Oni Press announces ‘Silk Hills’ by Ferrier, Level + Sherron

The new graphic novel about missing persons and the Mothman legend will arrive next summer.

Oni Press will publish Silk Hills, an Appalachian horror graphic novel that plays off the legend of the Mothman by Ryan Ferrier, Brian Level, Kate Sherron and Crank!, next summer.

The graphic novel will tell the story of Beth Wills, who comes to the town of Silk Hills to find someone who doesn’t want to be found. Her search for a missing troubled youth finds her running afoul of the local drug trade, too-friendly creepers, a very sinister deer and psychoactive moth dust.

“Silk Hills was another chance to work with collaborators I adore and who, in turn, have faith in me when I say ‘Okay, but I wanna try something a little weird here,’” Sherron said. “I prefer to tell dark tales in colorful ways, especially when there’s light and life to dig out from beneath burnt-black story-skin, and bless the boys for supporting such choices from the outset.”

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Coffee, ghosts + romance: Christmas + Luiz team for ‘Crema’

The graphic novel by Johnnie Christmas, Dante Luiz and Ryan Ferrier arrives from comiXology Originals next week.

ComiXology Originals will drop another new graphic next week titled Crema. The digital release is by the creative team of Johnnie Christmas (Tartarus), Hugo-Award finalist Dante Luiz and letterer Ryan Ferrier.

“I wrote most of it in coffee shops around Vancouver, pounding copious amounts of caffeine and listening to hours of cafe talk,” Christmas said. “Dante’s art is beautiful. We were going for magical realism and fabulism in the modern context, utilizing color shifts in places to further heighten romance and ghostly terror.”

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Ferrier, Malhotra smuggle ‘Narcos’ into comics

IDW Publishing will publish a four-issue miniseries set in the Netflix show’s first season.

Netflix’s Narcos will make the jump from the streaming giant to comics this April, as IDW Publishing as announced plans to make a comic book based on the popular TV show.

Ryan Ferrier and Vic Malhotra have been enlisted to create a four-issue miniseries that “introduces new dangers for DEA agents Steve Murphy and Javier Peña to face, while at the same time, El Patrón must contend with a dangerous threat to his drug empire.”

“I’m thrilled to take fans new and old into a deeper, unseen story from the volatile, teeth-gritting world of Narcos,” Ferrier said in a press release. “I’m even more excited to bring this to life alongside Vic Malhotra, whose immense talent and style will show us a new side of Narcos — one with dangerously high stakes and a new, chaotic presence that will affect the DEA, the Cartels, Don Pablo himself, and all of Colombia.”

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Comics Lowdown: Judge Dredd co-creator Carlos Ezquerra passes away

Mark Waid sued, and gets a new job! Vertigo prepares for NYCC! Plus Ryan Ferrier, Jason Lutes, John McCrea and more!

Passings: Carlos Ezquerra, 2000 AD artist and co-creator of Judge Dredd, has passed away, the Guardian and the Hollywood Reporter both reported this week. The 70-year-old artist was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2010, and the disease returned this year.

“It is difficult to put this into words, but we have lost someone who was the heart and soul of 2000AD. It is no exaggeration to call Carlos Ezquerra one of the greatest comic book artists of all time, and his name deserves to be uttered alongside Kirby, Ditko, Miller, Moebius and Eisner,” reads a statement issued by 2000AD. “Yet this doesn’t really do justice to someone whose work was loved by millions and has had an influence far beyond the comic book page. From Judge Dredd to Strontium Dog, from Rat Pack to Major Eazy, Carlos has left us with a legacy of stunning and distinctive work that was and always will be 2000 AD. He has been one of the pillars, producing the same dynamic, enthralling and arresting art we always loved him for. We thought we had many more adventures to come from the master, so we are devastated to discover we were wrong.”

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Death cults and depravity descend in post-apocalyptic ‘Death Orb’

New title from Ryan Ferrier, Alejandro Aragon and Chris O’Halloran follows a “heartbroken, axe-wielding wasteland survivor in search of his wife and son.”

Writer Ryan Ferrier (D4VE) artist Alejandro Aragon (Robocop) and colorist Chris O’Halloran (Ice Cream Man) are headed back to the future — a post-apocalyptic, mutant infested, nightmarish future in Death Orb, a new miniseries from Dark Horse Comics.

“We’re going off the rails with this one,” Ferrier said on Twitter.

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‘Criminy’ gets a release date + cover

Ryan Ferrier and Roger Langridge’s graphic novel will arrive from Dark Horse this fall.

Ryan Ferrier and Roger Langridge’s Criminy has gone from concept to a graphic novel, and now Dark Horse has announced more details about the project — including a publication date.

The publisher says that the “humorous, absurd tale about a family on the run” will land in stores Septe. 19. They also revealed the book’s cover:

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Comics Lowdown: Police reopen 30-year-old case of murdered cartoonist

Also: Dave Gibbons talks about writing, Dyer and Dorkin discuss ‘Calla Cthulhu,’ and ‘Criminy’ finds a publisher.

Sketch of what the gunman who shot al-Ali might look like now
Cold Case Files: Thirty years after the murder of Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali, London police have appealed to the public for any information they may have on the case. Ali was shot in the back of the neck on July 22, 1989, near the London office of the Kuwaiti publication Al-Qabas, and he died on August 29 of the same year. Police released descriptions of the two suspects and a sketch of what the shooter might look like today.

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Ferrier & Langridge’s ‘Criminy’ doesn’t have a publisher (yet)

The ‘D4VE’ writer shares pages of “a dream project” that still needs a home.

Ryan Ferrier, writer of D4VE and Kennel Block Blues, shares on social media that he’s been working with Roger Langridge (Iron Duchess, The Muppets) on something new — something so new, in fact, that it doesn’t have a publisher yet.

“Criminy! Roger Langridge & I have been working on a dream project (still needs a home),” Ferrier said on Tumblr. “Can’t help show off his stunning pages. I love this book, and working with Roger has been an absolute ‘pinch me’ experience.”

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This Election Day, vote for D4VE

Not familiar with Ferrier and Ramon’s robotic potty mouth? Check out a short zine to get the story thus far.

With America’s long national nightmare coming to a close today, not many people are looking forward to more elections at this point — but maybe that’s because they haven’t met D4VE!

The titular character of Ryan Ferrier and Valentin Ramon’s robotic parody comic returns for a third miniseries next year, where this time our hero is running for president. But before hearing about his platform, you may be wondering about his character — and to bring you up to speed, Ferrier and Ramon have released a D4VE Primer “zine.”

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Smash Pages Q&A: Fabian Rangel Jr. on ‘Blood Brothers’

The prolific writer of ‘Doc Unknown’ talks about his newest Kickstarter campaign for a graphic novel with artist Javier Caba.

Fabian Rangel Jr. has been building up a strong portfolio of comics work over the last few years, both as a self publisher and for various companies. In addition to working with places like Stela and Black Mask Studios, he’s taken crowdfunding to heart, and recently kicked off his fifth campaign to fund a new graphic novel called Blood Brothers.

Rangel is working with artist Javier Caba, letterer Ryan Ferrier and editor Jim Gibbons on the new supernatural/pulp story, which features two brothers solving mysteries in a city populated by monsters from myth and fantasy. Oh, and one of the brothers is a glow-in-the-dark luchador, which was enough to win me over.

I spoke to Rangel about the project, the appeal of Kickstarter and the recently formed Two Headed Press, an imprint he helped found with Ferrier, Chris Sebela, Ed Brisson, Curt Pires and Tini Howard.

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A D4VE we can believe in

Ryan Ferrier and Valentin Ramon send their robotic war hero on the campaign trail.

Back in 2014, the up-and-coming digital comics imprint Monkeybrain made me believe in funny robot comics again with the publication of D4VE. Created by Ryan Ferrier and Valentin Ramon, the comic told the story of what happens to a robot war hero after the robots conquer everything — spoiler’s alert: they get a crappy desk job, go through a divorce and deal with a lot of the &*!%$# us regular humans might deal with on a daily basis. Until they get the chance to become a war hero again.

Following up on the original miniseries and its sequel, IDW Publishing has announced a third miniseries — D4VEOCRACY, which details what happens when the war hero decides to run for president.

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