DC, Morrison announce ‘Arkham Asylum 2’, reveal ‘Wonder Woman Earth One’ Vol. 2 art

At the ‘Meet the Publishers’ panel in San Diego, Morrison showed up to share some news with Dan Didio and Jim Lee.

Today at Comic-Con International, DC co-publishers Dan Didio and Jim Lee welcomed a special surprise guest to their “Meet the Publishers” panel: Grant Morrison, writer of, among other things, the Arkham Asylum graphic novel and the more recent Wonder Woman Earth One graphic novel. And he brought news concerning both.

Continue reading “DC, Morrison announce ‘Arkham Asylum 2’, reveal ‘Wonder Woman Earth One’ Vol. 2 art”

Moore, O’Neill to conclude ‘League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ with ‘The Tempest’

Six-issue series to serve as conclusion to Moore and O’Neill’s “equally legendary comic-book careers.”

At Comic-Con International, Top Shelf Comix and Knockabout announced the final edition of Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen epic. The last chapter featuring their crazy, cross-continuity adventures will be titled, appropriately, The Tempest. Per Top Shelf, it will also conclude both gentleman’s comics careers.

From the press release:

Continue reading “Moore, O’Neill to conclude ‘League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ with ‘The Tempest’”

Heavy Metal to turn Nikki Sixx’s ‘The Heroin Diaries’ into a graphic novel

Rantz Hoseley, Danijel Zezelj, Andy Kuhn and Kieron Dwyer will adapt the Motley Crue bassist’s memoir into comic form.

Nikki Sixx and Ian Gittins’s The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star is set to become a graphic novel, courtesy of Heavy Metal.

Blabbermouth reports that The Heroin Diaries graphic novel “will be the first release under Heavy Metal’s new 12 X 12 imprint, a new line of music-themed art books and graphic novels that will explore the songs and experiences of the most exciting musical artists.”

“I’ve been the biggest fan of MÖTLEY CRÜE since the release of ‘Too Fast for Love’, and have nothing but the greatest respect for Nikki and his songwriting, so for us to be able to collaborate with him on bringing this tragedy-to-triumph to a new audience in a powerful way is a dream come true,” said Jeff Krelitz, CEO of Heavy Metal.

Continue reading “Heavy Metal to turn Nikki Sixx’s ‘The Heroin Diaries’ into a graphic novel”

D + Q to publish Lisa Hanawalt’s ‘Coyote Doggirl’

Hanawalt’s homage to and lampoon of Westerns to arrive in fall 2018.

Cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt heads west — to the Wild West, actually — for her next graphic novel. Drawn & Quarterly has announced they will publish Coyote Doggirl, the new graphic novel from the creator of My Dumb Dirty Eyes and Hot Dog Taste Test, in the fall of 2018.

“Lisa is enormously talented at creating fantastical worlds that are gorgeously technicolored and rendered, and she has a very funny gift for the anthropomorphically absurd,” said D + Q publisher Peggy Burns. “Once you look a bit closer however, you can see Coyote Doggirl is not just a send-up of the Western genre, but a deeply personal story for Lisa. Watching it unfold across the desert landscape is thrilling.”

Continue reading “D + Q to publish Lisa Hanawalt’s ‘Coyote Doggirl’”

Fantagraphics.com holds 20% off sitewide sale

Get great deals on Fantagraphics’ entire catalog, including their Comic-Con International debuts.

If you’re sitting at home thinking, “Man, I wish I was at Comic-Con so I could get some good deals on graphic novels,” worry no more — Fantagraphics is holding their annual “Not at Comic-Con” sale on their website.

You can get 20 percent off everything on their site from today through July 23. This includes their many Comic-Con International debuts, like Otherworld Barbara Volume 2 by Moto Hagio, Last Girl Standing by Trina Robbins, Johnny Appleseed by Paul Buhle and Noah Van Sciver, Katie Skelly’s My Pretty Vampire and the latest issue of Love & Rockets.

Head over to their site to check it out.

Jeff Smith’s ‘Smiley’s Dream Book’ picture book coming next summer [Updated]

New project with Scholastic/Graphix features Fone Bone’s buddy.

Earlier this week Bone creator Jeff Smith teased on social media that his next project would be announced at Comic-Con this week, and lo and behold, here it is:

Continue reading “Jeff Smith’s ‘Smiley’s Dream Book’ picture book coming next summer [Updated]”

Comics Lowdown: Stan Lee immortalized at the TCL Chinese Theatre

Plus: Batton Lash vs. Cancer, Donny Cates signs with Marvel, DC Girl Power, Texas Latino Comic Con and more!

Hollywood cannot seem to get enough of Stan Lee. Over the weekend, Lee became a Disney Legend and yesterday, the comic icon had his hands and feet immortalized in cement in front of the TCL Chinese theater.

“I can’t tell you what this means to me. I’m thrilled,” he said. “And if I’m half as good as everybody said I am, I’m far too good to be wasting time with ordinary people. But I seem to be spending my life with ordinary people, who are the best people in the world.”

Meanwhile, Variety continued the love affair and took a look back on the life of Stan Lee.
Continue reading “Comics Lowdown: Stan Lee immortalized at the TCL Chinese Theatre”

Dynamite launches new ‘Swords of the Swashbucklers’ series

Marc Guggenheim to write the new series, which starts in December.

After successfully funding a collection of the original Swords of the Swashbucklers series published by Marvel’s Epic Comics line in the 1980s, Dynamite Entertainment has announced an ongoing series featuring new stories about the space-faring pirates.

Swords of the Swashbucklers by Bill Mantlo and Jackson Guice began life as a graphic novel from Marvel back in 1984, followed by a 12-issue series. It’s about a teenage girl whose parents are kidnapped by an alien empire, so she joins up with a crew of space pirates to try and save them.

The new series will be written by Marc Guggenheim, current writer of X-Men Gold for Marvel. “Swords of the Swashbucklers has long been a favorite of mine and it remains one of the great high concepts in all of comics, which is unsurprising when you consider that Bill Mantlo and Butch Guice were the creative forces behind it. I’m humbled to continue their work and looking forward to introducing this remarkable comic to a whole new audience,” he said in a press release.

Continue reading “Dynamite launches new ‘Swords of the Swashbucklers’ series”

Lemire’s ‘Black Hammer’ gets a spinoff miniseries

‘Sherlock Frankenstein & The Legion of Evil’ reveals more about Black Hammer’s worst villains.

Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston’s excellent Black Hammer has created a cool little universe of heroes in a single title — but it’s about to get bigger. Dark Horse has announced a series of miniseries that will expand the universe, starting with Sherlock Frankenstein & The Legion of Evil by Lemire and artist David Rubín.

“While working on Black Hammer I found myself having more and more ideas for other types of superhero stories,” said Lemire. “The main Black Hammer story continues to be the spine of these ideas, but I found them branching off into new directions and new characters as well. It occurred to me that there was a whole history here, a whole superhero universe all of our own, that I could explore and create within. So, Dean Ormston and I have decided to expand the world of Black Hammer and create an avenue to tell these other stories. The first mini-series will be Sherlock Frankenstein & The Legion of Evil, which will be illustrated by the incomparable David Rubín.”

Continue reading “Lemire’s ‘Black Hammer’ gets a spinoff miniseries”

Ghostbusters 2016 team is back in new comic adventures

Kelly Thompson and Corin Howell reunites Gilbert, Yates, Tolan and Holtzmann in ‘Ghostbusters: Answer the Call’

‘Ghostbusters: Answer the Call’ #1 with art by Valentina Pinto. (IDW Publishing)

In an exclusive to the LA Times, IDW Publishing announced a new Ghostbusters comic, this time featuring the team from the 2016 Paul Feig-directed film.

Ghostbusters: Answer the Call will be a five-issue mini-series written by Kelly Thompson (Hawkeye) and drawn by artist Corin Howell (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers).  In keeping with the theme of a female-centric team, cover artists include Valentina Pinto (Strawberry Shortcake), Emma Vieceli (Manga Shakespeare, Adventures of Supergirl), and Elsa Charretier (Love Is Love).

Continue reading “Ghostbusters 2016 team is back in new comic adventures”

Comics Lowdown: ‘Abadazad,’ ‘Ghost Rider’ artist Mike Ploog to retire

Plus: designing variant covers, Sonny Liew, Tillie Walden, Simon Hanselman, food in San Diego.

Veteran artist Mike Ploog, known to comic fans as the co-creator of Ghost Rider, announced he will be retiring after a 47-year career. His career began with Filmation, as a clean-up artist on Batman and Superman, and eventually was promoted to layouts. He moved onto Hanna-Barbera, continuing his layout work until he became the assistant to Will Eisner.

He made his comic book debut on Werewolf by Night in 1972. Since then, he was credited as a co-creator of Ghost Rider and notable artist on Man-ThingPlanet of the Apes and The Monster of Frankenstein. Later in his career, he did minimal comic work, but teamed with J.M. DeMatteis on Abadazad in 2004.

Continue reading “Comics Lowdown: ‘Abadazad,’ ‘Ghost Rider’ artist Mike Ploog to retire”

Steve Skroce returns to Image with ‘Maestros’

New “fantastical action-comedy” due in October.

After triumphant runs on Amazing Spider-Man, Gambit, Youngblood and Cable, Steve Skroce all but disappeared from comics to work on movie storyboards for films like the Matrix trilogy, I, Robot, V for Vendetta, Speed Racer, Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending. But a couple years ago he made his return, working with Brian K. Vaughan on the We Stand On Guard limited series — and now he’s writing AND drawing a new series called Maestros.

Continue reading “Steve Skroce returns to Image with ‘Maestros’”