Tag: Mark Russell

Exclusive | AHOY reveals Russ Braun’s variant cover for ‘The Forgotten Divine’

The debut Kickstarter campaign from the publisher of ‘Second Coming’ and ‘The Wrong Earth’ launches next month.

Today we have an exclusive first look at Russ Braun’s variant cover for The Forgotten Divine, the upcoming title from Braun and writer Mark Russell, ahead of AHOY Comics’ debut Kickstarter campaign launching next month.

The 64-page book follows Rodney Coleman, an unhoused veteran whose dreams of a faraway planet draw him toward others who’ve had the same visions, leading him to a cult that forms around their shared experience. I chatted with Russell about the project, who talked more about the main character, who we see on this variant cover.

“Rodney is somebody who used to defuse bombs for a living and now, having returned to civilian life, doesn’t find a lot of demand for that. As a result of that, and the PTSD the war left him with, his life has fallen apart. I chose him as the center of this story because I wanted it to be told from the perspective of someone to whom a cult would not seem any crazier than the world they had come from,” Russell said.

Take a look at the cover:

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Smash Pages Q&A | Mark Russell on ‘The Forgotten Divine’

The award-winning writer of ‘The Snagglepuss Chronicles’ and ‘Not All Robots’ talks to us about his latest project for Ahoy Comics.

Mark Russell’s new book with artist Russ Braun is about how ordinary people fall into cults. The Forgotten Divine follows Rodney Coleman, an unhoused veteran and former bomb disposal expert whose dreams of a faraway planet draw him toward others who’ve had the same visions, and the group that forms around their shared experience.

The book arrives via AHOY Comics’ first-ever Kickstarter, which gave the team the freedom to tell the story they wanted to in the format they thought fit it best. I spoke with Russell about the project, the Kickstarter campaign, why he takes his “kiss of death” ideas to AHOY and more.

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Mark Russell + PJ Holden bring WWII series ‘Dog Tag’ to Mad Cave Studios

The six-issue series begins in May.

Mark Russell and PJ Holden have teamed up on Dog Tag, a six-issue World War II series with colors by JP Jordan and lettering by Buddy Beaudoin, which will launch in May from Mad Cave Studios.

Inspired by real events from the final year of the war, the series follows Corporal Tom Fuller, a soldier/journalist whose account draws on little-known true stories from the conflict.

“Dog Tag is the kind of World War II story I’d always hoped to write,” he said. “An homage to a grandfather I never knew but who served in the war, a reminder of the consequences of giving a nation over to belligerence and cruelty, and also the re-telling of true but little-known chapters of the war through the eyes of a writer who is worried that no one will believe him when he tells them what the war is really like.”

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SDCC Slugfest | ‘Ultimate Endgame,’ ‘Cult of the Lamb,’ ‘Die!namite’ + more

The Ultimate Universe heads toward its ‘Endgame,’ ‘Cult of the Lamb’ returns and when Ahoy Comics invites you over for ‘Thanksgiving,’ politely decline the invite …

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

The annual San Diego Comic-Con will kick off later this week, and publishers have been releasing announcements in the lead-up to the event. We’re also in the middle of monthly solicitation time, where publishers are revealing what’s coming out in October. In an effort to keep up with all the madness, here’s a round up of recent announcements as we prepare for the big show.

Let’s start with a Marvel teaser for something coming late in 2025, Ultimate Endgame. Readers of Marvel’s Ultimate titles know that the clock is ticking on the return of the Maker, a.k.a. the Reed Richards from the original Ultimate Universe, and Marvel teases his return with a nod to the Marvel Cinematic Universe:

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You better look alive: ‘Speed Racer’ returns to comics this July

Mad Cave will preview the rebooted property on Free Comic Book Day.

Writer David Pepose and artist Davide Tinto will chart a new path for Speed Racer, as Mad Cave Studios launches a new ongoing series for the popular character from Tatsunoko Production’s classic anime Mach GoGoGo in July

Mad Cave and Tatsunoko announced last year their plans to reboot Speed Racer as a comic series, following their partnership on Gatchaman comics. Pepose and Tinto will be joined by colorist Rex Locus and letterer Buddy Beaudoin.

“Buckle your seatbelts, comic fans… we’re putting the pedal to the metal with the return of Speed Racer,” Pepose said. “I couldn’t be more excited to launch this brand-new series based on the classic cartoon — think of Rocky in a race car, as we push Speed to his absolute limits and beyond in the high-octane Formula X Championship League. As he drives the legendary Mach 5, can even Speed move fast enough to save his family and bring justice back to the tracks? Starting this Free Comic Book Day, get ready for more action, heart and car chases than you can imagine in the pages of Speed Racer!”

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‘X-Factor’ returns as a government-sponsored team in August

Mark Russell and Bob Quinn bring Angel, Havok, Frenzy and more into a world of hidden agendas and shady politics.

Havok returns to the world of government employment as he and Angel reform X-Factor this August. Mark Russell and Bob Quinn will team up for new stories that see the group of mutants serve as a special missions team and a propaganda machine for the U.S. government.

X-Factor will include not only Angel and Havok, but also Feral, Frenzy, Pyro and more. Together they’ll contend with hidden agendas, shady politics, dark consequences and disastrous public opinion from the inside. Russell, the writer of DC’s The Flintstones and AWA’s Rumpus Room, will no doubt poke fun at politics and the government along the way.

“The thing I’ve always loved about the X-Men is that they’re characters first, Super Heroes second,” Russell told Marvel.com. “So being able to write characters like Havok and Angel and Frenzy in a post-Krakoa reality is an opportunity to write about what I really care about, which is how do we help each other survive the apathy of the world we live in?”

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A new team called ‘Blood Hunters’ will debut during Marvel’s ‘Blood Hunt’

Dagger, Hawkeye and Man-Wolf will star in anthology stories that tie into Marvel’s big summer event.

Marvel continued to roll out the Blood Hunt tie-in series today, announcing an anthology that will show what Hawkeye, Dagger, Man-Wolf and more are doing against the backdrop of the bigger vampire-themed event.

Blood Hunters is not only the title of the comic, but also the name of a new team that Dagger of Cloak & Dagger fame will assemble while her partner is missing in action. Writer Erica Schultz and artist Bernard Chang will assemble the new team across the anthology’s four issues.

“It’s really exciting to write Dagger and see her assemble a team of fantastic fang hunters,” Schultz said. “You’re going to love the dynamic between these characters, and see where the drama is!”

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Mark Russell + Ramon Rosanas invite you to their ‘Rumpus Room’

AWA presents a new parable about billionaires, skin cream and revenge.

Second Coming and Not All Robots writer Mark Russell is back at AWA Studios this fall for a new miniseries, Rumpus Room, with artist Ramon Rosanas.

Rumps Room tells the story of a psychotic billionaire who needs a special cream to hide his skin condition. That cream is made from people, so naturally he kidnaps all the people he hates and locks them in his Rumpus Room, letting them vote for his next victim.

“Rumpus Room is a parable for how in American civilization, on some level, we’re set against each other by forces that are too powerful for us to reach,” Russell said. “It parallels the underlying assumption of American life as well: ‘I can’t do anything about the real things that are destroying me, so I’ll take all my rage out against the people who cross me.’ Rumpus Room is about this misguided anger that we all have and how it weaponizes us against each other.”

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Ahoy will collect Russell + Snejbjerg’s ‘Cereal’ in October

The trade paperback collects ‘a dark, distinctly adult and lovingly funny take’ on breakfast cereal mascots.

Sugary cereal has never been scarier than when it’s in the hands of writer/satirist Mark Russell and artist Peter Snejbjerg. Their “Cereal” serial, which first appeared in the Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of… series of miniseries, will be collected in October by Ahoy Comics.

Described as “a dark, distinctly adult, and lovingly funny take on an earlier generation’s beloved monsters,” the story follows several breakfast-loving monsters who will seem familiar to any fans of General Mills’ “Monster” line of cereal. I was always a big fan of Franken Berry.

“Monsters play such an expansive role in our collective conscience, being used for everything from giving face to our deepest fears to selling us breakfast cereal,” said Russell. “This book looks at monsters from every angle at once. It sees them as we are — as cartoonish but scary, as comical, and yet, still sad.”

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‘Second Coming’ returns for a third series

Shouldn’t that be ‘Third Coming’? I mean, it’s right there …

Sunstar and Jesus. Mark Russell and Richard Pace. Cranius and God. They’re all back for a third helping of Second Coming, this one subtitled “Trinity.”

Russell, Pace, co-artist Leonard Kirk and colorist Andy Troy are joined this time by editor Sarah Litt for the continuing adventures of the Son of God and the world’s greatest superhero.

“If you haven’t read a Second Coming series and you think you know what it is, I guarantee you do not,” said AHOY Editor in Chief Tom Peyer. “The high concept of ‘What if Jesus lived with a superhero?’ is an arresting one, but it doesn’t begin to suggest what a wise, kind and funny piece of work its creators have given us.”

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Russell + Meli are ‘Traveling to Mars’ in November

The new series from Ablaze chronicles the last days of the first man on Mars.

Superman: Space Age and Second Coming writer Mark Russell will team with Italian artist Roberto Meli for a new “witty” science fiction series, Traveling to Mars, which kicks off this fall from Ablaze.

The story stars Roy, a former pet store manager who is terminally ill. Because of this, he’s chosen to become the first man on Mars, with no expectation of ever returning to Earth.

“Traveling to Mars is an intimate story about the end of days,” says Mark Russell. “Both Roy’s and ours. But Mars is as good a place as any to bow out of existence, I suppose.”

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Quick Hits | Remembering Tim Sale

Plus: News on Comixology, Mark Russell, Michael Allred, Tillie Walden, TCAF, Jerry Craft and Ric Flair!

Passings | Via Tim Sale’s Twitter account comes word that the 66-year-old artist died of kidney failure.

“He was sick for years and was even in the hospital since May 24. He was a private person and never wanted to worry all of you, but his death was neither preventable or unexpected. Tim was a wonderful man and simply didn’t want to cause any unnecessary stress to his friends and fans,” the statement says.

Many have posted remembrances of the Long Halloween artist since his death last week. At The Comics Journal, Joseph McCabe posts an in-depth obituary. Augie De Blieck looks back at several of Sale’s comics, including Batman: The Long Halloween. And artist Elsa Charretier shares a post on Substack titled “I wouldn’t be drawing comics if not for Tim Sale.”

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