‘Red Rain’ Batman sinks his teeth into ‘Secrets of Sinister House’ one-shot

DC’s annual Halloween anthology features new stories by John Layman, Paul Dini, Rafael Albuquerque, Tom Raney and more.

DC’s annual Halloween anthology will return in October with a new story set in the world of Batman & Dracula: Red Rain, among other stories.

Rafael Scavone and Rafael Albuquerque will co-write the story about vampire Batman, with art by Rafael Albuquerque. Albuquerque’s the co-creator of American Vampire, so he’s very familiar with fanged monsters. Released in the 1990s and created by Dog Moench and Kelley Jones, Red Rain was one of the earliest “Elseworlds” stories published by DC. It spawned two sequels.

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Stjepan Šejić explores Harley Quinn’s origin

‘Harleen’ is about good people ‘falling in love, falling from grace and falling apart.

DC Comics’ Black Label line continues to grow this September with the addition of Harleen, a new miniseries by Stjepan Šejić (Sunstone).

The miniseries will offer a different take on the origin of Harley Quinn, exploring her past as a psychologist and her first meeting with The Joker.

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Inktober Spotlight: Caanan Grall’s pop culture mash-ups

The creator of ‘Max Overacts’ shares a drawing a day in October.

We’re 13 days into October, also known as Inktober in artist circles. During Inktober, artists from all over the world create a different ink drawing every day of the month. While the official Inktober site provides a list of “prompts” to help inspire artists, many of them choose their own themes.

With many comic artists once again participating this year — you can find a lot of them on Twitter or Tumblr using the #inktober hashtag, and we’ve been posting a bunch on our own Tumblr — we thought we’d spotlight a few of the fun ones we’ve seen so far.

Today we focus on Caanan Grall, creator of Max Overacts, one of my all-time favorite webcomics. The strip has been on hiatus since Grall was diagnosed with, and eventually had surgery for, a brain tumor. The good news is, Grall is drawing again and sharing his Inktober contributions on Twitter. His fun style is perfect for mashing up various bits of pop culture, like the Harley Quinn/Charlie Brown image you see above.

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DC Collectibles reveals new statues + props at NYCC

Sean Murphy’s Joker, Greg Capullo’s the Merciless and Batman’s cowls are coming next year.

At the New York Comic Con, DC Collectibles announced several Batman-related additions to their line or statues and props.

On the statue front, the Joker from Sean Murphy’s popular Batman: White Knight comic will debut in June of next year, along with a statue of the Merciless from Dark Knights: Metal by Greg Capullo and Harley Quinn by Frank Cho.

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DC Comics goes nuclear this Christmas

‘DC Nuclear Winter Special’ features 10 holiday stories set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

DC Comics will continue their holiday on-shot tradition, albeit with a somewhat radioactive theme this year — DC Nuclear Winter Special will arrive in comic shops and bomb shelters in November.

Like in previous years, the holiday special will feature various characters from the DC Universe, all in stories featuring a “nuclear winter” theme. The release says it’ll include stories starring Batman, Superman and Flash, while the cover also shows Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn and Kamandi (the latter of which makes perfect sense).

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Comics Lowdown: ‘One Punch Man’ tops GN chart

Plus: Another view of Marvel’s Northrop Grumman Comic, Palmiotti and Conner say goodbye to Harley Quinn, and was New York Comic Con too big?

Top Graphic Novels: Viz takes half the slots in the September BookScan top 20 chart, which measures sales of graphic novels in the book channel: Vol. 12 of One Punch Man was the top seller, followed by the all-in-one edition of Death Note (a 12-volume omnibus—yes, it’s a brick). Perennial best-sellers Fun Home, March, and Watchmen all make the chart, as does Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight: Master Race, vol. 3 of Tom King’s Batman: Rebirth, and Avatar’s limited edition of Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows’s Providence: Act 3. Interestingly, there is not a single Image title on the list.

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Harley Quinn takes over ‘Batman Day’ for her 25th anniversary

The Joker’s main squeeze takes over for the Dark Knight on Sept. 23 with special comics and more.

DC Comics has declared a day in late September as “Batman Day” for the past few years, but this year the Dark Knight’s taking a back seat to one of his villains — Harley Quinn, who celebrates her 25th anniversary this year. Harley Quinn Day is slated for Sept. 23.

DC Comics made the announcement at the Harley Quinn anniversary panel today at Comic-Con International. According to the panel report on Newsarama, a free Harley Quinn comic will be available in comic shops.

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DC Collectibles reveals more Artist Alley statues

At Comic-Con this week, DC revealed new designs by Sho Murase, HaiNaNu “Nooligan” Saulque and Chris Uminga.

Back in May DC Collectibles announced a new line of “Artist Alley” vinyl statues that “merges indie design with the most iconic characters in the DC Universe.” During Comic-Con International this week, they revealed additional sculpts by the artists tapped for the first wave. The new figures revealed this week include Wonder Woman by Chris Uminga, Batman by HaiNaNu “Nooligan” Saulque, and Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn by Sho Murase.

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I can’t express how much I adore this Harley Quinn ‘Expressions’ figure

DC Collectibles releases images of several new ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ figures and toys, including a Jokermobile.

DC Collectibles has been releasing and revealing new action figures based on the Batman: The Animated Series designs that Paul Dini and Bruce Timm made so popular. Some of them fall into the “Expressions” line, where the figures come with extra faces with, as you might guess, different expressions. We’ve seen Batman and Joker, but at Comic-Con International this week they revealed the best one so far — Harley Quinn.

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DC & Archie & Harley & Ivy & Betty & Veronica & Dini & Andreyko & Braga

Creators Paul Dini, Marc Andreyko and Laura Braga team up for a crossover tale starring DC’s Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy as they meet Archie Comics’ Betty and Veronica.

The distance between Gotham City and Riverdale is about to get much, much smaller, as DC Comics and Archie Comics bring together four of their most popular female characters for a big crossover: Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, Betty and Veronica.

Harley Quinn co-creator Paul Dini will team with Marc Andreyko to write Harley & Ivy Meet Betty & Veronica, which will feature art by Laura Braga.

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Comics Lowdown: The woman behind Wonder Woman

Plus: ‘Revolutionary Girl Utena’ returns, Red Planet opens in Albuquerque, Melanie Gillman, Alex Segura, Harley Quinn and more.

The Wonder Woman movie has lots of people looking at the history of the character and how she has evolved over the years. The Fresh Toast has a great interview with Trina Robbins, the first woman to draw Wonder Woman and a pioneering underground comics artist and comics historian as well. She’s a delightful person who has had a fascinating life, and this interview is a great way to start off your week.

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DC doubles down on artists with new ‘Artist Alley’ statue line

With a name inspired by a staple of the comic convention scene, DC Collectibles has announced a new line of “Artist Alley” vinyl statues that “merges indie design with the most iconic characters in the DC Universe.” Batman, Superman, Joker, Harley Quinn, Catwoman and more get the 3-D treatment in 2018.

“The motivation to create a line celebrating radical new artists stems from years of visiting cons and being impressed by the raw talent and artwork on display,” said Jim Fletcher, Executive Creative Director, DC Collectibles, in a statement. “When we decided to launch DC Artist Alley, we approached visionaries we felt would best represent the line, while bringing their own creative signature to our classic characters.”

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