Sunday Comics | Joe Sacco’s ‘The War on Gaza’

Check out recent online comics by Joe Latham, Jordan Bolton, Tonci Zonjic and more.

Here’s a round up of some of the best and most interesting comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

One of cartoonist Joe Sacco’s earliest works was Palestine, a nonfiction graphic novel about the two months he spent in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the early 1990s. During that time, he interviewed hundreds of Palestinians and Israelis about their daily lives and the ongoing plight of the Palestinians.

The current conflict between Israel and Hamas has brought renewed interest in Palestine and Sacco’s work in general, and as a result, his publisher has announced not only a reissue of the original graphic novel, but also a series of webcomics that are currently running on The Comics Journal website.

“The demand for Palestine has skyrocketed following the horrific events of Oct. 7 and Israel’s brutal response, indicating a yearning for understanding from readers all over the world,” said Gary Groth, president and co-founder of Fantagraphics. “We hope that the reissue of Palestine and the new series of graphic commentary ‘The War on Gaza’ will help awaken the world to the plight of the Palestinian people and illuminate the political context of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Sadly, as Amira Hass makes clear in her new Afterword, Joe Sacco’s deeply empathetic account of the Gazan people is even more relevant today than at any time since its original publication.”

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Sunday Comics | ‘Scoob and Shag’ returns from hiatus

Check out webcomics by Diego Casasola, Jes and Cin Wibowo, Simon Roy, Bev Johnson and more.

Here’s a round up of some of the best and most interesting comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

The crew behind the webcomic Scoob and Shag are back in action after taking a bit of a hiatus that encompassed most of last year. A lengthy new episode appeared on the last day of Dec. 31, with another new popping up earlier this month.

The strip started as a joke on Tumblr back in 2014, and has since grown into somewhat of an internet phenomenon. Created by Diego Casasola, aka Dingo, and the Misterie Krew, the story is … wow, how to describe it? It’s definitely a parody of Scooby Doo, or at least it started that way, but since then it has grown to encompass an endless cast of your favorite cartoons who are participating in an epic story that’s filled with action, intrigue, horror, comedy and some great character moments. Imagine if all the cartoons you watched as a kid were actually broadcasts from another planet …

It’s kinda insane, and is worth experiencing for yourself.

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Sunday Comics | ‘Beetle Moses’ arrives on Comics Kingdom

Check out recent webcomics by Harris Fishman, Coleman Engle, Kay King and more.

Here’s a round up of some of the best and most interesting comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

Beetle Moses, the quirky comic strip featuring a lot of animals and pop culture references by Harris Fishman, has debuted on Comics Kingdom.

If you aren’t familiar with Beetle Moses, well, you probably are, as it’s one of those strips that’s done well on social media and probably went across your feed at some point without you realizing it. It’s typically three stacked panels, so already it looks like a meme from the get go.

Fishman spoke with Canvas Rebel about it just a few weeks ago, and this quote resonated with me: I make webcomics, which as a medium have the benefit of being shareable since they are built for social media. Comics are an interesting artistic medium because it feels like they are often overlooked by creators of fine art, and also not respected as an art form by casual consumers. People who love comics know that neither of these mentalities are true, and that the world of comics is endlessly rich and saturated with incredible writers and artists. Webcomics fall into an even less respected niche, and there is some blame to go around. There’s a lot of same-y looking styles thanks to trends in oversimplification over the last decade. Webcomics are still a very new medium, and they differ slightly from printed comics in a few ways. Webcomic creators are still feeling out the ground floor to see exactly where webcomics can go. I think in some ways this freed me as a webcomic artist, since I had a few viral hits early on that broke the typical conventions of the contemporary “scene”. A lot of casual viewers still look at my social media accounts as a “meme page” and don’t consider that I’m one guy actually drawing these things. But that doesn’t discourage me at all. In fact, I think there are some amazing fine artists who would grow both on socials, and in their own creative journey by trying their hands at comics.

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Slugfest | Dark Horse resurrects ‘Lester of the Lesser Gods’

Plus: The Winx saga continues, Usagi turns 40, the Dreadnoks return and more!

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

Lester of the Lesser Gods, which was originally published by Albatross Funnybooks, is finding new life at Dark Horse this year.

Written by Eric Powell and Lucky Yates, and featuring artwork by Gideon Kendall, Lester began life as unproduced animated short before finding its way to comics.

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‘Verse’ returns to the web before the release of a third print collection

The conclusion to Sam Beck’s epic fantasy will arrive in print this summer.

Verse, the long-running webcomic by Sam Beck that went offline when Vault Comics began collecting it in print, has returned to the web as Beck and Vault prepare to release the third and final volume, Verse: The Song.

“I started Verse off as a webcomic, so you can’t imagine how thrilled I am that it’s finally returning to the web,” Beck said. “It’s always been important to me to bring it back to its original form, and I hope it gets everyone excited for the final book in the series.”

Verse is set on a world where magic is feared–only evil monsters known as Vell use it. But when the main character, Fife, discovers a girl named Neitya with mysterious powers, they team up on an adventure that will change everything.

Here’s a look at the cover for the third volume:

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Oni will publish a collection of Boulet’s observational cartoons

‘Boulet’s Notes: Back in Time’ will bring comics from the cartoonist’s popular blog to the United States.

Oni Press will collect several of famed French cartoonist Boulet’s comics in a hardcover volume next year. Boulet’s Notes: Back in Time will pull from Boulet’s blog, where he has regularly posted comic strips and observational comics for the last two decades.

“Boulet’s improvisational, imaginative, and insanely creative comic strips have been a key part of the world of webcomics since he started posting them online way back in the early 2000s,” said translator and editor François Vigneault. “This new collection, featuring a curated and newly translated selection of his work from the early years, is truly a ticket back in time to the start of the webcomics era!”

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Sunday Comics | Guard Dog from ‘Mutts’ is finally free

Check out recent webcomics by Grover, Chris Eliopoulos, Joshua Barkman and more.

Here’s a round up of some of the best and most interesting comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

Followers of the comic strip Mutts by Patrick McDonnell will recognize Guard Dog, one of the strips most enduring and popular characters. Introduced about a year after the strip debuted, Guard Dog has been tethered to a stake in his owner’s yard ever since, a symbol of the cruelty of dog chaining.

After being abandoned by his owner and left to fate, Guard Dog is finally free and has a new home — not to mention his own web page.

“I started in my sketchbooks drawing a tough dog,” McDonnell told AP News about the dog’s origins. “I drew a big gruff dog and I put a studded collar on him. And then I drew a chain. And when I did that, it changed everything. I realized that it wasn’t a villain. It was a tragic character.”

McDonnell said fans of the strip have asked for the dog to be freed in the past, while animal welfare groups would ask him to keep the dog tethered as a way to bring attention to the dangers of animal neglect.

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Cullen Bunn’s ‘Deepest Catacombs’ returns to the web

The Dungeons & Dragons-inspired webcomic picks up where the first story left off.

Cullen Bunn will return to the world of Deepest Catacombs for another round of Dungeons & Dragons-inspired webcomics. He plans to release an all-new 22-page comic in a serialized format via his Patreon, with subscribers getting early access to the strips.

The first one is up now, as is the entirety of the first Deepest Catacombs adventure. Each page is drawn by a different artist, and the project was inspired by those one-page comic-strip advertisements for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game that appeared in comics back in the 1980s.

“When I finished releasing the initial run of The Deepest Catacombs, I knew I would return to that world,” Bunn said. “I just loved the characters and the nostalgia, the magic and the monsters. And I loved working with so many talented artists! This was, of course, a labor of love, so it has taken me a bit of time to get the ball rolling again, but the story is going to be a ton of fun!”

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Sunday Comics | NASA’s STEM comic lifts off with a second issue

Today we look at webcomics by PJ Holden, Grant Snider, Melanine Gillman and more.

Here’s a round up of some of the best and most interesting comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

NASA launched a digital comic back in 2021 about a fictional astronaut named Callie Rodriguez, the first woman to walk on the moon. Now the second issue has made landing on their website, where it can be read or downloaded.

The story is meant to inspire “the next generation of explorers,” which NASA has dubbed the Artemis Generation, as they work on a real-life project to land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.

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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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Sunday Comics | Looking at the Ignatz Awards nominees for ‘Outstanding Online Comics’

Check out webcomics by Jett Allen, Blue Delliquanti, Mara Ramirez, Reimena Yee and Lonnie Mann.

Here’s a round up of some of the best comics we’ve seen online recently. If we missed something, let us know in the comments below.

The nominees for the 2023 Ignatz Awards were announced earlier this month, with five comics being honored in the “Outstanding Online Comics” category. So let’s take a look at them.

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Sunday Comics | Read The Nib magazine for free (while you can)

Also check out recent webcomics by Meredith McClaren, Simon Roy, Mad Rupert, Cat Farris and Mike Russell.

Here’s a round-up of some of the best webcomics we’ve seen online recently — and news about them as well. If we missed something cool or you have your own recommendation, let us know in the comments below.

As editor and publisher Matt Bors announced back in May, the award-winning nonfiction webcomics site The Nib will stop publishing new comics at the end of the month. Bors is hoping to keep an archive of the site up and running, so he’s currently taking donations to help make that happen.

He has also made all the back issues of The Nib magazine available to read for free:

The Nib is wrapping up ten years of publishing and closing down at the end of August. But before we go, we are making all 15 issues of our Eisner and Ignatz award-winning magazine available for anyone to download for free. That’s more than 1,600 pages of comics, including our out of print Secrets, Nature, Food, and Color issues.

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