Slugfest | Dark Horse will release Sergio Aragonés’ ‘Louder Than Words, Actions Speak’

Plus: LEGO Ninjago, free ‘Barbaric,’ 350 issues of ‘Spawn’ and more.

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

Dark Horse has announced plans to collect Sergio Aragonés’ Louder Than Words and Actions Speak miniseries into one volume appropriately called Louder Than Words, Actions Speak.

Both volumes came out about 20 years ago and were previously collected by Dark Horse. The collection will have a new cover by Dark Horse by Aragonés and colorist Carrie Strachan.

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‘Ahsoka’ comes to comics this summer

Rodney Barnes, Steven Cummings and Georges Jeanty will bring Anakin Skywalker’s former apprentice to the printed page.

Marvel has announced plans to bring Ahsoka to comics in an eight-issue miniseries by Rodney Barnes, Steven Cummings and Georges Jeanty.

Much like the recent Mandalorian and Obi-Wan comics, this one sounds like it’ll be another straight-up adaptation of the Ahsoka Disney+ show, versus a new story. Played by Rosario Dawson, the show brought the popular character from The Clone Wars animated series to live action, along with characters from Star Wars: Rebels and Admiral Thrawn, who first debuted in the books by Timothy Zahn.

“It is truly an honor to be adapting Ahsoka,” Barnes told StarWars.com. “The character is the essence of classic Star Wars: layered, complex and fun! I hope the fans enjoy this adaptation as much as the series it’s adapted from.”

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Darth Maul slashes his way into his own ‘Black, White & Red’ miniseries

The first issue by Benjamin Percy and Stefano Raffaele arrives in April.

Following in the footsteps of Darth Vader, Darth Maul gets the Black, White & Red treatment this spring in a new miniseries coming from Marvel.

Each issue of the four-issue series will be by a different creative team, but the stories will run a full issue — rather than containing several shorter stories like previous BW&R series have. The first issue will feature a story by Wolverine writer Benjamin Percy and artist Stefano Raffaele, who has worked on previous volumes featuring Darth Vader and Moon Knight

“I’ve been a lifelong, obsessive fan of the Star Wars galaxy — it’s such a foundational part of my imagination — and it’s a thrill to be able to contribute to it now. My mind is busy with nightmares, so it’s especially a treat to step into the mind of Darth Maul, one of the great villains of this galaxy far, far away,” Percy told StarWars.com. “The silent assassin has a busy inner world. He is loyal to Palpatine, but that does not make him a puppet or a tool. He is willing to make his own decisions — ones that could shake the very fabric of the galaxy — as is the case in this chiller and thriller of a story, ‘The Final Occultation.'”

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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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More High Republic Adventures crash-land at Dark Horse

A one-shot featuring Alys “Crash” Ongwa and a miniseries featuring former Jedi Ty Yorrick will arrive this spring.

Dark Horse has announced two more projects that look back at the pre-Skywalker Star Wars universe, back in the heyday of the Jedi. Return to the High Republic era in the one-shot subtitled Crash Landing and the four-issue Saber for Hire miniseries.

Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures Phase III—Crash Landing is by the team of Daniel José Older (author of several Star Wars: The High Republic novels), artist Rachele Aragno and colorist Michael Atiyeh, with letters by Comicraft.

The story features Alys “Crash” Ongwa, who has hails from the same planet that would eventually give us Han Solo — Corellia, which is known for producing ships and pilots. Corellia fell into chaos because of the Nihil conflict, which has been central to the overall High Republic saga.

“Crash and her wild outlaw team of bodyguards are some of my favorite Star Wars characters to write,” Older said, “and I’ve had this story about how they deal with the aftermath of war inside me for a long time, trying to get out. I’m so excited to be able to tell it now with this amazing team, and rest assured we haven’t heard the last of Crash and her crew.” 

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Slugfest | ‘Titans: Beast World’ has giant starfish and lenticular covers

Plus more news and announcements on Canto, Nomads, Batman, Blue Book, Star Wars and more.

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

DC has released a preview of the upcoming Titans: Beast World miniseries, which was announced this past summer. The crossover event will feature a main series by Tom Taylor, Ivan Reis and Danny Miki, with various tie-ins throughout.

The story centers on The Necrostar, a giant space starfish that rivals Starro and who the Titans, along with the rest of the DC Universe, team up to fight. Along the way, they somehow end up being turned into animal versions of themselves. Beast Boy, in fact, will show that it takes a giant starfish to stop a giant starfish, as he transforms into a version of Starro himself.

Here’s a preview, along with a look at the main cover, which is by Ivan Reis, Danny Miki and Brad Anderson:

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Marvel announces ‘Star Wars: Visions’ series by creators from around the world

The series of one-shots will kick off in November with Peach Momoko.

Marvel and Lucasfilm will bring the Star Wars: Visions series to comics with a series of one-shots by comic creators from around the world — starting in November with Peach Momoko.

If you aren’t familiar with Star Wars: Visions, it’s an animated TV series on Disney+ that has featured cartoons by creators from around the world, each bringing their own style and vision to the Star Wars universe. Given that she’s already re-envisioned the Marvel Universe in her Demon Days series, Momoko seems like a natural choice to kick the initiative off.

“I really enjoy thinking about how to tell my own version of Star Wars, while keeping in mind the concepts of the original universe,” Momoko told StarWars.com.

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A new D-Squad assembles for the ‘Dark Droids’ Star Wars event

Marc Guggenheim, Salva Espín and David Messina will pit R2D2 and a squad of droids against the Scourge.

Marvel’s upcoming Dark Droids crossover event will resurrect a concept from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series — the D-Squad. Marc Guggenheim, Salva Espín and David Messina will enlist a group of droids to help R2D2 battle the Scourge, the virus spreading through the galaxy’s droid population that’s making them turn homicidal.

While Dark Droids has been billed as a horror story set in the Star Wars universe, Guggenheim says the D-Squad miniseries will have a different tone.

“It’s high adventure mixed with as much humor as I could conjure. I approached it like the first Avengers movie, but with droids instead of superheroes,” he told StarWars.com.

The original D-Squad was a group of astromech droids, which is the type of droid R2D2 is. This time around the squad will feature several different types of droids, including two bounty hunters.

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‘Star Wars: Dark Droids’ kicks off in August

The crossover event introduces a droid virus that corrupts their programming and spreads like wildfire across the galaxy.

Both the Empire and the Rebel Alliance will face dire consequences when their droids break bad during an event that will run through Marvel’s Star Wars titles starting in August.

Announced during the Star Wars Celebration event earlier this month, Star Wars: Dark Droids will introduce something called the Scourge that will spread through the galaxy. It’ll infect everything from Lobot to a squad of Clone War-Era Prototype Battle Droids, bringing a sense of dread and horror to the Star Wars line.

The event kicks off in Star Wars: Dark Droids #1, which comes out Aug. 3 from writer Charles Soule and artist Luke Ross, before spreading through the other Star Wars titles. Here’s the rundown …

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Jaxxon returns in a new Star Wars annual from Dark Horse

The limited release comic will only be available at select conventions and directly from Dark Horse.

It’s becoming tradition for Cavan Scott to write a new story every year starring Jaxxon, the green rabbit who first debuted many moons ago in Star Wars #8 by Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin. He was one of the first characters created outside of the movies themselves, and somehow has not shown up in a film or in his own Disney+ series yet. To which I ask, why???

Luckily, even after decades of inactivity, Jaxxon has returned in recent years thanks to Scott, who brought him back in the pages of Star Wars Adventures Annual in 2018, to be followed by additional stories and even an action figure since then. And this week brings more news about that wascally wabbit: he’ll appear in Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories Annual—Jaxxon 2023, which will only be available at conventions and directly from Dark Horse.

It’ll come in a variety of covers for different event; here’s the first one by Mike Mignola:

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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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Slugfest | Gustavo Duarte’s ‘Speechless’ arrives in print in April

Plus: Jimmie Robinson, Mecha Archie, Sins of Sinister, Dead Romans and more.

Slugfest is a roundup of cool announcements about projects coming to a shelf near you from comics creators, publishers and more. Hit the links for more information.

DC Comics will release a print collection of the digital series Speechless by cartoonist Gustavo Duarte in April.

The series has been appearing on the DC Universe Infinite app, with three issues featuring Harley Quinn, Cyborg and Superman appearing thus far. Like much of the Brazilian creator’s comics, each chapter is wordless.

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