Tag: Jock

Spurrier, Campbell + Bellaire reunite for more Hellblazer

‘John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America’ kicks off in January.

Si Spurrier, Aaron Campbell and Jordie Bellaire’s run on John Constantine was cut short back in 2020, but as we’ve seen many times before, the rapscallion’s pretty good at cheating death. At NYCC last weekend, DC announced that the trio will team up once again for John Constantine, Hellblazer: Dead in America, an eight-issue Black Label miniseries.

“Hellblazer is back. Between 2019 and 2021, Aaron Campbell and I chronicled John Constantine’s sly progress through London,” said writer Si Spurrier. “For 13 issues, the book dripped with heart and hate and rage—rage at the state of the world, rage at the state of our minds and lives. Those 13 issues were our poisonous love letter to the Constantines of the past—[Alan] Moore’s, [Jamie] Delano’s, [Garth] Ennis’s. It was the best work we’ve ever done. And then it stopped. On a note of death and despair, with—like all magic—a heavy price levied. And now it’s back. Because the cost doesn’t count if we don’t get to see it being paid. Because even dead things can make a difference.”

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DSTLRY’s first series will be ‘Gone’ by Jock

The new series begins in October.

DSTLRY, the fledgling comics company with a different ownership model and digital comics strategy, have announced their first planned series following the release of The Devil’s Cut — Gone by Batman: One Dark Knight‘s Jock.

Gone is described as “an action-packed sci-fi adventure featuring oversized, 48-page perfect bound issues,” which Jock will write, draw and color.

“Gone is a labor of love with which I have the rare opportunity to fine-tune every aspect of the story as both writer and artist,” Jock said. “I’m grateful to DSTLRY for their unwavering support and for providing a platform where creators can push the boundaries of their craft. I can’t wait to share this journey and the world of Gone with everyone this fall.”

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DSTLRY’s ‘The Devil’s Cut’ anthology will launch eight new titles

Check out previews of stories by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Christian Ward, Ram V, Lee Garbett, Becky Cloonan and more.

DSTLRY , the new comics company formed by former Comixology execs David Steinberger and Chip Mosher, will release their first comic next month — The Devil’s Cut, an anthology featuring the work of Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Becky Cloonan, Jock, Tula Lotay and many of the other creators from the murderer’s row of talent they’ve recruited.

Not only has DSTLRY released preview pages from the 11 stories that will appear in it, they’ve also announced that eight of those stories will serve as springboards for new series that will launch later this year and next year.

“With The Devil’s Cut, a majority of the self-contained stories lay the foundation for series to come,” said DSTLRY CCO Chip Mosher. “To be crystal clear, these eight stories found in The Devil’s Cut are not previews, but the first appearances of new worlds from our Founding Creators and Friends.” 

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DSTLRY’s first title will arrive in August

‘The Devil’s Cut’ anthology will feature comics by Scott Snyder, Becky Cloonan, Jamie McKelvie, Ram V, Jock and more.

DSTLRY, the new company started by former Comixology execs David Steinbeger and Chip Mosher, has announced their first title: The Devil’s Cut, an anthology featuring comics by the company’s “founding creators.” The anthology will go on sale Aug. 30.

Steinberger and Mosher announced the new venture last month, which is taking some unique approaches to how they operate:

  1. They’ve enlisted a group of creators who they are calling “founding creators” who each have equity in the venture. They’ve set aside an additional 3% of company equity to be distributed among all creators who release projects during the first three years of their publishing slate, with allocations being based on title performance. This part seems to have been generally well-received, as it’s an attempt to address the financial and ownership disparities that have cast a shadow on the industry in the past.
  2. As part of their release plans, they will publish print comics and digital comics, and have announced distribution deals with Diamond and Lunar Distribution for print. Their digital single issues will be sold on their website (and/or through an app, or something … they haven’t released details on the specifics of how this will work yet) and they plan to somehow make them collectible and resellable “with no crypto or NFT-hassle.” This part has not been so well-received, with many noting that digital scarcity is the kind of notion that drives things like the NFT market. DSTLRY has said that they plan to collect individual series in trades that will be available widely in print and on digital, even outside their own marketplace. So they seem to be trying to appeal to both collectors and readers, the two wolves that exist inside the comics community that are constantly eating each other.

The Devil’s Cut will be distributed digitally by DSTLRY through Sept. 6, according to the press release, which signals that their digital marketplace will be up and running by the end of the summer.

Jock provides the main cover, which will be one of six covers for the anthology:

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Two Comixology vets return to comics with DSTLRY

The new publisher will offer creators an ownership stake in the company.

If you’ve been wondering what comiXology co-founder David Steinberger and former comiXology Originals head Chip Mosher have been doing lately, wonder no more. Today the duo have launched DSTLRY [pronounced “distillery”], a “next-generation comics publisher that redefines creator-owned comic books and collectibles.”

The new company will offer “limited physical and digital item drops, available online or in-store at local comic shops, while providing creators with fairer deals alongside company ownership.” There’s a lot to unpack from their press release, so let’s jump in … but first, here’s an image of DSTLRY’s founders drawn by Tula Lotay:

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Snyder + Jock open the ‘Book of Evil’

The creators of ‘Batman: Black Mirror’ reunite for a new illustrated prose series for Comixology Originals.

As part of his eight-book deal with Comixology Originals, Scott Snyder will once again team with artist Jock for The Book of Evil, a “visionary serialized horror story” that blends Snyder’s prose with Jock’s illustrations.

The story follows four young friends growing up in world where over 90 percent of the population are born as psychopaths, but they don’t know it until they become a teenager. Despite the danger, the four friends “set off together on a journey that will take them down the roads and rivers of this transformed America in the hope of finding a place where goodness still lives.”

Snyder shared more about it in his newsletter:

“It imagines that not long from now, 92% of the population start being born sociopaths. Nobody knows why, nobody knows if it’s a toxin or a mutation or evolution. But suddenly, the vast majority of people being born present as sociopaths when they hit adolescence. So when you’re about 13 or 14, you switch over into either being part of the majority, a psychopath, or you’re one of what they call ‘subs,’ a ‘subhuman’ person who still has the vestigial limb of empathy or compassion or a conscience, and you’re relegated to the terrible hard labor of this world. So it’s a really dark book,” he said. “I’m very, very, very proud of this one. It’s prose with spot illustrations and it’s presented as the journal, like an artifact by a kid in this world named Homer, who’s growing up with his three best friends in the slums that they keep kids in until they present one way or another. And it’s about an adventure they have to try and escape all of the terrors of this future.”

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Mail Call | ‘X-Men: Inferno’ teasers say ‘Trust No One’

Check out news, announcements and previews from DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, Image and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently that we haven’t already covered. Hit the links for more information.

Marvel has released three teasers for X-Men: Inferno, the upcoming X-Men crossover event that shares a name with a 1989 X-Men crossover event (not to be confused with The Trial of Magneto, another X-Men event that kicks off in August and also shares a name with a 1980s X-Men storyline.)

The teasers all build on the concept of trust, suggesting that you pretty much can’t trust anyone on Krakoa these days:

“An homage to the original house ads for 1989’s milestone X-Men crossover Inferno, Silva’s artwork presents all the major players of the upcoming saga and teases the day of reckoning that will soon be upon them,” Marvel.com says about the teasers. Inferno is written by Jonathan Hickman with artwork by Valerio Schiti, R.B. Silva and Stefano Caselli.

“I’m very excited that we’re finally getting to share with everyone the follow-up to House of X/Powers of X,” Hickman said. “The story is 160 pages over four issues drawn exquisitely by Valerio Schiti, R.B. Silva and Stefano Caselli. I cannot wait for people to read it.” 

Inferno #1 arrives Sept. 29.

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‘Snow Angels’ returns from comiXology this Tuesday

Jeff Lemire and Jock return to the ice-covered world explored in the first four issues.

Snow Angels, the excellent comiXology Originals series by Jeff Lemire and Jock about a world covered in ice that came out earlier this year, will return this Tuesday for its “second season.”

On the ice-covered world that serves as the setting of Snow Angels, all the people live inside The Trench, which seems to stretch forever across the world. They live by three rules:

1. YOU MUST NEVER LEAVE THE TRENCH.
2. THE TRENCH PROVIDES.
3. THE TRENCH IS ENDLESS.

They have not only the cold to deal with, but also a legendary monster called The Snowman. The heart of the first arc, though, was the relationship between the three main characters — a father and his two daughters, Milliken and Mae. Also, those three rules? Think of them more as guidelines …

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comiXology Originals announces ‘Snow Angels’ by Lemire + Jock

The project will arrive in 2021.

After teasing it last week, comiXology Originals has announced a new title, Snow Angels, by Jeff Lemire and Jock.

The announcement — which is really more of a second teaser — doesn’t reveal anything about the project beyond the title and the two creators involved, and the company didn’t share anything else. You can watch it here:

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Mail Call | New ‘Avatar,’ ‘Abbott’ and a ‘Batgirl’ debut

Check out recent news and announcements from DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse and more.

Mail Call is a roundup of the announcements we’ve received from comics publishers in our mailboxes recently. Hit the links for more information.

Following the end of the Joker War storyline, DC’s current Batgirl series will wrap up with its extra-sized 50th issue this Tuesday. DC has revealed that this issue will also see the debut of Ryan Wilder, the character taking over the Batwoman mantle on The CW’s Batwoman TV show.

Will this new character also take over as Batwoman in the comics? I guess we’ll find out. You can see a preview of that issue here.

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Comics Lowdown: Halloween edition

Tricks and treats from Marvel, Todd Klein, Kerry Callen and more!

It’s the scariest day of the year, and to help celebrate we’re doing something a little different with Comics Lowdown today.

Let’s start with something better than candy — better than candy? — comics! Every year Diamond Comics Distributors celebrates Halloween ComicFest, an event for comic shops similar in spirit to Free Comic Book Day. You can check out the official website to see pictures from this year’s celebrations. Also of note: many comic shops are selling packs of comics that you can give out to Trick or Treaters. So check with your local retailer to see what they have on hand.

And if you’re looking for some scary comics to read today, publishers have unleashed a horde of Halloween-themed stories today. Polygon spotlights the return of Wytches, as Scott Snyder and Jock return to hex you with a one-shot today. Speaking of hexing, Hex Wives, the new title by Ben Blacker and Mirka Andolfo from Vertigo, debuts today, along with the last issue of Wayward, a new issue of Stranger Things and some more Ice Cream Man, if you’re looking for something both sweet and creepy. In addition, new publisher Ahoy Comics has Edgar Allen Poe’s Snifter of Terror, featuring the work of Tom Peyer, Mark Russell, Shannon Wheeler and more, while Marvel has an Avengers Halloween Special and DC kicks off The Witching Hour crossover.

If you’re looking for a longer read, Doctor of Horror and Other Stories from Fantagraphics collects old EC horror stories, while Dark Horse has released H. P. Lovecraft’s The Hound and Other Stories by manga creator Gou Tanabe.

Finally, if you’re looking for some deals, check out Dynamite’s Fall horror bundle on Groupees and ComixTribe’s Halloween flash sale.

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Humanoids launches H1 line of comics

John Cassaday, Mark Waid, Kwanza Osajyefo, Yanick Paquette and Carla Speed McNeil spearhead the new line of comics.

As promised, Humanoids revealed more about their H1 line of comics at New York Comic Con this week. Known mainly as a publisher of graphic novels for the last 20 years in America, Humanoids moves into the monthly comic market and shared universes with H1.

With John Cassaday and Mark Waid already announced as being on board, the publisher revealed three additional “architects” of the H1 line: Kwanza Osajyefo (Black, DC’s Zuda imprint), Yanick Paquette (Wonder Woman Earth One, Swamp Thing) and Carla Speed McNeil (Finder, Sensation Comics).

“H1 represents a number of important milestones for Humanoids,” said Humanoids CEO and Publisher Fabrice Giger. “This is our first foray into a shared universe, one with stories by talented creators whose undeniable creative chemistry is forging a new and fantastic world. Next summer, we’re launching three ongoing comic book series, the first three ongoing periodicals in this company’s history, and we’ll be publishing them in an unprecedented and unexpected way which we’ll announce in the coming months.”

Working on the three ongoings will be Phil Briones, Vanessa Del Rey, Cheryl Lynn Eaton, Mike McKone and Afua Richardson.

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