‘Monstress’ takes home another Hugo; Takeda named best artist

In the “Graphic Story” category, Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s fantasy series beats out ‘Saga,’ ‘Black Bolt’ and more to win the award.

Monstress, the fantasy series written by Marjorie Liu, drawn by Sana Takeda and published by Image Comics, has again won the Hugo Award in the “Graphic Story” category for its second volume, Monstress, Volume 2: The Blood. In addition, Takeda also won in the “Best Professional Artist” category.

Presented annually since 1955, The Hugo Awards recognize the best science fiction in books, comics, movies, TV and more. The Hugo Awards are voted on annually by members of the World Science Fiction Convention. The Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story has been awarded annually since 2009, with previous winners including Saga, Ms. Marvel, Girl Genius and The Sandman: Overture. Other nominees in the category this year included Saga, Paper Girls, My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Bitch Planet and Black Bolt.

The 2018 Hugo Awards were presented this evening at a ceremony at the 76th World Science Fiction Convention in San Jose, California.

Monstress has been racking up awards left and right over the last year, winning an NCS Divisional Award, a British Fantasy Award and several Eisner Awards, among others. Congratulations to Liu, Takeda and the whole Monstress team.

Layman + Chan blast off into the ‘Outer Darkness’

Skybound presents a new title in November that combines science fiction and horror.

We are living in a post-Chew world, as John Layman and Rob Guillory’s epic foodie tale wrapped up almost two years ago now. Depressing as that thought is — I still miss Tony and the gang — the silver lining is that both creators have new projects to fill the void. Have you read Farmhand, Guillory’s new title? The first two issues were awesome. Not to be outdone, Layman has two new comics out this year: Leviathan with Nick Pitarra, which kicked off last month, and the just-announced Outer Darkness, which arrives in November.

Layman is working with Afu Chan, artist of Immortal Iron Fists, on the sci-fi/horror title.

“Thanks to Afu Chan and Skybound, we’ve succeeded in making Outer Darkness as perfect and beautiful as I’d envisioned it to be since finishing Chew,” Layman said in a press release. “I’m so unbelievably excited that Outer Darkness is being announced to the world. I’m absolutely in love with this book.”

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Boothby + Lagace conjure up ‘ExorSisters’ in October

New series follows two sisters, Kate and Cate Harrow, with a dark secret.

After winning multiple awards for his work on The Simpsons comics for Bongo over the years, MAD Magazine contributor Ian Boothby is branching out to his own creator-owned property, ExorSisters, a new comic with artist Gisele Lagace. The new series launches in October from Image Comics.

“As a kid, I loved Scooby-Doo. That love for mysteries mixed with the supernatural then got me into shows like Buffy and Supernatural as an adult. If you liked those shows, you’ll love ExorSisters,” Lagace said in the press release. “It’s a universe full of fun and intriguing characters with many stories to tell.”

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The Mockingbird agenda: Creative team reunites for ‘Man-Eaters’ from Image Comics

Chelsea Cain, Kate Niemczyk, Rachelle Rosenberg and Joe Caramagna re-team for a new series where ‘a mutation in Toxoplasmosis causes menstruating women to turn into ferocious killer wildcats.’

After enduring terrible treatment on Twitter because of the cover to her final issue of Mockingbird, writer Chelsea Cain returns to comics with Man-Eaters — and she’s bringing the Mockingbird creative team with her.

Cain is joined by her previous collaborators, artist Kate Niemczyk, colorist Rachelle Rosenberg and letterer Joe Caramagna, as well as Lia Miternique and Stella Greenvoss, for the new series.

“It’s my first comic since Mockingbird, so I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have some Twitter-related PTSD,” Cain wrote on her website. “But I also have much better privacy settings and a hair trigger. I know the story goes that I left comics after Mockingbird, that I was driven away, dropped off at the state line by some trolls in a pick-up truck. I didn’t leave comics. Comics left me. I’ve been right here. I’ve been busy, working on this series, developing the exact story I wanted to tell, finding the perfect home for it – Image Comics – and then putting together my dream team. (If you’ve ever seen the TV show, The A-Team, it was EXACTLY like that.) Man-Eaters combines a lot of my interests: cats, murder, feminism, propaganda, dad with beards, detectives, people who are good at their jobs, sarcastic t-shirts, etc.”

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Cab drivers and monsters collide in the 1970s in ‘MCMLXXV’

‘It’s about creating a new kind of folk hero that speaks to where we all are right now. Oh yeah… it’s also about smashing monsters into the pavement with an enchanted tire iron.’

Joe Casey and Ian MacEwan are heading back to MCMLXXV — that’s 1975 to you and me — for a new series about a Manhattan cab driver/badass monster-fighter.

In MCMLXXV, you’ll meet Pamela Evans during “the year of her greatest adventure.”

“This series is all about creating brand new iconography,” Casey said in a press release. “It’s about creating a new kind of folk hero that speaks to where we all are right now. Oh yeah… it’s also about smashing monsters into the pavement with an enchanted tire iron.”

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Ellis + Howard team for ‘relentless’ action comic ‘Cemetery Beach’

New series from the creators of ‘Trees’ debuts from Image Comics in September.

The creative team behind Trees is heading back to the beach for what Warren Ellis says might be “the most relentless action book I’ve ever written.” Cemetery Beach, by Ellis and artist Jason Howard, debuts in September from Image Comics.

“In Cemetery Beach, Warren wrote the perfect book for me as an artist,” Howard said. “It’s an insane world filled with old future tech, cool characters, big explosions, and enough heart to make you care. It’s the kind of comics I love reading and REALLY love drawing.”

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Steve Niles, Marcelo Frusin take over ‘Kick-Ass’ with issue #7

After a decade of kicking ass, Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. hand over the reigns to their creator-owned title.

Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. returned to the world of Kick-Ass this year with a new title and a new character under the mask. And now, with issue #7 of the series, the duo will bring in a new creative team — Steve Niles and Marcelo Frusin.

“When we sold Millarworld to Netflix, the one and only downside was not being able to write more Kick-Ass with my new executive role, and so I did the next best thing—I got my favorite writer to continue Patience Lee’s adventures,” said Millar. “Steve Niles is without question my favorite writer in comics, and I rank 30 Days of Night as my favorite graphic novel of the last 20 years. I’m honored he’s taken the time to do this and slightly in awe that, like Jeff Lemire on Hit-Girl, he’s already outclassed me on this book. I finally get to enjoy Kick-Ass as a reader!”

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‘Me the People’ collects Pia Guerra’s political cartoons

Politically charged hardcover arrives in October from Image Comics.

Pia Guerra‘s recent editorial cartoons have been spot on, and just in time for the midterm elections, they’re getting collected by Image Comics. Covering a wide array of topics, from gun control to the Trump administration, the hardcover collection Me the People will arrive in October.

Comic fans probably know Guerra best from her work on Y: The Last Man, but it’s just as likely you’ve seen her work in the New Yorker, or maybe in the Washington Post or even on The Nib.

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Marian Churchland’s blog goblins get a print collection in September

Churchland’s delightful creations jump from the web to print in ‘The Hchom Book’ from Image Comics.

While she’s probably better known for comics like Beast, Elephantmen and her various contributions to the 8HOUSE shared universe, my favorite Marian Churchland work has always been her blog. For years she’s posted images of her own want lists, Dragon Age fan art, and these cool little goblins and the world she envisions they live in. Like this guy:

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‘Green Monk’ returns from Image Comics

Brandon Dayton’s minicomic turned webcomic about a monk and his blade of grass gets a graphic novel in September.

I first read Brandon Dayton‘s Green Monk back during Indy Comic Book Week, when a Diamond Comics Distributors skip week gave a bunch of independent comics creators a opportunity to promote their books to comic retailers and fans. It’s a beautiful minicomic that landed on YALSA’s “Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens” in 2011, and now it’s getting a graphic novel sequel, courtesy of Image Comics.

“So excited to be bringing the Green Monk to a wider audience through Image,” said Dayton in a press release. “This is a book that has all the things I love to see in comics. It’s a mix of quiet, contemplative moments with surreal, and sometimes explosive, action. I hope it can provide a real sense of journey and discovery.”

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Image brings Kickliy’s ‘Perdy’ to America

The hardcover is due out Sept. 5.

Image Comics has announced plans to publish an English-language hardcover version of Perdy, by French cartoonist Kickily.

The western graphic novel stars Perdy, a woman who “loves two things: sex and robbing banks—no particular order.” After getting out of prison, she returns to her wild ways to pursue “the biggest score of gold this side of the border. And if anyone gets in her way, they’ll be pushing up petunias.” Dargaud BD will publish the French edition of the book.

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Smash Pages Q&A: Remy Boydell and Michelle Perez

The duo discuss the collected edition of ‘The Pervert,’ which is out this week from Image Comics.

The short-lived anthology Island featured great artists producing great work, but one of the stand outs had to be the series of stories by Remy Boydell and Michelle Perez around a young trans sex worker. Beautifully painted, powerfully raw, the stories from Island have been collected along with a number of other stories that have never been published in the new book The Pervert, which is out this week from Image Comics.

The Pervert utilizes a structure and approach that might be more familiar to prose readers accustomed to short story collections following a single character. The book isn’t interested in tackling stories and themes that are common in trans narratives. It is a story about sex work that refuses to glamorize or demonize sex workers and their work. The artistic choices and the way the book is drawn, using mostly anthropomorphized animals, forces the reader to rethink their assumptions of the characters’ gender. It also lends the story, which can be dark and ugly, a certain dreamy quality.

The book can be laugh out loud funny, but also tough to read. It is beautifully drawn, and tackles ugly topics. It is in the end heartbreaking and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since finishing it. I spoke with Remy and Michelle about the book and how they worked.

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