Who is the ‘All-New Venom’?

Al Ewing and Carlos Gómez take Venom back to the streets in a new series this December.

In the aftermath of the Venom War, Venom will return to his own title in December — but who exactly is underneath the symbiote?

Writer Al Ewing teased to Polygon that All-New Venom will be a “scaled-down, earthbound continuation” of his Venom series, as Dylan Brock seeks to uncover who the new Venom is, with four suspects — Robbie Robertson of Daily Bugle fame, mob boss Madame Masque, perpetual sidekick Rick Jones and “Mayor Power Man” himself, Luke Cage. Ewing will work with artist Carlos Gómez on the relaunched title.

“If people have a strong hankering for something different from me, this is that. It’s almost more like a Spider-Man-level story,” Ewing told Polygon. “It is set on Earth, very much in the normal New York City. Everywhere we go in the story is a place you could go, or at least the type of place you could go. Obviously, when we go to a warehouse… well, I do have a tendency to look up actual warehouses, and then change them just enough to pass legal. So yeah, everywhere we go in this story is a natural place you can go in New York City.”

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Smash Pages Q&A | Samuel Sattin on ‘Unico: Awakening’

The writer of the new manga based on the work of Osamu Tezuka talks about the project, what Tezuka means to him and more.

Osamu Tezuka, who is sometimes referred to as the “God of Manga” or the “Father of Manga,” left a legacy that endures well beyond his death in 1989. The prolific creator gave us such beloved manga as Astro Boy, Princess Knight, Kimba the White Lion, Black Jack, Phoenix and Unico, among many others.

Two years ago Samuel Sattin, writer of recent Eisner nominee Buzzing, and the artist team known as Gurihiru had the opportunity to reimagine one of Tezuka’s creations for modern audiences — Unico, the story of a tiny unicorn who enraged the jealous goddess Venus, so the gods erase his memory and banish him across space and time. Unico is constantly jumping from era to era, where he must escape the gods and have his memory erased over and over again. His only ally is the West Wind, who feels sorry for him and tries to help him along his journey.

Sattin and Gurihiru teamed up for Unico: Awakening, which reintroduces the magical unicorn and draws from the original manga, while creating something new and inviting. After a successful Kickstarter, the first volume is getting a wide release courtesy of Scholastic this week.

I spoke with Sattin about the manga, the legacy of Tezuka and more. My thanks for his time.

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Slugfest | A round-up of Comic-Con news

Check out news and announcements about Godzilla, Joker, Sonic the Hedgehog, ShadowHawk, A.X.E.: Judgment Day, Star Trek and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you from comics creators, publishers and more. Today’s edition includes some San Diego news we didn’t get to this past weekend, plus a few other items to note. Hit the links for more information.

Let’s start with a huge blast of Gotham City news that DC revealed last week in San Diego, as they revealed several new Batman-related projects by the likes of Narcisse, Ram V., Tini Howard, Matthew Rosenberg and more. Most of these announcements came right before the release of the DC solicitations for October, when many of them will kick off.

So, the rundown …

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Marvel announces ‘Thor & Loki: Double Trouble’

Mariko Tamaki and Gurihiru will reteam for a miniseries featuring Asgard’s favorite brothers.

Writer Mariko Tamaki will team up with art team Gurihiru for a new miniseries featuring Loki and Thor doing what they do best — getting into, and getting out of, respectively, trouble.

“Gurihiru are awesome. This comic is so deeply adorable it’s RIDICULOUS,” Tamaki told Marvel.com. “Very excited to get to write some more adventures with Marvel characters, ESPECIALLY Thor and Loki.”

From the cover art alone, it looks pretty fun:

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Sunday Comics | Catacombs + COVID-19

Check out recent comics from Tom Gauld, Cullen Bunn, Eleanor Davis and more.

Here’s a round up of some of the best comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

Once this whole pandemic thing is over, who do you plan to hug? The California Sunday Magazine has a few ideas from Eleanor Davis.

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What Are You Reading? | Red Goblins, celestial avatars, Klan smashers and Texas blood

See what the Smash Pages crew has checked off their ‘to read’ list lately.

Like I said last week, summertime is the right time for crossovers and comics. This week brought us a taste of Empyre, Marvel’s big crossover event featuring the Avengers, The Fantastic Four, the Kree, the Skrulls, the Blue Area of the Moon, the Swordsman and all that crazy cosmic space action Marvel fans have come to know and love. You can see Carla’s thoughts on it below, along with a list of comics Shane has been buying for his kids and Tom’s thoughts on two politically minded books from DC.

You can tell us what you’ve been reading in the comments below or on social media.

Shane Bailey

Lately my kids have started wanting to read more comics. My little one has always been into them, but now the older kids are as well. So I let them pick out their own comics to read on comiXology Unlimited.

My 9 yr old son picked Amazing Spider-Man: The Red Goblin by Dan Slott and Stuart Immonen, and he loves it. He wouldn’t stop commenting on how crazy scary Norman Osborn is, how it was gross when Carnage bit the head off a rat, and during one issue when the Goblin had a captive and was interrogating him, he wondered aloud over who it was, making guesses and gasping when he found out who it was and that Norman knew who Spider-Man was. It’s great seeing him get excited at things that are old hat for me. It made me appreciate those moments more.

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DC shares artwork from ‘Black Canary: Ignite,’ other middle grade projects

Check out previews of books by Art Baltazar and Franco, Gene Luen Yang and more.

During the “Raising Super Readers: Inside DC’s Middle Grade Graphic Novels” panel in San Diego today, DC Comics once again dropped a bunch of artwork from their upcoming “Middle Grade” titles — just like they did yesterday with their YA titles.

Check out previews below for Superman of SmallvilleDear Super-VillainsBlack Canary: IgniteDC Super Hero Girls: Powerless and Superman Smashes The Klan.

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‘Iceman,’ ‘Unstoppable Wasp’ get a second life from Marvel

Two canceled series return this fall from Marvel, as Jeremy Whitley once again writes ‘Unstoppable Wasp’ and Sina Grace returns to ‘Iceman.’

Two canceled Marvel titles are getting a second chance at life, as the company has announced that Unstoppable Wasp and Iceman will both return in new series.

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