Kickstarter – SMASH PAGES

Exclusive | Two new ‘Weird Tales’ comics join Monstrous’ Kickstarter campaign for the franchise’s first graphic novel

The hardcover will include comic adaptations of classic stories by Ray Bradbury, Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft and more.

Monstrous and Weird Tales Magazine are collaborating on the first-ever official Weird Tales graphic novel, currently funding on Kickstarter with more than 1,200 backers in its first two weeks. And we have an exclusive first look at two limited-edition saddle-stitch comics being offered as part of the campaign.

Weird Tales #1 is a 28-page floppy featuring “Doctor Satan vs. Jules de Grandin” by writer James Aquilone and artist Dave Swartz. It also includes an adaptation of “Ooze,” the very first story published in Weird Tales in 1923, by Weird Tales president John Harlacher and artist Zac Atkinson, who also provides the cover. Weird Tales #2, also 28 pages, features “The Cthulhu Project” by Richard Krepit and artist EV Cantada, and “The Abominable Professor Gaius” by Aquilone and Atkinson, again with a cover by Atkinson.

Here’s a look at the covers:

Smash Pages Q&A | Bruno Redondo on ‘The DC Art of Bruno Redondo’

From a 12-year-old reading ‘Incredible Hulk’ to three Eisner Awards, Redondo reflects on the career that led to his first major art book.

Bruno Redondo has spent the last decade building an impressive body of work in comics. From his early DC work on Human Target and Batman: Arkham Unhinged to his career-defining runs on Injustice and Nightwing, he’s developed a visual language that’s entirely his own — fluid, expressive, and packed with personality. Along the way, he’s picked up three Eisner Awards and won over countless fans.

Now, Clover Press is giving his work a retrospective with The DC Art of Bruno Redondo, a 200+ page, 9″x12″ hardcover collecting his best DC work to date, with an introduction by his longtime collaborator Tom Taylor. The campaign is live now on Kickstarter, with edition options ranging from hardcover to signed slipcase, plus extras like a fold-out edition of the iconic Nightwing #87, rarely-seen sketches and commissions, a sticker pack and more.

I recently had the chance to talk with Bruno about how he fell in love with comics, what makes his creative partnership with Tom Taylor tick, what it means to look back at a career still very much in progress. and more. Here’s what he had to say.

Exclusive | Get your first look at the slipcase for The DC Art of Bruno Redondo

The three-time Eisner Award winner gets the art book treatment from Clover Press.

Here’s a treat — courtesy of Clover Press, we’re pleased to share an exclusive first look at the slipcase for The DC Art of Bruno Redondo, the upcoming art book from Clover Press that collects some of the most gorgeous DC artwork of the past decade. Just writing that sentence makes me happy, because if there’s one artist working in superhero comics right now who deserves this kind of book, it’s Bruno Redondo.

Also, the slipcase features Nightwing and Batgirl — and Bitewing! — which is a huge plus.

Redondo got his footing on titles like Human Target and Batman: Arkham Unhinged, but things really started to click when he teamed up with writer Tom Taylor on Injustice: Gods Among Us. What could have been a straightforward video game tie-in became something special, in no small part because of what Redondo brought to the page , with his fluid, expressive linework, a real sense of weight and motion, and layouts that actually served the story rather than just showing off.

Slugfest | ComicsPro news from BOOM!, Dark Horse, IDW and more

From a new ‘Something is Killing the Children’ miniseries to a Terry Moore/Dark Horse partnership, this week’s ComicsPro announcements brought a steady stream of news.

You may have noticed it’s a big week for comics industry news. ComicsPRO, the comics retailer organization, is holding its annual industry conference in Glendale, Calif. this week, and it’s being attended by comic retailers, publishers, distributors and creators. Skybound’s chief Robert Kirkman is delivering the keynote address later this week.

Publishers traditionally flood the zone with announcements timed to the meeting, and this year is no exception. Here’s a roundup of more announcements that caught our eye so far:

Exclusive | Lord Dunsany’s ‘The Gods of Pegana’ returns as a fully illustrated art book

Dustin Holland illustrates a new edition of the classic fantasy literature, which arrives on Kickstarter soon.

Before the Cthulhu mythos reshaped cosmic horror, Lord Dunsany was already mapping the unknown.

First published in 1905, The Gods of Pegana is an influential but often overlooked work of early fantasy literature, laying the groundwork for writers like H.P. Lovecraft, J.R.R. Tolkien and Ursula K. Le Guin. Now, Denver’s Wig Shop is bringing Dunsany’s cosmology back into the spotlight with a new illustrated edition, and we’re excited to share an exclusive first look at preview pages from the book.

This upcoming Kickstarter project pairs Dunsany’s dreamlike text with full-color paintings by artist Dustin Holland. This edition presents the complete original text, surrounded by richly painted borders and punctuated by full-page illustrations that mirror a medieval illuminated manuscript.

Holland draws inspiration from sources as varied as Leonora Carrington, Max Ernst, Fleischer Studios animation and underground cartoonists like Gary Panter and Julie Doucet. The result is a hallucinatory, almost primeval, visual language that feels perfectly suited to Dunsany’s pantheon of gods, monsters and prophets.

“It’s rare to find a book with so many ideas per page,” Holland said. “I hope these paintings invite readers to revel in Dunsany’s imagination and really celebrate the dreamy world he’s built.”

The 7×10, 139-page deluxe paperback is set to launch on Kickstarter next month, with additional rewards including original artwork and campaign-exclusive extras. Check out the exclusive preview pages below:

Clover Press announces a new art book celebrating ‘Marvel Masterpieces’ artist Dan Dos Santos

The Kickstarter will begin in the new year.

Clover Press is expanding their Marvel Art Of… series with a new volume dedicated to award-winning artist Dan Dos Santos, set to launch on Kickstarter next month.

The Marvel Art of Dan Dos Santos will showcase Dos Santos’ distinctive oil painting style, which brought Marvel’s heroes to life with remarkable realism. The artist is perhaps best known for hand-painting more than 135 traditional oil pieces for the 2022 Marvel Masterpieces trading card set, and this book collects all of those stunning works alongside pieces from the 2023 set and never-before-seen artwork.

“Over 30 years ago, as a young teen, it was my exposure to a similar collection of Marvel art that set me on the path of wanting to be a professional artist in the first place,” Dos Santos said. “So it is incredibly apt, and really thrilling, to see it all come full-circle in this new collection of my own. This book represents years of work, and contains hundreds of paintings that I feel are my finest work to date. I labored tirelessly to breath as much life and backstory into each of these modern mythological heroes as I could. It is my hope the next generation of young artists and fans will find these characters as inspiring as I found them so many years ago.”

Smash Pages Q&A | Magnetic Press publisher Mike Kennedy on bringing ‘Freaks Squeele’ to America

The publisher launches all seven volumes of Florent Maudoux’s acclaimed series on Kickstarter.

Magnetic Press has been building a distinctive catalog of internationally acclaimed graphic novels since 2013. With 31 Eisner Award nominations and a win for Best Production Design in 2024, publisher Mike Kennedy has proven there’s a market in the U.S. for stories from Europe. Now Magnetic is taking on one of its most ambitious projects yet: the complete seven-volume saga of Florent Maudoux’s Freaks Squeele, a manga-inspired superhero series that’s been captivating readers around the world since 2008.

Described as “Jujutsu Kaisen meets X-Men by way of Scott Pilgrim,” Freaks Squeele follows three misfit students at a superhero university where heroism is a regulated profession and deadly tournaments are broadcast for public consumption. The Kickstarter campaign launches all seven volumes at once, featuring 1,000 pages of story — plus an exclusive artbook and a limited edition “dorm footlocker” storage box.

We caught up with Kennedy to talk about what drew Magnetic Press to Freaks Squeele, how the publisher approaches translating international works and why European comics continue to offer something American readers can’t find anywhere else.

Clover Press completes their ‘Tom the Dancing Bug’ collection with two new volumes

Check out the slipcase artwork created to hold all 8 volumes.

Great news for fans of political satire comics: Clover Press has launched a Kickstarter campaign this week to publish the final two volumes in their eight-volume collection of Ruben Bolling’s Tom the Dancing Bug comic strip.

The two new books will collect the earliest strips from the 1990s: Secret Origins (1990-1994) and Sex, Tom the Dancing Bug, & Rock ‘N’ Roll (1994-1998). Each volume will be over 200 pages in the 8″ x 9″ format.

“With the announcement of these two volumes, The Complete Tom the Dancing Bug program will soon stand as a full eight-volume chronicle of 35 years of comics – my life’s work,” said Bolling. “I’m grateful to Clover Press for its commitment to the project. The quality of the books has been extraordinary, and I’m honored to have this complete set in print. These two volumes will document this strip’s earliest years, and in some ways, my most audacious and ambitious work.”

Let’s Do the Time Warp Again: ‘Bride of Rocky Horror’ brings back the madness

Bit Bot Media’s Kickstarter will feature a sequel graphic novel, as well as Rocky Horror–themed hoodies, hats, plushies and more.

Fans of the cult classic The Rocky Horror Show are about to shiver with antici…pation once more. Bit Bot Media has announced Bride of Rocky Horror, an officially licensed graphic novel sequel to the original stage production that includes exclusive collectibles, a retro video game and newly revealed Rocky Horror–themed apparel — which we’re happy to share today.

You can sign up now to be noticed when the crowdfunding campaign launches.

Written by Magdalene Visaggio (Girlmode) and illustrated by Noemi Vettori (X-Men Unlimited), Bride of Rocky Horror picks up seven years after that fateful night with Janet Weiss and Brad Majors. Janet has embraced a life of decadence and debauchery, but when a mysterious invitation reunites her with Brad, she’s pulled into a new mystery involving an enigmatic figure named Bridget Von Frankenstein.

“It was the safest queer art I had access to when I was young because my parents were both huge fans,” said Visaggio. “So to get the chance to look beyond it and see how it could have played out once that fateful night ended was a dream come true.”

Stan Lee and John Romita’s ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ newspaper strips return from Clover Press

The campaign is now live on Kickstarter.

Clover Press and The Library of American Comics are teaming up to bring The Amazing Spider-Man Classic Newspaper Comics back into print—this time in an affordable softcover format—and they’re turning to Kickstarter to make it happen.

“The Library of American Comics remastered and collected the strip in a series of hardcover collections—but so many of them are out of print, making the collection highly sought after and almost impossible for your average comics lover to get their hands on,” said Clover Publisher Hank Kanalz. ”Now, Clover Press and The Library of American Comics are bringing the collections back to print in an affordable softcover format! We’re collecting the strip strictly by year, reprinting each installment from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31. We can’t wait to help get these iconic comic strips into the hands of Spidey lovers everywhere!”

The campaign’s first offering will collect the strip from 1977–1980 across four softcover volumes, each measuring 11″ x 8.5″ in a horizontal format, housed in a protective slipcase designed for easy shelving. Backers can pick up all four volumes as a bundle, along with campaign-exclusive extras including a puzzle, stickers, lithographs and more. And today we have your first look at the sticker sheets:

Lone Star, Full Moon: Zack Quaintance + Anna Readman bring ‘Macabre Valley’ to Kickstarter

The campaign for the Texas werewolf grindhouse miniseries ends Oct. 15.

Zack Quaintance and Anna Readman, who worked together on last year’s Death of Comics Bookcase anthology, have teamed up for Macabre Valley, a “Texan werewolf grindhouse comic” that draws from Quaintance’s days as a reporter on the Texas.Mexico border.

“Right after college, I spent five years as a newspaper reporter in South Texas, a wild place filled with news and legends,” said Quaintance. “I was in way over my head. It didn’t go well, and it’s always felt like a bit of a horror story to me—so now we’re taking my real life experiences and crafting a fantastical, monster-filled version of events.”

The result is Macabre Valley, which Quaintance is currently funding on Kickstarter. The campaign is for the first issue of four, and it actually hit its goal already, so all you need to do is pledge and wait for your copy to arrive before Halloween.

“By doing the comic through Kickstarter, we’ll be able to do the book our own way, with all the twists, gore, and gritty terror this story demands. It’s going to get bloody, y’all,” he said.

Exclusive | Meet Zarigazami, a new kaiju debuting in ‘Monstrous Magazine’

Check out the designs for the new creature by manga artist Itaru Kinoshita prior to the Kickstarter campaign launching next week.

Monstrous Books is making big plans for their next issue of Monstrous Magazine, and by “big” I mean “Kaiju sized.”

Monstrous: The Kaiju Issue will debut on Kickstarter soon — you can sign up to be notified when it launches — celebrating all things giant monster in an oversized issue. It’ll feature short stories, comics and artwork by author Greg Cox, publisher James Aquilone, artist Dave Swartz and more.

“When I decided to do a Kaiju issue of Monstrous Magazine I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do a Kaiju-size magazine, so we’re going from 5.5 x 8.5 to 8.5 x 11 inches,” said Aquilone. “And that’s just the beginning. We’re resizing the Monstrous Magazine back issues, too, and now, for a limited time, they will be available in the new collectible, oversized Kaiju format.”

Zarigazami is one of several new kaiju that will appear in the issue. Designed by manga artist Itaru Kinoshita, the monster will appear in black and white in the magazine, but Aquilone is offering a full-color print as one of the rewards in the campaign.

This isn’t Kinoshita’s first time drawing giant creatures. The fan-favorite creator is best known for Dinosaur Sanctuary and the series Gigante o Utte, which is also about dinosaurs. Dinosaur Sanctuary is published by Seven Seas Entertainment and was nominated for Best Continuing Manga Series at the American Manga Awards in 2024. Volume 7 is due to be published in English on Sept. 30.

Here’s a look at the print, which will be available when the Kickstarter goes live:

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