unkempt, final generation of analog teenagers’

Dark Horse Comics will collect Jeremy Massie’s comic into one volume later this year.

Dark Horse Comics will collect Holler, Jeremy Massie’s ode to the grunge era of the 1990s, into one volume this fall.

Originally self-published via crowdfunding and It’s Alive, the collection will include all eight issues Massie produced and eventually posted on his website. The comic tells the story of Magnesium Mama, the grunge band formed by four friends in an Appalachian town in Virginia.

“I’ve gotten to a certain time in my life where I’ve gotten introspective, maybe even sentimental, about the time and place I grew up,” said Massie. “Even if the times and place weren’t the greatest, I was dwelling on that period a lot. I was so hung up on it I started making comics about my band-playing teenage years. They’re the type of comics I’ve always wanted to make.”

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Nominees announced for this year’s L.A. Times Book Prize

Sammy Harkham, Derek M. Ballard, Emily Carroll and more were nominated this year.

The Los Angeles Times has announced the finalists for this year’s L.A. Times Book Prize, which includes a category for Graphic Novels/Comics. The prize recognizes books published in 2023.

The Los Angeles Times has given an award in the graphic novel category since 2009, when Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli won the award. Other previous winners include The Love Bunglers by Jaime Hernandez, Duncan the Wonder Dog by Adam Hines, Beverly by Nick Drnaso, Tillie Walden’s On a Sunbeam, The Hard Tomorrow by Eleanor Davis and R. Kikuo Johnson’s No One Else. Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith’s Wash Day Diaries won the award last year.

The winners will be revealed on April 19. Check out the finalists below.

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Papercutz will publish several Disney + Pixar graphic novels later this year

The Mad Cave imprint will release graphic novels featuring ‘Turning Red,’ ‘Encanto’ and more.

Papercutz, the kid’s graphic novel imprint owned by Mad Cave Studios, has announced a publishing partnership with Disney that’ll bring Turning Red, Phineas & Ferb, Encanto, Frozen and more to comics — or back to comics, in some cases — later this year.

The partnership isn’t too much of a surprise, as Papercutz announced a Free Comic Book Day title featuring Encanto and Turning Red for this year’s event. But the bench goes deeper than those two titles, as their plans include several titles that look like they may be reprints. For instance, the listing for Phineas & Ferb notes that it’s collecting comics that originally appeared in the Disney Presents magazine.

Here’s a rundown on what they plan to publish:

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Brubaker + Phillips explore the ’80s ‘Satanic Panic’ in ‘Houses of the Unholy’

The graphic novel will arrive in stores in August.

Image Comics has announced the next graphic novel coming from the award-winning team of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, arguably comics’ greatest creative team right now. Houses of the Unholy will explore the “Satanic Panic” craze of the 1980s, which involved conspiracy theories that grew from unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse.

“Houses of the Unholy is something I’ve been describing as Satanic Panic Noir. It’s somewhere in-between a creepy horror story and a fucked-up noir, and directly tied to the Satanic Panic craze of the ’80s,” said Brubaker. “The book really speaks to my obsessions with cult horror, and plays with the demonic tropes of classic horror from Hammer to Carpenter to Stephen King. The fear that was everywhere back then has clearly resurfaced, and that made me want to dive back into those dark waters and try to find a Brubaker-Phillips take on noir and horror at the same time.”

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Slugfest | Dark Horse will release Sergio Aragonés’ ‘Louder Than Words, Actions Speak’

Plus: LEGO Ninjago, free ‘Barbaric,’ 350 issues of ‘Spawn’ and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

Dark Horse has announced plans to collect Sergio Aragonés’ Louder Than Words and Actions Speak miniseries into one volume appropriately called Louder Than Words, Actions Speak.

Both volumes came out about 20 years ago and were previously collected by Dark Horse. The collection will have a new cover by Dark Horse by Aragonés and colorist Carrie Strachan.

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Preview | Take a look at Lonnie Mann’s debut graphic novel ‘Gaytheist: Coming Out of My Orthodox Childhood’

Check out a preview of the new graphic novel from Street Noise Books.

Courtesy of Street Noise Books, we’re pleased to share a preview of Gaytheist: Coming Out of My Orthodox Childhood by Lonnie Mann.

This autobiographical graphic novel details Mann’s childhood in an Orthodox Jewish community where “being gay is a sin and an abomination.” As Mann gets older, he realizes he’s gay and must come to terms with what that means for his relationship with his family and his religion, as well as his own identity and happiness. Mann originally published his story on Tapas, where it was nominated for an Ignatz Award last year.

Gaytheist arrives in stores this week. You can find more information from the publisher as well as the preview pages below.

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Image Comics will publish Sabir Pirzada’s ‘Dandelion’

The graphic novel anthology will include stories drawn by Martín Morazzo, Vanesa R. Del Rey, Eric Koda and more.

Ms. Marvel writer Sabir Pirzada has a new project coming from Image Comics this summer — Dandelion, an anthology graphic novel featuring “climate crisis-infused tales” drawn by several different artists.

“It’s been a grand undertaking to gather some of the industry’s hottest artists, and build a shared continuity where they could take inspiration from one another in illustrating a wide range of genres that all add up to a larger world of speculative fiction with a mystery unfolding in the background: who is the founder of the Dandelion ship?” Pirzada said. “We are excited to present a unique reading experience as can only exist in an anthology graphic novel format.”

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This is … Spinal Cord!

Dark Horse will release a new heavy metal-themed graphic novel by David Braña and Pahito this fall.

The Midnight: Shadows isn’t the only music-themed graphic novel coming from Dark Horse this year. This week the publisher also announced Spinal Cord, a heavy metal horror graphic novel written by David Braña and illustrated by Pahito.

It’s a tale as old as time — a heavy metal band wants to make it big, so they enter a competition that ends up being more than they bargained for.

“The idea of Spinal Cord had been in my head for a long time,” said Braña. “I wanted to write about a music band trying to make its way in today’s complicated industry. Pahito and I both love metal music, so after talking, the creative sparks flew for Spinal Cord. It has been a pleasure to travel Route 666 in his company. We have paid a well-deserved tribute to the music and we have let ourselves be carried away on an adventure with different styles of horror, with characters who feel and suffer and who try to achieve their dreams, like most of us. Now I just hope readers enjoy this journey too!

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Dark Horse teams with synthwave band The Midnight for a new graphic novel

Zack Kaplan, Stephen Thompson and Jahnoy Lindsay will bring the band’s music to the comics page.

Music and comics will collide in a new graphic novel this fall, as the synthwave band The Midnight teams with Dark Horse for The Midnight: Shadows.

Written by Zack Kaplan with art by Stephen Thompson and artist Jahnoy Lindsay, the graphic novel is about a soon-to-be father who gets literally sucked into a cyberpunk video game from his youth called The Midnight. Colorist Thiago Rocha and letterer DC Hopkins round out the team.

“Before I got the privilege to write this graphic novel, I was a fan,” Kaplan said. “Intoxicated by the immersive beats and heartfelt lyrics since their very first demo. It was no surprise to me to see them become one of today’s best synthwave bands. Their presence is so narrative that it was dying to be shared in this form. And it’s been a joy to bring it all to comic life, to partner with Dark Horse for such a vivid and mind-bending series, and to create this electrifying world with a powerhouse creative team, Stephen, Jahnoy, Thiago and DC, that will blow your mind with one visually stunning page after the next. Whether you are a listener of the music or you just love a good sci-fi adventure, we cannot wait to take you to that place half in dark and half in light, where arcade dreams are a reality, where heroes battle monsters. Get ready for a truly epic, synth wave adventure.”

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Quick Hits | ‘Demon Slayer,’ Dav Pilkey, Bill Watterson top 2023 graphic novel sales charts

Plus: ‘Monica’ wins in Angouleme, the Bram Stoker Awards ballot and more.

Pulling information from Circana BookScan, ICv2 has listed the top 20 graphic novels sold in 2023 in the superhero, manga and “author” categories. They’ve also posted lists of the top adult and kid’s graphic novels.

Looking through the lists (which don’t provide exact numbers, just rankings), it looks like the first volume of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba by Koyoharu Gotouge is the big winner, topping both the manga chart and the adult graphic novel chart. Or maybe I should say “a big winner,” because over on the kid’s graphic novel chart, Dav Pilkey rules supreme, as Dog Man and its Cat Kid Comics Club spinoff took 13 of the 20 positions, including the top 3.

Also, I’m not exactly sure how the superhero and author categories are defined. For instance, the Invincible Compendium shows up on the author list — which makes sense, given how popular the Amazon show is — with Robert Kirkman listed as the author. But I would have expected it to be on the superhero list, given it’s about superheroes and Kirkman isn’t the sole author.

Then for superhero graphic novels, IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin hardcover topped the list, followed by Tokyopop’s Nightmare Before Christmas: Battle for the Pumpkin King manga. I think you could make the argument that the Last Ronin is a superhero title, but the Nightmare Before Christmas manga seems like it’s in the wrong place. But maybe I’m misunderstanding the catgeories.

All that aside, sales numbers for comics disappeared during the pandemic when the industry went from a single distributor to multiple distributors, so seeing any kind of data like this is appreciated and interesting.

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Slugfest | Dark Horse resurrects ‘Lester of the Lesser Gods’

Plus: The Winx saga continues, Usagi turns 40, the Dreadnoks return and more!

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

Lester of the Lesser Gods, which was originally published by Albatross Funnybooks, is finding new life at Dark Horse this year.

Written by Eric Powell and Lucky Yates, and featuring artwork by Gideon Kendall, Lester began life as unproduced animated short before finding its way to comics.

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Slugfest | ‘Masters of the Universe’ starts a ‘Revolution’

Plus: Check out news and announcements on Ghost Machine, Spider-Man, Archie Horror, Dr. Frederic Wertham and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

Dark Horse has announced another miniseries tie-in to the Masters of the Universe Netflix show, which returns to the streaming platform on Jan. 25.

Masters of the Universe: Revolution is written by show producers Tim Sheridan, Rob David and Ted Biaselli, with illustrations by Daniel HDR, inking by Keith Champagne, coloring by Brad Simpson and lettering by AndWorld Design. The first issue features a variant cover by Tyler Boss:

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