FCBD 2024: Marvel’s ‘Blood Hunt,’ Spider-Man India, Dark Horse, Flash Gordon and more

Several publishers have revealed more about their plans for Free Comic Book Day 2024.

As we move into the new year, several companies have revealed additional details on their Free Comic Book Day plans for 2024. This year’s event will be held May 4 and will feature about 50 titles from various publishers.

And those publishers include Marvel, Dark Horse and Mad Cave, who have shared more about what to expect from this year’s titles. Let’s dig in …

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Comic strip news: Flash Gordon returns, Spider-Man canceled

Dan Schkade takes over Flash Gordon, bringing us new strips for the first time in 20 years.

This Sunday the Flash Gordon comic strip returned with new strips for the first time since 2003, both online and in print.

King Features has enlisted Dan Schkade, creator of Lavender Jack, to write and draw the strip. For the last 20 years King Features has offered reruns of the strip, as drawn by Jim Keefe (which can still be found online).

“The initial version of Flash I pitched was a little more purposefully a himbo,” Schkade told the Washington Post. Schkade won a competitive tryout earlier this year to take over the strip, and he agreed to make Flash less of a himbo and “a more classic, straightforward hero.”

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Dick Tracy will return to action at Mad Cave Studios

Michael Moreci, Alex Segura, Geraldo Borges and Chantelle Aimée Osman will bring the detective back to comics.

Mad Cave Studios has announced plans to launch a new comic featuring Dick Tracy, the legendary yellow coat-wearing detective who first debuted on the newspaper comic page in the 1930s.

Crime novelist and comics writer Alex Segura will co-write the title with Barbaric writer Michael Moreci, joined by No/One artist Geraldo Borges and creative consultant Chantelle Aimée Osman. Segura and Moreciwere tied to a Dick Tracy comic title at Archie Comics in 2017, but a licensing snafu put it on hold. In the press release, they, along with Osman, are listed as the “comics rights-holders” for Dick Tracy, which is owned by Tribune Content Agency.

“This has been a long time coming, and we are all so excited to bring our grounded, noir take on the Dick Tracy mythos to life at Mad Cave,” said Segura. “Michael and I have loved Dick Tracy, his stellar rogues gallery, and unforgettable supporting cast since we first became aware of the character as kids. It’s been a winding road to not only get the rights to publish new stories starring the iconic detective, and I’m so thankful that my journey with Chantelle and Michael brought us to Mad Cave. The stuff Geraldo is cooking up perfectly evokes the grounded, cinematic vibe we’re bringing to this origin story.”

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Mad Cave will unleash ‘Edenfrost’ in November

The new historical fantasy by Amit Tishler and Bruno Frenda is set in the Ukraine during the Russian Civil War.

Mad Cave Studios has announced plans to publish Edenfrost, an historical fiction/fantasy series written by Amit Tishler with art and colors by Bruno Frenda and letters by Taylor Esposito this fall.

“Edenfrost is a deeply personal and pertinent story, born from an amalgamation of my own philosophies, interests, family history and artistic passions,” Tishler said. “I wanted to create an epic journey that’s exciting and entertaining, but also delivers a nuanced and insightful message about the concept of identity.”

The story is set in the Ukraine during the Russian Civil War:

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Mad Cave teams with Tatsunoko Production for ‘Gatchaman’ comics

The anime that inspired ‘Battle of the Planets’ will return to comics in the U.S. next year.

Mad Cave Studios and Tatsunoko Production have announced that Mad Cave will bring Gatchaman back to the United States for a new Gatchaman series.

Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, or just Gatchaman for short, is a popular Japanese anime that first debuted in the early 1970s and was created by Tatsuo Yoshida. Those of a certain generation may remember Battle of the Planets, the American adaptation that was syndicated in the late 1970s and featured the same team, dubbed G-Force.

Gatchaman has entertained and influenced fans around the world for over 50 years, and it could not be a better time to introduce their futuristic world to a new generation of readers,” said Kaz Haruna, Tatsunoko Production director of international business. “Tatsunoko is absolutely excited to work with the team at Mad Cave Studios.”

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Flash Gordon will soar again at Mad Cave

The publisher plans both new and reprint titles, which will kick off next year.

Mad Cave Studios and King Features have announced plans for Mad Cave to publish new Flash Gordon comics, along with reprints of older material and graphic novels.

In addition Papercutz, the middle-grade imprint owned by Mad Cave, will publish new Flash Gordon comics aimed at that younger audience.

“As one of the first action heroes Flash Gordon has always been powerhouse in the comics universe,’ said Christina Nix Lynch, King Features’ licensing director. “We’re delighted to have a partner like Mad Cave Studios on board who are true Flash fans as well as publishing experts. This program will bring a long-awaited, regular stream of new and legacy content to generations of readers.”

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Matt Emmons unleashes ‘Crusader’ at Mad Cave

The new series begins in September.

Mad Cave has announced a new series by writer/artist Matt Emmons — Crusader, the story of a Templar knight who has to battle his way through a high-fantasy world. He’s joined by letterer Andriy Lukin on the project.

“I’ve been trying to capture the feeling of a pulpy, fun adventure story that embodies everything I’ve loved about the genre, and I hope it translates,” Emmons said. “I’ve also been wanting to draw Pilgrim in action for years, so it’s very exciting to finally bring him to the page. Crusader has been a fun challenge!”

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Slugfest | Frank Miller draws a new variant cover featuring Wolverine

Plus: a manga tribute to Marvel, Star Trek’s ‘Day of Blood,’ Power Rangers, Oni Ronin and Whoopi Goldberg!

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Hit the links for more information.

It’s been awhile since we’ve seen Frank Miller draw Wolverine. Before moving on to DC to work on Batman: Year One and The Dark Knight Returns, Miller worked with writer Chris Claremont on the character’s first miniseries in the early 1980s, which, along with his work on Daredevil, established Miller as a top-tier creator.

Decades later, Miller has drawn a variant cover for Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance Alpha #1:

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Slugfest | Rounding up news from ComicsPro

Find out what Marvel, Mad Cave, BOOM! and more revealed to retailers this week.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you. Today we take a look at several projects announced this week during the ComicsPro meeting. Hit the links for more information.

This week’s ComicsPro meeting in Pittsburgh — that’s the retailers’ industry meeting where publishers present their plans to them, among many other activities — brought news from DC, Marvel, Skybound and several more publishers. We already covered DC’s new crossover series, Knight Terrors, and their manga news, as well as the new shared universe coming from Skybound. But there was a lot more revealed at the meeting.

It’s interesting to see what the ComicsPro meeting has evolved into over the years. There was a time when the meeting was pretty clandestine, as publishers talked directly to retailers, and journalists and bloggers would try to suss out what was revealed because press weren’t invited to the meeting. Well, except one — Matthew Price, who wrote about comics for the Oklahoman, is also a comics retailer, and I’d remember, when I was at Blog@Newsarama and maybe even Robot 6, following his writing to see what came out of those meetings. (Nowadays we get multiple press releases, and keynote speeches are regularly posted online — here’s this year’s).

I mention this because this week was also Price’s last week at the Oklahoman; here’s his final farewell letter for the publication, where he worked for more than two decades. Best of luck to him as he focuses not only on Speeding Bullet Comics but also his Substack, where he’ll continue to write about comics.

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Pires + Castaniero team for the dystopian miniseries ‘You’ve Been Cancelled’

Cancel culture gets deadly in the new miniseries from Mad Cave Studios.

Mad Cave Studios has announce a new dystopian action/satire miniseries, You’ve Been Cancelled, by Youth writer Curt Pires, Grit artist Kevin Castaniero, Rogues colorist Jason Wordie and It’s Only Teenage Wasteland letterer Micah Myers.

“I’m ecstatic to be bringing You’ve Been Cancelled to life with Kevin, Jason, Micah and our publishing partners at Mad Cave,” Pires said. “This is a book that has hilarity, satire and good old fashioned ultraviolence in equal measure. Not to mention mind-blowingly beautiful artwork.”  

The new series combines cancel culture with a The Running Man-style show called Cancelled, where bounty hunters attempt to hunt and kill people who have been cancelled by society.

“I personally can not wait for you guys to read this book. Lots of whiskey, sweat and tears went in on my end, so hopefully it delivers,” Castaniero said. “Hell, based on the team we have working on this, I think it will do that and more!!! Hopefully you have as much fun reading the book as I did illustrating it!!! Cheers.”

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Mad Cave will launch ‘Monomyth’ in May

David Hazzan, Cecilia Lo Valvo, Marissa Louise and Lucas Gattoni present a story about ‘the darkest side of stories.’

Mad Cave Studios has announced a new fantasy/horror series by Nottingham scribe David Hazzan, with artwork by Cecilia Lo Valvo of Grimm Tales from the Cave fame. They’re joined by colorist Marissa Louise and award-winning letterer Lucas Gattoni.

Monomyth is “a story about the darkest side of stories…how they use people, twist people and affect people and the dangers of getting stuck telling the same tired tales.”

Monomyth has been a wonderful opportunity to explore both the magic of storytelling as well as to plumb its darkest recesses…because maybe it’s just me, but if I ever got a letter inviting me to a school for magic, I’d tear it up!” Hazan said. “And Cecilia and Marissa together have done such a wonderful job of illustrating that juxtaposition between wonder and terror as our cast discover that magic is both everything and nothing like what they imagined. Lucas’ innovative letters only intensify the mystery and terror in a world where magic is stories.”

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Ex-lovers fight the forces of Hell in ‘Exorcists Never Die’

Steve Orlando and Sebastián Píriz present a new miniseries coming from Mad Cave next year.

Mad Cave Studios has announced Exorcists Never Die, an action story of Biblical proportions by writer Steve Orlando and artist Sebastián Píriz, with lettering by Carlos M. Mangual.

The story features two exorcists who are also ex-lovers — and they’re brought back together to save thousands of souls being auctioned off in Los Angeles as a part of the bigger war between Heaven and Hell.

“We’re giving you action to the sky in this book, but it’s important to me for much more than that. Here’s a vivid exploration of biblical mythology, of what it means to fight a war, or even merely survive, in a world where only one side’s playing by the rules,” Orlando said. “It’s about the power of belief—not in the unknowable, but the knowable, the one fighting beside you. And in that unjust environment, we have two masters of their craft on the streets and catastrophes in the sheets, ex-lovers who’ve got no choice but to overcome the forces that drove them apart if they want to survive the most dangerous exorcism to ever hit the earthly plane.”

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