NYCC | James Tynion IV, Steve Foxe + Piotr Kowalski explore the legend of the Jersey Devil at Dark Horse

Tynion’s ‘True Weird’ stories continue in a new miniseries next year.

James Tynion IV has shown his affection for “True Weird” stories — stories of UFOs, cryptids and other stories about people’s real-world encounters with the unexplained — in the past, most recently on his Substack newsletter and through titles like Blue Book. These stories will continue on at Dark Horse, starting with Let This One Be A Devil next February.

Tynion is teaming up with co-writer Steve Foxe, artist Piotr Kowalski, colorist Brad Simpson and letterer Tom Napolitano on the four-issue miniseries. It’ll also feature a “True Weird” back-up story by Rachel Deering, with art by Jesse Lonergan and lettering by Aditya Bidikar.

“Starting with Blue Book, the beating heart of the Tiny Onion publishing program with Dark Horse has been the exploration of what I call ‘True Weird’ stories–comics based on the real stories of encounters with the strange and impossible,” said Tynion. “Let This One Be a Devil is the first in a whole new set of titles in our True Weird library at Dark Horse, in which we’ll tell the stories inspired by the accounts that brought figures like the Jersey Devil, Bigfoot, and The Loch Ness Monster into the public consciousness. This is just the beginning.”

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Gary Phillips’ ‘Cold Hard Cash’ debuts on Comixology

The crime fiction writer brings his prose character Martha Chainey to comics.

Crime writer/novelist Gary Phillips is no stranger to comics, having written titles like Angeltown, High Rollers and The Rinse, among others. But today he brings one of his prose characters, Martha Chainey from High Hand and Shooter’s Point, to the comics page in the Comixology Originals title Cold Hard Cash.

Phillips has teamed up with artist Adriana Melo, colorist John Kalisz, letterer Tom Napolitano and editor Greg Lockard on the five-issue series, which had a surprise launch today on the digital comics platform.

“I’m thrilled to bring my tough as nails protagonist Martha Chainey to the pages of a comic,” Phillips said. “Seeing her navigate the gritty streets of L.A. and the high-end tech world in this fast-paced crime thriller illustrated by Adriana is surreal, and I hope people dig it.”

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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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DC announces ‘Dark Crisis’ event series

Joshua Williamson and Daniel Sampere team up for a crossover that spins out of ‘Justice League’ #75 and pays tribute to DC’s past.

DC has announced their next big “Crisis” crossover series, following on a long tradition of using the term, whether said crisis is Infinite, on Multiple Earths, Final or, um, “Identity.” (Maybe it’s best to skip that last one).

This particular crisis ties back to Crisis on Infinite Earths, the landmark 1980s series by Marv Wolfman and George Perez that reduced the multiverse to a single Earth and introduced us to Pariah, who watched multiple universes die after his own did. It also has roots (appropriately) in one of my favorite stories from Swamp Thing, issue #50 by Alan Moore and Stan Woch, which saw Swamp Thing and his allies attempting to save Heaven from “The Great Darkness.” Finally, it’ll spin out of Justice League #75, due out in April, where the team will die at the hands of “a new  Dark  Army  made  up  of  the  DCU’s  greatest  villains.”

Dark Crisis will run for seven issues and is written by Joshua Williamson, featuring art by Daniel Sampere, colors by Alejandro Sánchez and lettering by Tom Napolitano.

Dark Crisis is an epic DCU event about legacy,” said writer Joshua Williamson. “It will have all the giant, fun cosmic battles and Multiversal set pieces, but it’s not about reboots, retcons, or rewriting time and space. At its core it’s about the characters and the relationships that we’ve seen built over DC’s great history. Dark Crisis spins out of Justice League 75 ‘Death of the Justice League’ and connects all the story threads across the DCU since Infinite Frontier #0 in a major way. Unifying the new legacy of the DCU as we honor the classic. You can’t miss it!”

Here’s a teaser trailer:

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It’s Suicide Squad vs. Robins in the finals of DC’s Round Robin tournament

Vote for your favorite by June 2.

DC’s Round Robin tournament, which asks fans to vote on which pitch should become a series, has entered its final round. Voting is now open on the DC Community site and ends June 2.

On one side you have Robins, by the creative team of Tim Seeley, Baldemar Rivas, Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Steve Wands. They made it past Green Lanterns: Underworld on Fire in the previous round. On the other side, you have Suicide Squad Seven, by Rex Ogle, Diogenes Neves, Rex Lokus and Tom Napolitano, which beat out Blue Beetle.

They’re two different kinds of stories; on the one hand, you have a bunch of former Batman proteges teaming up; on the other, El Dorado! If you’re having a hard time deciding, DC has provided 10 page previews of both titles, starting with Robins:

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